EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ahnasha tried to hide her tears as best as she could, again putting her focus on staying positive and keeping their parting words lighthearted. “Yes…the hunt of an era, isn’t it? And while we are hunting with Hircine himself, I think I will task you, son, with finding a good spot on the wall to mount the head of a god.”

For Julan, he felt almost desperate to avoid separating from his parents. He was old enough to understand the kind of danger they would be in, but not quite old enough to be completely rational about why he could not join them. He just wanted to be able to know what was happening with them, so he would not be spending the entire time during the battle worrying about them. In his werecrocodile form, he felt powerful, almost invincible. He was already as big as a werewolf, though Kaleeth’s approach did give perspective on how much more growing he had left to do. Especially in this armor, she was imposing enough to make him feel small.

For a brief moment, Julan instinctively recoiled at Janius’ touch, but he quickly wrestled back control of his mind. Kaleeth, meanwhile, moved up alongside Janius and put her arm around his back, pulling him in close to her. Her words came much more clearly than Julan’s, and she seemed even more comfortable speaking in this form than usual. “Your day will come eventually, Julan, but right now, you have to keep yourself safe. The war against Vile is the battle we’ve been fighting, and the one we are supposed to finish. Your challenges are still ahead of you.”

Julan was silent and contemplative before Narsi’s display quickly grabbed everyone’s attention. Like her, Lorag paid little attention to the others. There was something to be proud of in her spirit, he supposed. Relative to his total strength, it hardly took any effort for him to interrupt her striking by simply reaching a hand out and pushing her, knocking her onto her rear. “Bold words. I expect you to live up to them.” He replied, though soon enough, he ended up kneeling down in front of her and letting out a sigh. “There’s a lot of ways things could have been different in your life. Different for you, different for me…but the past doesn’t change. No point in dreaming that it will. The future can change, though, and right now, you have a chance to do something with yours. To be better, and stronger, than most Orcs could ever hope to be. Even if I failed to be a father, I at least want to give you that chance. If I die, then that’s what I’ll be leaving you with, so don’t waste it.”

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ahnasha enthusiastically joined in the embrace with Fendros and Rhazii, and since she wore an open helm, she could still stand up on her toes and kiss Rhazii’s cheek. It would have been easy for her to just stay in a loving embrace with her family until they were dragged away to the battle, but she was not going to leave him without a few words of her own. She had actually spent hours thinking of what she wanted to say to Rhazii before they left, but all of that planning quickly gave way to just saying what came to her mind.

“I love you, son. You’ve already made the both of us proud, and I’m sure that’s not going to stop anytime soon. Now, I know that nothing I could possibly say is going to stop you from worrying today, but I feel like I would be disappointing you if I didn’t at least try to tell you that you don’t need to. Sure, we’re going to be invading Oblivion itself, but I can command Daedra to my will. By the time we’re done, I’ll have Vile’s armies bowing down to me.” Ahnasha grinned. It might have been an obvious exaggeration of her abilities, but she did not want everything in their last talk before the battle to be serious and foreboding.

Julan ran his hands down across the dragonbone plates. In truth, they did not feel too different to the touch than most other bones, but the difference would be made clear once something tried to actually break through it. In many ways, the fact that his parents were even wearing the armor at all in their current forms was impressive. Even if they could be calm enough to allow themselves to be equipped with armor, most lycans would not be able to use it effectively. The animal instincts of their beast spirits would make them agitated to be so encumbered and end up detracting from their focus, or even make them lose control. It took experienced, well-trained lycans to be able to do what his parents were doing. Kaleeth in particular had not even been sure she would be able to wear the full set, but at the moment, she was demonstrating a remarkable amount of control, as if her mind was not clouded in the slightest.

After a few moments of looking anxiously at the armor, Julan finally replied. “I…wish we didn’t have to split up.”

Quickly, Julan decided to throw off what he was wearing and make his own transformation into his werecrocodile form. At his age, he was still not at full size, which was easy to see when comparing him to his mother. Though, as a crocodile, he still stood as tall as his father in werewolf form, and looked to be about as physically strong. His fear and anxiety was more difficult to read in the expression of his beast form, but they had no reason to believe it had diminished. His words came more slowly and intentionally through his crocodilian snout, since he had to put a more deliberate effort into speaking, but he was still clearly speaking with his own mind. “I’ve been…practicing a lot in this form. Control, I…control it a lot better now, see? Are you sure I can’t help you?”

