Toshiro came to attention and saluted as soon as the General turned in his direction.

“Sir.”

“Report.” The General grunted, his eyes roaming the area.

Toshiro quickly outlined the situation, where he had sent troops, and pointed out they hadn’t really had a chance to search all the buildings in the immediate area. And he mentioned the big missile that had taken out the portal and the surrounding area.

“Yes. It destroyed the portal machinery and killed the portal maker. We’re down to one working portal interface at present. Right. Did you say the troops over there didn’t have a Mentalist in charge?” He pointed to the south.

“Yes, sir. I mean, no, sir, they don’t.”

“Very well. You are now in command of that force. I will get you more troops as they come through.”

“Sir!” He saluted and then hesitated, waiting for further information, but nothing came.

The General turned away, patently ignoring him, which he took as dismissal, so, after another look around, he headed south to take charge of that flank.

Damn. Only one portal for an invasion of a technological world was going to make this even harder than it had been. Who’s idea had this been? Of course, they needed a technological world to set up a cyborg and chip installation center. This place looked good to the scouts, being a technological world but not a strong one, but he had a horrible feeling it would be harder than the government thought. Their technology seemed higher than the scouts had reported, and they had certainly reacted quickly! No matter. He headed towards where he had sent the troops on this flank earlier and began assessing the situation.

The cyborgs he’d sent south had established a line on a road running north-south and were pushing south to extend the line. Fortunately, there was little opposition as the troops were getting very spread out. Looking to the south down the straight road, he could see hordes of civilians running for their lives. He brought the southern expansion to a halt and did a quick recon up and down the line in a captured civilian vehicle driven by a cyborg who had claimed he could drive the machine. With a bit of practice, the cyborg probably would be able to drive the vehicle.

The city, or at least the main center area of it, was laid out on a north to south and east to west grid of roads. He was only fired on a couple of times as he drove along the road that a sign told him was called Yara Street. That sounded almost Russian, but he was sure the people here spoke English, or at least that is what the scouts had claimed. The street ran right down to the shore of the bay the city was built along,  stopping where a green park strip ran along the shore.

He returned to the main street just in time for two trucks to roll up crammed with what looked like civilians. They dismounted, and he found he had a platoon of servants. They were armed with an assortment of weapons and under the command of three cyborgs. Two were older cyborgs and they were in direct command of half the force each, while the third was a genuine military cyborg who was in overall command of the small company.