Post: 5/20
Objectives: All!
[member="Coryth Elaris"] [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] [member="Coci Heavenshield"] [member="Judah Dashiell"] [member="Cathbodua"] [member="Nima Tann"]
Objective 1:
Tempest felt the attack on the convoy, and more importantly saw it too.
“Squad, on me! Head to coordinates…0867,” she ordered.
Jetpacks flaring the Firemane squad took off in a flurry, aiming for high ground to overlook the ambush site.
The ambush had struck at the worst (or best for the attackers) time; when it had entered a large, sweeping boulevard and square. Tempest immediately saw Kaida icing things up, the Angelii fighting, the convoy under attack. They were doing well, but they lacked the height to really make things happen.
“Kaida, check your aim, we are coming down on top of the buildings to the west of your position, providing covering fire,” she commed her friend.
Dropping down onto the Museum of Natural History – the majority of whose exhibits had long been evacuated – the Firemane unit could look down four dizzying stories behind the barricades of some of the rebels.
“Bolts and grenades, go!” she ordered.
The rebels in the small group below them literally never knew what hit them. Explosive bolts and grenades turned their fortification into a blast chamber. In seconds they were all reduced to smoking meat.
The battle was not over though, not by a long shot. One group of rebels was down, but now the others turned on these interlopers with fury.
On top of a building across the square a Sciian of some form, perhaps the leader of the attack, perhaps not, unleashed her full energies.
Before Tempest could call her group to take cover a searing blast of fire struck the parapet behind which she was sheltering. Flames licked across Tempest’s Beskar armour, but she was practically immune. Less so two of her squad who lit up like flares. Tempest called upon her power to blow wind to snuff out the fire, but she lacked the opposite power to fire – ice – to counter effectively. One of her squad was extinguished, but was still sobbing in pain, the other was kindled almost to ashes.
Growling, Tempest fired across the square with her bolter, but at this range, and against such a defence her shots hit only minions to either side.
“Sergeant, keep up your fire, I’m going to deal with them.”
Then she was off, using a mixture of Force and jetpack to vault down to rooftops and then jump clear over the street where Kaida was fighting, to combat her enemy in person.
Waiting for her were some very surprised rebels. Evidently they had raided the museum of antique weapons because they had a collection of stasers. The three of them opened a very impressive volley of fire, sending hundreds of bolts into the single figure before them.
For her part Tempest simply covered her eyes and turned slightly as if weathering a rainstorm, and in truth it did as little harm. A staser could barely penetrate plastoid, let alone Beskar.
When they were done Tempest had maybe three slight scratches on her Beskar.
One of the Rebels wisely turned and fled, but it did them no good. Scalding lightning erupted from Tempest’s hands and showed them the true power of the Force.
That left just Tempest and the Pyromancer. This would not be as simple!
XXX
Objective 1a
Tegaea, with Gould beside her, examined the findings. Elanil had determined a target location, a fissure running along the upper quadrant of the asteroid.
Passing the information swiftly to the gunnery teams the Barsen’Thor. The mighty ship moved into position, and then, at the signal from the Admiral…fired.
The blast of green energy arced through space and struck the asteroid of doom with a bright flare.
“Direct hit, sir!” the gunnery officer called.
Scanners swiftly put them out of their suspense as to the damage.
“Target well hit! Large fragment has broken off north-western side…deviation not enough to divert course sufficiently.”
Tegaea looked at the notes. Good and bad news. Instead of a 20km asteroid they were now facing a 16km asteroid, the remainder having been atomised or blown off course. Still, it was progress!
“Elanil. Next target? We’ve got one more shot before its passes us, so this is your best chance.”
Still with comm in hand she talked to Tarissa.
"Our first hit has reduced the mass of the asteroid by 1/4. We hope to whittle it down shot by shot," she told the aristocrat.
XXX
Objective 2
The Queen reflected that the Eldorai had come a long way in the last decades. For her mother, the thought of even talking to a human would have been enough to give her a paroxysm of disgust, let alone one calling her ‘Miss’, and not grovelling.
Still, these were the times, and Anya fully embraced them.
“I did, Mr Dashiell. I have not missed the efforts you have made in helping relocate my people. I wanted to convey my personal thanks for this. I also understand you’re establishing an orphanage on board your station. If there is anything I can do to aid in this, let me know. I fear there will be all too many orphans soon…as we have made the evacuation of children a priority. Do you have all you require?”
She was, for the record, actually asking. This was not a royal interview where one was meant to simply mumble affirmatively. One can only wonder how Tarissa would act as Queen if she became Ariane IV….
XXX
Objective 3
Eyrecae was the first to jump from the boat into the shallows and sand inside the cave. Before them was a wide expanse of sand bordered by a large lake which seemed very deep. Across the sand was the Xioquo defences, hastily erected barricades behind which their troops were stations. Behind that were stone emplacements leading into the tunnels beneath the mountain. On the stone emplacements were a pair of light artillery pieces. The nature of the wet sand prevented anything more being used by either side.
Eyrecae held up her hammer, then lowered it dramatically, and began to march forward. The Qadiri followed, trying to keep organised ranks for a little distance, but soon starting to break up into groups. The sand made progress, difficult, even for Eyrecae.
At two hundred yards the Xioquo, perhaps a hundred strong, opened fire, and the small cannons above fired. Those cannons had negligible impact due to the wet sand absorbing the shot and shell. The rifles though were different. Qadiri fell dead and maimed to the ground.
Eyrecae increased her pace.
“Order them on, go forward!” she called to the translators. Closer, closer she got, until she could see through the smoke the Xioquo defenders.
Bullets flew around her, several striking her armour as she was the most distinctive of all the attackers.
Eyrecae simply laughed as the lead slugs bounced off.
“Come on! Is that all you’ve got? Follow me, girls, for I cannot die!” she called to the Qadiri and began to break into a trot. Were the others following? Didn’t matter, she’d fight the Xioquo alone if she needed!
She was not, of course, counting on the watcher in the water….
