The things must not have been armed with machine guns, or at least if they were, they weren’t firing at him, but one of them had a mentalist on board because the next thing he knew, a fireball slammed into his shields. He did the arcing fireball trick to the right-hand machine, and it went up spectacularly, the explosion damaging the vehicle next door, which twisted sideways and then ran diagonally into the next house along the street from its position. A figure jumped down from began advancing up the road towards him, and a series of fireballs came glancing towards Andrew from the Japanese mentalist. They weren’t overly strong fireballs, as far as Andrew could tell, and then he prepared his own response with fireball, slice, sleep, and stun. He followed the stun with another fireball and slice combination.

Whatever he did, the mentalist was suddenly in several bloody pieces as the slice spell got through. He looked to the south but couldn’t see any more the gun carriages he knew with there, so he ran back across the main road to the service station as he was fairly certain they wouldn’t target that as all scuttlebut said that the Japs were short of fuel. He spotted one of the machines sticking its front around the football club building, but from where he was, he couldn’t lob a fireball into the top compartment. Then he saw a second one moving around the other corner of the football club and heading across the football ground. Sacrilege! He thought to himself as the tracked vehicle dug up the hallowed turf.

He raced back across the road to the cricket club practice wickets, where he could clamber up the wire fence and balance on one of the horizontal cross pieces while eyeballing the gun carriage. From his precarious perch, he could see enough of the open top lob a fireball into the opening, which turned it into a giant fireworks display. There must’ve been troops somewhere nearby because lasers suddenly flashed out in his direction, and more solid rounds bounced off the wire netting around him. He dropped back down and scooted away, angling back towards the main road to see if you get a bead on the remaining gun carriage he could hear moving. Looking down the main road, he couldn’t see anything, but he could hear it moving, and then he saw it to the left of the sport football club building retreating down the road taking the troops with it.

With the Japs apparently retreating, a couple of hundred Ostrayan troops poured across the bridge and began deploying on Andrew’s side of the river, leapfrogging down Grant Street. Other squads advanced down peel men’s Lane and Taverner Street as the Japs began a general withdrawal from the area. By this stage, Andrew was exhausted and found his way back to the pub on the corner on this side of the bridge. The place was closed, but he banged on the door loudly until finally, a portly gentleman opened the door, and he explained that he had been fighting the Japs all day and he needed a drink and somewhere to sleep. The portly gentleman looked past him and saw no one else trying to get in, so he beckoned Andrew into the building and shut the door behind him. Five minutes later, he was stretched out on a comfy lounge in the man’s office with a beer half-drunk beside him, and he decided he’d just close his eyes for a minute.