GATE: Thus They Came From the Stars(discontinued )

Chapter 6

"Damnit this is no good! Retreat!" The bandit leader shouted as their forces had once again been routed by the city militia defending it. However it came at a cost for both sides as bodies littered the ground of both forces.

"Norma! Hamilton! Are you alright?" Piña called out she and her knights were there at the city in it's defense.

"We're alive princess!" Hamilton responded as she and Norma were recovering from the previous onslaught. "What about me Princess." Grey asked as Piña stepped down from the wall she was previously standing on. "You didn't bother to ask if I was injured or not. Hurts my feelings."

"After all these years, I knew you were better than that Grey." Piña responded to which the elder knight began to laugh.

The situation within the city was getting dire as the moral of the people fighting to protect it was now dwindling. The losses growing even bigger with each passing attack from the bandits who used to be soldiers of the Allied Kingdoms turned rouge.

"Your majesty, why did we come all this way to fight a bunch of blood thirsty bandits?" Hamilton asked as she and Piña made their way deeper into the city. "Because we didn't have a choice. They rang the alarm alerting us they had armed forces trying to storm the wall. I thought it was the army from the other world beyond the gate at Alnus Hill and look what we found. Soldiers from the other kingdoms turned rouge." She then looked out at the defending militia to address them. "Listen to me! We don't have much time before the bandits return! We need to bury the bodies and reinforce the gates! My people are coming, but they are still threes days away from reaching us! If you can hold out that long, the Order of the Rose will avenge your fallen in battle..."

...Itami zoomed in on the outside of the walls as he observed several men exiting through the gate and tossing the bodies of armored men into the bonfires that were the cause of the smoke they've seen earlier. By his guess some sort of aftermath of a battle.

"Any thing sir?" Arthur asked as Itami lifted his scope from his visor. "Seems like some sort of battle took place. Defenders seem to be some made up of some sort of militia. They're armed with mostly farming equipment and have a severe lack of armor on them. The attackers seem better equipped but have no organization in armor or gear, best guess is they're remnants of the large army sent to attack us last month, bandits now."

"So what do we do Lieutenant?" Kuribyashi came over to his side and asked. "Should we call in some back up from Alnus, perhaps they could lend us a few tanks or dropships?"

"Now hold on there sergeant. We still don't know what's exactly going on down there. We need more information."

"You don't suppose we go down there and ask them? Right Lieutenant?"

Itami stood up and crossed his arms. "That's actually what I had in mind. Mount up! We're going down there for a better look!" Kurata immediately got back in the driver's side seat and hit the ignition, starting up the truck's hydrogen combustion turbine engine that powered it.

As they drove down, the locals who were removing the bodies panicked and ran back into the safety of the walls, shutting the gate behind them. "Kurata stop a few meters away from the gate. Lest not scare them too much and make them think we're a threat."

"Got it sir..."

...Piña had dawned back into her armor as she was called out back from the Formal Palace as something was going on at one of the gates, and now she knew why as she peeked outside through the slot in the gate doors. "What the hell is that thing?" She said as she saw what looked to be a large carriage just sitting in the middle of the open. "What's that carriage armored with?" Hamilton asked as she too saw the strange object. "Is it made of...iron?"