585 585 - Inciter

Disposed Fleet Master Akron was standing next to a shaken Tediore in the middle of the arena like chamber. A row of seven magistrates sat on a raised platform that looked down at Akron and Tediore who had their arms and legs in heavy chains. The entire House of Law was dark and only Akron and Tediore were lit by a beam of sun ray that was reflected by mirrors and left the magistrates in the shadows.

This arrangement was done so to protect the randomly selected magistrates to prevent any cases of revenge from the accused and also made bribery harder. Bathed in the light, Akron and Tediore could barely see anything and the acoustics design of the House of Law made the magistrates' voices sound different and a lot overbearing.

"By these documents and statements from witnesses," One of the magistrates spoke. His voice echoing over and over again in the chamber. "Do you acknowledge their contents are true?"

Akron, his hair and clothes dishevelled, only glared silently at the shadows in the balcony above him. Tediore on the other hand was visibly shaking causing the chains to rattle together softly. After a moment of silence, the magistrate spoke again. "If you think that by remaining quiet, Megan will come and save you. You two can give up that thought, for she is now a fugitive!"

"Hahahaha!" Akron broke out in sudden laughter when he heard the magistrate's words. "Knowing her, she would never come to save us!"

"But..." Akron smiled as he said. "I have my own backup plans!"

His words made the magistrates frown and they started to confer between themselves in low voices. Hearing the soft mumbles from the magistrates, Akron's smile widened, as he knew he had rattled the magistrates. Suddenly, there was a commotion among the magistrates as their voices were raised. Akron caught a few words like riot and trouble from the murmurings.

"Take them away!" A magistrate suddenly ordered the guards. "This hearing will be delayed... for now!"

Akron continued smiling as guards arrived to bring him and Tediore away to the underground cells. He followed the guards docilely and as the cell doors closed behind him, he sat down on the straw bed and settled down to wait for what was about to come.

-----

"Push!" Mills yelled over the crazy clamour of the mob clashing against the shield wall. The frenzied mob was shoving hard against the shield wall of the Marines, Army and guardsmen of the Isles and some time ago, a group of masked men had appeared out of nowhere and they were armed with crossbows and swords.

Mills did not even notice the masked assailants arrival until one of his Marines fell back with a crossbow bolt in his throat. The Marine's feet thumped the ground hard as he crutched his pierced throat and blood gurgled while his buddy tried to stem the bleeding. "Medic!"

"Contact! Crossbower on the roof!" A Marine sharpshooter called out from his overwatch position. Mills and the Army Major had worked out a plan to use Army and Marine sharpshooters or snipers to provide overwatch with live ammunition while the rest of the troops attempt to control the unrest with non lethal means.

"Shoot that son of a bitch!" Mills snapped at his comms. Almost immediately, there were not one but two loud cracks that simultaneously thundered from behind. The gunfire rolled over the mob, stunning them and giving a moment of respite for the troops behind the shield wall. The assailant armed with a crossbow on one of the street building's roof toppled off the side and landed in the middle of a crowd, inciting screams of surprise and horror.

Mills frowned as he looked back, knowing that both his Marine sharpshooter and the Army counterpart had both shots the same tango. He keyed his comms and sternly said, "Snipers! This is not the time for comparing dicks! Cover your own sectors!"

Clicks of acknowledgement came back over the platoon channels and Mills turned his attention to the fallen Marine. Two medics hovered over the Marine and another two pale faced Isles' guardsmen were holding a stretcher between, waiting for the medics' instructions. Seeing there was nothing he could do for the downed Marine, he turned to the mob who had pulled back behind the body.

Already quite a few enterprising youths and people had swarmed the dead body and looted its body of anything of value. Mills shook his head as he watched the scene feeling some pity for the still warm body which now laid naked in his own blood.

The aggression of the mob had cooled down after seeing someone had been killed. No one wanted to rush forward and be the next to be the next body to be looted clean. Mills grinned seeing the mob hesitating and he took his whistle out and was about to order a charge to break the mob when suddenly, a masked person yelled.

"Look! They just killed one of us!" The masked person shouted out in the middle of the crowd. "Tyrants! They are tyrants! We must take back the Isles!"

"Make the Isles great again!" The inciter yelled out and his yell was echoed from more masked persons. "Make the Isles great again!"

The mob riled up by the unknown masked men gathered their courage as they stormed forward again. Mills seeing the change in the mob's demeanour cursed and he yelled, "Stand fast! They are coming again!"

