“Aye, ye can count on me brethren as well. There be five thousand or so young dwarves at Lightholm just itchin’ fer a good fight to test out their new levels n skills.” Longbeard grinned at them.
“Alright, thank you. I’m heading down to the lobby to coordinate with Prime and the raid leaders. You can join us there, or on the wall with your people, as you like. If you’re not interested in fighting, my guess is you’ll still get experience from a defense quest. In fact…”
Allistor looked up at the ceiling. “Nigel, loudspeaker please. Everywhere.” He paused for a moment then spoke in a raised voice. “Hey folks, Allistor here. It looks like Invictus City is about to be attacked by tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of undead. They’re walking toward us as we speak. My guess is that it’s the lich that we fought before, come to take another shot. We’re gearing up here in the city, manning the walls. But I have a suspicion that this is some kind of diversion meant to bring our fighters here while he attacks a smaller, more vulnerable target. So here’s what I’d like to do.”
He paused for a few seconds to review his thoughts again, then continued. “For those of you in smaller, more isolated Strongholds, I want you to keep all of your guards and defenders there with you. Keep eyes out everywhere you can, because Nigel won’t be able to alert you to the presence of any undead. Last time they attacked, they tunneled up inside an Outpost from below, so keep some patrols watching for that, too. Have a plan to get your people through the teleport pad quickly, just in case. And set up some defenses around the pad, in case you need to hold that position while you escape. For those without teleports, get some vehicles fueled up and ready. Have a plan to retreat to the vehicles and get the hell out if necessary. If possible, make plans to torch your place or call for some bombs to be dropped on it if you have to abandon it, to take out as many of them as possible. We can always reclaim your property and rebuild your Stronghold later. Your lives are the important thing.”
“Next, those of you who have kids, or are crafters and support personnel who could use some experience, consider coming to Invictus. Once the zombies attack, there should be a defense quest given to everyone who is physically within the city. Based on the number of enemies coming our way, the experience should be significant. The city has high walls, and multiple Strongholds, and we should be able to hold them back without issue. The kids can wait safely here in the tower. I estimate we’ve got less than an hour before the first undead reach our walls. For those of you from larger Strongholds that can spare some fighters, or from Orion, you are welcome to join us here to kill zombies. Just don’t leave your home bases shorthanded. Snipers will be of particular value in this fight, as well as casters with long distance or AoE damage spells. We want to kill as many as possible before they reach our walls.”
“Lastly, show no mercy in this fight. Some of the enemy might still look human, but they’re not. They’re walking corpses that feel no pain, have no feelings, and want nothing more than to eat your face. Thanks, and good luck to us all.”
The advisors followed Allistor into the elevator and down to the lobby. Longbeard and Droban split off to begin organizing their people while Selby and L’olwyn went to help organize incoming fighters. William and the girls were waiting for Allistor, geared up and ready to fight. All three wore custom fitted leather armor made for them by Lilly and her crafters. William had his staff strapped diagonally across his back and a short sword at his hip. He held a hunting rifle in one hand. Addy and Sydney each carried a bow strapped over a shoulder, with full quivers of arrows at their sides. For a moment he considered making them wait there in the tower. His instinct to protect them was especially strong, and he had the perfect excuse to leave them, asking them to watch over and protect any kids that might be brought in.
One look at the grim determination on William’s face changed his mind. His squire was nearly level fifty now, just behind Sydney and Addy. They could all be useful, and certainly didn’t need to be sheltered from the realities of battle after the year they’d had. Not only had they lost their own parents and friends to this new world, but they’d subsequently lost their surrogate mom just a few days ago.
“You three stick with me. Girls, use your magic to boost the rest of us, whether that be damage or healing. William, your job is to watch our backs. You all move when I move, and follow my instructions without argument. Yes?” He waited as all three nodded their heads. There were no smiles, no words, just a solemn acknowledgement of their agreement. Allistor felt a pang of sorrow at seeing these three kids turned into grim warriors. Any one of them was now stronger, faster, and more deadly than any human had been before their world ended. Right then Allistor thought that he’d take great satisfaction in removing Loki’s head. Odin’s and Baldur’s too, if given the chance.
