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The reverberations from the exploding mines was clearly heard, if not felt, even in the Underground. Lilith had been inside of the mausoleum, down inside of the crypt, preparing spells. The explosions pulled her mind from her meditations.

"It's started."

Something was wrong though. The explosions were coming from outside the walls. The attackers had run into trouble. The shield generators had been activated. Clearly, this wasn't going as planned, and if Lilith was going to rendevouz with them, they were going to have to get past the shield.

Rising to her feet, Lilith exitted the shrine and walked out onto the cemetary. Grabbing the skull-tipped mace from her belt, she clasped her amulet in her other hand and recited a prayer. Closing her eyes, she waved her mace around in the air, the gems embedded in the eye sockets glowing, leaving a pale trail of crimson light, inscribing a rune in the air. Opening her eyes, white all around, she spoke the final words of the incantation, waving the head of her mace in a wide arc before her.

"Rise, and heed the call of your master."

The crimson light fell in glitters upon the graves around her.

The slugs would set the explosives off from a safe distance, they didn't need sight, simply the scent or taste of something unnatural, any sort of chemical, unless it was completely organic and natural to the underground environment would be detected and located. They simply unleashed their demented sonic attack, vibrating the earth ahead of them every time they detected something and proceeded as planned. Boom, the explosions were triggered and only the shockwaves affected the slugs, which were mostly harmlessly absorbed by their geletan like bodies.

Of course, this meant the alarm would go off and the shield would be activated, but it only protected the dark tower, not the city proper. And there was nothing but more explosives to prevent the slugs from penetrating into the underground, which they would reach only slightly worse for the wear. Once they surfaced near the center of the underground, they went their seperate ways toward the generators at the corners, anything that stood in their way, soldier, civilian, animal, plant, even some minerals, would be disolved by their acrid acid spray.





Once the alert had gone up, the tactics of the chimera zombie corp change. They had expected to be detected before busting the sheild generators anyway, no big deal. The watchers simply abandoned the soldeirs they took control of at the watchtowers, leaving their minds and bodies fataly poisoned as the lions took cover in and behind towers once belonging to the enemy. Before the tactics went from a charge to a battle for survival against the cannons, thirty two loins had been ripped to shreds, the liquid from their innards spilling and becoming a horendous gas, of which any mortal who breathed even a microgram would be fatally poisoned.

The thing with the slug body took command of one of the towers closer to the city, keeping close to the ground in case the need to burrow arose.

"Master," it sang, "Master, all is going as planned."

The watchers flew above the city walls unoticed by the anti-air forces, as they were no bigger than mere insects. They scouted the soldeirs manning the heaviest gun batteries and landed on their necks, biting deep. Within minutes, those soldeirs affected suddenly turned their guns on the healthy soldiers who were still firing at the enemy. The ensuing blood bath would destroy many of the watchers controling the guards, but it would also cripple the gun emplacements, damage the outer walls, and give the remaining loins time to advance.

At the southern and northern gates, the forces available to be stationed there would notice one of the two undead slugs reserved for the surface as they aproached with beastly sonic wails that would drive the untrained ear that heard it into total despair. Their attack was more straight forward, they would suffer damage from any artilary in order to ram the gates and smash down the outer wall.

Lament would soon learn that this was no ordinary raid, and if they thought their problems were in any way typical, they were sorely mistaken, as the fun was just begining.

Yarneth, Full Battle Capacity without worshipers- 30cp

A lone traveler in a cape with a hode that covered his face approached the gate, hailing the guards by simply raising his palm. He continued walking, approaching slowly amidst the center of the road, waiting for them to fire, or to let him through.

Still be destroyed by the well placed explosives. The explosives were surrounded by an obsidian coating, which not only gave off the scent of the overall ground since it was loaded with the substance, but also served to add to the resulting schrapnel damage from the detonations. As a safety precaution, the explosives had also been rigged to explode only if triggered by the exact same frequency as the suspicious seismic activity that had been registered on the seismic sensors. The slugs could screech and howl all they wanted, but the bombs would still go off as planned, the schrapnel and concussive blasts tearing into their bodies with terrible force.







Even as the forces advanced on the towers, the guards occupying them opened fire with their machine guns, and high powered rifles. Grenades would rain down from the towers themselves, while the remaining guards down below armed the saftey devices that would activate if all was lost. Even more guards fired from gun ports on the sides of the ground portion of the towers, being further protected from the rampaging hordes.

