The castle was massive, the thick stone walls rising up from the cliff face to form a both impregnable and terrifying fortress. The lone access to the fort was a small cliff road, whose narrow, perilous track stretched for miles.
A small covered wagon trekked up the dirt path, moving as quickly as the dangerous route allowed. Gradually, the tall stone walls fell into sight, as did the small, heavily fortified entrance.
"Everybody ready?" A hooded man walking in front of the wagon whispered to the cart's occupants. They nodded in unison.
"What's this, then?" The guard at the door shouted to the travelers. A long wooden bridge separated the guard from the small caravan, but even then he felt wary. Nobody ever came down here, except for the supply train, and even that had been coming less often as of late. Something was wrong.
The man in front of the wagon said nothing, and simply climbed back into the covered wagon once it had reached this middle of the bridge. Suddenly, the cart was bathed in brilliant white light, and all was silent, save for the two surprised donkeys attached to the cart.
A single rocket burst from the wagon and flew vertically into the sky, soaring far above the stone walls. A second later, the wagon detonated, blasting the bridge apart and sending the fragments high into the air.
The guard barely had time to register what had happened before he saw a second flash high above him.
The RAS Invincible burst into existence a mere hundred feet above the castle walls, the thousand foot long airship immediately letting loose with its battery of dwarven made artillery. A dozen flashes of light streamed from the gondola, and a split second later explosions ripped across the unarmored citadel roof, annihilating everything capable of repulsing the assault.
"Ten seconds!" Jack shouted inside the ship, signaling to the rest of his men. Beside him, Sam growled, clutching a thick rope that hung from the ceiling. The Airship slowly made its way over the battlements, continuing to pound the fortress from above.
The Invincible was the newest of the Republic's small fleet of modern craft, and it showed. The massive steam engines powering the craft had only been attached the day before, and the hasty weld marks were visible even to the untrained eye. Parts that had been assembled poorly shook loose and fell into the fiery maelstrom below, but fortunately for the ship's occupants, they were all unimportant.
Jack didn't know this, and even if he had his thoughts would still be focused on his target. There were few points on the roof of the castle that were flat before they had arrived, and those had vastly increased in rarity from the tremendous bombardment. A massive tower that jutted out from the castle slowly broke apart and fell, hundreds of tons of masonry collapsing into the valley far below. Fires raged everywhere, making a decent landing position hard to spot.
"GO!" Jack roared, and leapt down. The wind rushed past his face as he fell through the air, tightly clutching the rope next to him. As the rope caught, he slowed, coming almost to a halt just above one of the few remaining platforms that was not on fire. The second he let go of the rope he collapsed, breathing deeply.
"Jesus!" He shouted, getting up. Above him, the iron keel of the Invincible roared past, a dozen ropes dangling from the sides. The fast rope idea, which had seemed like such a good idea before, when he proposed the mad plan, had quite frankly terrified him.
"Sir!" A man jumped out in front of him, Winchester shotgun at the ready. "You intact?"
"Barely, Wallace." Jack replied. "Let's go!"
Twelve of Stevenson's best men and dwarves had been given to Jack's command for the assault. Armed with dwarf manufactured shotguns and rifles, they were the best strike force he could hope for. 11 of them had survived the drop, and two of the survivors had broken legs.
"Okay, You two hold the DZ. The rest of you, follow me. We're going in!"
As they jumped down through a hole in the castle's roof, the Invincible flashed again, and vanished, leaving nothing but the destruction it had wrought.
"Damn, this is creepy." Hward, a six foot tall dwarf said. Jack agreed. Aside from a few petrified guards, they hadn't encountered anyone for over half an hour as the descended into the fortress. The place was a maze, but Sam was able to keep track of where they had been, preventing them from backtracking. The long, dark corridors were sparsely furnished, and even the occasional painting or tapestry was bland.
The group arrived at a thick wooden door at the bottom of a stairwell, reinforced with iron bars and a gargantuan lock.
"There's a puzzle here." Jorge, a short human with an even shorter temper, said. "Something about placing the proper flower in the proper position.
"We don't have time for this." Jack said. "Kurt, blow the door!"
"Yes sir!" Kurt was over seven feet tall, bulging with muscles. Grunting, he hefted a miniature cannon, holding the cast iron tube at waist height. The rest of the group quickly got out of the way, hiding behind the man's gargantuan bulk. Grinning like a madman, Kurt fired.
The door was blown to splinters, flaming shards of wood scattering across the stone floor. Hward lead the way, shotgun at the ready. Jack went in right behind him, followed by Sam and Jorge, as the rest of the men took position at the top of the stairs.
The first thing Jack noticed was the smell. It smelled of a chemistry lab mixed with rotting fruit, a torrid stench that quickly overwhelmed his nostrils. Sam instantly doubled over, vomiting. Jack nearly did the same once he saw what was in front of him.
It seemed like something out of a horror movie. A single operating table sat in the middle of a large room, with a large spotlight directly overhead. A bench was situated behind the setup, filled with various flasks and surgical tubes. A small generator sat in the corner, quietly putting along as it powered the spotlight.
"Those bastards " Jack whispered.
"What the hell's going on down there?" Sampson, another member of the group, shouted from the stairs.
"Shit! Stay there!" Jorge shouted back. He turned to Jack, face filled with confusion. "Look, we have to find out where they are. I don't know what this shit is, but I can tell it's bad. We have to move now."
"Right." Jack replied. Looking over the room, he saw two doors. One lead to the left, and one to the right. "Sampson, Kowalski, get down here." He shouted. "Sam, you get back up. I'll take the "