The mob clashed again with the troops but this time around, masked figures suddenly darted out from the crowd by leaping over the crowd's shoulders and heads like some kind of martial artists. The masked men tossed out flasks of alchemical fire directly over the shield wall and the deadly arcane molotov devices exploded over the clustered troops.

Screams erupted from those covered in arcane fire and the shield wall broke. Mills was forced back by the sudden wave of super heated air and he stared in shock and anger as the men under his command flapped around covered in flames. Thunder boomed as the sharpshooters without the need of an order opened fire at the masked assailants.

Mills drew his newly issued service P1 FNIX .45 pistol and fired at the nearest masked figure who was attempting to skewer an Isles' guardsman in the back, dropping the attacker with two shots in the arm and chest. His previous old service revolver had been swapped out with the new Ork friendly 15 rounds semi automatic heavy pistol. The sudden explosions of arcane fire and the eruption of gunfire rocked the mob back again and once again they paused in their charge.

The smell of cooked and burnt flesh hung thick in the air and not even the smell of gunpowder was able to cover it up. The Marines and Army seeing their own being burn before their eyes, switched out their truncheons to their rifles and fired at the masked assailants. The hi powered rifle rounds easily punched through the leather and steel armour of the attackers and further indiscriminately slammed into the mob behind, causing collateral damage.

Bodies dropped and more screams rang out. The mob seeing people getting killed and wounded around them, panicked and those in the front shoved the people behind them, waiting to escape death. In moments, those in the middle were trapped by those pushing in at the back and a stampede broke out and the unlucky ones were trampled to their death.

Mills ignored the screams and actions of the mob as he focused on the enemy before him. Already a dozen of the masked assailants were down in their own pool of blood but there were still plenty more. He ducked behind one of his Marines who had his shield up when he heard a yell of warning. The riot shield armed Ork Marine let out a colour curse as a crossbow bolt slammed into it and he hoisted up his rifle one handedly and gave the rooftop where the crossbower was, a good dose of lead.

Mills placed his left hand onto the shoulder of the Ork Marine and fired his heavy pistol one handedly at another assailant who was also targetted by a few other troops. Already the initial confusion had faded as the Marines and Army soldiers distance themselves as much as possible against the melee wielding masked men that entered their ranks. Only the Isles' guardsmen without any modern weaponry and tactics training milled around and fought hand to hand against the masked attackers.

The masked attackers fought fiercely as they tried to enter melee range with the UN troops. More arcane molotovs were thrown and spells zapped across the streets while the UN troops return fire back at the attackers in point blank range. Already the majority of the masked attackers were down, only those still hiding inside the buildings and roofs remained as a deadly annoyance.

"All units fall back to the plaza!" Mills ordered the troops around him before switching his comms channel and informed the Army Major of their fallback. He had spotted more movement along the street buildings' roofs and if those were more crossbowers, he needed his men to get off the killing ground that was the street. "Grab the wounded!"

He took a quick glance at the end of the street where several bodies of the mob laid unmoving on the hard pebbled street and he turned away from the sight. The last of the masked assailant fell, his body covered with bullet holes. The UN troops quickly moved their wounded and dead while others took cover behind the short palm fronds decorating the plaza leading to the House of Law.

"Incoming!" Someone yelled as a small cloud of crossbow bolts flashed across the air. There was cries and curses of pain as some of the troops were struck by the crossbow bolts. Almost instantly, the long rattle roar of a MG - 1 rocked the plaza as one of the machine gunners let loose on the windows of the shops facing the plaza.

"Back!" The Army Major who was commanding the other side of the street suddenly appeared next to Mills and ordered. "Fall back to the House of Law! We will dig in there!"

Mills nodded and started passing orders. The Major's orders made sense as there was almost no cover on the plaza and they were better off using the facade of the House of Law to dig in. The plaza would make a good killing ground from its openness and the Hosue of Law would also provide cover against crossbow bolts and spells.

The troops carried the wounded and dead up again and started running across the plaza to the main entrance of the House of Law. The troops holding the municipal building rushed out to help with the wounded and Mills took a break behind one of four massive pillars that held up the facade of the courthouse.

"Gods!" The Major let out a relieved sigh as he joined Mills. "Who the hell are those masked attackers?"

Mills shrugged as he took a sip of water, "Whoever they are, they seem too highly skilled to be part of the mob..."

"Could they be here for..." The Major gestured behind him to the courthouse. "Those two that are inside now?"

"If they are for them," Mills peered around the pillar and said in a gloomy tone. "Then those masked dudes would only stop by either having successfully breaking those two out of the jail... Or until they run out of bodies to throw at us..."

"Wanna guess which one will happen first?"