Epitaph of War: With Extreme Prejudice
We are the Eternal Flame
We giving all gained all.
Neither lament us nor praise.
Only in all things recall,
It is Fear, not Death that slays.
In the dark metropolis of Shadow Azrentell, the smell of smoke hangs in the air. Four days ago, invaders arrived outside the dread walls and forced the city's sentries to evacuate their posts. Three days ago, the invaders broke through the Soul Stalls and asserted control over the vast Hive Dunes. Two days ago, the invaders swept through the rest of the western districts and started purging the hives of the d'ziriak with fire. Today, the last organised defence of Shadow Azrentell have set up defensive lines around the Unsleeping Souk district in a last-ditch effort to stall the invaders whilst velstrac emissaries try to secure a relief force from Hell. Four forgotten shadow fey militiamen, pressed into service by the Obsidian Council, await the expected assault from the eastern gate along the barricaded main road. Fetchlings and shadow fey make up nearly all of the defenders here: around 700 are situated in the buildings and on the road with the forgotten four, with several thousand spread around the rest of the district. Of course, the majority are assigned to protect the Obsidian Council at the fortified Guiltless Academy. The rest of the Unsleeping Souk's defenders were always meant to be expendable.
The assault began when movement was sighted on the dread walls. Shortly after, an artillery piece fired an arced smoke shell, creating a thick smokescreen in front of the gatehouse. The gates opened, and loud whirring sounds accompanied by distant chatter could be heard by the forgotten four. The subaltern of the group summoned a mammoth to aid them. After around thirty seconds, a grey metal vehicle of war emerged from the smoke. It fired a shot from its main cannon which caused the summoned mammoth to partially explode; immediately disappearing as a result. The metal vehicle was impervious to the defenders' arrows and sorcery; it was also flanked by infantry squads, who were only wearing helmets and masks for protection, but equipped with devastating weapons. Perhaps most curious was the first row of them who brandished looted shields. Some of the infantry squads farther back fired into buildings to suppress their defenders; supported by flamethrower units, these defenders were quickly incinerated if they did not die to the bullets. The mass of the vanguard's gunfire reduced the improvised barricades to splinters and shot through any armour worn by the defenders. The subaltern of the four tried to animate their barricade, but the metal vehicle's secondary weapon, a coaxial machine gun, swiftly destroyed it. The subaltern unceremoniously died to the same burst with another defender barely hanging on to their life; who was later shot attempting to hurl a javelin at an invader. The remaining two had used fey step to move up to the invaders' line. They immediately witnessed that the metal vehicle was merely the first out of a dozen; much farther back, just at the gatehouse, other vehicles had driven in and were unloading even more infantry squads. In a remarkable feat of bravery, these two forgotten antiheroes challenged the invaders. Although one of them only managed to hand the other his weapon before being shot to death, it resulted in the invaders firing a gas grenade towards them, which only emboldened the last of the four, who again fey stepped forward: this time, he set his sights on wrestling control over a flamethrower. Surviving several shots from sharpshooters, the Forlorn Hope managed to push aside an infantry trooper and wounded the flametrooper with his fallen comrade's rapier before trying to seize her flamethrower. Unfortunately, she won the melee, forced the Forlorn Hope to the ground, and shot him thrice with her sidearm.
Jacqualine had initially observed the battle through the eyes of the subaltern, but returned to an incorporeal state following their death. The invaders, who were obviously related to the military outsiders that were in Kartia, deployed aggressive force in the assault of the city. As she now understood their language, she picked up some information about them and their strategy. The invaders constituted the 10th Shock Army, which contained numerous divisions; including the 402nd Parachute Division, whose camouflage uniform Jacqualine had bought from the Witchmarket one and a half month ago. The units partaking in the assault of the city were to accept no surrender from its defenders and only capture those who seemed to hold rank; spellcasters were to be eliminated as priority targets regardless of their seniority. They were further operating under the directive that no-one in Shadow Azrentell was to be considered a civilian, and that their rules of engagement had been altered in some way by senior command. After seeing two assault squads brutally clear out a reinforced tavern with gas and concussion grenades, Jacqualine could observe that the 10th Army had established a forward post at the Unsleeping Souk's first junction. Chatter indicated that the Obsidian Council, the main city authority, had been neutralised.
And so Jacqualine awoke from her vision, likely being one of the only people in present times to have borne witness to the range and capabilities of the military interlopers. Deep in her mind, words from beyond the boundaries of time informed her of a duty most austere, whose stone-etched rally-cry forever goes:
Order is attained by Fear.