As some towers fought for their lives, and for the saftey of their city, others still were not yet under attack, and as such, they radioed the main batteries in the city, giving the guns the precise location of the invading forces. The guns on the tower responded in kind, firing on the location of the troops, further upping the hit rate of the massive and destructive shells. The flares in the sky were re-fired after each preceeding round had burned to within one quarter of their lifespan, which allowed for constant illumination.



Would be instantly vaporized as they came into contact with the energy field protecting the Dark Tower. It would seem that these watchers had failed to realize that the guns that were firing at them were mounted on the tower itself, and not mounted on the Tower Gates, or the city gates. The energy field was carefully controled as a one way force field. Outgoing rounds could exit the field, as well as outgoing troops, supplies, and rounds from the small arms and weapons of the guards and Officers. However, once they left the confines of the field, they were on their own. The troops knew this, and this was the primary reason that many of them took up positions within the tower itself, our on the Tower Wall, which was also protected by the energy field.



As the slug would emerge at the Northern Gate, it would immediately be fired apon by the guns at the rear of the massive tower, which until now, hadn't really had much to do seeing as nothing had been seen yet. Some of the guards at the gate would curl into balls from the wails, but some of the more battle hardened, and stone hearted individuals pushed through the feelings and focussed on the task at hand. They had long since learned to push asside their emotions in a time of battle, and though it was exremel difficult, the hardened troops pushed through the urge to curl up and wait for the end. They pressed through the fear and the sadness to fufil their duties.



He would find the gate already closed, as the guards would have closed and locked the gate once the cannons started to fire, thus preventing entry to any and all persons trying to enter the city by way of the gates.

As the cannons continued to fire, the guards in the Underground and in the Upper City began to move the innocent people out of the area, standing guard at all entrances to the train Station, some even guarding the roof of the building, and others partolling around the trains themselves. All the trains were pulled into service, and would begin moving the inhabitants out of the city. The trains exited to the surface within the confines of the shield, allowing them to leave the city relatively unharmed, as they left the city towards the west, and would speed to the next closest city, which happened to be Durem.

At the same time, sniper units were taking positions within the shield, and along the walls of the tower and city to attempt to take out the invaders from an extreme distance. Alongside these marksmen would also be heavy artillery, such as guards wielding rocket launchers and other powerful weapons.

Within the city walls, the city's guards and army were deploying at various points to defend the inner and outter city from attack. These units were comprised of a few scattered battle tanks, some light armored vehicles, armored personel carriers, and guards with heavy machine guns. The Lamentian Officers took up their respective places around the city to help defend areas that the normal guards were unable to do effectively.

Within moments of the initial attacks, the whole city had switched into battle mode, and was preparing itself for the fight ahead.

His Superior was looking out of a window, watching the guns firing at targets that he couldn't even see. The telltale explosions marked where the massive cannon shells exploded. With a sigh, he turned ot face his loyal officer.

The enemy has taken up locations in three areas of the city. The main force is attacking from the South, and headed towards the main gate. We've gotten scattered reports that several watchtowers have fallen to the enemy, and that they seem to employ a poison as a means of attack.

There seems to be a small secondary threat that is making its way towards the North gate, but for the moment it appears to be minimal. However, we are continuing to keep our forces strong in that area incase of a surprise move on their part.

The last area is to be kept to a need to know basis only. We have reports of undead creatures, "Zombies" if you will, appearing in the Underground. I will have another task force sent to deal with them in time, but for now, your mission is to protect the walls and the tower at all costs.

Remember, once you leave the tower, you will be unable to re-enter. Make sure your men are prepared, and move out. Dismissed!

The General saluted, and moved to turn back to the window, watching the battle outside.

The Southern Gate:

The slugs absorbed the vibrations from the underground explosions without trouble, they had no intenal organs to be damaged because they were merely a mass of animated undead cells. Obsidian shards punctured and lacerated the creatures, wedging in the slug flesh and sometimes even slicing through them. But the slugs were underground, feeding on the death in the soil, which helped healed them somewhat. The underground inferno would do no good whatsoever, these slugs were fused with a certain genetic material leftover from the hospital of Yaits city. The heavy duty transmiters inside these babys were tough, and able to take much abuse, they would allow Yarneth to control the beasts with some ease.

"Surface, attack the south gate instead."