Lorag’s stance mirrored Narsi’s, and it was not until she spoke up that he turned his head to look at her. “Hey, you better not come up with any excuses to give up. If I die out there, I expect you to keep trainin’ here, got it? I’ve given you all you need. I trained half the warriors in this clan, so if my teaching is worth a damn, then they can train you too. If the Daedra kill me and you end up gettin’ lazy, I swear my ghost will haunt you.”

Star Wars - Galaxies at War[MULTIVERSE SPACESHIP RP]

Falul 'Taham - Aboard the Tantive IV

---

Falul considered Yiithrin’s suggestion. He was not as opposed to the idea as some of the others present, but they did make arguments against the deception that Falul could not dispute. In truth, this felt more like politics to him than warfare, and that was not where his strengths could be found. He had approached the idea of giving a message to the galaxy from the perspective of a commander inspiring the morale of his troops, but he was not sure of how to convince this galaxy to resist Anubis to begin with.

Nevertheless, Falul could still follow the points the others were making, and ultimately, he agreed that a lie was too risky at this point. “Such deception could be useful to us in the future, but only when our enemy does not have the means to disprove our lie. If the galaxy fails to believe his first attempt, Anubis may simply destroy another planet.”

Falul cast his gaze towards Anakin. He was not sure what most of the locals present knew about the Sangheili, or the rest of the fleet. Coordinating the evacuation had been such a constant effort that they had not yet had the change to brief everyone present on the full situation. “I do not know what you have learned about my people, and our fleet, but just as Anubis has crossed the boundaries of universes to conquer your galaxy, we have been brought here by one of his enemies to help destroy him. He has not, and could not have planned for us, and though we do not have the numbers to defeat his Empire openly, we have other advantages we can press. Our fleet is more than a match for his strongest ships, and we have already claimed victories in open combat. We can win battles, achieve important objectives. We should not underestimate the overwhelming force of our enemy, but if we need to convince your galaxy to fight back, we can do so with actions as well as words. If we are to give a message to inspire resistance among your people, then we should be confident in that fact. Now, who shall deliver it? I have no talent for politics, but I do know that a strong leader can be a more powerful weapon than the greatest warship. The face they see trying to rally them should be one they are familiar with, and one they believe is strong enough to succeed.”

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ahnasha stayed close by Fendros’ side, grinning up at Rhazii. Of course, even though she was trying to keep up the appearance of an upbeat, confident attitude, there was no avoiding the reality of where they were right now, and what they were doing. Rhazii and the other children had already been allowed to stay in the Hunting Grounds longer than most before the battle, and after they were done here, there would be no choice but for them to go back home. Once they parted ways here, they would only see each other again after the battle.

“It’s alright, you can take it, Rhazii. It’s not like he is going to need an extra sword taking up space on his belt during the battle.” Ahnasha remarked.

Although Julan had no apprehension about his parents’ beast forms themselves, seeing them fully armored as they were did make it somewhat harder for him to approach them. Given their roles in the clan, he knew that he was not supposed to bother them when they were doing “important” things. Consciously, he knew the situation was a bit different right now, but it still took seeing Rhazii with his own parents for him to finally approach them. Of course, even if he had not, they certainly would have called him over soon enough in any case. As for actually knowing what to say, however, Julan quickly ended up stumbling over his words. “I, um, that armor looks very…neat. Is it true that it’s better than steel and, um…metal?”

If Lorag was being honest with himself, this was a moment that he was more nervous about than the actual battle ahead. Rhazii and Julan were speaking with their parents, so Narsi was alone, and Lorag had no excuses he could use to fill his time at the moment. Giving the girl the training she deserved as both a lycan and an Orc, he could handle that, but “emotional” situations were far from being one of his strengths. He honestly was not sure if Narsi cared in the slightest about him, if she should care, or if he should even want her to care. Contrary what some might think about them, Orcs, even Lorag, were not entirely heartless, but he knew that he was no father to her. Not in the way he should have been. Lorag did start to obviously give her his attention, but he mostly just ended up staring in silence for a while. “So…” He finally uttered.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"There was just enough usable bone left for one weapon. I may have created it, but its name should be yours to choose. You're the hero that will be wielding it, after all." The Forgemaster replied. Ahnasha, naturally, took interest in what was happening now that she was equipped and ready. Especially with the comments she overheard from Fendros. She moved up alongside Fendros and immediately set her eyes onto the sword. Reaching out, she ran her fingers down the flat of the blade, though she found it somewhat annoying that she could not feel it directly through her gauntlet. She did not care quite enough to go through the trouble of removing it, though.

