Editing City Series:Volume6d Prologue (section)

===Part 3===

They entered a field with the scarlet lights of Germania shining in behind it.

Hazel kept her back on that pale light, readied her sword, and took a breath. She faced Müller.

Müller’s train had nothing to propel it anymore, so the gap between it and Hazel’s freight train started to grow.

But Hazel did not take her eyes off of him.

There was no concern on his face.

As if to answer her gaze, he raised his right hand, twisted the fingers, and snapped them.

“Next.”

A great roar descended from the sky. The scream-like roar belonged to a propulsion device tearing through the air.

…''An aircraft this near the dome!?

Germania sat behind her. The light of the dome was about a mile tall, starting from an altitude of about 30 yards, and it was a solid enough barrier to withstand an aerial bombing.

And after leaving the forest, Hazel’s train was crossing the field between the forest and Germania. She was less than half a mile from the city.

An aircraft was approaching the train while so close to the dome.

“That’s crazy.”

Hazel looked up to see said craziness.

Not just one but four fighters were approaching in the night sky behind Müller where the Tuned birds still flew.

They were rapidly descending like falcons swooping down at her.

The roar reached her for just a moment.

The four fighters took a curving touch-and-go course where they immediately scattered and ascended again.

But they dropped something from their wings while sending a blast of wind down at her.

There were eight in all.

They were people. The dropping silhouettes wore the combat uniforms of Geheimnis Agency Air Force Division paratroopers and all four of their limbs were prosthetic. They held long hexagonal rods as weapons. Hazel knew who they had to be.

“Hounds!?”

“Indeed,” replied Müller. “They are a rapid response team meant to combat the Allied Heidengeist special forces.”

The Hounds had descended at the midpoint between the two trains.

[[Image:City_v06d_039.jpg|thumb]]

The eight of them landed near simultaneously and made a gentle leap forward with their very first step.

But from there, they began to sprint. They ducked low and kicked off the ground to pick up speed.

Their running speed soon matched the velocity of Hazel’s train and then surpassed it.

She gulped.

Her instinct to get away from them made her look back over her shoulder.

She saw a city there.

Germania.

If she traveled with the wind for just a few more hundred yards, she would pass the 10-yard-wide defensive trench surrounding the city, which doubled as a ventilation band around Germania, and she would enter the city from the southeast.

But past the shimmering heat rising from that trench, she saw a hole.

The massive hole looked like a vast cliff.

The hole was about 3 miles wide. The city dropped off into a precipice there and more city could be faintly seen through the haze on the distant other side of the hole.

…''Is the southeastern part of old Berlin just gone? That used to be Schöneberg.

For Germania’s layered structure, all the movable structures had been moved underground. The primarily residential 3-mile borough of Schöneberg and several other boroughs had been sent underground.

…''That must be why parts of the city looked empty from a distance.

The track next to hers began to slowly descend. That one went to Germania’s 1st underground level.

Her own track would cross the hole supported by wires and pillars and reach Germania’s surface level.

Once on the elevated portion across the hole, she would have nowhere to run.

The tops of the containers would be the only space available to her.

She knew she had to hurry, so she muttered a man’s name and turned her body toward the front of the train.

Just then, she saw a metal hand circle in from behind her.

“What!?”

She rolled forward, hopped back to her feet, and looked back to see one of the Hounds had gotten on the train’s roof at some point. He had tried to grab her from behind just now.

He advanced without letting the momentum of his arm affect his balance.

Hazel moved away and then ran toward the front of the train while still looking behind her.

She checked on the enemy. She saw the armored train on the elevated railway and six Hounds chasing after her train.

…''Six!?

She immediately lowered her hips.

Something grazed the top of her head. It was a metal right hand that had swooped in from behind.

Another one had arrived from behind her.

“Quit sneaking up on me!”

She hurriedly moved to the right.

Then she leaped backwards, flying past the man who had attacked her from behind, and leaped again.

The two men were already pursuing her a moment later.

They each held their hexagonal rod with the hand opposite their partner. They were ready to jab with those if she tried to jump down.

She sprinted while looking back. She kept her center of gravity low so she could attack at a moment’s notice.

…''I don’t have time for this.

She wanted to deliver that envelope and ampule as soon as possible.

Her impatience shifted her focus away from her feet, so her right boot caught on a rivet in the top of the container. It shifted the angle of her heel just a bit.

The stumble wouldn’t normally have mattered, but here…

“Oh.”

The one leg crumbled below her. She staggered for a few steps, the hem of her skirt caught on the corner of a hatch on top of the container, and she fell.

At the same moment, the train arrived below the dome and entered the city.