The Other Side

Merander: Day 3

Location: Chinatown, Malask City

Two bombers from the 3rd CAS squadron flew in formation over the burning district when a burst of gunfire impacted their undersides. The lead plane's camera feed showed the source, large groups of armed people fighting on the ground. Not only against the military and police, but against each other too.

Pilot: Strider 3-5 to dispatch, we are taking fire from the ground. The Chinatown riot appears to have devolved into an open rebellion.

Radio: Copy, we're already getting reports from the MCPD that they have no control of the situation and there is a 3 way war on the ground in the district. You are cleared to engage at your digression.

Pilot: Copy, engaging.

The two planes performed a combat turn and began to dive on the insurgents that were fighting on the ground. Both bombers opened fire with their 30mm guns (the 3rd CAS had been given new planes) which tore into the hostile forces. The jets began to pull up when the rear jet, Strider 3-6, had it's fuselage crumple abruptly and then explode. The jet was blown apart and debris rained down onto the streets below. Shrapnel tore into the side of 3-5 and the copilot barely avoided decapitation by a metal bar.

Pilot: Holy fuck! You good?

Copilot: Ye-yeah! Still alive...

Pilot: 3-5 to dispatch, 3-6 is destroyed and we have been severely damaged. Need backup from the army and RCM for a hostile capable of... bending space and time?

Radio: I'm sorry, repeat?

Pilot: 3-6 was torn apart by an unknown subject on the ground using some kind of magic.

There was a pause followed by an affirmative over the radio. The surviving jet got ordered to return to base and it began to do so as the copilot tried to check himself over. His left arm was mangled and bleeding, he was already fading in and out of consciousness due to his other injuries. There was a bolt embedded in his thigh and his helmet had a massive crack, the flying object that caused it also fractured his skull.

The bomber went to land on the runway at the NOJOD building, immediately after touchdown engineers were dragging it off to one of the hangers that were still standing and then replaced it with a spare aircraft meant for a different squadron. The original markings were crossed out and replaced with a quick recreation of the 3rd's markings. The rest of the squadron's bombers landed soon after and all the aircraft had their reconnaissance loads swapped out for something more... violent.

7 CAS bombers, each outfitted with the finest guided munitions possible. For extra measure two of them were outfitted with guided penetration bombs as opposed to JDAMs. The GPB was designed for use against reinforced structures, and even then a standard JDAM was used more. NO high command however wasn't taking any chances with letting this 'thing' get away with evaporating two NO pilots.

A combat plan was drafted and NO forces on the ground would track the hostile while more units got into position. The plan was simple: hit the fucker with ever bomb they could, surround him and use 50 cals, AT missiles, and AP shells, and just generally blow him to kingdom come. The open civil war though, that would be an issue.

Back at the Cosif Plant things were getting bad, the fire had spread uncontrolled and the entirety of the plant was burning. Most nearby factories were alight and the occasional small explosions were no longer just occasional and most certainly not small. Right when everyone was preparing to give up on the district and evacuate the hydrants came back online.

Immediately the different agencies on scene began an aggressive fire attack. Normally the method was defensive on a fire this bad, but the situation was so deteriorated that they needed to put it out fast or else everyone would be scattered into the stratosphere by the blast. Firefighters grabbed their ditched hoses and began unleashing water on the inferno again as cheers sounded through their lines.

What did not change though was what MCPD EODs had been working on. A series of explosions rocked the outer portions of the district as the bomb squad used ordinance to level buildings. The leveling would create a fire break and cut off the spreading blaze from the neighboring residential district of Sparowa. The FDMC had some units committed to these areas, but not enough to divert to holding off a district wide fire. 

The firefighters who now weren't struggling with containing a fire without water could now divert units to other incidents like collapses, train derailments, and car accidents. A high rise in Downtown Malask City was collapsed and the rubble had landed inside a neighboring skyscraper. A few FDMC units were working on cutting victims out of the rubble while another group lifted a above ground subway station off of a city road. The recovered bodies were marked and left behind for later recovery efforts.

The police had made good progress with their full evacuation by now as well, millions had been moved across the Malask River where soldiers now stood guard. The fighting was complicating things though, NO troops began marking which parts of the region they controlled and which ones they did not. 

Every hour multiple blocks would change hands, if also became clear that NO military forces were stuck in a 6 way civil war. There as the actual government, that being the military and police forces through the region. There was the Red Morning insurgency which was a big one. There was the organized crime families who got together in the chaos and were now defending their territory from insurgents. There was radicals which wanted to overturn New Orderia's more progressive laws (which the country has. A shocker, I know) and instead install a far right totalitarian government. There were general rebels who wanted to install a democratic government, but at the same time they didn't really have a plan and it was a guy ranting about how they need to seize control. Finally there were the communists, but not Red Morning communists. The Red Morning are anarchists as well, these guys wanted a far left dictatorship. 

To review: Moderately right wing and very militant regime, far left anarchists, far right extremists,  far left militants, anarcho capitalists (if you consider mob bosses and cocaine anarcho capitalism), and finally the rebels who claim to want democracy while being led by a delusional militant leader.

Welcome to the civil war, we hope you enjoy the chaos because it only gets more confusing later.