Chapter 9

The gunfire raged on for what seemed like forever. Ryder and his men were bunkered down in the edge of the city centre where the high rise buildings and large open plazas gave some good fire angles but cut others off.

The defences had been very hastily erected but the sandbag walls and concrete blockades did serve to make the men feel just a little bit safer. The city was essentially divided into three rings of fortifications:

The outer ring of suburbs that were at the very fringes of the city model and contained loosely spread houses and various other things. Only light defences and manpower were stationed there due to it being the largest sector and had orders to retreat when the going got tough

The second ring was the more heavily built up areas of both residential and industrial where the most experienced men were stationed and the heaviest armour. The command had bet that this line of defenders would withstand the main part of the hoard. This area was medium sized but had good coverage of men and machine

The third ring was the very centre of the city. High rise buildings, governmental structures and so on were all present there with the fortifications being closely packed together and the manpower there being comprised of whatever was left over from the first two deployments.

This was to be the last standpoint if all else was lost but the command had banked on it not coming to that.

Ryder stood on top of a high rise office building with a pair of binoculars and surrounded by other officers and an SAM site. What he saw through them was a site of chaos tinted by the now ever present red tint from the sky. The skirmishes that had started the battle for Houston had begun ferociously but had only got worse as more and more demons piled into the attack.

Since only limited numbers had reached the city thus far the defence was going remarkably well compared to many other cities around the world. He knew things would get worse however when the real numbers started showing up. So for that moment he continued to look at the battle. Continued to look after his men and continued to monitor everything.

He descended the building to the fifth floor where his command centre was. In reality this was just where a few communications officers worked to relay and send messages but he considered it his command centre. As he walked past one of the officers he spoke

"Status?"

"Touch and go sir. Exclamber aren't slowing down at all and recon reports a huge army of those things is coming this way"

"Distance and approximate strength?"

"Can't say for either sir, the squad reported the sighting but were cut off before anything else could be given"

"Damn. Anything from command?"

"No sir" He knew there would be nothing from command at all. General Gray had a tight hold over this and let very little unnecessary information out

Seeing nothing more that could be done he walked leisurely out of the building and down onto the street level where his men were resting and waiting for their time. As he did so thunder sounded out, loud and booming nearby. Everyone's faces were a mixed of anticipation and fear, they checked their weapons again and again impatient for the next move.

He had always hated waiting on the edge of a big battle; it didn't even have to be a battle waiting seemed to eat away at him. As he silently walked through the sandbag emplacements outside the high rise eyes looked up at him from the men and women. Militia had joined them from everywhere and had bolstered their forces massively which actually made it possible to defend the city

Nevertheless hope was a rare thing here since they were fighting what seemed like endless, bloodthirsty demons. The sky itself had retreated away or been conquered by the blood red storm as many though they would mimic.

Ryder walked over to a table and picked up a mug of strong coffee that was offered to him. As he took this he noticed the liquid inside was shaking, the man instantly turned away to hide his shakiness from others.

The nervous man took a large gulp and deposited it down onto the white camping table. After he had done so the liquid started to shake even though a second ago it was perfectly still. He knelt down and placed a hand to the floor. A few soldiers caught a glimpse of what he was doing and looked with confusion

The ground itself was rumbling, the vibrations could be felt through the concrete and were strong. A radio nearby with chatter from a unit in the middle ring suddenly exploded with alarms of the earth trembling. It wasn't an earthquake.

An explosion sounded away from them and the vibrations suddenly tripled so that Ryder's hand hurt. Another one then another and a third sounded within seconds. The rumbling could now be heard as well as felt now and it only got louder.

Down the street at a crossroads the concrete exploded upwards into the air. A tank stationed there was thrown backwards away and landed on its back. As bits of the street flew up and then came back down a tunnel became visible.

A million and one bat like creatures flew up out of the huge hole in the ground and swarmed up into the air in a vertical column. Several of these columns were now visible throughout the city. These bats were tiny and unaccountably numerous with their pitch black skin making them look almost like a single entity rising up from the ground

Where the hole was now a howl sounded up from it and Ryder knew instantly what was coming next. Sure enough a battalion of demons climbed their way up and charged into the nearest humans.

Ryder reacted quickly and barked out orders to attack the opening. The men rushed to it without hesitation. Gunfire now erupted from everywhere. As this was happening the swarms of Exclamber birds now rushed forward towards the battlefield prompting the AA to burst out in retaliation.

Ryder was only equipped with a pistol but still continued on regardless, he drew it out and sped towards the advancing enemy. By the time the platoon stationed at the high rise had reached the tunnel the Exclamber had wiped out those that had been stationed at the crossroads

The platoon opened fire immediately as a few other squads closed in from the other three directions. Two LAVs sped down the road to join Ryder's force and added their firepower into the mix.

The bullets caught the Exclamber grunts as they charged cutting them down and the LAVs' shells caught the larger ones. Ryder stood next to a glass lined department store firing off his ammunition rapidly. However he caught something out the corner of his eye

An Exclamber grunt smashed through the window and straight into the surprised Sergeant onto the ground. Ryder was quick to the punch though and pushed forward with his legs throwing the thing forward in a gambol

He followed this through and rolled to his knees, swivelling round to face the broken glass. Sure enough a group could be seen running towards him. Ryder unloaded everything from his weapon into the group and felled two of them, as they fell they slowed the others down.

The man switched his weapon to his left hand and drew out his knife with the right hand. Ryder charged the group, dodged the lunge of the first one and followed it up with a pistol whip to the back of its head. To the second he brought the knife down in a backhand into the chest of the Exclamber bringing all the force he had into the dig.