EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The Indrik let out a brief, but high-pitched screech upon being wounded by Sabine. Its leg buckled and the creature was nearly brought to the ground, but it just barely managed to keep to its feet as it limped on a few extra steps. Being that the Indrik was moving away from the water, Kaleeth climbed out of the water to give chase on foot. Although, since she was slower on land, and both Lorag and Janius still had to recover from the beast's surprise attack, only Meesei was able to catch up to Sabine in enough time to help.

While Sabine might have planned to give chase, the Indrik, it seemed, had other ideas in mind. It stopped and turned, a bright white light forming on its singular horn. It fired a brilliant white beam of frost magic that traveled quickly enough as to essentially be instant. The chilling cold hit Sabine on her right side for a brief moment before Meesei caught up to block the rest with a ward. Generally, Meesei did not use magic in their hunts, but their usual quarry also generally could not cast spells of its own.

Star Wars - Galaxies at War[MULTIVERSE SPACESHIP RP]

Eri 'Moram - Dxun

---

Both of the Sangheili dropped their empty needlers, then with their thruster packs, boosted themselves as best as they could towards the door to the next chamber. The rest of their team had already made it through into the chamber with the time the three had bought them, they just needed to follow suit. Though, the curve of the long hallway meant that they could not make it in a straight shot, and they could not make the turn at full speed. It meant they had to slow down, and the raging beast, while not agile, was fast in an outright sprint. Faster than Eri had hoped.

Eri did not give Sel any change in orders, so he continued to rush for the chamber, but the Tarentatek would certainly catch the both of them if it was not stopped. It was Eri that stopped and turned back, beam rifle in hand. She had only a few precious seconds to act, react, and line up her shot, and if there was any shot she needed to make, it was this one. She fired her weapon at the creature's ankle, and at the speed it was moving, that would not be the kind of wound it could just shrug off without effect.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The hunt was almost second-nature to the pack, for as long as they had been together. They were approaching primarily from downstream, apart from those that circled around to cover other angles. Their movements were as quick as they could be, while still keeping silent enough to avoid alerting their quarry. A few times, the Indrik did raise its head to watch its surroundings, but each of the pack was able to remain quiet and out of sight. It took a few minutes to properly surround it, but they managed to get themselves in position before it decided to move on.

Lorag moved up alongside Janius, while Kaleeth took the opportunity to slink silently into the river beside them. Meesei had been using a life detection spell to track everyone's positions, and was the one to give the signal to attack. She, Lorag, and Janius all sprinted forward, while Kaleeth swam upstream under the surface. Naturally, the Indrik did hear the sudden movement. The pack expected that either one of the three werewolves would catch it off of the initial ambush, or that it would run away into the waiting claws of one of the other lycans. However, it was neither option that transpired, at least initially.

Lorag was out front, just ahead of Janius, but as he leaped to pounce on the alarmed Indrik, it suddenly vanished into a blue orb of energy, which Lorag passed straight through. The transformed Orc was not prepared for that outcome and ended up tumbling and rolling briefly after he hit the ground. Even Meesei ended up surprised and somewhat disoriented. She had known of Indriks, and the fact that they were creatures of magic, but she did not know their precise abilities.

An instant after it had disappeared, another blue portal appeared off to the side, from which the Indrik came running. It rammed Janius with its antlers, knocking him clean off of his feet. However, despite its surprise attack, the creature had no intention of standing and fighting against three werewolves. Just as quickly as it had reappeared, it bolted off towards the trees, in the direction of Sabine.

The Tower: Bright Dawn

The cold of the cryo pod was not something that Taylor felt, at least not at the moment. If it were the case that it was being fueled by heat, then the cold would have been a pain like no other. Not only that, but it would have sapped that thermal energy from its very essence, draining it down until Taylor withered and died. However, since it was electricity that Lorne's scientists had been feeding it before they departed the tower, the cold was nothing more than a...conspicuous presence against the pulsating essence of its physical body.