His three kids formed up behind him in the lobby as he greeted Prime, Bjurstrom, Juanita, Rhonda, Frank, Remy, and his various raid leaders. Lars was there as well, offering his Stronghold as a forward operating base, since it was a short distance outside the city walls. Helen was notably absent, but being out in the woods with the bears, she’d have no way to know about the attack. Ramon and Nancy were there with Chloe, and had even brought Max along to help entertain the kids. Ramon stepped forward. “I have just over a hundred copies of the Repel Undead AoE spell scrolls that you got from Kyle.” He handed one to Allistor, then began passing them out to the raid leaders and others. Each of them immediately used the scrolls, learning the spell. Ramon gave the remainder to Bjurstrom to be distributed to those who could best use them.
As Allistor and his leaders planned their defense, citizens streamed through the teleport pad, groups of twenty appearing every ten seconds or so, quickly clearing the pad as soon as they arrived to make room for the next group. The lobby was soon filled, along with the cafeteria, and they had spilled out into the courtyard and the street outside.
Since Remy’s Stronghold was situated right near the eastern wall where it followed the shoreline of the river, his people had already moved up onto the wall. Remy assured Allistor that they had a plan to fall back into their Stronghold should the wall be overrun. While he did not have a teleport pad, his people could retreat into the high rises and up to the roofs for evacuation via the Phoenix and other ships. A few tanks could easily hold the stairwells while the rest escaped.
Rhonda and the others were already moving their fighters to the northern wall, and would have them in place within thirty minutes. Kira, Gene, and the other pilots were standing ready with ships at the parking garage and Battery Park to shuttle larger numbers of people up to the walls. Once the fighters were delivered, the ships would then take up bomber duty. If they could compress large numbers of undead into small areas and drop bombs on them, it would greatly ease the burden of the fighters along the wall.
Gene and his guys had been diligently working on more of the pressure charges, but in this case Allistor had no desire for finesse. The undead bodies needed to be destroyed. Exploded to bits, burned to ash, he didn’t care. If the bombs destroyed the buildings outside the city, or even scratched his walls, that was okay with him too. They could either be rebuilt, or cleared away at a later date. So they raided whatever munition stores they had located around the country for conventional bombs meant to do surface damage. They didn’t have a large number of them yet, but hopefully with judicious use, there would be enough.
*****
In less than an hour Allistor thought they were as ready as they could be. Plans were made, his people were being deployed along the wall. Prime’s droids were already there, having sprinted there to take up posts during the planning session. Ten thousand of them were now stationed along the northern and eastern walls, one placed every ten feet. In between them the human, dwarf, beastkin, and other non-human citizens were filling in. Snipers and ranged weapons, casters, and melee fighters stood side by side. Behind them were support classes. Healers, buffers, even some with no combat skills who were willing t
o act as loaders or runners, or to pour gallons of flammable liquid down on the enemy. Each of his citizens had at least a basic healing spell to help keep any wounded alive until better healers could be fetched.
Other groups were assigned to patrol the city, looking for any infiltrations. Twenty raid groups of ten members each were sent down into the subway tunnels with radios. They were instructed to report in and retreat if they discovered any underground breaches. Two of the smaller goblin ships captured on Orion were tasked with patrolling the air over the city looking for surface level incursions.
Allistor had quickly used his City tab to place several ground level weapons bunkers at strategic intersections in a dozen places. Each was round, about fifty feet in diameter, with four plasma weapons that together could cover a three hundred and sixty degree field of fire. The weapons were much larger versions of their hand-held plasma rifles that were tied directly into the structure’s power source. Where a plasma rifle blast might burn a hole through a metal door or a body, the larger versions would incinerate the entire body, plus two or three behind it.
