(no subject)

[revanisms]

Who: Those who are a part of the ground forces here.
What: Pre-battle and during battle fights against firedrakes, their mounts, and their camp.
When: June 14th-15th our time
Where: Raider Camp in the West
Warnings: All the things that come with action movies; blood, violence, cursing, etc

[Remember the plan laid out here. Revan will hold a briefing once all forces are gathered to make sure various groups know what to do in the fight without stepping on the toes of everyone else. He's looking for cooperation, not big-damn-hero syndrome. You know what you need to do so get to it.]

Comments

Pre-Battle - Night Before

[revanisms]

[Gather your troops because if you want to do your inspirational speeches, now is the time. Make sure to ask army leader's permission before you start sermonizing to some other army or some might end up irritated, who knows.]

Battle Proper

[revanisms]

[You're up early and the other guys certain know you're here but....]

FIRE!

[Revan opens the stage with an artillery bombardment on the camp so the vanguard forces can take advantage of the confusion. In the meantime, the rest of his army of beastmen are preparing for mounted fliers, wielding massive bows with nasty looking arrows that are tied off to rope. Yeah, they're going to do this beastman style.]

Pre-Battle - Night Before

[greyerrant]

[ No speeches from Loken tonight. This isn't his command. The Crusade company looks more heavily laden than normal, though strange new wards are crusted on their shields, and a keen eye can tell some of them are carrying man-pack siege weapons, mostly two man ballistae or bolt-throwers. He's obviously banking on engaging forces at range, even with the vanguard.

That being said, he does approach Revan, and says.]

Tell me again how you want me to dispose the Crusade Company. I would make no mistake in this battle.

[revanisms]

[He peeks up from his maps, face inscrutable from under his mask.]

You have the glory of being first in the battle. You and your men will assault their camp directly.

[It goes without saying what the casualties would be like.]

You are there to make sure they take to the air for the second wave of the attack from our own airborne allies. Then the rest of us will drag them back to the ground. If you can capture any mounts, please do so.

Re: Battle Proper

[formerly_known_as_prince]

[Utena's been crouching in the dirt for hours and her calves burn like riftfire. In her black copper armor, packed with a soaked undershirt and breeches, she feels sweaty and bloated....until the first pieces of artillery crash and boom and splinter among the rider camp and their morning routine is replaced by spiking adrenaline, swords drawn.

She sprints from her hiding place, and as she gains acceleration, she seems to gain something else. She's thinking of the villages that the raiders burned, the weeping of peasants. Her sword seems to be brighter, and soon she's bright too, blindingly so in the anemic rays of dawn.

She thinks of hovels on fire and the first dragonrider is down before his sword is even all the way drawn, what was supposed to be a parry turning into a chop that bites into his wrist. He brings his arm up in disbelief to stare at the hand that now hangs by a useless strip of mangled bone and skin from his wrist. Blood spurts his tied beard and another slash opens his carotid. She's moving and parrying the next one now and blindingly bright. Everything around her feels slow and archetypal, as if the whole battle were a tale told long ago and her opponents are faceless minions with no name. She grapples with one, trips him to the ground and stomps on his head, to propel herself into a lunge that drops her weight and that of the edge of her sword onto a third rider.

Anyone who can sense magic will feel it radiating off of her in heavy waves.]

Re: Pre-Battle - Night Before

[formerly_known_as_prince]

[Before anything else though, Utena needs a mage. She's asking around the camp for one.]

[path_to_the_world]

[Depending on who Utenta talked to, some of them might have pointed out Tyrnen who tried to keep to himself and out of the way. He was a thin and small teenager, the sort of person you would never expect to see on a battle field. However he had offered his skills in magic to the fight, so he tried to listen to what everyone might have to say before the final day.]

[greyerrant]

You have an interesting definition of glory. [ Garviel thinks back to the Escalade assault where the 10th and the War Hounds suffered so grievously when the Knights of the brotherhood mined the breach, and his expression grows distant, and quite flat. ]

I'll undertake the assault as ordered, and will do my best to force their hand, and lure them into the skies. As for capturing the mounts.... I'm afraid the extra materiel I requested before this undertaking is sub-optimal for that. We're more likely to kill a few of them, but I don't suppose that is too big a problem as long as we aren't slaying them all, and I certainly won't have my men interfere with your capture efforts.

[formerly_known_as_prince]

[Utena softens at the sight of their young mage. He reminded her of...what was his name...Miki, somehow.]

Hi there.

[revanisms]

First in, last out is a statement many would die for as long as they're associated with it.

Kill as many as you need to. Capturing is only something I want to see if it's prudent. Better dead than alive and your own wounded or dead.

[path_to_the_world]

[He looks up slowly, unsure of why anyone was approaching him.]

Hello.

[He paused for a moment before adding a bit more.]

May I help you?

[greyerrant]

Understood. Any other instructions?

[revanisms]

Kill as many as you can. Mounts are one thing. Prisoners are not to be taken.

[greyerrant]

You don't think they might provide valuable intelligence? [ Loken looks honestly perplexed by the idea of not taking humans prisoner when possible. They can always be re-educated later, after all. ]

[revanisms]

No, I don't. They came here with one idea in mind and I feel it's only proper to return that idea back to them.

[greyerrant]

It is your command to make, but information is victory. [ With that boring quote of the Codex Astartes, Garviel shrugs. ]

[revanisms]

In this case, power is victory and power will be something they will lack.

Re: Battle Proper

[greyerrant]

Crusade company, forward! [ Loken points the way with drawn Gladius, letting the heavily armored and armed infantry troopers that make up the majority of the company file into ranks at his side. ]

[formerly_known_as_prince]

Hi, ah...I need help. I need a magician to say an incantation and...help me draw a sword.

[path_to_the_world]

[He tilted his head a bit unsure if he was understanding the words. Individually they made sense, but somewhere along the way of putting them together he felt lost.]

Draw a sword? I'm not sure I quite understand. Like conjure a sword?

[captainofthe10th]

I'll see to my men.

[revanisms]

[Revan waves him off.

Why yes, he's hoping for lots of casualties. He's cruel like that.]

[revanisms]

[Revan sticks with his artillery but as Garviel's men move forward, he ushers some men up, all carrying multiple flags. They're there to communicate with the force hanging behind, to warn of any incoming forces.]