The Other Side

Merander: Day 5

Location: Bank of the Malask River, New Orderia, Earth

A group of soldiers worked to dig trenches as others set up defensive positions. The smoke from the fires still burning across the city had been blowing south leading to the entire beach being shrouded. The only real things that remained visible were spotlights that shone upwards into the sky and some set up around the edges of the evacuation site to face outwards. If someone looked incredibly close they could maybe see the flashing lights of some of the emergency vehicles closer to the defensive line. A number of police cars were parked along the road and were now being used as cover for soldiers.

Radio: Delasko is due to fire in 1 hour, evacuations are almost finished. Continue holding back the enemy and then you will be signaled to withdraw. UN has been made aware and there will be no retaliation for the strike, China endorses our actions. Good luck, LLNO.

The being landed on the road ahead of the defensive line, immediately the soldiers and police officers standing guard opened fire. Tanks fired shells, it was a repeat of what happened in Chinatown. There was quite literally zero effect on the thing and the NO forces began reporting casualties. 

The Air Force had been crippled and the remaining CAS bombers in the region were working off an aircraft carrier that had already been hit by rockets fired by insurgents. The only good thing was outer defensive positions had reported multiple aircraft, an AWACS unit circling the capital managed to get communications with them and it was confirmed to be the USAF with multi-role fighters. USAF fighters were far better than NO jets, they were almost undetectable by anything but the best radar on Earth as opposed to New Orderia's jets barely having stealth. Now this is 2200, NO jets being average if not poor in terms of stealth for this era still is better than anything that exists in 2023.

The USAF hadn't sent much, most of it would be moving with the main force of US Marines, but there was a full squadron of the best jets on Earth now above the capital and Malask. These jets were still a bit away, but when they arrived NO forces could begin retaking the city. Insurgents had Chinese and New Orderian AA systems, both of which wouldn't work well on the US jets. Knowing there were no enemy fighters in the AO the US had swapped most of the missiles with precision bombs and air to ground missiles.

Back on the beach the NO army was getting it's ass kicked. The soldiers kept firing but began to take losses, a tank commander had been ripped out of the turret and was being held up as the being spoke to him. The commander didn't stop trying to resist, instead he pulled his sidearm and fired every round he could at the enemy's chest. Of course it did nothing and the result was the man being killed. The being picked up the radio and gave a simple request.

Surrender and stop shooting.

NO forces knew Comms were breached now and disregarded that order, instead the last dispatchers in the NOJOD Headquarters gave a response.

Radio: Attention, you are attacking a civilian evacuation site. Stand down or we will continue firing upon you. We will not stop firing until you stand down. This is your final opportunity, stop attacking and we will stand down as well.

The being stopped attacking and captains on the defensive began radioing command for orders. Suddenly a gust of wind blew onto the beach and the smoke dissipated, likely the wind was created by whatever being this thing was. It was at this moment the truth about the site became clear. Thousands of civilians, most of the remaining ambulances in the twin cities, and rows of evacuation ships were directly behind the NO defensive line. 

Radio: All NO units on the beach, cease fire! Malask.

Malask code, a system used whenever NO forces go up against someone not from their universe and when comms have been tapped. It is a simple code that anyone who has been to New Orderia or has a public map of the country could figure out, hence why it isn't used against people from this version of Earth. An order or statement would be given followed by either "Malask" or "Ksalam." Ksalam would indicate it was false and to disregard, in some cases even so the opposite,  while Malask would mean the order was true. It's a low security measure and is more of a temporary thing, but it is easy to remember and works in a pinch.