World On Fire

Chapter Nine

Chengdu, China

With a triumphant spirit, Huang Yu watched as the latest batch of the alien barbarians surrender from the shattered building in which they were hiding. A large number of soldiers from the People's Army cheered watching their defeated forms emerge with their hands on their chests, tossing their weapons away from them as they did so. Soldiers wearing the special patches of the Ministry of State Security moved through the crowd and arrested the defeated Invaders. Some of the newer soldiers eyed the discarded plasma rifles with envy, believing they would perform better than the weapons left over from the Great Patriotic War. Huang Yu knew better.

Looking around, smiles could be seen all around. Chengdu was the last great city held by the Invaders and with the large apartment blocks cleared of them, the city was free. Many lives had been spent to make it so, and a few cities were wiped off the face of the planet by the Wise Leaders and their decision to use the nuclear weapons. But the most important feat was that the glorious Peoples Republic of China was the first nation in the world to fully eliminate the Druidth threat from it's populated areas.

There was still the issue of the massive Druidth military complex in the Western reaches, but he had faith that the Wise Leaders had a plan to deal with them. Huang Yu did not know that a standard nuclear missile would not work due to the advanced anti-missile defense system around the complex. What he did know was that the Leaders would spend every soldier they had like smothering a flame with more wood until it choked to death.

Men from the MSS separated the surrendered Invaders, sending most of them to the prison camps where their labor would work off their debt to Chinese society. Others, the Aliens with red insignia on their shoulder boards were separated and made to line up facing a wall. From what he heard, they were members of the Kings Guard, the elite politico soldiers of the Alien Monarch.

"You!" A Major from the MSS gestured at Huang Yu and the soldier standing next to him. "You two, come over here."

They looked at each other, Huang Yu recognized him from his unit and believed his name to be Wong or something similar. But they complied and approached the Major.

"Take your weapons and join the line," He ordered. Several soldiers from the People's Army were already lined up, shoulder to shoulder facing the Aliens along the wall. Again, Huang complied.

While he was familiar with what was about to happen, an act reserved for deserters or traitors or those too dangerous to the nation to keep around, it was his first time taking part. He knew what he had to do. When the Major shouted, Huang Yu and the dozen other soldiers raised their rifles. The firing squad easily cut down the Kings Guardsmen, knocking holes in the wall on the other side of them.

Their lifeless bodies crumpled to the ground and left there to rot until city sanitation came by to collect them and toss them in the trash where they belonged.

A celebration was beginning to carry through the streets, soldiers drinking and singing; toasting to the great victory of the People's Army and the next great battle to come. Huang Yu grabbed a bottle of beer for himself from the vendor that was handing them out. The old man had suffered too long at the hands of the Imperialist Invaders and was so glad to be rid of them, so grateful to the brave soldiers, that he was giving away his wares.

The march to western lands would be a long one, as would the battle to take what was called the Citadel. But for now, Huang Yu would celebrate.

Mako Bomber Group

3367th Vyra Squadron