This was it. They had finally made it. Not only into enemy territory, but they now stood on the doorstep of one of their cities. The moment that Altanis had been awaiting, and which nearly every last member of her unit had been waiting for.
They had been taken by surprise when the sky had split open and dropped a hail of devastating artillery on them. Losses were incurred, but it served only to make them angrier as they pushed through it.
The walls of the city itself had been split open by explosives from their dear General's army. With that opening, the hellspawn and her revenge-driven group slipped inside with all the speed and stealth they could muster.
"You've all waited long enough. Now it's time." Altanis grinned, her clawed fingers slowly flexing and curling into fists. "Ready your weapons...and prepare to demolish everything. Anything in this city that is not one of ours is just another target." She gestured forward, her arm sweeping over the grim, depressing scene before her. "We don't need to concern ourselves with things like...collateral damage, in a place like this. It's a miracle it's even still standing at all. So let's give it a hand and bring it all down."
At her sides, the two who had oafishly proclaimed themselves as her personal aides shifted in place, some mixture of anxious and eager energy suffusing them in an almost palpable aura. They, along with all other surviving members with her, quickly began to ready their weapons; the haggard, ragged crew of mostly inconsequential looking people began to shed the messy shroud of cloaks and 'normal' clothes to reveal the proper equipment underneath.
Crackling hisses of energy rose up from many of them, as weapons suddenly emerged into the open air and came to life. Flickering spurts of red and green, blades and firearms and blunt weapons and primed explosives. The entire batch of them was more than ready, in spite of the long painful trek to get here, to dive immediately into the fray. Every one of them would probably throw their lives away just to take down even one of the monstrous things in this city with them, she knew. The more they could take down without dying along the way the better, of course...but none of them would do anything like 'be afraid' or 'retreat' here.
It was exactly the kind of desperate, crazy individuals she had requested.
Their fervor was quickly stymied, however, when one particular thing became apparent: the city was virtually deserted.
"They have no soldiers stationed here?" Altanis murmured incredulously, when the report was finally given to her. She had expected, at least, for them to have had at least
some forces stationed here. At least some small contingent, even if one only ready to flee and relay messages and information to other nearby groups. So far, however...it seemed only a token group, likely the very ones who 'lived' in this city, were to be found.
"Enough of this... Spread out." She waved her hand dismissively. "At least twenty of you in each group. Remain within eyesight and earshot of the next nearest group. Comb through every last inch of this city, if you have to, until we exterminate the filth here down to the last."
This order was met with a rousing chorus of shouts and an immediate, eager response as they all scattered and broke off into groups, quickly slinking and running away to disappear into the ruins. They had had plenty of practice running and hiding, and evading detection from things that wanted to kill them; now they just had a chance to be sneaking up on things, rather than sneaking away from things. They would be fine, she knew.
She proceeded forward in what was essentially a straight line. The wreckage and decaying skeleton of the city before her was slowly ground and pushed aside by a directed wedge of telekinetic force, boring a clear and easy path right through the mess — and making a terrific noise, eliminating all chance at subtlety. Perfect for drawing the walking monstrosities of this city right toward her.
It worked without fail, as within minutes the ghouls of the city began creeping out of the ruins. Mindless things, they just charged and clambered directly into the fray. Like wild, starving beasts presented with what they thought was an easy meal.
Some of the quicker ones did manage to successfully pounce and crash into the ranks of her forces...but they were almost immediately ripped apart. Picked up and thrown off of their downed comrades, or else just repeatedly shot stabbed and bludgeoned until the pinned ones could force their way free. Many of them, however, never even got within spitting distance before being brought down.
It was a grisly scene, made all the moreso by just how much everyone involved
enjoyed it. Even the ones who were borne down by surprise attacks never let their manic grins fade; one man who nearly lost an arm from a ghoulish denizen springing out from under a mound of vehicle wreckage only howled in deranged laughter as he checked the offender with a shoulder barge and crammed his entire grenade-holding fist down the thing's gullet. With a simple, sing-song "Ka-boom!" from him...both he and the offending ghoul went up in a messy explosion, scattering bits of meat and metal shrapnel and wreckage everywhere.
But their good fortune didn't last forever.
"Fuck! More of this shit?!" someone screamed in surprise and pain as an explosion rocked the street, and a shower of debris and dirt plumed into the air. Several more such blasts tore a zig-zag line across the city, seeming to shake it to its very foundations. "These bastards are firing on their own shit!"
Altanis ground her teeth, her eyes flashing in pure rage. So
that was it. The same ones who had fired on them as they approached, she had no doubt. The pitiful garrison of mindless unmade freaks they called a militia left in this city couldn't possibly hope to overcome or push back a concentrated effort from a force of this size. They weren't meant to. They were just left here as a distraction...and the real threat was whoever was manning those damn guns. With that much hell and death raining down over the city, it wouldn't take long at all for them to start bringing down the ruined hulks of the buildings, and turn this entire place into one giant mass grave!
