Opposite the human defenses came an army of monsters under storm clouds spewing lightning and thunder.

Shiny rolling balls announced Voggoth’s assault. Barely larger than a beach ball, the things sped forward at 100 miles per hour bouncing over obstacles en route to targets. Well-placed sniper shots disabled some and mortar explosions consumed others, but many found their marks. One hit a sandbag bunker. It exploded in a flash of white, burning away the protective shield and microwaving the soldiers hiding behind. Another whacked into an Abrams tank melting the machine’s gun barrel and cooking the crew.

The crystal spheres came from a large, plate-like, coral-red platform of tubes and spikes that floated close to the ground like a hovercraft. Alongside the platform marched a protective ring of walking orbs resembling Daddy Longlegs spiders standing eight-feet tall and firing pellet guns that could shred body armor.

Behind this artillery platform and its escort came a collection of The Order’s infantry. Hundreds of assimilated humans wearing monks robes and firing alien bullets from growths on their forearms mixed with dozens of muscle-bound, gray-skinned, tall humanoids swinging slings made from chains to launch bowling-ball-sized explosive blobs. Many of the former fell to bloody shreds from mortar and artillery strikes while the latter shrugged off the shrapnel and kept advancing through the pass, struck down only by direct hits.

A line of carts-car-sized and rolling on a dozen tiny wheels-followed Voggoth’s army carrying ammunition that resembled slimy seeds and glowing globes. Hard shell-like roofs kept the re-supply wagons safe from all but the most precisely-aimed strikes.