THE DEAD STILL HELD THE PASS! - Afterlife Protocol | Power Metal Saga

[From the recovered field journal of Captain Edrik Voss, Northern Border Survey. 17th Day of the Waning Harvest] The border garrisons have been abandoned for months. No wages, no supplies, no relief. The Orator's treasury apparently has greater concerns than keeping the mountain roads open. Yesterday, a caravan of nearly a thousand starving souls crossed the northern pass. Families, wounded, children. They had fled the empty granaries and dying towns of the west. Raiders found them before the crossing. According to the survivors, the old watchtower suddenly came alive. Guns that had rusted through years of neglect turned toward the mountainside. A red beacon burned through the snow, and artillery thundered across the valley. Not a single voice answered their calls. We reached the tower this morning. Four soldiers sat dead at their control stations. Their uniforms were worn, their supplies exhausted. Someone had opened the control panels and wired the remaining guns directly to the old targeting scanners. The final entry in their log was dated before the caravan ever reached the pass. They had known no relief was coming. They had made their preparations anyway. I have ordered the four buried with full military honours. I doubt the capital will reimburse us. One of the children left a stuffed bear by the console, as if to keep the tower company. The beacon is still burning. I have decided to leave it so. Captain Edrik Voss The men were gone. Their duty remained. Stand with the Damned. A chronicle forged in epic power metal. Book of Kastelholm