Ahnasha chuckled and nudged Fendros' side. "Figures that you would get the one thing that could make me feel jealous while having a Daedric sword on my belt." She remarked, calling attention to her new sword of, what would usually be, unrivaled quality. "I'm surprised you didn't choose to give it to the Champion herself, Forgemaster."

The Nord laughed, shifting somewhat in place. "Yeah, I, uh, did try to present it to her last week." He answered, shooting a glance over to Meesei, who was watching the whole exchange from nearby.

"As honored as I was by the gesture, a sword like that should go to someone who will use it." Meesei commented.

The Forgemaster nodded in response. "Aye. That blade does deserve to taste Daedric blood. Once the Champion turned it down, I had it enchanted to the specifications you gave me the last time we spoke Fendros."

As they were speaking, they would be able to hear some heavy footsteps approaching behind them, followed by a Bosmer woman's voice. "You can also have a mount fit for a hero." She said as she guided Leaps-On-Elves up to the group. Much like the rest of them, Leaps had received some improved equipment for the upcoming battle. The Bosmer, and a few other handlers, had spent the last hours carefully fitting his new saddle and additional armor. For such a massive creature as a wamasu, it was not made from anything so expensive as ebony, but he did now have plates of Dwarven metal situated strategically over his body to give him the most protection possible, without making him too agitated or encumbered to tolerate it. He did not particularly like having his joints restricted in their movement, so armor there was light, but most of his head and other vital areas were protected. Naturally, the saddle was also enchanted to protect the rider from the wamasu's own lightning.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Regardless of what form they were in, the members of Meesei’s pack serves as inspirations to their warriors, and their new armor only made that morale boost even stronger. Lorag, for this battle, was taking on his werewolf form, with dragonplate armor just as heavy as Meesei’s. For such powerful creatures as they were in their lycan forms, the weight itself meant almost nothing, and for Lorag, one of his enchantments enhanced his physical strength even farther. Between the plates of dragon bone and scales, and the ebony chainmail underneath, there was hardly a part of him that was unprotected. Since the blacksmiths only had two dragon skeletons to work with to begin with, his helmet was not made from the actual skull of the dragon as Meesei’s was, though it had been shaped with a similar visage. Aside from his strength enchantment, the rest of the magic bound to his armor focused on magical defense, making him more resistant to nearly every form of destructive magic. It would not confer complete immunity, but it would make him nearly as resilient against arcane threats as physical ones. Lorag did not have a blade integrated into his armor as Janius did, but each of the fingers on his gauntlets were tipped with a dragonbone spike to essentially serve as his claws, and to allow him to fight as he normally would in this form. One hand was even given shock enchantments, which were particularly effective against most Daedra.

Ahnasha, meanwhile, had kept her normal form, and much like Sabine, was equipped in light dragonscale armor. Normally, she was not one to wear armor at all, instead preferring to rely on magical protection, but the craftsmanship of this set was superb enough that she was practically excited to wear it into battle. Like Meesei, she did have enchantments to enhance her own magical capabilities, but instead of defense, the remainder of her enchantments focused on maneuverability. Not only did the feather enchantments make the armor seem pretty much weightless when worn, but they also quickened her movements and overall agility. The muffle enchantment also made her steps unnaturally silent, so stealth would still be an option for her. She had a matching bow to Fendros, and two blades crafted from Daedric metal. The longer of the two was a curved blade, like a saber, with a shock enchantment, while the other was shorter and straighter with a paralysis enchantment.

Of course, among the most impressive sights out of any of them was Kaleeth, transformed, and in her full armor. The largest portion of the dragon bones were used in her armor, as there was simply much more of her to protect. She was more massive than a daedroth, and with the dragonbone plates covering her from nose to tail, it was hard to imagine what could possibly even hurt her. She did not worry too much about agility, since she did not have much to begin with. She had worried that, more than most, her beast spirit would not be too accepting of wearing any parts that might restrict her movement, but Meesei had pulled her aside privately before they had gone to be equipped and gave her something to help in that regard. Now, she was wearing the full suit, which even provided some protection for her long, muscular tail, though that was mostly flexible dragon scales and chainmail, rather than plate armor. Her helmet was even tougher than Meesei’s, as the blacksmiths had essentially been able to use the other dragon skull as the helmet with only few modifications, so it retained nearly all of its natural strength. Only her lower jaw was not armored, as her bite strength was too important to her in battle to restrict it. Her enchantments were almost identical to Lorag’s, with one enhancing her already overwhelming physical strength, and the rest giving her more resistance to magic.

