EliteCommander

The Cradle

The team did run into some bad luck when the enemy soldiers barged into a room that had an angle on Athena from the door itself. Vreta did mark them, but it gave him less time to warn Athena than if they had approached from any other room. Still, Vreta responded right away in giving her cover. They committed onto taking out Athena, so Vreta was able to focus one target down to score a kill, and Athena was able to make it to cover, if only narrowly.

Being that they were supersoldiers, Carthage and the rest of the Sacred Band had distinctive silhouettes, so Vreta knew right away when he had detected her. It took a moment to transition his aim, but he was able to see her the moment she was in view near the fire exit. He saw the launcher she wielded, and his implant could estimate its trajectory based on her current point of aim. She might have been able to take advantage of the opportunity, but, perhaps for reasons of pride, she inadvertently gave Vreta the time he needed to respond. The time she took to taunt Kjartan was only seconds, but on the battlefield, seconds may as well have been an eternity. Those seconds were enough for Vreta, while keeping low and out of sight, to retreat back a sufficient distance from the bus to keep his shield from breaking. Carthage had picked her target well, as Kjartan was not an immediate threat to her at range, but she may not have expected the trio of shots that Vreta sent through the fireball onto her position.

The Cradle

“I see.” Vreta answered. He kept himself in cover behind the bus, though Kjartan might have been able to see a smirk cross his face. “I see everything.” Naturally, there were some limits to what information his echolocation could give him. Anything deep within the building, in the interior hallways, were outside of his awareness, but he could see into any room open to the outside through a window or door. Vreta did stay behind the bus, though he did move from hard cover to a position where it was just the bus’ roof blocking the line of sight between him and the shooter. Vreta pointed his rifle up to the source of the shooting on the first floor, then fired, quickly and accurately, at the shooter straight through the thin metal roof of the bus. Whether Vreta got the kill or not, just forcing the shooter back to make them recharge their shields would be sufficient to buy time for the moment.

Vreta gestured towards the frontline. “We may or may not stop them, but we can stall them. Keep them from getting value out of their position. Push forward quick and get the flag. Just leave a few soldiers to help us contest the building.”

Vreta spoke first to Athena, then any other soldier that was helping to hold their flank. “I can see into the rooms. I can show you exactly which rooms they are in, and precisely when they are going to peek. The moment they peer out to shoot, you can take off their heads. Or if your railgun can pierce the walls, take them out as soon as they step into the rooms.” Vreta recommended. For the purposes of the simulation, he was not sure what surfaces could or could not be destroyed, but if Athena’s weapon could pierce the walls, then the apartments would be more of a deathtrap for them than a flanking route. “Just make sure to mark the window you’re going to handle. Everyone else, we can suppress their windows right as they are about to peek. Get kills if you can, but just stay alive and focus on keeping them from getting anything done. I’ll warn you if any of them try to leave the building.”

The Cradle

Vreta could track the fight between Thebes and Knossos. It had turned into a melee briefly, which meant that Thebes would not be able to focus on staying completely behind hard cover that Athena could not pierce. “Can you get the shot, Athena? I’ll keep him marked.”

With the number of lives they had available to them, it was not long before Kjartan was ready to head back into the fray. Ideally, Vreta wanted to try and prevent him from continually throwing himself at Carthage, because he had a feeling that she had the edge in that duel. Of course, from what he had witnessed of Kjartan’s personality, saying that directly would only encourage him to keep taking the fight. Vreta had already tried reasoning with him, so he decided to take a different approach to talking to him this time.

“I ordered a retreat from the building. With just a few soldiers, I can keep the exits locked down and keep her trapped in there.” Vreta answered. “We do that, and she won’t be able to accomplish much beyond taking a few potshots. Meanwhile, I say you march straight down the middle, bash your way through the rest of them, and take that flag straight out from under her nose. We’re filling the frontline with smoke, and I’m marking targets through it. If someone like you gets in there, you’ll slaughter them.” He said, and at least in this case, he did mean it. The current situation on the frontline was perfect for a soldier like Kjartan.

The Cradle

Vreta kept his position behind the bus and no longer tried to take shots on the front line, so the soldiers trying to suppress him were mostly just wasting their time. From the position he had, he could see the doors and windows of the apartment building perfectly fine without exposing himself to enemy fire. Even without firing a shot, he could still provide a great deal of assistance to the frontline, especially once the smoke came out.

