Chapter 45: 1st Year: The Wall 3
POV: Third Person
*RATATATATATATA*
The fortress walls thundered with the roar of gunfire as Commander Frag stood atop the battlements, barking out orders while his lasrifle spat death into the teeming mass of bandits below.
"Man the heavy stubbers! Prioritize their gunners!" he commanded, his voice cutting through the chaos like a blade.
His men immediately scrambled to the mounted heavy stubbers, the guns roaring to life, mowing down swathes of the enemy with merciless precision.
"Lars, take command of the northern battlements! Grant, the western! Hold them! Not a single heretic breaches these walls! I will hold the south and east myself!" Frag barked without hesitation.
The officers snapped sharp salutes and sprinted to their sectors, while Frag continued to fire, each pull of the trigger reducing another enemy to a twitching corpse below.
Beneath the fortress, the bandits surged forward without care for life or limb, shoving each other against the stone walls. Ladders slammed against the bastions with rattling thuds, while harpoon guns launched ropes skyward, embedding into the parapets as the filthy rabble attempted to scale.
Frag clicked his tongue in disgust and sprinted down the battlements, cutting a brutal path.
"Do not let them breach the walls! Sever their ladders! Cut their lines!" he roared.
Reaching one of the ladders, Frag spotted a bandit hauling himself over the top. Without hesitation, he drew his combat blade, seized the traitor by the scruff, slit his throat in one fluid motion, and kicked the ladder away. The structure collapsed under its own weight, sending a dozen screaming bandits plummeting to their deaths — the sickening *CRACK* of broken bones and squelch of crushed bodies echoing upward.
Frag wasted no time. He sprinted to the nearest embedded harpoon. A bandit, pistol in hand, was clambering up the rope. As Frag moved to sever it, the bandit fired wildly, forcing Frag into cover. Snarling, he pulled a frag grenade from his belt, primed it for a heartbeat, then casually dropped it over the wall.
*BOOM!*
The explosion ripped the traitor apart in a shower of blood and shredded rope, sending others nearby screaming as shrapnel and concussive force tore them to pieces.
*BOOM!* *BOOM!*
Twin detonations shook the eastern wall as panicked shouts rang out.
"Mutants! Emperor save us—boulders incoming!"
The cry was cut short with a wet, sickening crunch as a massive stone pulverized the man and three others nearby into bloody paste.
"Shit! RPG teams — bring down those abominations!" Frag snarled.
Five men nearby, gritted teeth and iron resolve written across their faces, grabbed rocket launchers and shouldered them, seeking their targets: grotesque mutants — twisted rat-like beasts, their musculature bloated and deformed. Spiked barbs and iron chains wrapped cruelly around their bodies, the marks of sadistic masters evident. Bandit handlers lashed them with wicked chains, forcing the beasts to hurl massive rocks towards the fortress.
"Faster, filth! Crush those Imperial dogs!" a handler bellowed, oblivious to the incoming rockets.
A heartbeat later—
*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*
Five thunderous explosions obliterated the mutants, leaving only mangled piles of meat and twisted bone. The bandits nearby were caught in the blast, reduced to smoldering chunks of flesh.
A ragged cheer went up from Frag's men, but he immediately silenced them with a barked order.
"Hold your fire! More vermin inbound!"
Indeed, more mutants — at least a dozen — loomed in the distance, charging forward, dragging crude siege weapons with them.
*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*
The ground shook as more explosions lit the night sky, signaling that other walls were under just as heavy an assault.
"Aargh!"
A grunt of pain snapped Frag's attention eastward. His blood ran cold — the eastern wall had been breached. Bandits clambered over ladders and ropes, throwing themselves into brutal melee with the defenders.
"Shit! Maintain fire discipline! Repel them! Push them back!" Frag bellowed.
Without hesitation, Frag sprinted toward the breach, severing ropes and kicking away ladders as he passed. His boots pounded against blood-slicked stone, laspistol in hand.
Upon reaching the eastern battlements, the situation was grim: the defenders were holding, but barely. The sheer number of attackers was overwhelming, and casualties among Frag's forces mounted by the minute.
No hesitation.
Frag seized a chainsword lying next to a fallen comrade, thumbing the activation rune. The motor roared to life with a savage *BRRRRT* as he pulled his laspistol with his other hand, advancing like an avatar of death.
*Zzrak!* *Zzrak!* *Zzrak!*
Six precise shots dropped six bandits in an instant as Frag closed the distance.
Then the chainsword sang.
Frag plunged into the fray, his blade hacking and tearing through flesh and bone. Blood geysered into the air as bodies were ripped apart by roaring teeth. Bandits screamed in agony as their limbs were severed, their guts spilled across the stone.
At every blind angle, Frag fired his laspistol, felling traitors with ruthless efficiency.
"RAAAGH! DIE, HERETIC SCUM!" he roared, his voice carrying over the din.
Inspired by their commander's ferocity, the defenders rallied, their morale surging like a tide. The clash of steel grew deafening; the screams of the dying louder still. Blood pooled ankle-deep along the walls, but Frag cared not. There could be no mercy, no retreat.
The battle raged on, hour after brutal hour, until at last night fell and the enemy, battered and bloodied, broke.
The bandits fled in disarray, abandoning their dead atop the walls. Frag's men showed no mercy, swiftly executing any heretic foolish enough to remain.
Finally, as silence descended over the battlefield, Frag stood among the fallen, his chainsword dripping gore, his armor spattered crimson. His chest heaved with exhaustion, but he remained standing, victorious — a lone bulwark against the tides of heresy.
He exhaled heavily, grim satisfaction etched into every line of his battered face.
They had survived.
Today.