Beyond the horizon

Lillith looked up to see where the origin of the Shots were being made. She saw they come from one direction of the forest. She quickly ran to that direction on all fours. Liela was still ducking in the bar. She made sure she was intangible to not get hit by debris.

((there aren't any townspeople left, are there?))

((Liela got rid of them in the forest. They are still there))

"Sh-shrike, the townspeople are gone! Liela took them to the forest!" Caen shouted, worried that the barrage of hellfire that had sent Shrike to the ground had perhaps affected his short-term memory. He shook his head, thinking that that matter was unimportant, for now. He looked in the direction that the shells had came in, and realised something. That was the direction that she went in.

"That bitch!" The hedgehog shouted, tightening his fist. "Shrike, I think that giant girl has launched a full-scale attack! I don't know about you, but I can't let that slide." He finished, before setting off at full pelt, in the general direction of the base Scylla was at.

By now the artillery unit had reloaded and rearmed their munitions for their guns. Scylla looked down at the captain who was quite fearful of her as she gazed down at him. Captain Salvris then turned his head back to the artillery pieces about to give them the order for the second barrage.

"Alright lads, on my mark! Ready! Fire!" The captain yelled as the second barrage of artillery fire commenced.

-Shrike had totally forget the town had been cleared out on the first attack, which gave him little hope that they would be safe, however now their homes were in danger of being raised to the ground. They had to go the second wave was on its way and no doubt a third wave would be the last to finally make sure the area was decimated.-

" Alright lets go!, Caen move your ass as fast as you can, if she is responsible we will have to deal with this as fast as possible but in the right manner, there is no way we can stand up to a full on military just us, we first have to figure out where the guns are so we can stop them from firing then focus on the base it self. 


Into the woods lets get the hell out of here!"

-Shrike pulled himself together as he dashed in a zig zag pattern in hopes of increasing his chances of not getting shelled, hell rained down from the sky, smashing into the buildings the immense power of the shells and there shockwaves were felt, long exposure to such a event could cause severe "Shell shock" 

" She has gone one step to far this time!" 

Lillith ran through the forest hearing the noises of artillery going off. She finally was able to see people using the artillery. Lillith hissed and didn't hesitate to run up to them. Trying to scratch and tear them apart with her claws. "WHY DO YOU ALL TRY TO DESTROY A VILLAGE WHEN THERE ARE PEOPLE STILL BLOODY IN IT!!!!!!" Lillith screamed at the top of her lungs. Liela finally stopped hiding do got out of the bar. She was trying to avoid getting hit.

"we know exactly where the guns are. Disadvantage of using them is that you can see the exact direction they're coming from. Yet another reason to avoid using 'em." Caen pointed in the general direction of the base "that way!" He said, before running in that direction. His suspicions were rectified when he heard Lillith's voice echo throughout the trees. "Looks like Lillith's already there." He laughed "they are so screwed."

Soon a soldier coming from the base's interior ran up to the giant vixen as she gazed upon the second barrage being unloaded. He seemed like a Moebian cheetah in a uniform, and clearly he was in a rush as he moved towards her.

"Baroness! Sorry to interrupt the drill but our sensors have detected an intruder closing upon our position! What should we do? Are they civilians?"

(Great! The idiots are taking the bait! :3) The lady though in her head.

"Nope, those are those GUN jerks I've ran into on my way out. Send the base on high alert! Get those guns that shoot the neighbors on!"

"Y-you mean the base defenses?" The cheetah asked.


"Yes! Now get ready, we're under attack!"

"W-wait,what? Y-you said it was a 'drill' on an abandoned town?" Captain Salvris asked.

"Yeah, about that, I kinda sorta lied..Now get ready for battle! All of you!" She let out as they hastily prepared for confrontation.

-Shrike placed his hand on Caen wanting him to stop, Shrike knew this was going to be border line suicide trying to take on an entire enemy defensive position just as them, getting every one killed was the last thing he wanted right now.-

"Caen wait, we can't just go all out on this place, this is a fully defended position with god knows how many defensive systems in the area, we can not just attack we will be torn to shreds before we can probably get with in striking distance of their troops.... I have a better idea but a risky one. 


The guns are powerful but with no ammo the guns can't fire, take out the ammo they are useless, logic dictates that since they are firing a barrage after barrage the shells will be fairly close to the weapons them self. We need to destroy the munitions and hopefully that will take some of the bastards along in the blast.