He had planned to add more, but after his twelfth bunker he received the notification they’d been waiting for. The attack had started, and he could no longer build additional emplacements until the battle was over.
Quest Received: Defend the City!
Invictus City has been attacked by an army of undead.
Repel the invaders, protect the city and its inhabitants!
Reward: Variable experience; Bonus rewards for eliminating
one hundred percent of the attacking force;
Bonus rewards for achieving victory without loss of allied lives.
A cheer went up from the citizens along the wall. They were excited for the fight and the resulting level gains. Looking down from atop the massive wall at the undead who were shuffling forward, Allistor had to admit he felt safer than he usually did during a fight. Still, the sheer numbers of zombies moving toward them just in his field of view was intimidating. He was rethinking his previous count. If the same numbers were pressing toward them all up and down the wall, there might be as many as a million undead approaching. New York had been a big city with millions of inhabitants, and millions more buried in its cemeteries.
Droban, who was standing next to Allistor, had clearly been thinking along the same lines. “This is too many. Even with dozens of apprentices, the lich must have started raising this army many months ago. Before you even established this city. It must have had some other purpose, at least initially.”
Allistor nodded. “And I went and placed our city right in its way. Lucky us.”
More cheers rang out as up and down the line, snipers began firing sporadically, ignoring the targets at or near the base of the wall, taking careful aim at those still farther out. Here and there Allistor saw heads explode and undead bodies drop, only to be stepped on or tripped over by those coming from behind. Allistor didn’t try to stop them. It was good for morale, and good practice for his shooters.
A moment later, Bjurstrom reported in via radio. “Boss, this is ugly. Some of these zombies are level twenty to thirty. A few of them are even higher. And some of them look too fresh to have been buried. They have bite marks and blood stains, chunks missing. Some are even wearing armor. I… I think they were probably survivors that got taken down by these zombies, then added to their ranks.”
McCoy added, “Yeah, seeing the same thing over here. The lich must have been hitting Strongholds or taking down any scavenging parties they caught out in the open. I’m looking at one dude who’s level thirty and carrying a spear that’s glowing like it’s enchanted.”
Allistor was about to respond when he was distracted by a commotion a short distance down the line. One of the shooters began shouting insults at the undead, setting down his weapon and jumping up to stand on the edge of the rampart. Still shouting and shaking his hips, he undid his fly and began pissing on the heads of the undead below.
Unfortunately for him, a strong wind coming off the river, and redirected straight up the face of the wall, sent a good deal of the urine right back onto him. He began cursing and shaking his hands as he gyrated atop the wall. Allistor heard someone near him shout “Watch it, Levi! Dammit. Didn’t anyone ever teach you not to piss into the wind?” The man turned his head to respond with a middle finger salute, and wobbled slightly. There were more shouts, this time of alarm, as the idiot lost his balance and tipped forward over the wall. Several hands reached out to grab him, but they were too far away, having cleared the area to avoid being splashed. The man screamed as he tumbled downward, still urinating as he went.
Being nearly level forty, Levi’s constitution was high enough that the fall didn’t kill him. Instead he landed amongst the undead, crushing and killing two of them, the impact leaving him stunned. He then began to scream and thrash as dozens of others clawed and bit at him, piling atop his body so thickly that the citizens on the wall above couldn’t see him, and even with his improved strength he couldn’t break free. His armor protected him for a while, the zombies being too weak to penetrate it immediately with broken fingernails and dull human teeth. But his exposed face, neck, hands, and privates were quickly ripped apart. His screams turned into gurgles within seconds, then ceased.