As quickly as he could, Vreta spoke through the team-wide comms. “Help Knossos’ push! Get more smoke on the enemy; I’ll keep targets marked.” He ordered. The enemy team was winning out in the apartment; that much was undeniable. As confident as Kjartan was, Carthage had the edge on him. However, the frontline was where they could exploit their own advantage. It was a simple advantage, but one that could not be understated: the Blue team could shoot accurately through the smoke, while the Red team could not. Vreta had his implant working as fast as it could to give live updates on enemy positions based on his echolocation data. With more and more smoke covering the battlefield, now was the time to push. All his marines had to do was shoot at their HUD markers onto targets that could not meaningfully shoot back. The enemy had already used a large portion of their lethal grenades in their previous attempted push, so they would not have enough to repel this one.

The Cradle

Vreta moved behind the bus to block off the line of sight between him and Thebes, then took his other grenade in hand. It was a “scrambler” smoke grenade which, in addition to being a visual obstruction, provided disruption to enhanced vision modes, such as EM or thermal vision. Given the prevalence of augmented vision among militaries, smoke with disrupting capabilities was the norm. He landed the grenade just outside the doorway on Knossos’ flank to block off the sightline Carthage had on him, so she would have to run outside to have any impact on the front line. Since the smoke did nothing to disrupt sound waves, Vreta could still track enemy positions through it.

Since Kjartan had lost the apartment building, Vreta stopped trying to challenge Thebes and instead kept in cover while watching the windows and doors of the apartments. “Anyone still inside, retreat. I can cover the doors and keep them from giving chase. Our soldiers are holding the middle for now, so if we can keep Carthage and her squad trapped in that apartment building, they won’t be accomplishing much for their team. Every one of them in there is one less between us and the flag.”

Vreta’s conscious attention was now on the apartment exits, while his neural implant handled the live updates on enemy positions. “Knossos, Athena, work together to take out Thebes. If you can get smoke on him, Knossos, I can keep updating his position through it. He might not expect that. You don’t even need to get him out of cover. With me tracking his position, you only need to get him behind something Athena’s weapon can pierce through.”

The Cradle

Vreta was finally getting a decent amount of pressure on his own position. He dropped down quickly from the top of the bus to a more protected position behind it. He did not have quite as good of a view over the battlefield, but that mostly just affected the areas he could personally shoot. The information he could give to his allies was unchanged.

Ultimately, Vreta decided not to expose himself too much to enemy fire. He did peak from different angles around the bus to return fire on Thebes and keep him pressured, and as Thebes would discover, Vreta could definitely land his shots. However, Vreta prioritized keeping himself alive over trying to personally confirm the kill. For now, the intel he could provide to his team was more valuable than the damage he could personally deal. Even in a confusing situation, he could keep his frontline alert to threats, as well as making sure that no one from the apartments could surprise them with a flank. His zoom optics were sharp enough that he could identify that it was Thebes he was exchanging fire with, which was valuable information.

Taking cover behind the bus, Vreta tagged Thebes’ position with a high-priority mark, then opened a comm link with Knossos and Athena, specifically. “I spotted Thebes, right here. He’s looking at me right now.” He alerted them. Thebes was good enough to challenge any of them, but he could not do everything at once. One of the other two could have an opportunity to exploit.

The Cradle

The back-and-forth in the middle was pretty even at the moment. The enemy had taken out a few of Vreta’s team, but the assumption that they would be able to easily follow through and capture the position ended up costing them. Not only could Vreta still shoot accurately despite the obstructions, but sharing that intel also allowed his allies to do the same. As long as they were paying attention to their HUD, they wouldn’t get caught off-guard.

The team was still holding for now, but they had not stabilized their control of the hardpoint. Knossos had managed to take out the Agent, but he seemed to be in some trouble himself. He was the only member of the Sacred Band they had on the frontline, so he was an important person to keep alive. He could command the squads around him more effectively than Vreta could. Vreta himself did not have an angle on the source of the object that had struck Knossos, but he could still detect it. Every pulse of sound that his implant generated improved his picture of his surroundings, giving him more data to separate out static or inanimate objects from enemy combatants. He had picked out the location of Knossos’ nearest attacker, and though he could not get a shot from where he was, Athena’s weapon did not seem to have any difficulty dealing with obstructions.

“I’ve got a target for you, Athena, right here. Let’s give Knossos some help.” Vreta said as he marked the location.

The Cradle

Vreta, if nothing else, kept Thebes on his toes in his position behind the car. Before the wave of grenades, he did land a hit or two on his shields between the gaps, even if it wasn’t enough to send him back to spawn.

