Chapter 8.6 - War on Five Fronts

The Dragon riders had come from the preserve to aid Haven in its capital, but that was all. The Hammers of Ston, The Corvid's Primary Flight, the Collective's Mobile Artillery, and the Totem Masters of Thul. The could not come

Their enemy was not a dumb one, and the plan for complete genocide had been well calculated, based on the information present.

The primary point of escape for Haven's non-combat personnel was The Watchtower. The Secondary escape plan for civilians had Haven been invaded was to exit through multiple [gates] into a waiting airfleet outside Thul. The Tertiary escape had been to leave on foot, in case the GWA had learned the [Dimensional Lock] spell.

The cult had figured out how to block both escapes, so the place that the few non-combat personnel, those who chose not to fight, those who were with child, those who were recovering from certain maladies, they were escorted to the Watchtower. There they would survive.

***

Kira Marquest stood at the helm of her land strider. The Collective had relied on Haven for a long time to safeguard their small single region nation. When the Bludpakt was called, Kira and her people had doubled down on their involvement with Haven, those of lower level had chosen to have children with the Gole, hoping to add their brilliant minds into the Collective's ranks. Everyone else just picked changelings. Not a single family in the Collective was completely human.

The plan had been a resounding success, as none could operate the land striders as well as Mechanist Gole, and they were the heart of the Collective's Army, large six legged amphibious craft capable of walking or swimming. For transport they even tucked their legs in and activated a float stone for tugging by Skygge airships.

Each landstrider had one of three configurations. The first was the Cannon-Strider, a Large artillery cannon on its back that fired a multitude of munitions at its enemies. The second was the gun-strider, with four fast firing quad auto-bolters. Finally, there was the shield-strider, capable of casting a giant one-way shield that negated all but the strongest of physical and magical attacks.

Guarding these walkers were the golems that were piloted by their guardian Gole, the Rocks of Kira, focusing on melee combat with any interlopers. Flying above, escorted by the Collective's flying cavalry were the Mind's Eye, Lancers who specialized in combat of the mind. They cared not for the memories of their ancestors. They aimed to destroy.

Kira watched as their pitiful walls were sundered by hulking masses of flesh, swallowing up all but the hits from the cannon-striders, which took them down. Those that made it to the shield walked through, the barrier not stopping organics, and found themselves face to face with golems armed with sword and shield.

The flying cavalry was doing its best to defend the lancers, who focused on pinpointing commanders and lieutenants on the field and rendering them comatose, to disjoint the enemy attack. It was still not enough. The enemy was closing in, and it would only be a few minutes until the giant mass of troops washed over her army like a wave.

Kira did not like what she was seeing, and sent a private message for Serin. [Lord Serin, bombard our city with Reem-toxin rounds.] With that, Kira fired a green flare into the sky. Three rings of a bell sounded, then another three, then another three.

In the distance, the distinct sound of artillery being fired sounded. Thunk, thunk, thunk.

[Rounds away, Kira. Gideon be with you.]

The flare was her informing her people that the area would be covered in toxin soon.

Her people had trained for it. Those already in combat suits or in golems would be unaffected. The few citizens who were not fighting were gathered at the chapel, and one by one encased in [stasis] amber.

The collective was soon covered in a green haze. Plants died. Exposed flesh melted. The ground was poisoned. It was an ecological disaster site. This was a weapon to use on enemies when you didn't want them to have a home to return to.

Kira had fired it on her own people.

Soon enough the fighting stopped. Kira sent a message to Lord Serin, [Lord Serin, the enemy is routed. Where do you want my troops to be sanitized and drop off of Amberized civilians?]

[The Watchtower, use the Blue Gate.]

Kira nodded. She had acted swiftly. Maybe her troops would have won the day. Maybe not. But one thing was sure. This act had saved her people to fight another day.

She offered a prayer of solace to the divines, hoping that the cleanup efforts wouldn't take more than a few years.

***

The Corvid Society was dealing with a completely different enemy. The Corvid society was another ally of Haven, and over the years had become masters of shadow. While the Skygge were some of the best shadowcasters in the world, the Corvid Society trained its people to become one with shadow. Its nation consisted of mostly humans, but there was also a large percentage of Changeling, Transmuted, and Skygge among their ranks.

For obvious reasons.

However the Corvid Society was less a nation, and more a large academy, if the academy focused its instruction on the art of stealth.

It was because of this that there was no standing army. Most of its forces consisted of its city watch and its Primary Flight, a small special forces division numbering less than 100.

So the city had already fallen. The enemy was currently occupying the city, large flesh giants standing at the entrances that were ungated. Bone Flyers were circling the skies looking for prey. Teams of inquisitors on the ground were searching for anyone in sight.

But it was an empty city.

