Taking the Capital Pt.2

The capital had started moving much faster than expected, normally this wouldn't be a problem, but in his current state Doom wasn't sure he could fight. If they didn't act now, they'd miss their window. There was **** but to continue with the plan and just hope everything went fine. First things first, time to rally the troops.

Doom goes to the wall to find Gitta, Gitta is sitting on the wall and looking out over the desert, her legs hanging off the edge and kicking gently. Doom wonders if he pushed her from the wall, would the fall do enough damage to kill her, but he quickly dismisses the thought. Gitta is a loyal servant so far and her possession of technology and clothing reminiscent of his home have intrigued him. "Gitta?" he addresses her and she turns her head and then carefully slips herself off the wall to stand in front of him.

"Master Doom," she greets him with a military salute and his confusion about her grows even further. Doom was in the military back when he was alive and in front of him, in this world, this strange woman has just pulled off a perfect copy of the salute he saw frequently back home. She seems unnerved as he stares at her for a bit and lowers the salute, "Um... Did I do something wrong?" she asks nervously.

"No no... It's nothing. You sounded the alarm? The Capital's forces are on the move?" he asks quickly, forcing away the questions swirling in his head.

"Yessir, the full **** hasn't moved just yet, but they've already sent out advance troops and soldiers have been amassing and breaking off. It seems they are preparing to advance on all three strongholds at once, your plan is working like a charm, sir!" she says and gives him a weak smile. Something about her smile feels familiar, but he quickly chases these thoughts from his mind as well, he needs to stay focused at the moment.

"Good, then we need to get ready, come... We need to collect the troops," he tells her and she salutes again.

"Yessir!" she states quickly and begins to follow as he descends from the wall.

Doom goes to visit Vox next, she's busy healing people and with her are Kasi and a young man. He's Rio Maldega, the Dragon Slayer, Kasi's challenger. Kasi seems to be sleeping, her wounds healed. Vox is breathing heavily as she works to heal the **** and bound young man. She's probably running low on mana, "Vox. Is Kasi ready to fight again?" Doom asks.

Vox glances up and then stops healing the man and reaches a hand up to wipe sweat from her brow, "she should get more rest, but if you mean are her injuries healed, then yes..." she admits.

"The capital is moving, I need her up and ready to fight," Doom informs her and Vox hesitates.

"I... I don't know if I'll be able to help-" she starts and he cuts her off.

"Of course not, you're useless in a fight. Stay here and keep working, if we need a healer we have Olivia," Doom responds and her eyes widen, obviously insulted, but he ignores her and steps past her over to Kasi. His hand reaches down and gently grabs hold of one of her breasts, squeezing it as he speaks, "wake up Kasi," he commands and she moans and her eyes flutter open.

"Ah... Master... Is it time to crush the light already?" she asks, her lips turning up at the sides.

"Yes indeed. Are you ready?" he asks as he releases her breast and steps back. Kasi nods and stands up.

"My body aches, but no pain or wound will hold me back from battle!" she says cheerfully and strikes a pose, leaning forward, her arms raising on either side of her and hands curling like claws, "the dragon hungers for more blood!" she adds.

"Come then, we're gathering the troops," Doom commands, slightly amused by her enthusiasm and the strange pose. Vox watches scornfully as they leave.

They arrive at the barracks next, Cara is here as are a number of other soldiers. Cara has changed out of her torn shorts for a tight black skirt and a pair of black and grey horizontal striped panties. She is lying, legs spread, on her bed, fast asleep and snoring softly, unintentionally revealing this to anyone who cares to look. One hand is resting on her stomach and the other is curled under her head on the pillow. Her weapons are removed, but otherwise she's fully dressed. Many of the men are simply watching her, enjoying the view as she sleeps. Doom approaches her and the men all seem to turn away guiltily as they spot him, but as he stops by her bed, many of them surreptitiously turn their attention back to her, eager to see what he's going to do.

Doom almost wants to wake her up in some humiliating way, but the thought of disappointing all these men makes him chuckle internally and so instead he simply reaches down and gently brushes her forehead, "Cara, it is time to wake up," he whispers gently and one of her eyes shoots open and then she opens the other eye and seemingly without even noticing her legs had been open, her right leg shifts to lie against her left leg, effectively covering herself.

