EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

For Hjergir and his warriors, the approach to attacking the tower was far more straightforward compared to the Dominion troops. Without hesitation, they charged in to deal with the Daedra holding the outside of the tower head-on. At least from what they could see from the outside, it seemed like the tower’s garrison was entirely Skaafin, so the fighting would be more familiar than when the Daedra had larger beasts among them. Still, Hjergir’s charge was not disorganized. They moved forward in ranks, overlapping their shields to protect against arrows from the top of the tower. The Khajiit cavalry, meanwhile, moved to the flanks. The tower was set in between jagged rocks on three sides, but they could still search for opportunities to deal some damage.

As planned, Sabine’s portal came well after the rest of their forces had started their assault, and the pack had to move quickly to take advantage of their element of surprise. Meesei was the first through, though the rest of he pack did not delay in following through after her. It was a short fall from the portal to the top of the tower. Meesei was prepared for it, though the sound of her feet hitting the stone, and the clanging of her dragonbone armor immediately grabbed the attention of the Skaafin at the top of the tower.

The top of the tower was a circular, mostly empty space, apart from the entrance to the stairway leading down, and a pedestal with a slightly glowing orb on top of it on the side of the tower closest to the valley. As for the Skaafin, all that remained at top once the attack had began below were the archers firing down through the arrow slits. There were eight of them, all lightly armed and lightly armored, who were clearly alarmed by the sudden arrival of a werewolf pack in close range.

Ri’vashi nodded. “Very well, Ri’vashi will send a detachment forward, have them engage the enemy, then be ‘routed’ back to a seemingly weakened portion of our lines. It will be close enough to the center, so…Khajiit supposes we shall see if Hal-Neesa truly has the power she claims to wield.”

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

“Hmm, a clever plan. The staff will make it easy enough to create one.” Meesei remarked. Hjergir and the Dominion commander were gathered as well, though the Nord was not particularly keen on getting any closer to the Thalmor than he had to. The others might have heard of the power of Meesei’s pack, but they were not as familiar with their magical capabilities and would require some explanation.

Lorag gave a look up towards the top of the tower. “We should still make sure to time this right. If we let everyone else attack from the bottom first, then we can drag their attention down from the top and we’ll get more of an element of surprise.”

Meesei nodded, then turned to Hjergir and the Dominion commander. “Have your men attack as you normally would from the base of the tower. Once you have their attention, my pack will use a portal to get to the top and fight our way down to the bottom at the same time. We will be able to crush them between us.”

Standing next to Sabine, Meesei turned her gaze up towards the top of the tower, then placed her massive hand onto Sabine’s back. “You should create the portal. You will need to do it by eye, so…just make sure to judge the distance correctly.”

Ri’vashi gave a look at their map, as well as the markers they had placed to denote the progress of their troops, and sightings of the enemy. “Perhaps a bait may not be a bad idea?” She remarked. “This one can send her warriors ahead of our lines to force the enemy into battle, but without your support, we will still be limited in how many we can fight at once. We might try, instead, to trick the enemy into committing to battle early, of their own volition. These Daedra are more soldier than beast, but they are still prideful. Impulsive. If we show what seems to be a weakness they could exploit, some of their more ambitious commanders may see it as an opportunity to earn glory.”

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

There was something of a rush to catch up to their forces moving up the mountain pass, but as a relatively small group, they could move more quickly than formations of soldiers, even with some of their slower members like Kaleeth. Do’rhajul was, notably, sticking quite close to Sabine all the way up the path, alert and with Spellbreaker in hand. Despite the fact that she was perhaps the most capable person in their whole army of protecting herself, he could not shake the feeling of responsibility he had to keep his leader safe and unharmed.

The pack had managed to catch up to their forces moving up to the northern flank and started to lead from the very front of the formation, which was split on the left and right between the Dominion unit, and Hjergir’s frontline forces. Although, Meesei made sure to insert her pack in between the two, as she definitely sensed some…tension from one of the sides. Hjergir had once been a Stormcloak commander during Ulfric’s uprising, and some of his men may have once been loyal to him as well, so having to march alongside Thalmor soldiers had him perpetually sneering. Meesei was sure that the only reason there was not more tension among them was because the Dominion soldiers had no knowledge of Hjergir’s prior allegiance, though she did still expect some judgmental glares, at minimum. Although Hjergir himself, and many of his soldiers, used Dwemer metal in their armor, they were still adorned in traditional Nordic styles. Furs and pelts were common, and Hjergir himself wore, over his helmet, a bear’s head. They did have the look of the “savage men” the Thalmor tended to look down upon.

