Muttonhawk

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Fendros wished he did not take a pause before responding, but he did. "I trust you. Let's work out the execution when we get there."

If there was any upside to the titan's arrival on the rightmost path, it was the titan's flames likely destroying the traps the other two paths had to face. However, no amount of optimism could make the consequences easier. Fendros went immediately towards their allies to try and spot his father Rossarm. Rossarm was directing his mages to join their wards in a broad barrier against the titan's breath while the other soldiers formed their confused ranks back up against the oncoming counterattack. Every one of the elite mages faced away would threaten their ability to push forward.

"Keep holding!" Rossarm barked out, his head dripping with sweat from exertion but showing no signs of losing his nerve. "The rest of you form for a joint lightning volley! And do not stop until my order!"

"Father!" Fendros edged leaps through the crowd.

Rossarm's crazed eyes snapped over to Fendros and Ahnasha.

"Ahna has a way to deal with the titan!" Fendros continued. "But we need it on the ground where she can reach it!"

Rossarm firmly shook his head. "Nonsense. It would physically tear our formation apart to get away."

Fendros hesitated, grit his teeth, and then decided now was not the time for falling back to old habits. "She'll take care of the rest as long as she can concentrate," he responded calmly. "Can you get the titan down here?"

For a moment, Rossarm's brow subtly loosened as if taken off guard. The way he looked to Ahnasha with questions in his eyes made it hard to tell whether he suspected Ahnasha's intentions or was genuinely surprised at Fendros' professional tone. Either way, he hesitated just long enough for another blast of cold fire to engulf the wards above them. Everyone flinched, but the ward held -- boosted by Fendros' own ward directed up to deflect and absorb the area around him.

Rossarm conceded. "Be ready to act. We shall bring it down for only a moment. Magi!" He raised his voice to his beleaguered subordinates. "New order! Those on lightning volleys form up for a ribbon net! At once and no later!"

"You ready?" Fendros asked Ahnasha behind him.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"At once!" Fendros pulled on Leaps' reins to turn him around. With Ahnasha on the saddle behind him, he set off back towards the last secure gap between the paths to get across to the Daedric titan's destination. The formation was held with enough of a gap for a senche-raht to fit. However, Fendros had to shout to make way for the width of a wamasu. A few soldiers were brushed or knocked off their feet in the rush.

Fendros glanced behind him once he had enough room. "What's you're idea, Ahna?" he asked.

When Kaleeth's effort gave enough room for Janius' smaller form to slip through the gap, he leapt through to give the defenders a surprise. He barged through a haphazard rank set up against Kaleeth, breaking spear shafts with his affixed axe and tearing a hole in the formation. Like a nail given a drilled hole in a plank, Kaleeth could have an easy time making her way in to cause as much damage as possible.

Janius tried to keep his wits about him in the melee. They had little enough of an idea of what they would be facing beyond the barricade.

Sabine was near the front, though she could not see what they were up against either. She occupied herself striking out with lightning and ice against those still firing arrows and spells down upon their advance.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

No worries! I've been far more guilty of that than you lately

Halo: Aegis Team

Yalu 'Suumko

Grikgar's grenade whined to a full charge a moment before Yalu dove for cover. The sound of metal blasting apart joined a flash on the walls of the pelican. He stood back up with his carbine levelled to shoot the surrounding sentinels down like flying animals.

Relief didn't come too soon as far as Yalu was concerned. He moved as prompted, though was sure to escort one of the human pilots by his upper arm to ensure he was covered by Yalu's energy shield. The human barely kept pace.

No sooner was he in the Mammoth than Yalu let the pilot go and spun around to cover Tasuma's retreat. Only when the large doors shut did he habitually replace the magazine of his carbine in three rapid movements.

"Major 'Suumko still effective," Yalu responded to Aviza. He had little else to add.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

That was a long wait between posts. Sorry about that :P

I have a week off though, so hopefully I'll be able to post more often for a bit!

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Fendros was at first unsure if the svelte fire atronachs were strong enough for the job, but he grinned at his own lack of awareness as they shrugged off the blasts around them. "Yes! Perfect!" Fendros said. "We can advance!"

The excitement in Fendros' voice was interrupted by a spell flying towards him. He raised a ward in time for an magical icicle to shatter against it. Leaps flinched back a step at the noise. Fendros turned his head around. "Hjergir! Meesei! We can charge upon them behind these Daedra if we force them to cover!"

Sabine nodded firmly at Do'rhajul and immediately carried out the suggestion. With an order, she brought the mages to the fore to sweep the path ahead. With another order, she set up archers to fire at will upon the barricades in high arcs. Even if they did not hit, they could threaten the defenders and keep them under pressure.

