To say that the arrival of new people on the far side of the kitchen of the Great House was unsettling to the Nest City was an understatement; much of the higher ups where already shaken and panic was starting to spread amongst the populace. The Lord Commander of the Army had already stayed up since the first buzzing of these winged people came in, thinking that perhaps they were just another marauding band of raiders or something. The fact that these "raiders" had come in, slaughtered the Hootman tribes and was now quickly claiming the countertop as their own was no doubt something that Lord Commander Skritz could not say he expected.

The great walls of Eternia, normally fairly quite at this point of time as the night guard swapped places and the soldiers made an orderly (if not tired) shuffle down to the Nest City proper, was now full of life. Every one of the numerous number of catapults and ballistas had been manned, archers and crossbowmen filled the towers, bunkers and wall defenses as some ratfolk warriors stood in wait in reserve, standing in disciplined lines with metal arms and armor.

"Get me more men from down below, tell the king that I want the Fire Lances up here as well with more supplies and ammunition. Once the fight starts it'll be hell to try and ferry reinforcements and goods up here. Also tell the King that I recommend the last of the scavengers to either go in or wrap up their runs into the southern tunnels under heavy guards. I trust that my underlings have the tunnels well defended." Skritz watched as the mousefolk runner bolted his furry little hide into the depths as more soldiers disembarked from lifts carrying woven baskets of arrows and stones to fire.

"Get those stones to tier 4, section B! Archers on the western towers need more arrows! Come on people, get off your lazy hides and hope to it!" Skritz barked as the trudged down the ramparts, parting crowds as he went. As much as he hoped he was wrong, the Lord Commander couldn't help but feel like something was brewing over there. Not too long ago he saw a line of Hootmans getting thrown over the edge, landing in sickening, chunky red paste and now he feared that it would be the mice and rats who'd be next.

Making his way into one of the many platforms that jutted out of the side of the kitchen island, Skrtizs made his way into one of the myriad supply-and-command posts. Such SC posts would hold local commanders and officers to managed the section of defenses as well as a supply dump of weapons, armors, and medicine. Some of them even had lifts and stairs into the Nest City proper which could easily be destroyed in the case the post was lost. They would also communication tubes that would lead straight to the "Nest Network", a communications hub which linked much of the city together. Officers would scribble down scouting reports or reinforcement requests and stick it into a small metal container, lubricate it a little, and send it down the tube and hope that the Network would get the message. 

Skritz conversed with the officers inside as they dashed about, pointing at hand drawn maps and commandering their subordinates to lube up more message tubes. The Lord Commander himself would have to peel away from the post as a group of micefolk engineers wanted to know where they were stationed at.

[i]Pray to the Gods this goes well.[/i] Skritz thought to himself, trying to calm his nerves, [i]Lest we have to fire and worse things to come.[/i]