There was only one choice, here... If Altanis was to simply abandon this foolish endeavor and flee to preserve her own life, she would no doubt lose all credibility and respect with anyone who did survive. Simply sticking it out here and pushing on with their former objective would simply lead to them all getting buried and killed. And loathe as she was to actually admit it, she still needed them under her command, for now.
"All of you! Regroup!" she shrieked, her voice rising as high as she could muster. She had grown accustomed, once, to shouting over exactly this kind of chaotic mess in the past. To letting her voice carry to thousands, over the constant onslaught of clashing swords and exploding spells. That had been many thousands of years ago, and even trying to raise her voice to such an extent now made it come out hoarse and rough, and strained her throat painfully. "We will not be buried here!"
But she wasn't about to let that stop her.
She pushed forward, out of the immediate danger that was the shadow of huge buildings...and planted herself steadily. All around her, the frantic soldiers under her banner came scrambling. They weren't afraid of the Unmade and dying to take the fight to them...but they were certainly afraid of and opposed to the idea of dying to something as ridiculous as being buried in artillery fire and collapsing city. They couldn't even take any enemies with them, that way!
"The fuck do we do
now?!" Morgans shouted as she slid into what little cover could be had behind a partially collapsed building. "We ain't got the right kind of umbrella for this kinda storm!"
"This isn't the time for jokes, Morgans!" Faurin snapped, and he flinched away from the claw-laden tentacle swipe of one of the city's inhabitants before promptly emptying the remainder of his rifle's magazine into it.
"Calm yourselves," Altanis hissed. "Focus on keeping these beasts away and getting the rest of our allies close." The hellion slowly raised her hands, hands clenched into fists. "I have a plan to handle this...sudden change in weather." She scowled darkly, teeth bared in a silent snarl as she turned her eyes upward.
One of her arms slowly rose up, hands uncurling to splay her fingers wide and bare her palms toward the sky. A dim haze of red fog began to pool around her arms, slowly shimmering away into the air above her. Her eyes narrowed in focus, the brilliant gold seeming to shine in the dark. Around her, the wreckage began to shift and groan, the sound of stone and steal sliding and grinding against each other.
Dust and grit began to float in the air around her. Small chunks of stone and steel and glass started to lift up, as the larger stonework of nearby buildings began to crack and splinter.
Huge stretches of the street itself, massive metal beams and supports from the buildings, entire walls and chunks of structure slowly tore free of their wreckage tombs, hurtling into the air. Each and every one of them trailed streamers of the same dark red haze pouring off of Altanis's hand. They hurtled into the air, bursting into shrapnel and smaller chunks of debris and rubble. An improvised, but devastating hail somewhere between a shotgun fit for giants and anti-air guns, turning the sky above her unit into a smoking haze, and screening them from any direct hits by the hail of projectiles.
It wasn't enough. The momentary reprieve was enough to stave off and keep them safe from one wave of the raining death...but it bought them only enough time to fully regroup before the sky light up once more with another incoming wave of raining death.
"Hell...they're really trying to bring this entire city down!" one of the nearby soldiers shouted. "Isn't this their own territory?!"
"Like they care about that! They just wanna get rid of
us!" another one screamed.
"Tch...so be it, then..." Altanis growled. She threw her other arm up, and sucked in a deep breath, turning all the power her mind could muster up toward the sky. "If they won't stop firing on their own...I will simply have to
make them stop..."
A chorus of confused noises went up from those around her, many of them turning their eyes to the sky, only to be utterly baffled by what they saw.
Gleaming overhead, high above the city, the projectiles raining down toward them had begun to slow...and then stop altogether. Struggling against gravity and their own momentum and whatever force held them there, they tumbled and spun end over end in place.
Altanis grunted, her arms trembling and beads of sweat beginning to form on her forehead. She slowly curled her fingers inward, into clawed shaped as if grasping hold of something...and rotated her arms about. Overhead, the trapped projectiles began to come to a complete halt.
With a noise that slowly built up from a dull growl to a roar of effort, the hellish tactician swept her arms down to either side. A heavy cloud of crimson miasma poured off of her, and the sky lit up with an identical haze as the caught missiles above were sent flying. Flying right back the way they had come, sailing on high arcs back above the city and out of sight.
All at once, the strength fled from Altanis and she let out a heavy gasp as she nearly collapsed, arms dropping to her sides. "Let us see...how they react to having their own fire turned back on them..." In spite of her exhausted state, she cackled madly, with a deranged grin.
Altanis has used one application of focus to dramatically bolster her Telekinesis. She used it to protect herself (and the rest of her unit), and to grab the incoming artillery fire and turn it away, back at the fortifications that fired it.