"Do not tarry! We have limited arrows!" She extended a hand and leaned into her contribution to the sweeping effort: After a moment to shape her new spell, she drew power from the Staff of Magnus to fire off a broadly spread hail of magical ice spikes. The individual spikes were little threat to an armoured or warded foe, but the sheer rate at which they flew from her hand meant the stationary traps could no longer hide. Behind the explosions that flew up the dirt in front of her the mist generated by the spell flowed in a cloudy sheet from her whole arm and coated the ground she stepped through.

Halo: Aegis Team

Yalu 'Suumko

The new sentinels sweeping up over the terrain were not close enough for Yalu's machine gun to focus on. Their shields radiated with stray hits but the spread bullets only knocked them a little off course.

Then in an instant he processed a sentinel gunning for Grikgar. He hardly noticed himself whip out his carbine before his machine gun clattered, dropped at his feet. "Danger close, Ultra!" Four sharp shots went straight into the damaged sentinel's 'eye'. Gravity pulled it to the dirt, thankfully unexploded. "Enemy down!" Yalu shouted.

He had his primary weapon out now. There was not a moment in the chaos to pick his machine gun back up. "These machines won't be intimidated, either!" Yalu added to Ryker's comment between downing one across under the pelican's tail, trying to cover for Commander Virisusai. Yalu put his head down and darted to the Spartan Ben to help yank up him to his feet. "Honour yourself; do not bleed!"

He turned his weapon to the side and strode, scanning for more.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The appearance of the leaping magical traps the Daedra had set made Fendros suddenly appreciate the Dominion's slower and more methodical means of advance. If Ahnasha, Leaps, and he were scouting ahead before Meesei could ward such a device, they might have been seriously hurt. And that was mentioning nothing of the casualties they would have faced marching a formation into them.

Not that their current situation was good. Fendros loosed a dark chitin arrow across to lodge in the neck of a Skaafin mage, though he could not stop to fell any more under the enemy retaliation. They could not afford to be bogged down here.

"Ahna!" Fendros said over his shoulder. "Could you summon something tough to run through these traps?"

Over in the central path, Janius, Kaleeth, Sabine, and their force made quicker time. Janius was the one who triggered the first trap. He smelled a whiff of magical fire coming to his nose right before Sabine cried out warning. He covered his face as a reflex and the blast forced him back.

The smoke cleared as Janius regained his balance. He shook his snout and growled ahead.

"Wait! There are more of them!" Sabine said, holding a spell in one hand that helped her at least see that there were illusions ahead. "They are hidden!"

The Skaafin they faced saw fit to let loose on them with similar arrows and spells from behind their barricades. Sabine brought up a ward to help cover herself and some of those behind her. She tried to figure a way through, looking past the shimmer of her ward. She did not have the time or space to set up a portal to bypass the traps. She did not have the ability to ward everyone against them. She barely had a few potions that could effectively protect against magical fire. Most of all, she was not used to being any leader in this battle.

"Do'rhajul!" She called over to the one with experience as a general. "I cannot protect everyone from these traps. How do we advance?"

Halo: Aegis Team

Yalu 'Suumko

The most eager allies took point ahead of Yalu. He made sure to find a place after Commander 'Virisusai so as not to steal unearned glory, though he was not hesitant.

Morgenstern threw herself out of the pelican, then 'Virisusai, then Tasuma, then Ryker, and then Yalu loped out with the momentum of his human machine gun. He followed Ryker until just under the tail of the pelican, ducked across to the right of the pelican's rear, and lowered himself. He the spin of his weapons barrels required a bit of correction as he levelled his aim, and then...

Shields flashed on the sentinels. They banked from the gale of high calibre rounds as bright flashes lit up the underside of the dropship tail. Sparks flew at the first two bullets that broke through the instant before a sentinel burst and fell with a heavy clatter.

Yalu stopped firing to line up with another cluster of targets. "One down!" he shouted.

More noise and tracers leapt out of Yalu's weapon. Another sentinel directed its beam across his energy shield a moment before it was overwhelmed by rapid fire.

He had an arc of beside Tasuma and Ryker covered for now. A couple more beams and he would have to withdraw to recharge.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The Dominion Commander's response was almost strangely confident. "They will work in tandem," he said, hands clasped behind his back. "My second is capable enough to direct them. Not to mention, fighting alongside their former enemies has discouraged them to show weakness."

"Let's get on with it then!" Janius pushed himself back up onto his feet and loped ahead. He stopped at the front of the formations and let out a roar that reverberated through the valley.

Sabine looked to Tarna and Do'rhajul. "I will need you both with me. This will not be easy."

"Of course, Alpha," Tarna replied with a cautious smile. "Small crowded spaces are not ideal for me, though I can still protect you two."

All the while, it took barely half a minute for the Dominion troops to split and form up in twin columns.