The first of the watchtowers was close to the beginning of the mountain path, so they did not encounter any meaningful resistance before they started to close in on the first tower. Meesei’s pack did not even need to lift a finger to deal with the small scouting parties they ran into along the way, but she stopped them all short of being in range of the tower. This was the first of four towers they would need to deal with, and would likely be the easiest. The tower was a fortified outpost, but not for the kind of military invasion this realm was currently experiencing. The Daedra had not yet received reinforcements, so the tower would likely just have its normal contingent. Based on its size there probably would not be more than twenty-five to thirty Daedra, against a whole unit of Dominion troops, Hjergir’s warriors, Khajiit cavalry, Rossarm’s mages, and both Meesei and Sabine’s packs. If they wanted to, they could simply charge straight in with their combined forces, but Meesei was not sure that was the best approach.

“We need to decide quickly how we intend to attack, before they can be reinforced.” Meesei said to the others. They did have the advantage of numbers here, but the tower was quite a defensible position, even against a larger force. It was a large, stone structure with quite a few floors worth of stairs to climb within, a fortified door they would have to break down, and some light barricades around its base. If they were to simply charge straight in, there would be some losses. They would not likely lose too many soldiers, but they did need to keep up a fast pace through the mountain pass for the next three towers. If, at any point, they needed to wait for reinforcements, then the enemy would have more time to fortify, and further fights would become even more difficult. They needed to mix caution and aggression to take each tower efficiently. For this tower, they would need to decide if they wanted to destroy it, or to capture it, and how they wanted to attack. They would need to move uphill while under fire from arrows and spells, but the defenders did not have the forces available to actually slow them down on approach. They would need to deal with any Daedra that might be manning the barricades outside, then either break through the door, or destroy the tower entirely.

Near the gate, at the commanders’ table, a werevulture messenger soon landed. In addition to their scouting abilities, flying lycanthropes serves as far more effective messengers than any form of cavalry, especially for messages more complicated than what could be communicated by simple signals. Ri’vashi read the message quickly before relaying it to the others. “Our main force is proceeding into the valley, but they are being harassed by skirmishers and are facing frequent, suicidal attacks from small groups. The Daedra are trying to slow us down, give time for them to collect their army into a unified force. Our forces are having to move carefully to prevent excessive casualties. But, if we have to face the Daedric army all at once, we will be significantly outnumbered.”

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I didn't think anyone else was reading it, to be honest.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Hal-Neesa hummed to herself for a moment. “A titan? I suppose I would expect Vile to have some more powerful Daedra guarding his…” Neesa began as she looked out towards the tall tower at the far end of the valley. The twisting pillars of light around it made it even more of a beacon than it would have been otherwise. “…I do wonder exactly what that is? It does look like this realm’s version of Crystal-Like-Law. I did wonder if the counterparts in other realms would collapse as well when Summerset’s tower was destroyed. It seems they did not. Or perhaps Vile just rebuilt it? No matter, it does not change the plan. I will join the diversion force advancing through the valley. Now that I am here, Vile will see me as his primary threat.”

Neesa turned away from the table and mentally signaled for her force of undead soldiers to start advancing down the hill into the valley. Though, a grin soon came across her face. “You all should feel quite fortunate, you know? You and your soldiers are about to have the honor of experiencing something that few mortals ever witness me do: try.”

At the front of the battlefield, the effect Meesei’s pack had was quite pronounced. Not only had they stalled the Daedra’s advance, but the lines of legionnaires were now advancing down the path to finish off an enemy that had been…somewhat routed. Despite the fact that Meesei’s pack had helped open up a split in the enemy ranks, which their allies quickly took advantage of, there was no surrender for the Daedra. As beings that could not truly die, they did not stop fighting until their bodies were destroyed, no matter how hopeless the battle. For mortal armies, one could expect retreat or surrender when a fight was lost, but this was to be an exhausting battle against relentless foes.

Meesei bolted back to the front lines of their own forces just before Sabine unleashed what was essentially a meteor shower on the remaining Daedra. It was a rather spectacular display that lit up the battlefield with an orange glow of flames, and certainly rallied their own troops. What was left of the Daedra in this wave were little more than stragglers, but as tempting as it was to celebrate, they could not afford to lose their momentum. The initial wave that the Skaafin had managed to pull together was only the beginning. There would be far more ahead of them in the valley beyond, and they would be ready this time.

