The fortress gates opened.
The crash had damaged the forward mechanism, causing the heavy iron doors to swing inward on their own and leaving a twenty-foot gap in the fortress wall that every Imperial soldier within a mile could see.
Emric spotted it first.
"Gate breach," he said into the fortress comm channel.
"All fortress soldiers, form up behind the gate. Shields in front. Halberds behind. Two feet between each soldier."
The soldiers moved.
"First rank, angle your shields thirty degrees," Emric continued. "Deflect, don't absorb. The enemy's formation broke when the ship crashed. They're scattered. We need to exploit the gap before they can regroup."
He turned toward Renna.
"Fire over the wall. Target groups between fifty and one hundred meters. Don't aim at individuals. Hit clusters and disrupt their formation."
Renna was already on the wall. She nocked three arrows and drew the bowstring.
"Clusters. Got it. Fifty to one hundred meters. I can do that in my sleep."
