Percy Jackson and the Adventures of A Sister

18. Surprises for Olympus

Percy stood on a hill near New Olympus. It was three months since he had left Tartarus. He had refused to let anyone know what had been happening in the pit. He'd rather not be traumatized and have a annoyingly horrifying flashback. Tartarus may have been easier for him to deal with as he trained to do that, he still found the experience horrifying. He had just come back after visiting the Liberty. He trekked down the hill taking his time to analyze the defenses of the city. He knew the defenses of the city perfectly. New Olympus, unlike Aiga, had the architecture of the 2nd century B.C, not the modern architecture of Aiga. The defenses on the other hand were very modern.

The ballistae were replaced with cannons. The metal bolts were replaced with a projectile nicknamed 'Exploding tin.' The thing was basically a tin can half filled with Greek fire, put on top of a shock absorbing system which was kept on top of a steel tube. The 'tin can' was a foot tall and a quarter of a foot tall. The thing would be fired from the cannon and the tin on top of the projectile would break and voila, you have one nice explosion that can incinerate monsters.

The wall was no longer the small stone wall that was ridiculously easy to break. It was a large wall made of cement with Celestial bronze fibers mixed with it. That made the cement extremely strong. The wall had 10 layers each being 2 m thick. Each layer had a bronze reinforced  cement wall, with loose sand behind it and another wall behind the sand. The wall was five stories tall. So there was no way anyone would be getting into the city through that. But that did not make New Olympus invincible.

The gates were still weak compared to the wall. The city had three entrances. The gates were made of celestial bronze, but they were not very thick. One strong hit with a fireball from a Lastrygonian giant and the gates would be blown open. Greek fire would definitely blow the gates up. The walls were not immune to Greek fire either but they had celestial bronze inside. The cement and sand would deal with the heat, so the celestial bronze would not melt. The bronze provided structural support.

The only way to open a hole in the wall would be by hitting the same spot over and over again ten times with an error margin of a foot. That would be very, very hard. Greek fire was hard enough to store. The ingredients were even harder to find. The only reason New Olympus had them was because it was getting a steady supply from Olympus. The total amount of the explosives a monster army would have would barely be enough to break two holes in the wall.

Automatons patrolled the wall and were ready to discharge a hail of nasty projectiles at anyone who was stupid enough to try and attack the wall. The entrances of the city did not lead straight to the city. The city had two walls. The tall five story outer wall and the considerably smaller inner wall. The three entrances went underground. This meant that an enemy could be bottle-necked inside the tunnels if the gates were breached, and if things spiraled out of control they could blow the tunnel.

In the unlikely event of the wall being breached, the fighters would have to rely on the inner wall, since fighting in an open field while being heavily outnumbered would be a suicide task. The Automatons were stationed both on the wall and at its base both inside and outside. Anyone who had been at camp for at-least a year and were above thirteen were allowed to fight in the front lines, including the battle veterans.

All in all there were 580 demigods and 10,000 automatons ready for battle. The automatons were designed to self-destruct. All that had to be done to activate the self-destruct protocol would be hitting a button which lied in the heart of the city. The automatons were high in number, but not that strong. They were more of distractions and alarms if anything. Percy knew they only had a month at best. The Liberty and Freedom were returning to camp and would arrive at dusk.

The camp was deserted for now. Everyone was in the city. The city was not a little one. It would be able to hold 2000 people at max capacity. The einherjar would be arriving at sunset. Most of them would be in Valhalla since there still had to be an army for Norse doomsday. Percy walked into the coliseum. Everyone sat there waiting for him. He began giving them pointers on strategy and fighting. The skill of the campers improved by leaps thanks to Percy's harsh training. If a camper had been around for two months, he would be as skilled as the campers who fought the battle of Manhattan.

Somehow, Percy managed to cram five years worth of training, into two months. Then again, even with the war looming the training was leisurely during the second titanomachy. The leader of the city (the praetor) was not an old battle veteran but was a demigod who had arrived a few months ago. Andromeda was the praetor. She may not have been as skilled as the older demigods, but she was as good as the children of Athena when it came to strategy. Her command over her powers was good. Training finished at sunset just as the Argos and einherjar arrived.

Percy was about to teleport to Aiga when a flash of lightning signaled that Zeus had summoned the council for a meeting. Percy appeared on Olympus and then sat down on his throne. In the span of a few minutes all the other gods had arrived. Zeus's expression was grim, so everyone feared the worst. "An army had been marching towards Camp Olympus. It has 17,400 Greek monsters of which 400 are drakons, 5000 are cyclops, 2000 are dracene, 2000 are hellhounds and 8000 are wild centaurs. There are two hydras in the army.

The Norse monsters are fewer in number, but stronger. Fifty earth giants, and fifty fire giants. Now the number may be small but each fire giant is capable of burning everything in a 100m radius to ashes instantly. They are insanely hard to kill. A sword through the chest will do nothing. The earth giants on the other hand are the size of mountains. The Norse gods will be stuck dealing with the giants. Perseus, is the city prepared for war?" He said. "Yes Uncle. The Norse are here." Replied Percy. "Good. The war begins tomorrow. In the span of the next week, Olympus will have stood, or razed." Said Zeus. In a dramatic flash the king of the gods vanished leaving a group of stunned gods in his wake.