Of course, Meesei’s pack would not be advancing through the front line of the battlefield. They would be moving north, through the mountain pass, and taking out watchtowers as they went. They would be supporting the Dominion soldiers that Teroiah was sending up through the mountain pass and, as well, would be joined by a few teams hand-picked by Ri’vashi. Among them were a Khajiit cavalry unit led by Ri’kalesh, though instead of horses, they were mounted on the great “battlecats”, Senche-raht. Cavalry traditionally did not perform well in more restrictive, mountainous terrain, but the Senche-raht’s intelligence and physical prowess would allow them to navigate the battlefield with surprising effectiveness. Another team had formed a silent reunion between Saras and Hjergir Steel-Heart of the Riften clan, bringing with them both warriors, and some of Saras’ most accomplished agents. As well, the team of mages formed by Fendros’ father had also been assigned to the northern flank, and a few werevultures to serve as messengers.

As the bulk of their forces were advancing deeper into the valley, Meesei’s pack split off and reconvened just to the north. The fighting in the mountain pass would likely be more small-scale battles, but every bit as important. The watchtowers were valuable positions from which the Skaafin could coordinate their troops and artillery, though in a way, it was almost fortunate that they were there. They provided a convenient excuse for them to send forces to escort the Rueful Axe through the mountains towards Vile, without giving away the fact that Hal-Neesa was not his true threat.

“We need to hurry.” Meesei remarked as she turned her gaze towards the mountains. “It looks like Teroiah is already sending her forces to the pass. We need to regroup with the Dominion commander and help lead the way.”

Ahnasha walked up alongside Fendros and Sabine, guiding Leaps with her. “Do either of you want to be the one to ride Leaps into battle? I might be more useful fighting on foot.” She asked. Her first instinct was to pose the question to members of her own pack, though there was also Yerig, or any of the members of Sabine’s pack who could take up his reins.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The sheer aggression of Meesei’s pack was followed up upon by the soldiers behind them, and it definitely served its purpose to keep pressure away from the portal. Meesei herself had bolted as a streak of lightning deep into the Daedra’s ranks, then surrounded herself in a lightning form spell. It was as if she was a being of pure lightning, and even being near her was enough to receive a wounding shock. When even so much as approaching her was a risk, being surrounded on all sides could feel more like an advantage than not.

In any case, keeping the Daedra from closing in on the portal allowed them to bring through enough reinforcements to confidently repel this first attack. The Daedra had failed to reach the plateau, so they were steadily being overwhelmed by their growing opposition. However, this initial Daedric force was relatively small, in the grand scheme of the battle ahead. They were a first response, and while they had been driven back, there was far more fighting ahead.

Ri’vashi returned a nod towards Teroiah. “Yes, the bulk of my warriors will join the main force in the valley below. Once we are off this hill and down into the valley, there will be more space for them to operate as shock troops, and fill the role of cavalry. We can also send in more waves of lycan spirits ahead of us as skirmishers. The Champion’s pack, and some of my more elite teams, will be joining your soldiers through the mountain pass to take out the watchtowers, and reach…that.” She said, pointing a finger off into the distance, towards the massive tower at the other end of the valley.

At that point, a section of their reinforcements came through the portal that drew gazes, and some looks of disgust, from many of their own forces. It was Hal-Neesa, leading a formation of undead soldiers behind her. They were all in varying states of decay, with some being somewhat fresh animated corpses, and others that were nothing but bones magically bound together. The bodies were everything from Humans and Elves, to Falmer and even werewolf corpses. Hal-Neesa herself hardly even looked to be equipped for battle. The best that could be said about her was that her bright red dress did not look quite as expensive as her usual attire. She stepped through without so much as even acknowledging the looks she was receiving. She did give a quick glance up to the sun above them, but despite her vampiric nature, she did not look to be bothered by it.

Hal-Neesa went directly for the three commanders as soon as she arrived, speaking up as soon as she was close without any care for who she might have interrupted. “Is everything proceeding as planned, or do you have any fires I need to extinguish?”

Star Wars - Galaxies at War[MULTIVERSE SPACESHIP RP]

Falul 'Taham - The Immaculate Aegis

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The Kig-Yar made a quick noise, something like a squawk, with a meaning difficult to discern for one not of her kind. “Don’t give me that. Wealth isn’t money, it’s what the money represents. You’ve got this galaxy just coming out of this whole, long civil war. Billions of casualties, thousands of ruined worlds. This Empire is being founded into a suffering economy, and we can exploit that.”

Falul picked up quickly where the Kig-Yar left off. “I have been discussing this with my advisers. The Empire is a far larger and more well-equipped force than our own, but even the largest of velithra can still be bled to death by smaller hunters. The being, Elizabeth, told us that Anubis seeks worshipers to grow his power, but there is vulnerability to his Empire right now. It’s citizens are fatigued of war, and now it will find another against us before it can recover from the previous one. Anubis has already shown his…character to his subjects. As long as we do not target their civilians directly, their people with focus their anger on their new ruler. I have been told that the people of this galaxy largely do not respect his kind of…ruthlessness. There is going to be no easy nor quick victory in this war. We will need to bleed the Empire to death slowly, with precise strikes against any weakness we can find.”