The beasts surfaced, charging full speed at the southern gate. Tendrils rose from their backs, swinging like wild snakes, each one was almost one hundred meters long. At the ends of the tendril mouth's formed. The teeth of these mouths made from obsidian shards that had only recently lodged into the beasts. At the moment, as the beast was charging, they didn't do much besides look scary and release incredibly high pitched wails at a frequency and decibel that would render any who heard them in tremendous pain. The front of the beast opened up, the more massive of the obsidian shards forming the teeth of gaping mouths. A foam of acid and fire was shot over the gate as they approached full speed, not bothering to evade the hail of fire raining down upon them, but losing little momentum for it. A poison gas rose from the open wounds, a mixture of methane and bacteria laden gases that would kill whatever mortal breathed it in.

Behind the slugs that had emerged would be a third slug with a force fifty remaining undead lions at its flanks, it was also charging, by the time it reached the southern gate, it would most likely be down so they could slide through into the outer city.

The Northern Gate:

The Northern gate slug would approach the city much as it's brethren in the south, except it would be alone and lack much of the obsidian shards to form teeth. Still, it had suffered much less damage, and was barely wounded enough to release the poison gass. At thirty kilometers per hour it would approach the gate, the tendrils would release, and the teeth would form from the shell shards used by the city. Instead of bashing the gate, it would coil back and spring into the air, jumping over it! As it jumped, acid and fire would spray from its front end, soaking the gates and their towers to disintigrate any soldeirs it touched.

Western Towers:

The remaining lions would dart back forth, their innards glowing to draw enemy fire. Three watch towers had already been cleared without trouble, but that had been early in the battle. The lions proved resilient, small arms fire didn't phase them, grenades only slowed them down, only the heavy artlay seemed to stop them. Even then, they would keep going. Beasts with no backsides ran quickly on the two front legs, severely wounded beasts threw themselves into towers, letting the poison gasses from their blood do the deadly work.

The Watchers:

Had been told to attack only gun emplacements no sheilded, meaning those on the outer city walls. So they would avoid the tower or any of its defenses and thus their premature demise. They took the best guns of the outer city, turning them on watch towers and other forces defending the outer city. They also looked for commanders, to sew confusion into the ranks.

The clicking subsided mere seconds before Captain Endin stepped out once more from the doorway and walked to the head of the formation once again; his uniform perfect, and his demeanor completely unaffected by the situation that the city found itself in.

"Men. We have our orders. Our first task is to secure the southern gates. Be prepared for anything."

The congregation saluted in unison.

"Move out!"

At that command, the soldiers formed rank and file and began marching out of the gates to the Dark Tower; towards the southern gate. In two collumns of 15 each, with Captain Endin at the front and Lt. Steele immediately beside him.

As these forces appeared, they would be met with a fearsome resistance from the cannons, the shells capable of traveling WELL over 700MPH, meaning the shells would collide with the beasts before they even heard the sound of the cannonfire, and explode over an area of roughly several hundered meters. Easily enough penetrating force to rip through the slugs, and detonate, vaporizing their frail and gelatinous bodies into nothingness. They were still a decent distance away from the gates, and would be struck by the cannons as they exited the ground. The still advancing forces would be met with resistance by the guns that were not trained on the slugs.




It would explode into nothingness as a well-placed cannon shot entered the beast, and detonated, vaporizing the beast. It wouldn't have a chance in hell to avoid with the extremely close distance the shot would have to travel, and also due to a simple fact of moving in a jump through the air. Your trajectory was set once you committed yourself to that final hop. The beast would have no warning as the shell would tear through the target before it had a chance to even blink, if it DID blink... The guards on the North Gate took shelter as they saw the beast jump, and the shockwave from the exploding artillery shell rattled the windows and shelters of the wall...



As the beasts began to take over the towers, the deadly saftey devices would activate, the towers detonating with enough force to reduce the fortified metal structures to nothing but charred bits of metal scrap no larger than a human arm. By then, word had gotten out of the poison's effect via radio contact, and the remaining towers had employed the use of full-face gas masks to protect against the deadly chemicals. The Watchtowers were intended to take the brunt of the enemy attack, and they were prepared for bombardment by almost all forms of chemical or biological weapons. The metal plating that made up the towers themselves were coated in a material that slowed the success of acidic attacks, though did NOT protect them completely from them. All the while, the direct coordinates of the targets were being sent to the guns, which fired on the positions of the remaining troops.



Essentially negating their use at all, for the guns were set up within the confines of the shield on the Dark Tower. Anything the watchers could do now would be vastly less effective than attempting to use the guns to their advantage.