[b]Tatos: The Assault on the Tower Q3[/b]

Two hundred soldiers, that was how many had been gathered to destroy the bandit camp, and take the end table known as the Tower of the Valley. This was what those among the Tatos knew it as, they considered Q6 the valley, the place where the tribes of old still ruled. Commander Katherine took several heavy breaths at having reached the top of the arm of the couch, her warriors following behind as they gathered behind a old stuff animal, musty and molded with age. They were all wearing armor that had been gathered from the shop they had travelled through, it was worn with knicks, and cracks in it, but they had repared it as best they could with glue, and putty. She pulled her two swords made from the edges of razor blades off her hips, and looked as the others pulled spears made of wood, swords made of pewter, and even one or two had axes, or hammers made of stone. Katherine peered around the foot of the stuffed bear to peer into the bandit camp. 

Several Mantids with a rogue Roach stood atop the lip of the drawer, it being slightly ajar to allow for passage. The group where supposed to be lookouts, but where more interested at talking among themselves about their most recent raid. The roach was currently describing how he had single handedly taken an Ant caravan, assuring the Mantids that he was being sincere while quite obviously lying through his mandibles. They where unsuspecting of an attack by the Tatos, but where always ready for combat. The near by Roaches made sure of that, their home occasionally raided by the savages, or prepared for when a caravan came through. The group of lookouts began arguing amongst themselves not ready for an organized attack.

The soldiers were itching to get into a fight, their heads covered in plastic and pewter armor, their bodies clad in the same. Their hands gripped their weapons tightly as Commander Katherine waited for exactly the right moment. She waited, staring at the insects and muttered under her breath. "Disgusting creatures." She turned to her men and nodded and stared to run out, their armor didn't clink or clack like real plate would instead it was quite as it rubbed together. She waited till she got to the first roach guard, and screamed loudly. Just as the insect turned her sword came down cutting through it's chitin head and into it's chest sending it tumbling backwards. "Kill them all Warriors of Tatos! Kill the wretched others! They do not deserve to live!" The soldiers clashed with the bandits as they were taken by surprise. The weapons they held punching through or crushing the natural chitin armor the insects had. Though two faced off with Mantid and seemed to be making no progress. The other soldiers were pushing the roaches back. Though a Assasin bug was tearing into a group of five Tatos warriors that were barely holding on and keeping the beast back. 

The sound of battle roused those inside the end table and dozens of Mantid warriors skittered out of the opening in the dawer before the Tatos soldiers could surround it and make it into a death trap. The new comers came to aid their bretheren making a battle line of wicked flashing claws, their speed easily outstripping that of the Tatos, but their armor and weapons still made short work of the Mantids. More roaches followed out of the drawer and threw themselves at the Tatos, their considerable bulk driving through the first few lines, only to be enveloped and cut down by a dozen soldiers each. the gaps made by the roaches where quickly exploited by the mantids, catching soldiers with their back turned or those that had been knocked to the ground. The assassin bug had killed several of the Tatos harrassing it, but the remaining two had spears and with its wounds it had slowed down considerably, if they were careful the remaining soldiers could bring it down. 


The Tatos warriors were skilled, well armed, and ready to die for their cause. So many did, but Commander Katherine would not lose this battle, she would not dare lose a battle ever. She Charged between the two spearmern and brough her razor swords in slicing the insect into three pieces by cutting through at the connections at the thorax to the head, and thorax to the abdomen. She brought both swords up in the air sucking in her stomach as a spear stabbed past her belly. More soldiers rushed in their spears slamming through roach bodies. A old grizzled warrior charged forward a large stone hammer carried in both hands swing around breaking the two front legs of a mantid causing it to collapse, and then swords and spears stabbed into it's head and body. "Damn these blasted insects to the great beyond! Kill them all! They have no place in this world!" 

The Tatos drove the Insects back and surrounded the entrance into the end table. Several roaches tried to make their way out but were put down before they had a chance to attack. After they were dead the insects stopped trying to make their way out. Many of them dropped down through holes in the table and out the bottom and fled the Tatos onslaught. The commander ordered a squad of soldiers to drop down and investigate. When they do they are instantly attacked by the few Mantids holding the entrance and dispatched. One of the Mantids yells up at the group of Tatos "Get out! this is our tower!" 

Commander Katherine stared down into the drawer at her dead soldiers, and frowned. She turned to one of the soldiers. "Grab everyone with a shield. Bring them here." Within moments there were around thirty sloldiers standing ready, each of them holding a pewter or plastic shield. She motioned them to stand with their backs to the drawer open. "I want you to step in backwards! Make a shield wall We will come in after!" The soldiers nodded and on a count of three they all stapped back as one, dropping into the drawer and holding up their shields. The mantids remaining crashed against them, but they held strong in return. Quickly the opening was filled with more soldiers, their spears stabbing over the shields of the warriors before the to pierce the Mantrids that still stood against them. They moved forward pushing the Mantids back with every step, looking to box them in completely, trapping them between the back of the drawer and a wall of spears and shields. 

The Mantids began to realize that they where being trapped and picked the center of the Tatos lines and charged, their claws stabbing at the soldiers to break through, but the Tatos held fast. The remaining mantids fled, through several holes in the base of the drawer and dropped down to the floor fleeing in all directions. the Tatos assesed their wounded after checking that the tower was taken, ensuring the bandits had all fled.

Commander Katherine stared at the carnage and nodded slowly "Very good. Get these disgusting bodies off my tower." The soldiers were already hard at working doing just that shoving the corpses off the edge and to the carpet below. About thirty soldiers had been injured and just over forty had been killed, all in all though it was a real victory. They had further ensured the safety of Tatos frrom threats that could face it. Commander Katherine turned. "Inform the High Lord we have taken the tower, and that we need a guard detachment here, as well as engineers to begin constructing ballistae and catapults." The soldier saluted and ran. Katherine went about watching other men and women go about the task of removing armor from their fallen bretheren.