Okabe descended the battlements to the sight of the open tunnel gate.

"Deserters!" he cried.

Alderfay was solely focused on the blast of her blunderbuss but, at Okabe's shout, quickly turned to the open gate. "What in tarnation?! Team Three, Team Seven: head down to the ground and secure that gate."

She put a high-ranking Elf in charge of the firing orders and descended the wall to meet Okabe in the yard.

"We need to make a count of the men and determine who's missing," she said.

"There's no need. Look around, Sub-Commander, and it should be obvious," replied Okabe. Alderfay studied the fire teams, support staff, and officers. She could make out the faces of Elves, a contingent of Crafters, the Frognaris, even a few Goblins—but the Diggers were ALL missing.

"What's going on here?" asked Alderfay.

Okabe didn't have time to answer as bellowing cries of "BREACH" came from the eastern wall.

The ramp of animated vines had torn asunder a wide section of the battlement. Throngs of the pumpkin-heads now challenged the guards atop the wall.

The hosts of assailing pumpkin-heads screamed as they menaced the Guards atop the wall—tossing some to their deaths in the yard and piercing others with the sharp points of their gnarled limbs. Some of the pumpkin-heads used thorny appendages like whips to fling and lacerate the defenders.

Cannons were brought out of the supply depot and aimed at the very walls of the fort.

"Be careful not hit any of our men. FIRE!" cried Alderfay.

Kate and Hela, who had up until now remained out of the fighting, now readied their pistols.

"We just can't seem to catch a break," said Hela, blasting apart a pumpkin-head that had descended into the yard.

"Very true, Hela. It would appear that the overture to our days will forever be gunshots and battlecries," Kate took aim at a ten-foot tall pumpkin-head that was terrorizing Cadet Greener. "Greener! Come this way."

The young Elf ran towards the pavilion where the two ladies were taking cover. The creature that followed took six shots to the head before falling to the earth.

"What are you guys doing out here?" he asked. "You should be in the barracks."

"Figured you could use a couple of crackshots," said Hela, "Besides it's my preference to die fighting."

After being set up properly, the cannon fire effectively kept the pumpkin-heads from entering the fort. Waves of the sylvan abominations would crest the battlement only to be met with the lethal patterns of iron grapeshot.

In time the assault slowed to a halt. Although there were no fresh pumpkin-heads left for the Biomancer to send, the Centaurs stills sat in waiting at the edge of yonder ridge. There would be a few hours of standstill until the Biomancer could regain her strength.

Stolen novel; please report.

There was little time to count the dead and dying.

Okabe set a few watchers on the wall and gathered the remaining garrison in the yard.

"We cannot fail in our duty here today. This Fort has stood without challenge since the Calamity of Man, and it will continue to stand as beacon of the Consortium—of our untied strength. The people of Valenaria are strongest when we work as one body—together we are the mighty!"

A cry of "we are the mighty" came from the battle-tested Guard. Then, as the assembly was readying to disperse and return to their preparations, the sound of a braking locomotive came from the tunnel.

"I don't remember calling for reinforcements," said Okabe.

There was a long pause.

Deep in the tunnel, from the far end of a bullhorn, came the emotionless voice of a man, "The Consortium has fallen. The Ilfindi have been expelled and the Sanctum Celes now belongs to the Diggers Union—and our allies the Centaurs. The Seven Tribes have chosen Grandmaster Zek as the Ur-Hor. We control the rails and all land in between. Valenaria is ours. Cease your resistance and open the gates."

Okabe didn't like being told how to run his Fort. He grabbed Aldefay's blunderbuss and ran to the gate, setting the barrel through the wide openings.

"You've got one chance to leave here, Dwarf," yelled Okabe "If what you say is true, then this matter can be solved without the force of arms. Tell the Centaurs to stand down."

"Silence, you unruly dog, or we will slaughter every Elf, Gnome, and Goblin in this Fort."

"Treacherous Digger Scum!" cried Okabe as he opened fire on the distant bullhorn.

The shot was met with the crack of return fire and the Commander gave a pained yelp as he was hit in several places.

The violent hurlyburly had begun once again. Two lines of Diggers formed at the gate and began unloading on the disorganized defense. The symmetrical trade of life was roughly proportionate. In the brief moments of a reload, Alderfay swept up the dying Commander and brought him under the cover of the pavilion.

Kate, Hela, and Greener were there, taking aim from behind the little bits of cover they could find.

"Sybil..." choked the Kobold Commander, "I need you to take me to my office. Bring me a torch, the Crafters, Frognaris...and Goblins."

The Sub-Commander lifted Okabe onto her shoulder and directed Cadet Greener to gather that which Okabe had requested.

The Kobold was laid out on his desk. The fort's only medic looked on with utter horror, as he knew there was nothing that could be done for the dying man. He tried in vain to stop the bleeding, but Okabe called him off.

As Kate entered the crowded office—along with the other Crafters, the Frognaris, and the Goblins (a group of some thirty men)—she could see that over the wall a new patch of pumpkin-heads were forming. It was only a matter of minutes before they were both, flanked and outnumbered!

"Gather round," whispered Okabe. "Looks like you all are caught in the crossfire of a senseless war between the Diggers and the Elves. There's no reason for you to die here today, behind this cabinet is a tunnel that leads to a small mountain village. They have stables enough to get you all back to your respective homes. Go there and tell them what happened here today. Tell them to prepare for war."

Alderfay opened the secret passage and with only a single torch to guide them, the group began to descend into the darkness.

Kate and Hela waited behind though, for a moment with the Commander.

"Sir, I cannot return to the Ashvale without the Water, my mother's life depends upon it. I need to go to the Sanctum."

"Ahhh.... I understand. Alderfay, open the safe and bring me everything inside." He was laboriously grasped to his last moments of life.

Alderfay stood over him with the pistol plans, a carpenter's ax engraved with the letters SOF, and a leather wineskin.

"Good. Crafter girl, take these things and go to Old Marianna, in the square is a white building that flies a banner of three trees. Show them the Ax and ask for Arbuck Miz. Go with him, and this of small offering of the sacrementum, to the Ashvale."

"Wait... if that's filled with the Water. Why don't you drink it now?" asked Hela.

The Kobold let out a pained growl. "They wouldn't let me live like a Kobold, but I will die like one. Now go!"

They could hear the fight outside reaching a climax.

"Do as he says," thundered Alderfay.

The pair of women entered the narrow tunnel and the cabinet was returned to place, as to conceal their escape. With cautious step Kate and Hela began to follow the dim light of the torch, some hundred yards ahead of them.