What's more, reports coming in from two other landing sites — Boston and Philadelphia — said the same thing. The cities were empty; there had been absolutely no resistance.
How could this be? Xirstix wondered. It was almost as if the people of the planet knew the BMK were coming.
Then it hit him: the mysterious attacker, who had shot down twenty-seven of his shuttles coming in and had attacked BMK targets on Planet France. There had to be a connection. But again, how could a planet that was just barely able to get a rudimentary craft into orbit have such an awesome weapon at its disposal?
Then word arrived that Chicago was not found to be empty.
In fact, the planet's defenders had been waiting for Xirstix's craft and had even shot two of them down.
The news was almost as unbelievable as the lack of fighting in New York.
Xirstix rushed back to his command ship and immediately headed west.
Arriving in Chicago ten minutes later, Xirstix found the situation was near total chaos.
The reports had indicated that Chicago was not a deserted city as New York had been, but this was not entirely accurate. Chicago was indeed empty of a population for Xirstix to conquer, but it was thick with defenders, well-armed fighters apparently made up from the city's police force.
And the reports of two shuttlecraft being shot down — that had been inaccurate, too. It had been four shuttles, and they hadn't been shot down by anyone on the ground. The mystery spacecraft had done it.
The first thing Xirstix noticed after arriving over the city was the large number of smoke plumes rising above it. Curiously, these plumes were forming a series of near-perfect concentric rings, each one getting closer to the center of the city. Hovering now just above the lakefront, Xirstix asked his ground commanders why there were rings of smoke around the city. The reply was that the BMK troops were chasing the defenders into an ever-tightening noose; they were retreating toward the center of the city.
The moment he heard that, Xirstix knew something was wrong.
Defenders never retreated to the center of a city; the tactic didn't make sense. A retreating force should want to get out of an encircled city, not stay within it. Enraged but also uncertain, Xirstix directed his command craft to go right up to the front line of the ongoing urban battle.
His commanders were astonished to see him, of course. The streets around the Loop were littered with bodies and the sudden wreckage of war. The trouble was, the vast majority of the bodies were BMK troops. Many had been taken down by well-hidden ambush nests, dying two or three at a time after being caught in the middle of deadly cross fire in the narrow streets. Xirstix was furious at the losses the invading forces had suffered.
"But the enemy is retreating," one of his street commanders told him. "We have them on the run."
Then came a report that the last of the defenders had been cornered in a huge sports arena downtown. Xirstix demanded to be taken to the site immediately. Under the nervous eyes of his security troops, he was whisked to the site.
He found his troops had surrounded the arena but that they were also in disarray. The streets were littered with hundreds more dead BMK troops. Most of his soldiers were simply waiting behind cover. Xirstix ordered a unit of sappers to blast holes in the building where the defenders had gone, but again he knew something was wrong. These defenders were a little more savvy than it appeared. Why would they be foolish enough to retreat to a building that the BMK could pulverize in a matter of seconds?
When the BMK troops finally broke into the arena, they found out why. In the middle of the large sports hall there was a large area of distorted air; it looked like a mirage, shimmering, light waves bending as if in a wind.
And enemy troops were running headlong into this distortion and disappearing.
"Shoot at them!" Xirstix screamed at his troops who were standing dumbfounded by what they were seeing.
But it was already too late.
All of the enemy soldiers had escaped.
Meanwhile, the BMK invaders who landed in St. Louis were facing the stiffest fighting of the day.
Twenty-six invasion craft had rained down on the riverside city. Unlike those troops landing in the big cities farther east, this force did not split up into separate forward units. Instead, they landed, en masse, on a huge athletic field and the parking lots surrounding it, just outside the city. This change in orders was the direct result of reports coming in from New York and Chicago. "St. Louis is probably filled with defenders," Xirstix's command staff were telling them. "They know you are coming. Set down in force, assemble, then storm the city immediately."
But the new orders also gave the St. Louis invasion command-ers an extra bit of intelligence. If the enemy fights a withdrawing action, no matter how aggressive, pursue at all costs. Identify an arena or auditorium closest to the center of the city and capture it. It is here the enemy will probably be retreating to.
That's what had happened in New York and Chicago. That's exactly what happened here.
The BMK force, twenty-six thousand strong, entered the city and was immediately laid upon by machine guns and snipers. Hundreds of shooters were entrenched within the cluttered urban setting, hitting hard, then quickly retreating. The invaders pressed on, three mobile Master Blasters in their possession. Firing massive blaster rounds on a methodical basis, they took each block in their march forward by simply eliminating everything on and around it.
Within twenty minutes, they had cut a one-mile swath right through the city, finding no citizens except the hundreds who were shooting back at them. Their advance scout units found a large sports arena located not far away from the creeping front line. The BMK unit commanders relentlessly pushed the troops now. Their casualties were already over 50 percent, but soon they were just a block away from the saucer-shaped sports arena. And sure enough, they could see hundreds of the armed defenders running into the huge building. The plan had worked. The BMK commanders giddily ordered their Master Blasters to take aim on the arena.
Then the BMK commanders got a strange order: Stop and remain in place.
Why? The answer arrived overhead a moment later. Like a huge storm cloud, it blotted out the morning sun. It was Xirstix's private command ship. He was here to ruin the party.
The command ship landed in the street next to the sports arena. All of the firing from the defenders had ceased by now. Several thousand of the enemy fighters were inside the building. All the exits were blocked.
A small army of Xirstix's own highly trained security troops poured out of his command ship. They were twice as big and carried twice as many weapons as the standard BMK trooper. They took a few minutes to assemble, then Xirstix himself came bounding down the ramp. He was wearing an enormous battle suit as well, one with huge wings attached to its back and a pair nearly as large flaring off his helmet. The entire outfit was made of highly polished gold.
Xirstix took stock of the situation, used his baton to give the original invasion commanders a flippant salute, then ordered his own troops to rush the arena. They did this, some by blowing huge holes into the side of the structure, others by simply using the massive power provided by their battle suits to literally walk through its walls, leaving a hole ten by ten in their wake.
Sure enough, there was a small cluster of enemy troops on the floor of the place. A wall of gunfire met the special BMK troops once they'd punched inside. Many of the elite soldiers were killed instantly. Just as in Chicago (and they would learn later, New York City), the defenders were disappearing into a large field of shimmering air. But by this time, the BMK had figured out this was a Twenty 'n Six field portal, a large entryway into the twenty-sixth dimension created by bonding four of the devices together.