When the explosive barrage did come in, Vreta tried to encourage his team to remain aggressive, so as not to allow the enemy to dictate the pace of the battle. “They’re going to try to push off that. We can’t let them overtake the position. Get in some of your own grenades. I’ll mark targets.”

From a standing position, Vreta leaped up from the ground onto the roof of the bus, though he kept near the back in case he had to jump down into cover quickly. It was a more exposed position, but with all the dust in the air at the moment, there would be less eyes on him. Right now, they needed to be able to keep up the pressure, and the clouds of dust did not impede his awareness. With Vreta’s echolocation, he could continue to track their movements regardless of the dust. Anyone pushing would find themselves with taking accurate DMR fire. Though, likely more impactful was the fact that he had his implant broadcast markers for enemy movements to his allies. He wasn’t sure if all of the marines had augmented displays, but Athena at least would be able to benefit from them. Through it all, he still made sure not to tunnel vision entirely on the frontline. A subroutine in his implant was pretty much dedicated to scanning his peripheral vision for signs of threats. Being that he was far in the back, both of the apartment building exits on his side of the arena were in his field of view, so if Carthage won inside, he could at least make sure she did not get a surprise flank.

The Cradle

There was an exchange of fire, some losses on both sides as the shooting continued. Vreta had not seen any respawns as a result of his grenade, but it had served to stop the vehicle in its tracks. Most importantly, it stopped it short of reaching the middle. He could see weapons fire coming from an angle underneath the vehicle though, which was clever. It gave them a limited, but powerful angle to fire from, as return fire would be difficult for most of Vreta’s allies. Even in no one moved into a position they could shoot from it, they could deny access to certain parts of the street.

As quickly as he could, Vreta repositioned. The car was currently useful to the enemy, but that sightline could work both ways if Vreta lined himself up correctly. He decided to take his own tight angle from behind a wrecked bus. He was looking through a hole in the bus’ side and the front window, but he found an angle where he could see under the car from a distance. Between his scope and his own eyes’ zoom optics, he could see who was shooting from the other side. Firing back through a narrow space from long range would be difficult, but Vreta could make the shots. He, of course, would want to get any kills he could, but what Vreta mostly hoped to accomplish was to deny his enemy uncontested access to that angle and relieve some pressure on his allies.

“We’re doing well. We stopped that car short, so we’re closer to the middle. If we can hold that hardpoint, we’ll have the edge. Just take that point and dig in. Make them push into Athena’s sightline if they want to take it.” Vreta said through their comms.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

harging forward from the pass, Ri’vashi’s reinforcements split into two groups as they descended onto the battle below. Most of the lycans moved onto the left and right flanks, while the cavalry moved to make quick strikes and pick off stragglers. The attention that the Daedra had been focusing on the Champion’s pack was quickly shifted to their other flanks in response, though Ahnasha still kept her undead in between them and the enemy while they regrouped.

Do’rhajul returned to Sabine’s side, shield raised to protect her. Yerig followed suit, showing a few cuts and a tattered robe, but otherwise unharmed. On her other side, Kaleeth stepped up alongside Janius to the front of their formation, ready to be their spearhead once more. Ahnasha finally caught her breath enough to get back to her feet, and was at least able to conjure a bound bow for herself. Still, she stayed close to Fendros to let him be her protector. As much as she might have wanted to do more, she did not feel that she had any more miracles left in her for this fight. For now, she could be content just stepping back and taking a few shots with her bow. Half of the undead she had resurrected had fallen by this point, but it hardly mattered at this point. They had bought them the time they needed. Lorag was at the end of the line, on the other side of Janius, hanging back slightly to pounce on any opportunities the pair of them opened up for him.

Behind them, the drumming hoofbeats of the cavalry, with Ri’vashi at their lead, charged past. They moved quickly and constantly, attacking with lances and spells on any opening they could find. From their elevated positions on horseback, the Dominion mages could launch fireballs and lightning strikes into the center of the Daedra’s formation. The fact that they could change position so quickly meant it was difficult for any defending mages to ward against every attack.

Meesei joined her pack at the center, just behind Kaleeth. Their allies were already closing in on the Daedra on three fronts, and her pack would make for the fourth. She gave one more look to her left and right, to the frontline that her pack formed together. They had fought long, and could not have fought harder. In this battle, and in all before. Every battle they had fought, this entire war that had been forced upon them, had been to push towards this final resolution at the top of this hill. Vile was before them, and if this force of Daedra was the last obstacle keeping them from him, then they would just have to remove them.

Power coursed through Meesei’s body and lightning arced between her claws. Standing up straight and raising her head to the sky, she let out a vicious howl to overtake all others and signal their charge.