The Dukhym district-part 2

They quickly moved from the crate to a table in a corner, where they all activated an old farview crystal that was hooked to a pulsar and looked at the area where the alarms went off.

Upon seeing the image it projected, they were shocked to see a force of about 500 infantry preparing to enter the district, behind them at least 80 cavalrymen and two dozen war chariots were also preparing to attack.

"This is crazy! I thought that more than three fourths of their soldiers where on a holiday furlough! Just how much firepower does one local patrol have?" Tubarin said in a burst of anger at just how great the difference in strength there was between them and the Empire.

"I'd say that it's about one fourth of their total strength." Ahmaianos said with a small chuckle.

After everything that happened what else could you do but laugh? Especially when he saw what was to come.

The others heard the laugh and looked to their friend and leader with worry in their eyes, but they had no time to worry about that for that now.

"What do we do now?" Kalynka asked nobody in particular and silence reigned as the answer to her question.

They were desperate people, trapped in a hopeless situation.

They needed a miracle to escape with their lives and unknown to her Ahmaianos thought the same thing.

"Guys, I will use this armor as bait and draw them towards me, and while I keep them busy you all can slip away." She said, surprised them all, they didn't know how to respond to this, that is until Tubarin showed them the ropes.

"Like hell you are! I for one am not going to let you go alone! We all knew that this may be how we'd all end up as and I say we give those cursed Imperials hell before we let the-"

*BOOM*BANG*BOOM*BANG*BOOM*BANG*BOOM*BANG

Tubarin was unable to finish his sentence as the sound of heavy bombardment of fire and earth projectiles was heard in the distance as they were launched from their artillery pieces and fell near the group's position.

Akanthos then pressed a few commands on the control runes and immediately the screen changed to showcase a part of the city, one where the Imperial artillery units where positioned.

There, they saw a squad of TRH 'Earth Breakers', machines that had eight spiderlike legs and on each leg's end there was a wide flat disk on each tip, which helped distribute the weight of the vehicles over as wide a surface as possible.

Their main bodies were also disked shape and positioned with their flat side horizontally; there were two seats on the right and left backsides, where the operator and the gunner sat.

Between the two seats was a third one that was slightly more elevated and housed the spotter and behind that seat was an even higher raised forth seat where the commander sat.

The whole disk was engulfed in a cage that emitted an energy that could take the form of any element in order to create a protective shield against any enemy attack.

In front of the seats there was a circle formed out of crystals and runes with small pillars emerging from the circle's diameter, they leaned inwards to form a conic shape nicknamed the 'cooker'.

The pointed tip of the pillars connected the starting point of a long and thick barrel that extended for several meters from the front of the 'Earth Breaker' and was at an almost 60 degrees angle and aimed towards the rebel's estimated location.

When the commander gave the order to fire, a small vortex of energy formed in the 'cooker', which after shifting into an appropriate element or combination of a several, was transmitted through the tip of the 'cooker' and into an ammunition shell that was loaded inside the barrel.

The moment it was ready the Earth Breaker's barrel's runes lit up and magic danced once more, firing its load.

The battery's projectiles flew on a high arching trajectory towards their target.

First they heard the sound, a great horrible screech that started slowly until it became greater and greater, till what was initially a whisper became a banshee's battle scream, hurling its hellish sound but for a moment, that felt like a whole year, before it hit its target.

The light from the explosion was what the Maran rebels saw first, there was no sound in that moment, just the sight of that great pillar of light that seem to stop time, then came the sound, as if a thousand mountains crumbling and all the land seem to shake in its quake, then came the shockwave from the explosion.

By the time it reached them the heat from the fire spells and power from the earth ones had been spent at such a far distance that only a small portion of both of them was what they felt inside the warehouse.

But for them to feel it where they were, hundreds of meters away from where the barrage struck, and for it to be able to traverse not just distance, but also countless buildings of thick steel, brick and mortar for the heat to grace their skin and for them to feel the rumble beneath their feet....

It was too much, just too much.

There and then, the rebels knew why the artillery pieces were called Earth Breakers, for they certainly lived up to their names!

Ahmaianos pressed several more buttons, which then showed the area that the barrage struck.

They couldn't tell just how devastating it was, for there was nothing to see but a thick cloud of dust and ash that seem to engulf everything that was near the explosion.

They stood there for a moment just gazing at the site of the impact before a second impact jolted them out of their stupor and with dread now firmly gripped in their hearts, they all started arming themselves from the box Kalynka acquired and headed off to face the enemy, knowing that they were most likely marching to their final battle.

They geared up as best as they could and gathered at the warehouse's entrance.

No one said a word, for there was nothing left to say.

The fear and desperation that had gripped them was gone, in its place a strange feeling of calmness gripped them, no more what ifs, no more choices to be made, there was only one path forward and everyone knew what was the only thing left to do for them.

Ahmaianos turned his eyes towards his comrades.

"Time to be a proper leader for once."

And with a voice that was filled with regret at how their end was near said:

"At least we go out fighting."

And so they marched forward!

The last rebel's last march.

Kalynka and her remaining comrades all made their way out of their makeshift headquarters and onto the streets, taking up ambush positions.

Everyone was gazing towards the direction where they expected the enemy to come from; they braced themselves for the flood.