Deathstalker 03 - Deathstalker War

want every single warm body in the Watch out on the streets ten minutes ago, and no excuses, dammit! Spank a few if you have to.
    "Your first objective is to clear the streets of all nonessential traffic. With the comm systems down, we're going to have to rely on runners, and I don't want them having to fight their way through panicking crowds. So, clear the streets.
    Break a few heads if you have to. Next, track down everyone who's got some kind of weapon and send them out to guard the boundary walls. Tell them to hold as long as they can, and then fall back street by street. Hopefully by then I'll have thought of something else to do with them."
    "Shouldn't you clear this first with the rest of the Council?" said Mary.
    "That bunch? I've seen better-organized anarchists' meetings. They'll back me up, once they've calmed down a little. Why are you still standing here?"
    "Anything else?" said Topaz, entirely unmoved by Steel's glare.
    "Well, if you can work a miracle, this would be a really good time to prove it,"
    said Steel. "And, Topaz, whatever happens you are not to let Mary out of your sight for any reason. She's too powerful to be allowed to operate as a loose cannon."
    "I understand," said Mary. "All I want is to help, Director."
    Steel looked at her narrowly. "Half my espers can hardly think with this new Empire device jamming their powers. How come you're holding out so well?"
    "My mind is still my own, Director. I was and am a very powerful Siren. The Council's deprogramming didn't take that away from me."
    "Not for want of trying," said Steel. "All right, stick with Topaz, and if you
    have to use your voice, make sure you're pointing it in the right direction. Now get out of here, the pair of you. I've got a city to defend."
    Only a few hours after Legion was forced to drop its disguise, the first Empire troops came flying out of the icy wastes beyond the city, hundreds of them crammed onto armored gravity sleds and barges. They came in waves, more and more of them, soaring over the boundary walls as though they weren't even there. A few disrupter bolts lanced upward, only to be harmlessly deflected by glowing force fields. An Imperial attack usually centered around heavily armored battle wagons and war machines, but the cold and the snow and the ice of Mistworld slowed them down too much, and most were too large anyway to maneuver in Mistport's narrow streets, so the softening up of the city fell to the Imperial air divisions. They came howling out of the darkening skies like so many rabid bats, sleek and deadly, disrupter bolts stabbing down again and again, lighting the streets bright as day as the energy beams exploded buildings of stone and wood and set the ruins ablaze. People ran screaming in the streets as the barges sailed serenely overhead, carrying death and destruction and the coming of Empire rule.
    The gravity sleds chased people down the streets, whipping in and out between the narrow buildings, harrying and terrorizing their prey until they grew tired of their sport, and cut the runners down with flashing energy bolts. The air divisions pressed on, leaving fire and devastation behind them, until suddenly espers came flying up out of the streets to face them.
    The esper union had pulled its strongest minds together and pushed aside Legion's block for the moment. They knew it wouldn't last, but for now they struggled with Legion and held it back, so that a hundred brave souls could fly
    on wings of esp up to meet the invaders on their own high ground. The espers whipped around the slower-moving Imperial craft, darting in and out too fast to be tracked. Some had energy guns, some had crossbows, some had nothing but naked steel and their own indomitable courage. Force shields crackled and failed around the gravity barges as down in the streets espers strained to hex their tech and drain their power batteries. Imperial troops screamed and fell from their craft as the fast-flying espers took their toll, sniping at unguarded targets, but the air force was just too big and unstoppable, and its targeting computers soon came on line, taking out the flying defenders one by one, for all their speed and courage. They fell out of the dark sky like burning birds, and the air force pressed on.
    More espers came soaring up out of the streets to take the place of those who fell. With their city endangered, their way of life threatened, and their backs almost literally to the wall, many in Mistport found