The cult had assumed the city was abandoned so they had begun setting up a forward operating base. Command units were sent in, having been given the all clear. Not even the highly skilled grand heralds of the cult noticed the shadows that seemed to move on their own.

The Corvid Society had no civilians. Only assassins, thieves, hunter-seeker pairs, spies, and delvers.

As the enemy setup its command center, the Primary flight waited and marked targets, using a sister crystal to relay coded messages to the Haven's Artillery.

***

The City of Ston was facing a more traditional siege. Its high walls were being bombarded by giant flying boulders of flesh that melted any who got hit. Had it been Ston's first siege from an overwhelming force, they would have been worried.

It was not.

Ston was prepared.

Standing next to the first mask of Ston was a rather Rat-like man. He had the look about him that showed his dinner had been interrupted.

Wilton, Haven's principal Diplomat, had in fact had his dinner interrupted.

"First Mask, I believe it is time for Haven to call due on its investment."

The First Mask nodded, "I understand Mr. Wilton. I must ask though, what is the timeline for having the assets replaced?"

Wilton snickered, "We already have them sitting in storage, here in the city. Your hammer boys can pound them into place in less than three days time."

The First mask's response was amazed, "That must be almost a million credits in raw materials! You had it sitting in a warehouse on site?!"

"Ease of access, my dear first mask. Plus, security by obscurity. Plain boxes, simple locks. Nobody spoke about it. Plus most thieves wouldn't know what they were looking at."

"Fair enough."

"So how many do you think are in range?"

"Over 100,000. Almost the entirety of their attacking force."

"Perfect. Haven will use them as the interest payment on your security system."

And with that, the First Mask activated a switch, sent a [message], and fired a flare.

With the three forms of approval, The Pulse was activated.

During reconstruction, Ston had considered how to deal with a siege by the Wild, should it happen again. It was then that The Collective invented, and sold the rights to, a very expensive magical device. When fired, it rendered all within several meters unconscious. It was too powerful to use within the cities, and too expensive of an investment for both the Corvid Society and the Collective.

But not for Ston. It had quite the influx of income, sold most of its prisoners to Haven. And with a large portion of their population inhuman, there were always those humans who resorted to xenophobia to attempt to attain power.

So Ston had the money, but they took the devices from Haven on credit. In return, when the pulse was activated, Haven would replace it and all affected by it would become Haven property.

So outside stone, thousands of deep buried spikes fired out of the ground. And what was an amassed force of over 100,000 keeled over.

Ston's forces weren't able to come to aid because they were busy fighting, but because their enemy would only be unconscious for several hours and they had to all be collared.

***

"They dare tread on my Domain?!"

The Cult of Mephystra had started a holy war against the Keepers of the Gates, sons and daughters of Gideon. Whether it be due to their lack of intelligence or foresight, the cult had assumed that all of those of inhuman origin allied with Haven belonged under his gaze. The cult was unaware that the Kingdom of Thul had brought forth their own divine patron, Krul, the Beastmaster.

Normally, by the rules of the divines, invading another patron's domain with a standing army required formal declaration of a holy war. One or two passing through fell under approved preaching activities, but an army under the banner of a divine had to be announced.

Mephystra had made a serious error and invaded the domain of another divine unannounced.

While Krul's following was small, and therefore his domain was limited, he was still a patron divine. Mephystra, with her near million followers, had violated the laws of the Divines.

Two things happened at once. First, Mephystra had received a writ of violation. In her domain, she had been too focused on her genocide to consider a third player. Now she had violated his domain, permanently weakening herself and her followers when attacking Krul. Normally, this wouldn't have mattered since the 50,000 bone flyers Mephystra sent greatly outnumbered those of Thul. Even weakened, it would be their doom.

However the other thing to happen was that Krul was granted dominion authority, and came down from the divines to personally smite those who had come unannounced to eradicate his pride.

So a giant dragon flew through the sky, tailed by it's many winged aspects.

The Beastmasters of Thul did their best to keep the bone flyers from attacking the large portion of civilians, but the majority of the battle was being settled by Krul.

A divine patron granted full dominion authority was quite the sight to behold. It was the true power of a divine, and it would not fall to the misshapen forms of the Cult's bone flyers.

***

As Serin received the full reports from his allies, he breathed relief. He knew he was in for a tough fight and he did not have the resources to spread.

Serin looked back to his perimeter. It was holding strong. Although not too effective in battle, the Dryad(s) were helpful in getting fresh troops to the line, and getting wounded troops out. The Fae were busy delivering ammunition supplies held in their [inventory] space. The enemy's air assets and flesh giants were starting to dwindle in number, and assuming the enemy did not know the status of the battle, they would continue to pour troops out into the area. If that was the case the line would hold.

The line would have to hold.