Unlike the other, more Human paras, the cryo pod did not cease, or even diminish its consciousness. All it did was to lock its physical body in place. The energy field that comprised the other half of Taylor's essence was still every bit as active as usual, fueled by electromagnetic energy. Taylor was not entirely sure if Lorne understood this from their tests and research, but as long as the pod proved an effective means of transportation, it supposed that would not matter to them. Although, once the transport was attacked and the power to the pod was interrupted, it stopped being nearly so effective.

All that Taylor needed was for the pod to warm up just enough so that its body could move again. The crash, as forceful as it was, had not done much to Taylor. Even if it did not have the pod to protect it, it was not as if its body had organs to jostle around and damage. For some, this kind of situation might have been exciting, or terrifying, but Taylor had an odd calm about it. While it was awaiting its body to be able to move again, it had a few musings running through its mind. Was this a rescue meant to save them, or an attack meant to end them? It supposed either result would be an improvement over the suffering it had been forced to endure.

Once the pod was cut open, Taylor was able to climb out into the back of the transport, though with no particular hurry to its movements. By the time it was free, it saw a gaunt, sickly woman nearby, doing something to the bodies of two guards. It was as if she was consuming them, much as Taylor would consume a fire. Distasteful as it may have been, Taylor also did not care. The guards served Lorne. From its pod, it had seen that there was another who had cut it free from its prison, though it had not been able to get too good of a look at him.

In any case, Taylor elected to step out of the back of the transport onto the road at an almost leisurely pace. It was not too concerned about events around it, instead turning its many glowing eyes up towards the sky. The open sky...it was something it had not seen for months. Not since it had been Human. It almost seemed brighter than Taylor remembered it.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei's transformation followed suit with the others. There was a certain satisfaction to hearing their howls and roars as she took her place at the front of her pack. Hunting, in itself, was always satisfying for one of their kind, but there was something special about doing so among one's own pack. Only Kaleeth did not innately possess that instinct, but the side of her that had been a tribal Argonian hunter gave her a similar appreciation for it. As for Meesei, after moving to the front of the pack, she let out an enthused roar to the sky that echoed through the forest. Between them all, they might have alerted their prey to their intent, but Meesei would prefer a chase, in any case.

Ever since they had first arrived, it had been easy for any lycan to detect the vibrant scents of this forest. It was a place with an abundance of prey, though apart from a few familiar scents, much of what the pack could detect was new and exotic. There was one scent nearby that felt stronger than most of the others, but even Meesei was not entirely sure of exactly what they were tracking.

After their initial excitement, the pack was moving more slowly and deliberately behind Meesei to avoid alerting their prey before they could find it. In Tamriel, even with the heightened senses of a lycanthrope, tracking was still a discipline of patience that could take hours. While the same skills were still very much relevant here, it did not take as long to find a creature worth hunting.

Upstream from where they had started, through the gaps in the foliage, the pack could see their quarry drinking from the river. Its silhouette was like that of an elk, and a large one at that, but it was clearly a different sort of creature entirely. It was covered in feathers as well as fur, especially along its head, neck, and back. Apart from some brighter blue spots on a few of its larger feathers, its coloration was mostly natural shades of green and brown. On its head, it had four ears, an impressive set of antlers, and a single horn in the middle of its head. This was an Indrik: a creature that Meesei had seen before in Summerset, though only from a distance, and she had never had the pleasure of hunting one. Meesei was not sure if this was a true Indrik, or a Daedric copy of the creature, but it would make for a fascinating hunt regardless.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

It would depend on what you would prefer. For the most part, I just want to give the pack one last chance for some time together before the point of no return.

