Suika Roberts Presents Shanghai A Fourth Part Of Dark Kingdom Rising Six different kinds of helicopter hover over the street, Hind gunships guarding the transports. Sixty seconds after they arrived, they are gone again, the air assault troops already rushing to prepare the boulevard in front of Shanghai Museum, while Chinese citizens stare, or run. [Anyone reading this been to Shanghai? I pulled that spot off a map, so if you have a better one, or a reason why I would need to change things, please, let me know ^_^ --S] Forty-five seconds after their feet hit the ground, the demo teams begin to blow the slightly ornate lightposts bordering the broad street. A few teams stay, and the others rush out into the city. Minutes later, the lumbering but somehow graceful shapes of AN-124 "Condor" transports appear, flying low and slowing as they approach, their rear clamshell doors open and ramps down. The first has a parachute appear out of her cargo hold, followed by the massive form of a Hond III main battle tank. The tank falls two meters to the ground, its pallet raising a shower of sparks as it slows. Explosive bolts cut its chains before it stops, and the Hond rushes off, narrowly avoiding the cut-loose parachute from the rest of the Condor's cargo. The trio of Viper fast-attack vehicles , the sleek shapes helpless until the pallet hits dirt, have already fled, speed and the non-human strength and skills of their riders, their only defence. On the other side of the street, and all the way back down, the scene has repeated, all fifteen of the Dark Kingdom's heavy transports having carried out a drop, the last of two tanks. The roar of gatling guns rises from other parts of the city, and the camera turns to try and focus on a Hind gunship, a cloud of smoke drifting from its guns, perhaps halfway across the city. `So, what was it like, Bob, to become a war correspondent so suddenly?' `I about pissed myself, Jim. All I could do was watch as these troops appeared out of nowhere and started blowing things up. I thought I was going to die.' `Was it a relief when you realized they weren't shooting anyone?' `I didn't realize it until they stood down and one of them came over to wave at the camera. I kept hearing those gunships fire, and I expected casualties in the thousands.' `Well, it's a good thing they were using blanks, isn't it?' `Yes it is, Bob. I would have expected the Chinese government to warn us before hand, but apparently they didn't want to tip off their troops too much, further than telling them that the Dark Kingdom would be staging an excersise in this area, and that they would be the defending opfor for it.' `Opfor?' Bob smiles, `Opposing force. They generally don't lose this badly, since they have the home ground, and comparable equipment. Fewer than three thousand Air Assault troops, forty-two Viper battlebikes, sixteen tanks, eight Hind helicopter gunships, and fifty outmoded fighters against fifty thousand, including some of the elite units of the Chinese People's Army, and the CPA lost ninety percent of their forces.' `Ninety Percent?' `The remaining units claimed malfunction of their simulation gear.' `Oh,' Jim sounds a little non-plussed. - `So, how did we do?' The middle-aged man in a General's uniform asks. `Not bad,' Sailor Moon, short skirt ruffling in the wind, naginata in hand, the haft resting against her shoulder, says, `Not terribly good, but the CPA was more than bad enough to make up for it.' `I expected as much. Too much ideology, and not enough thought, in the Chinese People's Army.' Sailor Mercury, sitting on a convienient barrel, nods. `We'd have lost too many people had they been using real rounds. I'm just glad we didn't have to worry about the civilians. Anyplace real, and we will.' `You can just go in and talk to them, most "real" places,' he said. `Once they've decided I'm the enemy, it doesn't work anywhere near as well. I'd have to beat them, then talk to them, and by that time their bodyguards will be banging down the door with guns.' `That's what we're for,' the man smiles. `We'd still be facing a ground war in Afganistan, Jun-fan.' `That's because Afganistan doesn't have enough of a government to put down at once.' `But still too much to fall apart on its own, since the Taliban took over.' `And I doubt they will go the way of Mongolia,' Sailor Mars steps from behind a building, gives her consort a squeeze on the shoulder. `No, they won't.' `The Vipers were mostly ineffective. Even with a Youma rider, they are just too complex, too fast, and it is too hard to aim any of their weapons systems. Topping that, we lost over half of them,' Sailor Mercury shrugs, `They are not worth the cost of building more.' `I'm sorry,' Sailor Moon said, `You had such high hopes for them, too.' `Best laid plans of mice and Sailors,' Sailor Venus carefully misquotes. Sailor Mercury smiles. Fin --- log: 2002/end: The primary scene climbed into my head and wouldn't go away. (The drop in Shanghai, if you're wondering) 2003/Apr/29: Sat down and wrote this. 2003/Apr/30: Twitched the last scene 2004/Nov/5: Title Block