If they persist in the matter, I have some one who said he could respond to a call if I ever needed help, let's hope we don't need to call them in. 


Alright Caen on me let's get to that site fight the munitions zone and detonate it...hopefully before they rip Lilith to pieces."

-Shrike leads the way, very careful about his positions and movement, this was not a brain dead enemy they were going up against, these were well trained soldiers.-

Lillith got closer to the base. "DID YOU IDIOTS NOT HEAR ME!!! " Lillith started throwing ink everywhere in a fit of anger.  "STOP FUCKING SHOOTING OR WE'LL CHANGE FORMS AND GO FULL DEMON ON ALL OF YOU!!!!" She screamed even louder. Liela was running through all the chaos that was going on at the village. She finally made it to the forest. She heard Lillith's scream and headed to that direction. "What in the world has she gotten herself into this time!!" 

"Shrike, this is me you're talking to, remember? I'm not so reckless I'd run into a near-military base with their defenses still online. Still, we best work quickly." Caen said, picking up the pace to try and catch up with Lillith and Liela. Soon, he broke free from the line of trees, and the base was in sight with Lillith acting... Less covertly than Caen would have liked. He sighed and shook his head as he ran "just let her do her own thing, Caen," he muttered to himself, heading for the cannons that were presumably being used to fire at the village.

Something quickly popped up from beneath the ground. From the looks of things a bizarre turret like device with duel sets of barrels and two coaxel drums on each side suddenly arose near Lilith's position. The defensive turret didn't waste any time as it rotated to lock unto her and fired. Soon a barrage of shrapnel like shells from what would seem a shotgun on steroids with enough 'dakka' to take down an entire military squad fired at her position.

Luckily for them however Scylla hasn't heard them as the lasting remnants of the second barrage of artillery were being fired. However, she was alert now as was the other and her massive head began to scan around for any sort of disturbance.

-Upon getting closer, Shrike lowered himself to hide among the terrain trying to make a small target, popping his head up could result in instant death, just peeking his head over Shrike could make out some what of the base complex, seemed like fixed emplacements units guarded the interior and exterior of the base..-

" Shit, looks like the base is covered with automated defense turrets, one wrong move and you will be cut to shreds, getting in will not be a option, we will need to hit the ammo storage from a distance.


That or locate the power grid system that runs this base and knock it out, no power no turrets and no lights, however I have no clue where the power facility would be, Caen we need a vantage point to spot the ammo, once we found hit it with every thing you got. 


-Shrike checks his rifle, pulling out the old clip and slapping in a new one pulling the bolt back chambering his round, he waits for Caen to take point.-

Lillith gasped when she say the turret pop out if the ground. She immediately turned to ink and was moving all around the turret. "YOU GUYS DON'T EVEN HAVE THE GUTS TO FIGHT ME!!!!! YOU NEED THIS STUPID MACHINE TO GET ME!!!" Lillith slid behind the turret and let her ink ooze on the turret to try to stop it or maybe even try to ooze under the turret to get to the base bellow. 

 Liela made it to what looked like a base. She hid behind some trees. She saw Lillith near the turret. "Oh my god this cat is insane!!!" "Well she is a demon Soo..." Liela took out a book she had hidden in her clothes. "Shut up!!!" Liela threw some beams at the turret before moving and hiding in another cover. Shrike and Caen happened to be there. "Why don't you come out of the book and help her!!!" Liela screamed at Recin.

"Hate to break it to you, Shrike, but there... Aren't really many vantage points." Caen said, looking around as much as he could. "I have an idea. Although, it could be risky. Wait here, I'll be bac-" the hedgehog was cut off as Liela creeped her way towards them. She appeared to be holding a tome of some kind. "You brought that sodding book and never thought to use it? Ugh, nevermind. I need to work quickly. Both of you, wait here." Caen got up, holding up his hand and summoning a fireball, to try and distract the turret's sensors, before running as fast as he could, diagonally away from his fireball. If this were to work, he could potentially get behind the turret, and disable it from there.

Being rather armored, at least against most forms of small arms fire and even immune to fire due to flame retardant alloys to protect against flamethrower attacks, the turret didn't have any steep holes or crevices for Lilith's ink to really do much, other than perhaps get in it's base it seems. However, it turned and fired on Leila until she got back into cover.