Pausing briefly, Falul reached down and disabled the hologram of the Death Star, instead replacing it with a map of the galaxy. “In any case, we will need to send out scouts and gather information to find our next viable target to strike. Anubis himself will likely be out of our reach for the foreseeable future, so unless there are any among us who have knowledge of how to cripple our enemy in one, decisive attack, weakening his Empire and gathering allies are our best options for the moment. However…there are also decisions about our own fleet that we are yet to make. We have not yet decided upon a definite command structure, in or out of battle.”

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

For most of the lycan forces that rushed forward into the openings the conjurers had provided them, they struck quickly and did as much damage as they could, but did not stick around to be punished for their aggression. They made their kills, disrupted the enemy and broke apart their lines, then retreated back behind the safety of the Imperial Legion shield wall. However, Meesei’s pack proved an exception.

Kaleeth had been slower to reach the enemy than the rest of her pack, but once she arrived, her impact was immense. Quite literally. The first three ranks of Skaafin in front of her, she simply trampled over until she caught up to Janius. Spears and blades tried to stop her, but they did nothing but deflect off of her dragonbone armor. The protection it offered was not perfect, though it was easy for her to feel invincible while wearing it. She naturally wanted to stay close to Janius, and the first thing she did upon catching up to him was to protect him from a Daedroth threatening him. A Daedroth was comparable to a werecrocodile in many ways, and was one of the few Daedra strong enough to really challenge a lycanthrope. Normally, a duel between the two would be quite a struggle, but when Kaleeth arrived, she was practically a force of nature. She was already powerful enough on her own, but the enchantments on her armor enhanced her strength even further. She slammed into the Daedroth from the front and, with thanks to Sabine’s spell enhancing her agility, she got a grip around the Daedroth’s arm and twisted it backwards. Despite the Daedroth’s own, considerable strength, she was able to bend it to the point of breaking at the elbow.

The enraged Daedroth unleashed a fireball from its maw that enveloped Kaleeth, but her enchantments were strong enough to keep the damage to relatively minor burns. However, it did not stop her from growing even more enraged with the beast. With a swift movement of her arm, she thrust her claws into the Daedroth’s stomach while, at the same time, grabbing it around the throat with her other hand. It seemed like it took little effort for her to lift the massive beast up entirely above her head, for all in front of and behind her to see. With a snap of her jaws, she disemboweled the Daedroth, then threw the corpse at the Daedra in front of her.

Lorag was on Janius’ other flank, and while he did not do anything as dramatic as Kaleeth, he was every bit as deadly against his opponents, if not moreso. The confidence he could have in his defenses was shaped and tempered by his vast experience. He knew exactly when he could be aggressive, when he could ignore his enemies’ attacks, and when he needed to defend himself. Much like Janius, he was cutting down every opponent in his path. The Daedra’s formation might not have been as tight or organized as the Legion’s, but anything facing down Lorag still could not simply have turned and ran, even if it wanted to. Spears and swords would require a great deal of precision to find any gap in Lorag’s armor, and he was moving far too quickly to make that an easy task. For Skaafin or Dremora, it was easy enough to rip the shields from their hands, if they had one, then either eviscerate them with his claws, or break their skulls with his crushing strength, depending on their armor. At a glance, he could recognize which opponents could actually harm him so he could deal with them just as swiftly. The moment he saw a warhammer, or perhaps a spellsword, he could pounce upon them with unmatched ferocity to ensure he remained unthreatened.

Even with just a few individuals, the impact of Meesei’s pack could be felt across the battlefield. They could push into the Daedra’s lines, yet even as they were being surrounded, they spread a great deal of confusion among the Daedra about the fact that they were simply not dying, no matter how many of their own turned to try an overwhelm them. Along the center of the battlefield, their presence made the Daedric assault more disjointed. More fragmented. Almost by themselves, Meesei’s pack were breaking the enemy lines into two separate halves, and that was before even considering what Meesei herself was doing even deeper into the Daedric forces…

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ri’vashi too organized her warriors in the short time they had available. The legionairres formed a formidable shield wall, and Teroiah’s specialist mages provided a powerful offense, so Ri’vashi decided to carry out some of the tactics her warriors had been drilling. She organized transformed lycanthropes into columns in the narrow gaps between blocks of legionairres. The legion soldiers formed the structure of their defense, the mages could open up opportunities, and lycans were shock troops that could exploit them. At a moment’s notice, they could charge forth in front of their ranks as soon as they perceived any weakness in the enemy ahead of them. They could deal damage rapidly, then once the Daedra started placing too much focus on them, they could fall back behind allied lines just as quickly, if needed.

