Lord Nemesis moved up Freedom Avenue in great leaps. He was pleased to see a platoon already in barricade formation across it. He knew that Victory would have a similar barricade and was pleased to see his General was one step ahead of him. He knew Lukas wanted to be on the battlefield with him, but this is why he insisted he coordinated the battle from the war room. Lukas had all the pieces of the puzzle at his disposal. He did not. He landed and checked the gauges to his own power plant. It was operating at full capacity but had no need to. Not unless he could figure how to make his weapons work. A Warhulk limped past him, its left leg servo was leaking fluid. Lord Nemesis crossed over to it and took its massive rifle. He plugged it into the port on his arm and the gun lit up. Well at least this will work. How long had it been since he last held a rifle? He brought the stock up to his shoulder and sighted down the barrel.
He concentrated and his vision swirled again. He wondered why he could do this, but could not get his brain wrapped around his weapons command. Now his right eye telescoped his vision so he could make out the square several blocks back, to see movement on the far side. Throwing caution to the wind he calculated his shot and squeezed the trigger. The rifle fired with a loud report and as he watched a car near to where he was aiming exploded. Well if nothing else he’d keep them on their toes while his men and machines set up for the next assault. He pulled the trigger as fast as the rifle would reset itself, sending shells overtop and around the heads of anyone still in the square. Mounds of jaegers erupted in twisting metal as the shells drove into the piles of the dead machines.
Lord Nemesis dropped the spent rifle, if nothing else it helped him rid himself of his frustration with his own problems. Colonel Tomain came to him with updated numbers. Over a third of the jaegers were destroyed or just didn’t work correctly. Of the Warhulks fifteen remained battle-ready, but of the two thousand troops only twelve hundred could actually fight. Down Freedom and Victory Avenues Nemesis’ set up was the same, all the Jaegers in front of the barricade. The men set up in a picket line to shoot overtop of the jaegers into the oncoming heroes. A split platoon to guard their flank and path to retreat. It took his army only ten minutes to set up and organize this next line of attack. Now they waited. Nemesis as well as the observers picked up the dark cloud making its way up Freedom and a fog bank was reported to be moving up Victory.
Were they really that foolish to split their miniscule forces? Had their first victory made them over confidant? Nemesis pondered this development as the clouds overhead started to churn and roll. A runner broke his concentration. He hadn’t noticed the winds had picked up considerably. The runner didn’t wait for him to address him because he was panicking.
“Lord Nemesis! There’s a tornado coming up Victory!”