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Some distance further behind the Undead army, the Dead-men marched. Their approach had been slowed by their movement on foot, but after news had spread among the army that the Undead airship had already made contact, the army began to split up. A division of mounted troops was sent towards the city, along with 6 mages to provide shielding from cannon fire. 20 Elite Dead-men warriors charged towards the city on Demonic mounts, they were led in their assault by Xehart, supposedly the Empire's best warrior.

As they moved closer, they began to chant and whoop in excitement. They were approaching Aekea's outer wall with quite some speed. Soon they would be upon the wall, where one of two things would happen. Either they would wait for a transport from the ship to pick them up and carry them over the wall, or their mounts would be able to find grip in the wall, and scale it themselves. The mages would need no transport, they would airwalk over the wall, but they had to ensure the division remained shielded for now.

Still on the horizon the large bulk of the Dead-men army moved. Their number was so large that they truely stretched across the horizon. Their pounding feet caused an occasional tremour in the ground. As they just reached the horizon, they began to sing hymn's about their Holy War. Although it was in the Dead-men language, the message was clear. This army meant to purge the city of life.

Yeah, it was starting to look like Barton, with people dying and getting back up, comrades being forced to have to kill their friends or else get eaten by them. But the military base wasn't the only place affected; the downed ships had crashed elsewhere around Aekea too. The abominations on the ground continued slicing a b-line toward the base's gates. Would reinforcements make it to the gate on time? Maybe if they moved as if the wind. Firearms did not seem to be having much affect on them; even head shots weren't taking them out. The .50's did the most damage, slowing them down, but unless they were focusing fire on one at a time, simply spraying them wasn't going to stop them; and even if they were focusing fire, that left all the others to charge in and cut them down. Their hulking bodies took the punishment while they steamrolled forward, chainswords slicing and dicing. If they somehow couldn't get through the gate, they would start sawing through the wall around it.

In the air, the Wraiths suddenly broke off and dropped down toward the ground, swooping low and bearing on the ground units assaulting the abominations, strafing fire as they flew past. Don't think that the Raptors had been forgotten about. Vengeance loomed over the city now, cannons swiveling back and forth and firing at the jets as soon as the Wraiths broke off, not giving any of them time to fire their missiles.

"Captain, we have locks."

"Fire Necron Torpedos."



From the prow of the airships, several missiles of green, necrotic energy were fired out. They would track the jets and close in on them, much like their missiles had done to their fighters; but unlike the AIM-120s, these missiles locked on to life energy - they were locked onto the pilots themselves.

"Send the rest of our Wraiths. I want air superiority established already."

Another fifteen Wraiths bolted out of Vengeance's hangar; the remainder of their fighters. They swooped out in formation to take out any others Raptors still in the air, if any survived the torpedo barrage.

"Sir, we've confirmed another army approaching. It's the Dead-men."

"What?" Krik exclaimed, "Has Lament already... fallen? That was... quicker than I expected. Unless..."

Explosives seemed to have a much better effect! The abominations were forced to fan out as half their numbers were cut down in several blasts. The most they could do was block the grenade rounds with their swords, but the explosions threw them back. Reload time was the only chance they had at closing the distance and bringing on more hurt. Then came the light rounds, which would absolutely destroy any abominations that were hit.

In the air, the Raptors had no chance of evading the torpedos out in the open sky. The six Wraiths made another pass, strafing fire on the ground units blowing up the abominations, while the last wave of fifteen engaged any Raptors that didn't have green torpedoes chasing them, grouping up to take them two-on-one.

"Captain, second team is ready."

"What... are you waiting for?" Krik replied. "Send them... while the first team is... still walking!"

The four Spectre transports from earlier left the airship, swooping low to the ground and flying toward where the first team was. They were bringing reinforcements.

"We'll deal with... the Dead-men later. Right now... take down those planes," Krik ordered. "Lock on and... fire another volley."

"Full spread volley. Fire!" Krik shouted.

Vengeance's cannons unloaded on the new arrivals, firing a volley of negative energy rounds in a full spread, covering the transports. One of the Spectres managed to evade the rockets, while the others didn't have as much luck and took glancing blows, but remained airborne.

"Captain, we have lock."

"Fire!"

Torpedoes were fired, homing in on the Longbows.

"Shields up. Prepare for counter-attack."

Runes lit up along the hull of the Vengeance.

One of the Wraith squadrons changed tactics and went on bombing mode to take out the auto guns, while the others continued to engage the Raptors.

Two of the transports were shot down, crashing before they could make it to the drop point. That didn't necessarily mean their cargo went along with it though; they were hulking half-dead brutes capable of taking a lot of punishment, after all. Of the two dozen carried inside the first transport, only half of them would survive and make their way out of the wreckage; from the second, only eight made it out.

Seventeen abominations remained from the first wave, who were only able to make any offensive action when the gunners were distracted from trying to take out the Wraiths dive bombing them. On their next pass, however, they were finally shot down. Noxious green clouds erupted from where they crashed.

Five Wraiths were shot down in the dog fight, but the remainder continued hounding the Raptors. The ten engaging Vengeance were about to find out what despair really felt like. The airship's cannons continued firing, targeting more anti-air guns. It seemed to be ignoring the Raptors for now, no doubt because any rounds fired toward the massive vessel seemed to vanish before hitting its mark, and any of the guns that had fired at it would suddenly get jammed with a double feed, or, at worst, explode.

"Get mages on deck, man the guns," Captain Krik ordered. "Show the humans what it means to despair. Prepare to send down the next wave."

The Dead-men would reach the wall with very little resistance remaining, the main guns of the city having been destroyed, or at least, all those in range. As soon as the small group reached the wall they came across a problem. None of them would be able to cross it, or atleast, none of the warriors. The mages all dismounted, and then seemed to stand around for a few moments, before stepping into the very air itself, and walking straight up, and onto the wall.

This would cut the groups size in half, leaving the 10 warriors in the group behind, and leaving Xehart, four fire mages, two necromancers, two extra body mages, and a bone mage. The group reached the wall and immediatly began assaulting the city below. The three body and bone mages maintained shields on the rest of the mages, while the fire mages began assaulting as many aircraft as they could, an easy target, as the craft would explode due to high fuel content. The necromancers meanwhile began to spread plague gas throughout the city blocks below, hoping to kill as many civilians as possible.

Xehart however, simply watched. He seemed to be gathering energy, while stroking his small toy doll at the same time. He had a large grin upon his face, soon he would bathe in the blood of the innocent. It was almost magical. After a few minutes of spreading the fast acting plague gas, the team would descend to street level, the fire mages continuing to attack any aircraft, the Necromancers attempting to ressurect any bodies, and Xehart moving in the lead of the group, removing his white robe at the same time.