"Nmm... What is it?" she says, sounding irritated.

"The capital is moving, we need to get the troops ready," Doom informs her and she sighs,

"Fine..." she groans and sits up carefully, swinging her legs off the bed and standing up, she gently pats down her skirt and then grabs her belt of knives and places it on. Afterwards Doom and the others, along with the soldiers from the barracks, head to the Regent's Palace. Inside Belleza is waiting for Doom in the Regent's bed. She's completely naked and lying on her side on the bed, she doesn't seem bothered when he arrives with others and instead only pouts upon noticing them.

"No time?" she questions.

"I'm afraid not," Doom responds and she sighs.

"Do you need me to fight?" she asks and Doom considers for a moment and then shakes his head, "then I'll just sleep and wait for you to return, Master" she says and turns so she's face down, laying her head gently on the comfortable looking pillows. From the waist down she's covered in a thin pink sheet and her curved round ass wiggles slightly from side to side to tease Doom and anyone else who happens to glance at her. In the Regent's old office, Olivia and Ursa are cleaning the place up. Ursa works to gather broken furniture and objects and Olivia gathers scattered documents and places any important documents or files in a neat pile. They stop as Doom enters.

"It's time," he states and both stand and move to his side. With everyone gathered they move to the city gates and Doom turns to address his soldiers.

"Soon the capital will be empty and ripe for the taking, I do not expect major resistance, but we should not let our guard down, especially since once we take Saluma we will then have to hold it when the capital's armies return. If we lose too much in this fight, I don't believe we'll stand a chance at holding this place against the full might of the capital army. So, we must strike fast, strike hard and take no unnecessary risks," he announces and there's cheers from the assembled soldiers.

Up above, the sun is setting, the gates are slowly opened as the sun sets and Doom heads towards Saluma.

The city is within visual distance a short march later and it seems the capital's armies have indeed left. The Capital's walls are high and strong, using Olivia to open the way would be unlikely to work since the capital would expect her to have been killed or captured at the west stronghold and her sudden appearance would likely raise some suspicion, it could still work, but not as well and so, instead Doom had a different plan in mind.

This would be one of the most harrowing and risky parts of this plan and there's a sense of held breath and anxious shaking from Doom and the rest of the troops as Doom raises his hand. With a thought he fires a simple fire bullet into the sky over the wall, it's small but bright, unlikely to be noticed by anyone who isn't looking for it. Doom very much hopes she's looking for it.

Everything is quiet as they wait patiently, there's no way to tell if they're waiting in vain or not. Time ticks on slowly as everyone starts to grow more and more anxious with each passing second and then after nearly half an hour of agonizing waiting, just when Doom was about to give up and try some other **** ploy, the gates slowly begin to open.

There's no telling how long they'll stay open and so, they hurry forward to get inside before it's too late. At this point it's unlikely they'll get in without notice and as they pass through the gates, there's already a group of people waiting. They look like simple city guards, not proper soldiers. Doom shouts orders to Ursa and Kasi to go to the wall and support Espia at the gate controls, there are likely more guards heading for her to try and close the gate and Doom doesn't want her killed after she pulled off her part of the plan so well.

Ursa and Kasi nod and rush off to defend Espia. The guards attack, two are quickly taken down by Gitta with well placed shots to their throats and Cara intercepts a third one and easily takes him out with a knife to the face, before tossing another knife that hits the leg of another advancing guard, making her drop to her knee before Doom reaches out and grabs her, slamming her against the ground hard enough to crush her rib cage and lungs. He tosses her body at the remaining guards, most avoid it, but one is knocked to the ground.

The fight starts in earnest now as the remaining guards struggle to survive, many of their ranks downed in the first few seconds of combat and their formation broken, they don't last long. Every last guard is put down as alarms begin to ring throughout the city. A bit later Espia arrives with Ursa and Kasi, Espia looks a little worn and her left arm hangs limply at her side, bleeding from a painful looking stab wound, just above the elbow. Doom orders Olivia to heal her before moving in front of her, "You've done well, Espia. Tell me anything important about the city that you can and then find somewhere safe to rest," he commands her and she nods as Olivia steps beside her and begins to heal her arm.