Kaj-Julan was not sure whether or not to be impressed or frightened of his mother. Not only did she tower over everyone else, but between that armor and the skull she was wearing on her head, she almost looked like a dragon. When Rhazii spoke up, though, he grinned, nudged him in the side, and pointed at Kaleeth. “No, she’s why they’re coming back.”

While the Forgemaster’s assistants were working on getting Kaleeth into her armor, the Forgemaster himself took a sword from a crate that had been separated from the rest. From afar, it was hard to tell if there was anything special about it, but the Nord clearly looked nervous holding it. The scabbard was finely made from polished wood and leather, but obscured the blade within.

Taking a deep breath, the Forgemaster approached Fendros directly. He held out the blade across both palms and bowed as he presented it to the Dunmer. “Fendros Avarul, it is my greatest honor to present my…finest creation to you. You will find no greater blade in Tamriel, or any plane of Oblivion.”

Upon drawing the sword from its scabbard, Fendros would find that it was not made from ebony, nor even Daedric metal, but dragonbone.

Star Wars - Galaxies at War[MULTIVERSE SPACESHIP RP]

Vael ‘Virisusai - Aboard the Assimilator

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Vael gave a nod. “I agree. We should avoid disrupting the feed. Perhaps even move some communications equipment to a dropship so we can continue it while we make use of this ship. If we do not allow our enemy to know that something has gone wrong, then they will not interfere with us. We may use the broadcast for our own ends once we have completed our task.”

---

Any casualties were returned to their ships as soon as possible, while the rest set to work on getting the ship ready for use. After multiple, thorough sensor sweeps from the Daedalus to ensure the rest of the ship was devoid of life, they restored life-support and gave the Assimilator a skeleton crew to make it operational as an evacuation vessel. Just as Vael had recommended, they moved enough communications equipment to a dropship to keep the broadcast going while they appropriated the Assimilator for their own use.

Within hours, the rest of the fleet had arrived, though they were far from the first. By giving his announcement of Alderaan’s impending destruction, Anubis himself had essentially given the call for aid to any who intended to help the Alderaanian people. Ships from Chandrila started arriving even before the Assimilator was completely occupied to assist in the evacuation, which had now began in earnest. Bail Organa and Queen Breha Organa led and coordinated the evacuation from the ground for hours, until the worsening storms forced them to move into orbit aboard Bail’s ship, the Tantive IV, to avoid disruptions to their communications. It was a task that was beyond monumental, but the Organa family had no shortage of willing volunteers to assist. Both the Jedi Anakin Skywalker and Master Yoda joined Bail on the Tantive IV, and the respective leaders of most of the fleet’s ships either joined themselves, or sent representatives to assist with the effort.

The scale of this disaster, the destruction of an entire planet, was staggering, but so too was the scale of the response. Planetary governments, philanthropic organizations, and even just individuals with a ship and a conscious, showed up to evacuate as many as they could. There was nearly an incident when vessels of Separatist make arrived from Muunilist, but given the desperate nature of the situation, and Falul’s assurances, Bail was convinced to allow them to help. The skies of Alderaan hosted a constant stream of ships of all classes and many allegiances, and there was hardly a moment when ships were not entering or dropping out of hyperspace in orbit above the planet. The destination for their evacuation was a planet called Mantor VII, which was only a system away. In hyperspace, it hardly took more than a few minutes to make the trip, so the process of boarding and disembarking often took longer than the trip itself. As such, most of the ships they had could make many trips in the day they had been given.

Under normal circumstances, no amount of volunteers would have been able to do much for the administrative nightmare of coordinating such an enormous multitude of ships with any reasonable amount of efficiency. However, the AI, Isaac, proved to be an invaluable asset. The UNSC AI had the capacity to track and send instructions to every single ship involved in the evacuation simultaneously, which allowed the rest of them to focus on high-level decision making, rather than micromanagement. Between the number of ships they had available and the surprising efficiency with which they were able to utilize them, they started out at a remarkable pace in getting people off-world. In fact, if they could have kept up their efforts at that same pace in the day they had, they could have likely evacuated every single soul off of the planet. Unfortunately, that was not what fate had in store for them.

