Fry

Because the bottom of the dome only extended a few kilometers from the outer face of the walls, any falling Aud would be too close for comfort upon landing and surviving. That would be most of them--the damn fiends were cumbrous targets to down.

So, half of the wall-grade sonic emplacements diverted their angles away from the approaching ground forces and began tracking the descent of the initial carpet bombers. After three seconds, each presented over a ninety percent hit rate. Waiting any longer would only risk the chance those Aud would land closer than desired, and the sonics marked their targets with scutumsteel.

Supersized rounds funneled through the air, moving with such ferocity they left visible lines in their wake. Many rounds struck the first to fall, then the turrets had to separate and choose individual targets as more and more entered free-fall.

Every Aud hit spiraled into an uncontrollable dive away from the Last Light. It would take them several more seconds to make contact with the ground and become members of the advance ground forces, should they survive the impact, but they would be set far back in the distance they had to cover.

The Prime Beacon watched one display capturing everything from the western side. He glanced in that cardinal direction as if he could see all the way there through the layers of bodies, scutumsteel, and glass in his path.

"Not something you see every day, is it?"

He nodded to Four. "It isn't. But I imagine it would hold a greater impact for those that have seen similar sights before."

"Like your serviceman, sir?"

"Yes. And others like her." She would be fine, he told himself. The Aud would not make it up or through the walls. Whichever path they chose, resistance would meet them in equal force. He summoned a different surveillance feed via his HUD, watching the other prominent weapon system take its opening salvo.

The wall-grade electrics looked nothing like their downsized counterparts. Titan-grade and below had more components and surface modules running the length of their bodies, even if their form of ammunition could pass through their focusing agents via the energy grid they siphoned from.

But the design of the electric emplacements on the walls, even if possessing a greater scale, was more sleek and slim. They were little more than chrome barrels stretching an impressive length, with a massive bulge on the back end denoting where the supersized focusing agent rested. They did not need heat-shunting capabilities. The wall transferred into them everything it needed and withdrew shunting or excesses the weapon systems could do without.

 "If only electrics could carry kinetic force," Two bemoaned. "They would become far more versatile. Impressive range, a near-instantaneous muzzle velocity, and thermal and kinetic energy delivery into targets. It would char and pummel Aud simultaneously!"

"Every asset of the military has its advantages and drawbacks, I'm afraid. I can inquire with the Sixth Headman whether such a technological jump would be possible in the short term after."

"You would, sir?" Two's eyebrows jumped, and he tugged at his vest. "I'd appreciate that."

Because of this glaring weakness, the electrics did not change their orientation to aim at the falling Aud. No, their targets were the Aud composing the first attack's ground forces. On the south stretch of the walls, Pa-5 looked up amid shoving a cart full of power cells along when a low thrum reached her legs.

It vibrated up her body and made her teeth clatter with growing intensity unless she ground them together in a determined effort to hold them down. Her eyes traveled to the backside of one of the electric emplacements, to the comical bulge of scutumsteel. Her smile remained absent, though there was the tiniest quirk of the lips when she heard Fa-2 call for her.

The air around them heated as the tips of the barrels grew piping red hot. Another couple of seconds, and blinding beams of energy streaked from the barrels to their targets in a heartbeat. No, under it.

They were large and unstable enough at the start that they grew in size while in transit, blanketing a large swath in sweltering heat. The ground sizzled, and a few sites of impact even glowed, a faint caricature of the color on the barrels. 

The walls came alive with the searing heat and the deafening retorts of the emplacements. Though undeniable that it was an uncomfortable position to be in, the men and women both clad in WAVs and simple military skinsuits shouted themselves hoarse in a united cry.

The officers standing watch over the ranks and logistics chains could've quieted them, but to the Prime Beacon's chagrin, the surveillance feeds captured them joining in with as must fervor as anyone else. The electrics continued to beat down upon the Aud ground forces, lighting up swaths of the stone plains beyond the city's walls.

They fired several beams in a steady staccato rhythm, each turning the length of their barrels a little hotter until they steamed in the damp air of the Gaiss Hollow.

He leaned forward, resting his hands on the back of the sitting officer's chair. "Do we know which side of the minefield they will encroach upon first?"

"The first ring is tightening and thickening at a rough, yet somewhat predictable pace, sir. The mines prepared for immediate detonation will see their first use among the western stretches' killing field."

The electrics were already producing the fruit of their labor. White-furs collapsed after a few shots; they were dead or dying once subjected to scathing burns both inside and out that charred their fur and flesh. The orange and yellow-furs were more resilient, but they too remained tethered to sensible reality.

It was with the greens that the targeting crews felt like pulling their hair out. They could empty two, three, no, four dozen beams into one of them, and no matter how much they resembled a char mark one might see in the bottom of a poorly prepared bowl of paste, they would continue forward in their unstoppable march.

Though they remained composed in their duties, they uttered curses as if spitting poison, and with vindictiveness reflected in their eyes.

How fortunate then, that those green-furs, and the occasional blue-fur, were the best physically-endowed, and thus, fastest among the ground forces. After emerging from the main body of the ring, they would continue to dash forward with abandon. Were there not plain evidence contradicting their long-cultivated image of mindless beasts, he would be hard-pressed to doubt them now.

They crossed the remaining distance between the edges of the ring and the edges of the minefield and made their first forays into a trapped stage where more pain and misery awaited. He watched close as a green-fur, hard to recognize as one thanks to the new color of its fur, charged over a specific spot on the stony plains.

One second, it was there. The next, a plume of smoke jetted into the air, almost spanning half the height of the walls at its apex. A mess of stone blasted in every direction with the accumulated release of many detonating cylinders. He was not the only one with eyes for the initial detonation site. Near half of Directory Control had fallen silent as they waited to see if anything would emerge.