"All of Saluma's standing army have left for the strongholds, leaving just the city's guards who are barely more than simple police and the Royal Guard protecting the king of Alms Amour and his family. Attacking the palace directly would be the simplest way to take the city, but it's risky. The Royal Guard are not pushovers and if you get stuck fighting them and the guards attack as well, you might still be overwhelmed. There are two other important areas in the city you could focus on first. The City Guard Barracks where the commander of the city guard is would be a prime target, it will potentially remove the city guard entirely from the equation or at least cause them to become disorganized, there's also a prison in the city and inside are both criminals and captured followers of the darkness, potential allies," she explains, "the basic criminals are more of a gamble, many of them are still followers of the light and it would be difficult to tell if they'd hate the city or the darkness more," she adds.

Doom considers her suggestions, "thank you for the information, go find somewhere to hide until this is over," he orders and she nods. Olivia has finished healing her arm and so Espia quickly scurries off out of view to find somewhere to hide. With Espia hopefully in a safe place Doom calls his troops to him and they begin moving towards the City Guard Barracks. Progress through the streets is slow, the guards are not an effective fighting ****, but there are many of them and they quickly adapt, starting to use their superior knowledge of the city to their advantage.

Two soldiers are lost when traveling through a section of the city saw Doom and his troop fall prey to an ambush. A pair of guards, leading what appeared to be a small group of armed citizens, attacked from alleys lining the street. They crashed into the troop from both sides and the element of surprise let them lethally drop two soldiers before the fight quickly turned back in Doom's favour, but the guards and many of the militia quickly retreated as soon as the fight started to turn. The two guards in question end up being more of a hassle as the march continues. Further ambushes and traps plague Doom's progress through the city, at one point the soldiers are bombarded from above by citizens on the rooftops throwing roof tiles. No one is killed, but many of the troops suffer mild injuries, including Ursa who takes a glancing blow to the side of her head. Gitta manages to fire back and kill enough of them with accurate strikes that they get spooked and flee again.

The guards and citizens' attempts to stop the advance fail to do so, but they do slow it to a crawl and every second that passes without meaningful progress, concern builds that the city might find some way to alert their troops to return, if the main army returns before the city is taken Doom and his forces would be easily overwhelmed. He tries desperately to think of a way to stop these ambushes. Those two guards seem to be the ones organizing them and so he makes it his goal to capture them the next time they show themselves and put a stop to this.

The next opportunity arrives shortly. The troops reach the street leading up to the guard barracks and find the way is blocked by a massive wooden barricade. Guards and citizens are manning the barricades and one of the two guards is on the barricades, but the other is missing. Doom scans the area and notices there are alleyways leading off from the main street.

"I'd be able to break through that barricade without too much effort, but I'd open myself up to attack from the barricades defenders if I went alone, so the logical thing to do would be to bring all my troops in. They'd protect me while I tore through the barricade... and that's when the other guard who is likely hiding with more troops in the alleyways comes out and tries to pincer us..." he reasons and turns his head to the barricades, "Kasi... You, Ursa and Olivia, attack the barricade, bring any troops with shields, Cara, Gitta and I are going to check these alleyways. Kasi, I want you to make this a big show, keep their attention. I'm pretty sure the barricade is a trap and I want them to think we've fallen for it," he commands and Kasi nods.

Kasi leads the troops against the barricade with Olivia behind her to heal and Ursa making a clamor, slamming her axe against shields as the troops march forth. Meanwhile Cara and Gitta head to the right alleyways and Doom heads to the left. His size makes stealth difficult, but luckily he doesn't need to rely on stealth too much. The alleyway is dark enough that he's practically invisible anyway, so too, however, are the guards hiding in its shadows. He almost walks into them, before stopping. The other guard target is indeed here. They're looking up and Doom glances up as well and sees there's a citizen on the roof, seemingly watching the fight on the main street. A signaller to launch the ambush.