There was a stunned silence atop the wall as the defenders tried to absorb what had just happened. Lars, who had been maybe twenty yards further down the wall, started shouting. “That was the single most moronic thing I’ve ever seen in my life! Anybody else wanna be a dumbass and get themselves dead? Raise your hand and I’ll save you some time, toss you over myself! Get your shit together and get back in the fight!” The giant of a man walked up the line glaring at citizens as he shouted. Each and every one of them turned away and began firing weapons. With a roll of his eyes for Allistor, Lars turned and stalked back to his own spot on the wall.
More and more citizens were now firing their weapons. None of the undead were using ranged weapons to fire at the defenders, so they were becoming more bold, holding their positions and taking time to aim carefully. Nearly every round sent downrange, whether lead, arrow, or plasma, took down its target. Some got back up, but most stayed down. Allistor didn’t fire his own rifle. Instead he set up his .50 caliber rifle with its bipod legs on the rampart in front of him. He used the scope to search the area farther away from the wall, looking for higher level undead that might be controlling the masses.
If this worked like it had in games and movies, you kill the apprentices, or ideally the lich himself, and all the animated corpses they controlled would drop as well. Instead of one shot, one kill, it might be one shot, a thousand kills. As he scanned the streets, alleys, and windows from his high position, something disturbed him. An itch in the back of his brain telling him that something wasn’t right. It took a full minute before he realized what it was.
There was no screaming.
His people weren’t being hit, weren’t screaming in pain or fear. And the undead made no noise other than low moaning or grunting sounds. There were a few shouts of encouragement, celebration, or just plain excitement from his people, but it was oddly quiet for such a large scale battle. Even his radio was mostly silent, no one crying out for heals or calling out target assignments. It was kind of creepy.
Eventually Allistor spotted a lone, unmoving individual standing behind an overturned dumpster about six blocks back from the wall. It appeared human, though its skin was grey and pale. Its eyes glowed green even in daylight, and its white hair was a long, greasy tangle. Allistor took a moment to Identify it.
Undead Necromancer Adept
Level 40
Health: 19,000/19,000
As he’d noted before, the undead had fewer health points that a living human of the same level would have. He supposed that was a drawback to the whole being dead thing. Of course, they could also withstand injuries that would cripple a living human and keep going, feeling no pain. They could lose an arm, or two, have their inna
rds trailing behind them, and keep attacking.
Allistor took careful aim, making small adjustments to the rifle’s position until his crosshairs lined up with the center of the adept’s face. He took a single deep breath, then let it out slowly before squeezing the trigger.
The rifle bucked against his shoulder, the large caliber round causing a significant recoil. But with his improved physical stats he barely registered it as he focused on his target. Its head rocked backward, most of it disappearing into a splatter of congealed blood and brain matter that splashed the wall behind it. Being only a few blocks away, he watched with both eyes instead of through his scope as he scanned the area between the adept and himself. After only a second or two, scattered zombies stopped moving and collapsed by the score. Others kept moving, letting Allistor know that more adepts were nearby. And of those that fell, he couldn’t be sure how many were controlled by the adept, and how many had been killed by his people right at that same moment. Still, there were suddenly a few hundred fewer moving corpses in front of him.
Allistor spoke into his radio, giving Bjurstrom instructions to pass along to their snipers to look for the adepts and take them down. He assumed most of them would be better hidden, probably inside or behind buildings. But it wouldn’t hurt to keep an eye out for them. The moment he stopped talking, he heard a call on the radio from McCoy.
“We’ve got a few thousand of them bunched up in a side street. One end is blocked by a burned out garbage truck. This would be a good time to drop a bomb.”
Allistor watched the sky as Opportunity glided over from a short distance away. He saw them stop moving when they’d located the target area, then quickly gain several thousand feet of altitude as a lone bomb fell from the cargo door. On the radio he heard, “Ordinance away.” in a growly beastkin voice. A moment later the ground shook slightly as the bomb struck and detonated, a roiling mass of flames and body parts exploding upward and outward. Thick black smoke obscured the area for a while before the breeze cleared it away.
Shadow Sun Unification: Shadow Sun Book Five Page 23