The worsening state of Alderaan itself eventually became a substantial hindrance to their efforts. The storms had been harsh from the beginning, but they eventually engulfed every part of the planet’s surface, and they became strong enough to be hazardous to many of the ships that had come to help them. Only more resilient, usually military vessels could still brave the storms. The rest had no choice but to wait in orbit while the dropships that could still land brought people up from the surface. The Daedalus’ beaming technology also allowed them to fill the ships in orbit, but they could only teleport so many at once. Some ships did ignore the warnings and attempted to land regardless, and not all returned. As one day moved into the next, their pace had slowed to a crawl compared to when they started, but they carried on regardless. The arrival of Mon Calamari ships did reinvigorate their efforts for a time, as they were among the few, sizable ships remaining that could still weather the atmosphere. It was unfortunate that the sheer distance between Alderaan and Mon Cala meant that they could not have been there from the start.

---

Falul ‘Taham - Aboard the Tantive IV

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The bridge of the Tantive IV was currently, and had been for most of the past day, packed with more people than it was really meant to comfortably accommodate. Every member of their ragtag fleet had sent at least one representative to assist. Falul himself had decided to leave his ship in command of his second and instead help directly with the evacuation. He could not claim to have direct experience in coordinating an evacuation, but at least some of the skills involved in coordinating an invasion were still relevant. He did, for a time, have Vael take his place so he could rest. Although some of those present had not slept at all since the start of the evacuation, most notably Bail and Queen Breha themselves.

There were others from other factions outside the fleet that Bail had allowed into their makeshift command center as well. Currently Bail was standing around a holo-map displaying the planet alongside a Human woman who had identified herself as a “senator” from Chandrila. Falul did not recognize the title, and he had been far too preoccupied with the evacuation to remember the names of most of the people he had met today.

It had been three hours since the last evacuation center had been rendered entirely unlivable. Still, there had been isolated areas on the planet that sensors determined could still potentially support Human life, so the Daedalus had spent those hours scanning them for life signs. They did find small pockets of survivors that they were easily able to beam up to the Aegis but only a handful of times, and only in small numbers. The largest of the groups numbered only about fifty. For all intents and purposes, the evacuation was over. Just slightly less than half of the planet’s population of two billion was able to make it to safety.

Falul approached the holo-map, just across from Bail. They were looking at sensor scans that had been sent from the Daedalus. It was the third scan in a row that had returned no signs of life on the planet below. “I believe it is time for us to deal with the matter we discussed before. We still have access to Anubis’ broadcast. We can give your galaxy any message we want them to hear.”

Star Wars - Galaxies at War[MULTIVERSE SPACESHIP RP]

That is the meaning of sapient. It would be a fully-fledged AI.

Star Wars - Galaxies at War[MULTIVERSE SPACESHIP RP]

I have seen no actual problems that would prevent it from being accepted.

If I were to point out one thing, it is that you mentioned the ship has a sapient combat computer, @ZAVAZggg. That would be a full-fledged AI. An artificial being. I wouldn't say there is a problem with having that, but are you sure that AI is consistent with the ethos of the species' society?

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

It went without saying that there was an air of anxiety in the camp throughout the morning, but there were few present who were not professionals. Regardless of the danger ahead, all three armies had capable warriors that were prepared to face it. Since they were not directly responsible for any more preparations, Meesei’s pack had been free to spend their morning as they saw fit, but ultimately, they did need to get outfitted at least an hour or two ahead of time.

The camp itself now felt empty, as the majority of the warriors from all armies were now taking positions out in the clearing near the great gate. Meesei’s pack, meanwhile, had gathered near the tents next to the portal back to Tamriel, being outfitted in their equipment that had just been brought in from the Silent City. The children were present as well, though after this, they would need to return back to Tamriel.

Meesei, now in her werewolf form, was the first to be equipped, and in the dragonbone plate, she was truly a sight to behold. There was something fitting about a lycanthrope being protected by bone, though it certainly helped that it was also stronger than any metal that could be forged. The plates across much of her body were large and tended to overlap with one another, and any parts that were naturally spiked were kept short for practicality’s sake. Joints and other sections between plates were covered by chainmail made from ebony, and the helmet itself was, appropriately, made from the dragon’s skull. It was open enough to still allow Meesei to use her teeth in battle. Beyond its natural durability, the armor, and all of their new equipment, was enchanted to her exact specifications. Being that Meesei could still use her magic, the enchantments primarily augmented that strength, giving her an expanded magicka pool and quicker regeneration. There were also enchantments to provide additional resistance to magical attacks, in case any were to break through her wards. They were perhaps not the most unique enchantments, but they were practical, useful, and complemented her strengths.

For the others, the Forgemaster and his assistants went around one at a time to help equip each of them in the armor they had selected, either for their beast forms or normal forms. Although he tried to hide it, one could tell he was watching each of them closely for their judgments on his craftsmanship.