Doom makes his presence known by suddenly moving forward and grabbing the target by the throat, slamming her against the wall. The other guards who were waiting are startled and he drops her as he surges forward and slams into their ranks, knocking many of them off their feet. His hands swing out grabbing two of them and using them to bludgeon others, in the small space of the alleyway, they're clumped together and easy targets. He quickly and easily takes them down, leaving most of them broken, but alive, before then returning to his target. She's slumped against the wall now, having been knocked **** by the blow. Doom lifts her and her helmet slips off, surprising him as he spots a pair of light brown fox ears with white tips on her head. She's a Therion. He binds her up with tentacles and checks out the rest of the guards, none of them seem interesting and so he takes a few seconds to finish each of them off, before returning to the main street.

The attack on the barricade is going poorly of course, but it was never meant to succeed, just to distract. Doom could wade into the fight and help, but he thinks of an even better plan. He could have done this earlier in fact, but regardless he's going to do it now. He lets out a loud roar, telling his troops to retreat and they start to back away from the barricade. As they do he readies a fire lance and launches it into the barrier. The lance hits and the impact shatters some of the barricade, but more importantly, the wood quickly catches. The defenders on the barricade, the guard target included, begin to panic and start to try and get off the barricade as it burns. The street fills with the screams of the defenders who didn't manage to escape the rapidly growing inferno.

Doom's troops move back forward as the fire begins to die down, the guard target is there, a bit back from the wreckage trying to help some others as Doom approaches, she glances over and spots him and he lifts her friend, still **** and trapped in his tentacles, into view. Her eyes open wide with fear. Doom steps through the burnt wreckage with ease and approaches her as she draws out her sword, standing defiantly in front of him. Up closer he can notice her light blue skin, she's a demoness. Doom's mind races, wondering why there are two members of darkness aligned races here, but his thoughts are broken as she calls out to him.

"No matter what you do, monster! No matter if I live or die! The Light will triumph! Good always wins!" she screams and then charges at him. He shoots an earth bullet into her thigh and watches as her leg crumples under her and she collapses face forward. He steps forward and presses his foot down on her back as she tries to get back up.

"You might be right. Perhaps good will always triumph over evil, but I'm not evil," he says and then presses down further and she screams as her bones crack, "I'm Doom and eventually Doom triumphs over all things," he finishes and then pulls his foot off of her, "but luckily for you, your doom has been postponed," he states and then grabs her with tentacles as well. She groans in pain, the tentacles binding her, moving her injured body and causing her to let out another cry of agony. Doom continues forward towards the guard barracks, his two captives held up behind him like banners, tentacles writhing over their bodies.

The remaining defenders who had survived and escaped the barricade, tried to make a last stand in front of the barracks. In an open fight they don't last long, however. As the last of the guards are being wiped out the front door of the barracks opens and a woman exits. She's wielding a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, she's wearing a guard uniform, but no helmet, a head of short, brown hair visible as a result. She speaks in a commanding voice, "I am Commander Samantha Vimes of the city guard!" she announces and the fighting stops. She's in her mid 40's and she has a world weariness to her and what seems to be almost a permanent scowl, she looks at Doom directly and then closes her eyes, "we give up... this is a lost battle and there's no use throwing our lives away," she announces her surrender.

"Good choice, you are a wise commander, your surviving men will thank you," Doom taunts her and sees her stiffen, her features twitching slightly, just near the eyes, "take any survivors captive," Doom commands and then turns to the commander, "Come, we're going to the prison now and I want you to accompany us," he tells her and she nods reluctantly.

She moves beside him reluctantly as Darkness troops enter the barracks to grab any more guards who might be inside. As she stands beside him Doom looks at her appraisingly. She looks surprisingly proud even in defeat. She's in her mid-40's but under her fairly tight uniform she has a surprisingly fit and even slightly curvy body, her hair is cut in a short military style and her face has a few wrinkles mostly around the eyes, seemingly the result of a life filled with stress more than age, other than that her features are still quite attractive.

Once the barracks has been fully scoured, Doom continues to the prison, with the guard routed there's very little standing in the way and the trip to the prison is mostly uneventful. A few citizens continue trying to fight, but they're easily killed or captured. Doom arrives at the prison and the guards at the prison stand down when he presents The Commander as his captive and she doesn't deny it when he informs them that she has surrendered.

With that Doom has free rein of the prison. The first thing done is finding some cells and locking up all the new prisoners including the commander, the two guards and any other surviving guard members including the prison's own guards. That done, it's time to check on the normal prisoners and decide whether any of them should be let go to join Doom.