The Drop And Destruction I

As the ping on Rhok's map grew closer, the dark, ominous garrison with its towering structures emerged in the distance. Rhok could feel the air crackle with arcane energy — he could almost smell the magic.

"Full offence!" Rhok commanded, signalling Daniel to prepare as he readied the heavy artillery on his Armatus. 

Hovering above the enemy's defence towers, the Armatus suits deployed their missile pods. With the flick of a finger, the nozzles erupted, firing hundreds of high-explosive missiles that streaked toward their targets, obliterating the enemy's defences and wiping out the base in a devastating display of firepower.

The microbombs detonated simultaneously in the distance, but Rhok noticed something strange. The explosions occurred, but no damage was visible on the buildings.

"Arcane barrier?" Daniel suggested, rubbing his chin in awe.

"Tsk!" Rhok clicked his tongue in frustration. He'd thought it would be an easy task, but now he would need to descend to ground level and rampage.

"Let's get down? Commander Wagner?" Daniel suggested, raising his brows.

"Aye! Let's!" Rhok answered, his eyes burning with vengeance.

Rhok's Armatus suits, with six members, and Daniel's Armatus suits, with four, descended upon the garrison. Their ionised blades glowed a fierce red, slicing through the massive arcane barrier. The shield crackled erratically, sparks flying as the barrier resisted. With a final, furious surge, a section of the arcane shield shattered, leaving a gap large enough for them to pass through.

The Novitcius mages scrambled, frantically casting cheap spells in an attempt to defend their base. Lightning bolts, fireballs, and ice shards hurled toward the Armatus suits. 

"Futile!" Rhok roared, his blade flashing through the air. In a split second, he cut a male mage in half, leaving only a bloody mess in his wake.

Daniel was quick to follow suit, firing plasma shots at the clusters of spellcasters positioned in the towers. Each time, their arcane barriers appeared to intercept his shots. But the mages couldn't protect themselves for long.

Daniel knew their barriers could block his plasma shots, but they stood no chance against the devastating force of an ionised blade. He baited the mages by sending an Armatus suit in the wrong direction, drawing their attention, before another swooped in and decimated the spellcasters in one sweeping motion. Blood and gore splattered across the corridor. One female mage, narrowly missing the blade, screamed in terror as she watched her comrades disintegrate. Her mage cloak was stained in blood and her peer's entrails, but before she could even think of fleeing, a plasma shot turned her into dust.

"Noobs…" Daniel mocked, smirking deviously as he moved forward, focusing on the west towers. With a concentrated barrage of missiles and plasma shots, the tower collapsed, sending a dark storm of dust and debris into the air.

The ground mages, seeing their west tower destroyed and another surrounded by Rhok's Armatus suits, understood the hopelessness of their situation. Some ran in fear, while others dropped their arcane staffs and swords in defeat. Blood stained their clothes, tears streaming down their faces. The Novitcius mages had thought they were simply stationed here for a peaceful, rural life away from the city. But the war had come knocking at their door, and with it, death soon followed.

Little did they know, Armatus knights had received no orders to take prisoners. The slaughter continued. The mages begged for their lives, but their pleas fell on deaf ears. One by one, they were killed in cold blood, their screams echoing through the now-silent garrison.

***

At the heart of Germund, the large arcane dome glittered gloriously as sunlight shone through a semi-translucent hemisphere. There were two layers of arcane barriers, acting as the ultimate protection during the war. In the centre of the dome stood a tall black tower, with a large arcanite crystal at the top, beautiful like crown jewels. Beside it was a large castle, consisting of multiple interconnected buildings, where the Cat-Wildren King of Germund resided: Mathias III, Magus Primarch of Germund.

The town was a mix of old and new. Narrow cobblestone streets passed by houses with steep roofs and flower-filled windows, giving it a medieval feel, yet on the streets bustling with cars and buses like modern day. The smell of fresh bread floated from the local bakeries, and people sat outside at cafes. In the distance, a tall church towered above the town, and stone walls and bridges added to its historic charm. The town had a cozy, old-fashioned atmosphere but showed signs of modern life with shops and new buildings.

Under the black tower, a group of dubious individuals in dark brown cloaks cradled a large futuristic device, spherical in shape. With substantial bribery and lobbying, they had managed to transport the device without much effort. Once their path was clear, the device was laid down in the centre of the first floor, where arcane energy was being channelled to the arcanite harnesser above. One of the cloaked men gave a prompting nod to his colleagues before pressing a button on the console.

Its glassy surface wobbled and throbbed as it charged. The ground began to shake violently. Meanwhile, the cloaked figures dashed out of the room in panic. Then the spherical disruptor erupted into an electrical storm, shooting lightning in all directions.

From the aerial view inside one of thousands of hangar cruisers, holding over half a million Armatus suits in total, a stern woman, poised and graceful in her 50s, stood still in her private chamber. Her hair was grey, and her dark eyes focused intensely on the arcane hemisphere. Readily, she was clad in Armatus knight armour. Her platinum chest piece gleamed, standing out gloriously. Behind her stood six models of 12-metre Armatus mobile suits, gleaming with one gold colour and five silver, battle-ready with their warmongering equipment.

Queen Charlotte stared down at the barrier with contempt. As the disruptor set off by the rebels exploded beneath the tower, the large spherical dome began to crumble and dissipate. Her lips creased into a smirk, knowing her rebels had completed their mission.

The only practical defence against her siege no longer existed.

With the help of a small propulsion device embedded in her personal armour, she jumped and leaped into her gold Armatus. The torso's hatches swung close as she settled into her seat comfortably.

The comm crackled after she opened the HUD screen. "Let's rain like hail!" She ordered, her voice full of will and resolve. Twelve thousand seven hundred and fifty-four knights and three hundred eighty thousand nine hundred and eighty-two mobile suits dropped from the sky, creating a large, horrifying shadow above the heart of Germund.