Meesei’s pack had the discretion to act as they chose, and she knew they would be most impactful at the front of this battle. “It seems we will have the chance to be the tip of the spear after all.” Meesei commented to Fendros before moving up through the ranks of soldiers, to the frontline.

Meesei moved to the very front of one of the columns of lycan warriors, followed closely by Lorag and Kaleeth. Ahnasha, meanwhile, climbed up onto the back of Leaps and drew her bow, while directing her atronach towards the frontline as well. She conjured another quiver of bound arrows to allow her to shoot more liberally into the enemy ranks. Her physical arrows were limited in number, and would be reserved for tougher foes.

Moving up the hill, the Daedra opposing them were greater in number than the amount of forces they had managed to bring through the portal thusfar. The enemy ranks were noticeably more dispersed, without the same kind of strict organization; however, they also had more than just Skaafin among them. Atronachs, daedroths, ogrims, spider daedra, clannfears, and hungers were just a few among those Meesei could see from her position. Other forms of humanoid Daedra, like dremora, were more difficult to pick out from the Skaafin at a distance.

Teroiah’s approach to their defense was an aggressive one, using conjured atronachs to disrupt the Daedra’s charge before they could even reach them, and that was enough for Ri’vashi to give the order to charge. Across the plateau, werewolves and other lycans sprinted forth, following right behind the frost atronachs, and Meesi’s pack was, for the most part, at the very front. The Champion’s pack were easily-identified targets for the Daedra, but actually harming them was another matter. A few Skaafin archers not in the path of the frost atronachs shot a small volley of arrows at Meesei, but against the dragonbone plate, they hardly even scratched the armor, and Meesei only barely felt the impacts.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

With the combined response of her pack, Meesei did not even come close to being touched by the Daedra surrounding her. Even if the storm of wind had not been enough to keep back the twilights, then the others’ attacks ensured nothing got through, despite the Daedra targeting her as the largest threat to the titan. Chain lightning from Ahnasha’s atronach arced between three of the twilights, and Ahnasha’s own arrows joined Fendros’ in finding whatever targets they could. Even Leaps bellowed forth a roar, followed by a stream of lightning into the air.

Regardless of how terrible Janius’ plan may or may not have been, they did not get a chance to test it. The immense power of Meesei’s spell could not be ignored, and instead of flying in for another pass, the titan behaved in a way that she never would have expected. It started to fly away. She finished charging her spell as quickly as she could and unleashed into the air a persistent, blinding storm of lightning; however, despite her power, her spell still lost strength over distance. The titan raced away from the danger, so instead of a debilitating electrocution, the lightning was only strong enough to wound it as Teroiah had. She could not take it out of the sky, as she had hoped to, and could only watch as it flew far out of range of any attack.

The Daedric titan’s retreat was both surprising and concerning for Meesei. She had never known a Daedra to run away from a fight, regardless of the odds. She had expected it to fight to its body’s destruction to do as much damage as it could, even if it was inevitably overwhelmed. To retreat was a tactical choice, so if even a portion of these Daedra observed tactics more than their own pride, it could make this battle much more difficult.

The winged twilights had managed a few hits from casting lightning into formations of soldiers, but they were ultimately more of a distraction than an actual threat against the strength of forces they had already brought through the portal. They fell quickly when they were the only opponents that remained.

It was tempting to want to catch their breath after that ambush, but while their soldiers had protected themselves admirably, the same could not be said for the fortifications they had been building. Over half of their barricades had crumbled and were burning from either cold-fire or lightning-sparked flames, and they did not have a functional siege weapon remaining. Of course, there were plenty more supplies just waiting for transport back in camp, so all that had been destroyed could easily be replaced. It would just take time that, unfortunately, they may not have.

“More Daedra!” A voice shouted out nearby. As the last of the winged twilights had been finished off, Ri’vashi had moved to the edge of the plateau to get a better look over the battlefield below, and so was the first to spot the mass of Daedra moving up the path towards them. It was, considering the amount of time they would have had to organize their response, a fairly large formation of many kinds of Daedra, primarily led by Skaafin. No doubt the lycan spirits had slowed them down, but disorganized skirmishers could not stop a Daedric army. Certainly, they outnumbered the combined forces they had managed to move through the portal so far. By the looks of things, they had only a few minutes before the Daedra would make their way up the winding path, and with their fortifications in shambles, there was a real danger of being overwhelmed.