Once Caen came up with his plan however and launched the fireball the turret's natural flame retardant shielding protected it from the blast. However it's sensors lit all up from the thermal heat and it registered the fireball as a flame throwing soldier and began to fire in the fireball's general direction while ignoring Caen entirely.

-Not a bad plan at all Shrike thought, the turret's thermal sensors no doubt lit up like a christmass tree allowing Shrike to have a go at it, might only be the only chance he was going to get, he flips the switch on the front of his weapon, changing the fire mod over to the grenade launcher.

Coming out of cover with the limited time he had, he lines up a shot on the turret, using in the range indicator built into his helmet he could measure the range to impact, he pulls the trigger discharging a rifle grenade before putting his head down behind what ever cover he could find.-

" FIRE IN THE HOLE!" 

Lillith couldn't find a way inside from the turret. This only made her anger increase. She saw Caen running one direction and a fireball going another. Then the turret moved to shoot the fireball instead of Caen. "Smart hedgehog." Lillith formed back to her normal self and followed Caen. Liela waited until Shrike had shot his grenade launcher. She then shot her beam at the other direction and went where Caen had gone trying to stay a good distance from the turret. Liela hoped her beam emitted enough heat to fool the turret.

Caen's theory was proven when he saw the turret move to aim at the fiery projectile, a fact that the hedgehog couldn't help but smile at. From this, he was able to tell that these turrets worked off of thermal targeting, and they appeared to generally follow the highest temperature they can sense, as Caen did have a body temperature, though it was much lower than fire.

Caen began to curve the direction he was running in towards the turret, unsheathing his swords and holding them outwards. When he reached the weapon, he looked up the structure, trying to find some form of power cord, or something like that.

Luckily for Shrike the grenade did enough damage as it caused a slight crack in the softer side of the turret's side. However the gun barrels still remained intact. Perhaps they could try aiming at the damaged in. The turret registered Leila's beam signature and automatically responded by turning and firing blindly in that general direction, while not being capable of paying heed that it was in fact slightly damaged.

Meanwhile at the base the giant female vixen's ear twitched up as she heard a very faint 'boom' noise from the grenade that her much smaller counterpart's couldn't hear mostly to not possessing as big of ears as hers, and not being a fox. She soon turned her head towards the direction of the noise.

"Hmmm..."

-Shrike was about to load another grenade into his weapon until he discovered he had run out of them to load, cussing under his breath he peered back over checking to see only minimal damage had been done to the turret.
 
Knowing full well there were more then just one turret defending the base, the chances of even getting close were slowly fading quickly, Shrike knew they would not gonna be enough to break through. 

Upon peering again he saw Caen had some how managed to get behind the turret, this either was really good or really bad, but he knew he would soon need help. Shrike gathered his wits checked his rifle, pulling himself out over the top he made a mad dash towards the rear of the sentry turret, shooting any thing or one trying to stop him from getting to the turret it self.

He could see the weapon firing it a arc style fashion towards Liela's general vicinity.-

"Liela get down! quickly you got that turret firing at you!" 

Liela stopped running when she heard shrike yell. She stopped running and looked at his direction. "What?!?!" She threw some more beams at the turret but she had a confused look on her face. She didn't quite catch what shrike said.

Caen realised he had now spent far too much time looking for a weak point, and decided to just go for it. He sheathed his blades, and began climbing up the metal sides of the turret. His plan was either to damage the internals of the turrets, or, perhaps failing that, he thought that getting the attention of another turret and causing it to destroy itself would be a good idea. He soon reached the top, and ensure that he kept his balance on top of the moving parts of the turret. He drew one blade and held it above the turret, before plunging it downwards, attempting to puncture the metal.

As Shrike ran out of cover and towards the turret he accidentally triggered two other turrets of the same time to pop up from the ground and proceed to fire upon him. Meanwhile the fire turret got hit by the energy beams, but it's armor shrugged off this attack. While it registered them it eventually locked unto Liela who was now standing still and proceeded to open fire, thankfully for her only Shrike was actually in range of the second and third turrets.

As Caen tried to puncture the non-damaged parts of the turret he would quickly find it to be of no avail. The only damaged part was on the side of the mechanism near it's right cooling vent. Meanwhile the fact that Shrike has come under fire by the other two turrets meant that they were focusing fire on him rather than the 'joyriding' Caen.