Star Wars - Galaxies at War[MULTIVERSE SPACESHIP RP]

Thaz - Nal Hutta

---

Thaz remained cautious, even as the remaining Rodians seemed to be retreating. She could feel that her opponent was a good shot, which is why she was playing it safe to not give him a shot. She stood up slowly, and kept her shield up as she dropped down off of the roof to ground level. She even made sure to duck in behind some shipping crates near the wall before lowering her shield gauntlet and activating her active camouflage once more. From there, it was just a matter of moving back towards Samus' ship.

"Everything clear for you?" Thaz contacted Samus through their comms. "The fat green one dropped quick. You get something off of him?" She asked.

---

Eri 'Moram - Dxun

---

Eri's hardlight shield went up quickly, though with Jerius intercepting the rock, it was hardly necessary. In any case, everything that they were collectively throwing at the beast was certainly slowing it down, but their retreat had still been swift. Every leap they took back with their thruster packs brought them closer to the ambush. By this point, the door was in sight on the other end of the hallway behind them. They just had one last sprint to make. Though, the Tarentatek was more enraged than ever by this point. Her team had expended most, if not all of their concussion rifle ammo by this point, so there would need to be someone to give them cover for their final retreat.

Sel, with me!" Eri shouted in Sangheili, though she ensured Jerius could understand her next order. "Fall back!"

Moving her beam rifle to her off-hand and holding it by its barrel, Eri drew the needler from her side, standing just alongside Sel as he finished reloading his own weapon. They both moved backwards as quickly as they could as they began to unload their twin needlers into the Tarentatek, intent on holding it back long enough for the others to make it into the chamber. The flurry of needles created a series of explosions, which had already proven to be able to stagger the beast.

---

Vael 'Virisusai - Aboard the Taris

---

Vael acknowledged Erthos with a nod. "Perhaps that is the case. I would still need to judge their honor myself, though it is a moot point for now. Our task is to speak to the Alderaanians, and we should not distract ourselves too far from it. This ship is yours, so where would you prefer I be during our journey?"

Star Wars - Galaxies at War[MULTIVERSE SPACESHIP RP]

Falul 'Taham, Dr. Fiona O'Connell, and Narak 'Chorna - The Immaculate Aegis

---

As Dr. O'Connell had expected, their collaborative efforts on improving the slipspace borer were not nearly so slow as some might have feared. Isaac's ability to rapidly analyze massive amounts of data, coupled with his own creativity, rapidly accelerated the process. Not only did the Forerunner data that O'Connell gave to Isaac give them critical clues as to what changes they might need to make, but the AI's ability to model and simulate changes allowed them to test their ideas by simply telling Isaac their ideas, rather than making tedious, manual changes to software. As well, there appeared to be many similarities between the form of Hyperspace used by Dr. McKay's universe and slipspace, so they were far from starting from scratch.

Altogether, the team put together what they believed to be viable, substantial software improvements within a day. Enough to warrant a practical test. Between Isaac and the Aegis' own AI, the changes had gone through billions of simulated trials, so all that was left was to perform a live test.

Given Dr. McKay's tendency to readily claim credit for his contributions to the project, Falul specifically requested that he, along with Dr. O'Connell and Narak, be present on the bridge for the test. Any of the others who had participated in the project, but they were permitted to observe from any part of the ship where they felt they would be able to contribute the most. They had two Huragok assigned to the borer in case of malfunctions, though nothing of the sort had occurred in the simulations. They had chosen an isolation destination that would be one hour away at their new estimated velocity, so the test itself was slated for two hours. Falul had already sent out a message informing the rest of the fleet of their intentions, so they had already begun the calculations for their jump.

Dr. O'Connell spent some time moving between consoles, double and triple checking the readouts they had on the borer's status, which were following the predicted models precisely. Eventually, she stopped next to McKay and let out a long breath. "You nervous?" She asked, casually.

---

Eri 'Moram - Dxun

---

As soon as the Tarentatek charged, the encounter became a fighting retreat, back towards their ambush. They needed to keep the beast in sight, keep its interest, and keep injuring it as much as possible, but all while keeping the goal in mind.

