Tyre! (5)

"Listen to me."

The Harpies' voices reached everyone's minds. Every defender was drawn in by those angelic female voices, stopping their preparations for war and beginning to listen intently.

Yet they did not seem to be listening at all. The voices appeared to slip directly into their heads, gracefully soothing their ears with the illusion of sound.

"Citizens of Veylun, I bring you a choice, a gift more precious than anything you have received from anyone else."

The soothing thoughts passed through the city walls and drifted into the city.

"You may open the gates and leave the city... or you may die where you now stand. The choice is yours, but you must choose, and you must choose now."

When she finished, Camille lowered her arm and stood quietly between the Blood Axes Legion and Veylun's walls.

No one moved.

Her hands rested perfectly still behind her back, while only the Blood Axes banner fluttered in the wind: a pure black flag emblazoned with crossed battle-axes and a dark crimson Ork skull.

Along the battle line, Stormboyz and Shoota Boyz wore similarly styled cast-iron armor, their spotless guns gleaming in the sunlight.

At the head of every company stood its captain, dressed in human uniforms of different colors and styles. These were captured spoils, reworked into symbols of the Blood Axes.

Restless Squig cavalry and several weapon platforms were scattered among the formations, each protected by two motorcycles.

On the walls, the defenders gradually realized that something was waiting for them, and they shook their heads hard to cast off the sugar-coated shells in their minds.

They looked around the battlements, exchanging glances as they sought opinions from one another.

But no one dared move first. All the senior officers had long since fled the city, and now these