People were emptying out buildings, putting all the stuffs into unmanned hovering trucks which had machines that were stacking everything in an efficient manner to fit as much stuffs as the truck could hold. The trucks would automatically start to move once completely full and take all the stuffs away. They were doing their job as they were programmed to, as they had been doing for the past couple of days, but the people were particularly in a hurry that day. They didn't have any time to waste and had to finish everything quickly to get inside the bunkers before it was too late.
The radars had picked up the enemy the previous night and they were probably going to attack that day. Most of the military forces were already in position as they had been for some days. But the only sound you could hear was coming from the people packing stuffs in a hurry, the soldiers were dead quiet.
After all the citizens left for the bunkers only an eerie silence remained in the city. They were going to lose this battle.
They had as many troops as the enemy, guns with mana mark. 5 rating that could penetrate any armor that the enemy had to offer, tanks and mechs with titanium v.2 steel armor and A.E.S. (amplified electromagnetic shells), and 150 S.F. (Special Force) soldiers; soldiers with advanced cybernetic augmentation and high mana compatibility.
But an unexpected aerial attack from some LVHUAs (low visibility hypersonic unmanned aircrafts) couple of days prior had completely destroyed most of the city's defensive systems including the mana shields. They were completely vulnerable to an artillery attack.
Every soldier wanted some peace before their final battle. Normally they would have surrendered but they knew that the outcome would not change, they would be killed either way as this was "The Perfect War". Since they were going to die, they were at least going to die fighting for what they believed and cherished, their own kind.
A few moments later, the sun rose again for the second time that day for the soldiers but rather than a single white ball of light, this time it was multiple small blue balls illuminating the whole city. It was the artillery shells about to rain down on the soldiers. Time slowed down for everyone to enjoy the show of the falling stars, the stars of death. As the shells hit the ground they grew into big blue balls of mana before collapsing on itself and exploding into huge balls of flame with mana rippling through the flames like lightning.
The shells only covered less than 1/3 of the city so the surviving soldiers were expecting another barrage of shells. But that did not happen.
Both sides, even the soldiers defending the city, probably wanted the battle to end with just the artillery shells but war does not discriminate, even the victor will usually suffer huge loss in a war. The enemy had exhausted their artillery supplies and the rest of the battle was going to take face to face.