For Eri and her team, they certainly demonstrated their collective training and practice. After their initial volley, Eri's team staggered their weapons fire between each other so as to keep constant pressure on the beast. When one needed to reload, or when the attention of the Tarentatek was on him, he would dash back as possible with his thruster pack, while the others opened fire from different angles. Among Eri's team, it was make it more difficult for the Tarentatek to find its biggest threat. When Sel ran through his ammunition with his concussion rifle, he swapped to his needler, dashing back through the hallway while keeping fire on the creature. The hail of needles tracked in on the Tarentatek, embedding themselves into its scales until enough of them were brought together into a supercombine explosion.

Eri herself took a position farther back in order to give herself the time to line up her next shot. Hers was a weapon that could pierce through the beast, so she was the one most likely to be able to weaken it. As the pink mist shrouded the Tarentatek's upper body, she fired a shot towards its right ankle. Hampering its mobility was still the best way to reduce the threat it posed.

---

Vael 'Virisusai

---

Vael took on a more skeptical appearance upon the mention of Jedi. He had sought to educate himself as much as possible on the Alderaanians, but he had simply not had time to learn all there was to know about this galaxy and its history. He knew of the Jedi, from what little he had read, but was still unfamiliar with them overall.

"I shall not be so impetuous as to make assumptions about these Jedi, but I will admit my own distrust for religious orders of warriors. My people were onced enslaved by devotion to false prophets. The blood that has been shed in the name of religion in my universe could fill oceans." Vael cautioned.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

After a brief pause, Ahnasha was the first to speak up. "Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but my beast spirit is going to be awful agitated to miss the fighting tomorrow if I don't at least give it something to kill now." She answered. She undressed and found a clear spot on the ground on which to neatly stack her belongings, then transformed into her werewolf form. Lorag, then Kaleeth soon followed suit, though Meesei took a moment to examine their surroundings, particularly any scents she could detect.

"I have not sensed Vykosa since we first arrived. Still, I suppose she could be anywhere in these lands. Although...Vykosa does not strike me as the type to ambush us somewhere in a hidden grove. If she wanted to challenge me, I have a feeling she would want to have an audience." Meesei reasoned. "There might be some risk in hunting the beasts here, but if we cannot handle a few wandering Daedra, then what business would we have in trying to lead an army?" She laughed lightly.

Meesei took on her beast form as well and, for a moment, stopped to look over each and every one of the others. Her pack. Even if they all survived the invasion in good health, this still could be their last hunt together. Once all of the responsibilities regarding the invasion had passed, Sabine probably would not need too much more time to finalize her new pack, so she would be an alpha in her own right. Any of the others could certainly take that same step if they chose to, though after all they had been through, Meesei was not so sure how many of her pack would want to be leaders themselves. Some, like Kaleeth, may want to hang up their swords for good. Meesei knew she had long been tired of the fighting. Unlike most of them, she had not chosen the life of a warrior. Or at least, it was never something she had a passion for.

In any case, in this moment, Meesei could at least be grateful for this chance they had now. There was no better place for a lycan to hunt than the Hunting Grounds themselves.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

For Lorag in particular, Janius' suggestion managed to elicit a grin. "Heh, now you're talkin'. Forget sitting around and talking, when's the last time we all went out and killed something together?"

Meesei was unsurprised that Lorag was the most easily enthused by Janius' idea. Excluding Meesei, each one of them did, of course, have to allow their beast spirits to hunt from time to time to sate them, but given their schedules, it had been quite a while since they had organized one together. "I think I would enjoy a hunt, though we should certainly make sure to...respect this place. It is the Hunting Grounds; our prey may have more bite than what we are used to in Tamriel."

Ahnasha did not appear to be entirely decided at first, though that was mostly because she had not yet had the time to think about any other options they might have. Considering her history as a huntress, to make a kill in the Hunting Grounds themselves was enticing. "Hmm, that might not be a bad idea. Does anyone have any objections?"