Taryn Shadow-Walker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
get_off_my_lawn) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
imperial_stage2012-06-24 10:11 am
get_off_my_lawn) wrote in imperial_stage2012-06-24 10:11 am
Raider Assault - Air Division
Who: Taryn, Arturia, Nero, Lleld, Katina, Kusuha, Temeraire, bird beastmen npcs, British npc riders and a possible appearance from Viridi
What: Pre-battle and during battle fights against firedrakes, their mounts, and their camp. The plan is here.
When: June 15th our time - early morning (pre-battle) and actual battle
Where: Raider Camp in the West
Warnings: All the things that come with action movies; blood, violence, cursing, etc
[The battle itself will be run in two parts after the initial assault, when the two groups separate. The raiders will use hit and run skirmish tactics once they can properly react, moving in wings of three. We'll successfully capture 25 drakes, and the combined air/ground forces take out approximately 100 men and 100 drakes. Remember there's a nasty shrapnel ceiling launched from the ground forces to keep the drakes from flying too high.]
What: Pre-battle and during battle fights against firedrakes, their mounts, and their camp. The plan is here.
When: June 15th our time - early morning (pre-battle) and actual battle
Where: Raider Camp in the West
Warnings: All the things that come with action movies; blood, violence, cursing, etc
[The battle itself will be run in two parts after the initial assault, when the two groups separate. The raiders will use hit and run skirmish tactics once they can properly react, moving in wings of three. We'll successfully capture 25 drakes, and the combined air/ground forces take out approximately 100 men and 100 drakes. Remember there's a nasty shrapnel ceiling launched from the ground forces to keep the drakes from flying too high.]
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But with the prospect of battle so close he had but to reach his claws out to reach it, his discipline wavered at times. He would burst forwards with a rush of speed, only to fall back again to a safer distance when his head caught back up with his instinct. He couldn't help it, or certainly thought he couldn't; there were opponents in front of him, in just a few dozen wingbeats' reach. Small opponents, to be sure, but his adrenaline was up enough to ignore that fact.
When Taryn's Howl went out the dragon seemed to twitch, the call seeming to reverberate through his armor and his harness. But as startled as he was, Temeraire soon recovered; shaking his head back and forth and giving his own roar. Even with the edge of the divine wind in it, Temeraire's wasn't nearly as impressive. But he gathered himself, scooped his wings forwards like great oars and raised his claws just before impact with the first ranks of drakes.
He brought his armored chest to bear most of the impacts, leaving the soldiers in the belly rigging and on his back free to act.
((OOC: Feel free to make separate subthreads for boarding! Temeraire will be making several passes if he can.))
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Kusuha is even more nervous than usual going into battle, having never done so strapped to the back of a young dragon. She could take comfort in the fact that she was in her Grungust armor, which should in theory protect her from any accidental falls as well as enemy attacks - although the reassurances of 'you'll be high up enough all the extra weight won't make you hit the ground any faster' had done the opposite of reassure her.
As the dragon surges forward to attack, Kusuha focuses her mind as hard as she can - partly to get ready to make a magical attack with the Grungust, but mostly to avoid losing her breakfast. Opening her eyes, she focuses on one of the raiders - but not his drake. With a shout, she focuses her mana through the Grungust, turning her normal white magic into a beam of magical energy that lances out toward the enemy, her armor functioning like a magical turret attached to an enormous living airship.
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The dragon roared again in frustration, even as he whipped his long tail to the side--altering his course, but also smacking one of the unlucky drakes backwards to where he could seize it in his teeth. The unfortunate creature shrieked as the much larger dragon dragged it backwards in the air by its tail and hind leg. The instant it was close enough, several soldiers lunged from the belly rigging onto the drake's back. Temeraire released the creature to its fate, and charged onwards to the next. He would have doubled back on himself like a snake, to engage the tail end of that formation--but he had to keep himself steady. A firing platform.
The beam of light tearing out from his back reminded him just why he had to fight the temptation. The magic seemed to startle the drakes with its brightness; even Temeraire had to squint his own for a moment. But the sound of startled squalling was enough to guide him on its own, and his forearms and talons spread wide as if in an embrace to seize the next drake.
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Still, she can feel the flow of magic around her in a way she seldom can while on solid ground. She can almost feel the people around her - Temeraire most strongly, being huge and a dragon, but her fellow soldiers and the enemies included. Noticing this, she decides to go for broke and try a new feature the royal artificers had installed on the Grungust after her last fight with Avshar's Riftspawn.
Drawing her arm partway back, she pulls a lever inside the armor's elbow, causing the oversized gauntlet to shoot out with a small magical explosion and shove the pilot of an enemy drake right off his mount! The launched fist, attached by winch and chain to the Grungust's arm, grabs onto the drake's saddle like a grappling hook, pulling it back. Kusuha remains stunned for a moment that that actually worked.
"Um, Temeraire! One more on your right!" she shouts, hoping the dragon can grab and secure both targets, or at least keep them in distance to be boarded by lighter soldiers strapped to his torso.
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There was little elegance to the maneuver; just bulldozing through with his sheer weight advantage, but it did work. He did start a bit at the explosion whistling past his head, even used to rifle volleys as he was. As the now riderless drake was drawn in by the gauntlet, it spat panicked puffs of flame that almost singed the dragon's whiskers and did scorch the gloss out of a patch of unarmored scale on his chest and made him toss his head.
"Oh, that is enough from you!" Temeraire growled, and his left forearm changed direction to catch the drake and pin it against his chest like a child's doll. Another British soldier crossed from the rigging to the drake, and Temeraire released the creature before it blew any more irritating flames.
Then his ruff prickled, the only overt sign that he had heard before his right forearm to darted out to snatch the target Kusuha indicated. Its rider was more prepared than the beast, however, and almost immediately started jabbing at the armored knuckles with a spear. It was enough to make the dragon hiss and twitch and very nearly drop the drake.
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She looks to the heavy cables attaching her Grungust to Temeraire's harness. They were attached to winches that theoretically would let her move around, though she had been explicitly told it was risky by the engineers. Still, given a choice between letting Temeraire get stabbed and possibly unbalancing him, she chooses the latter option. Making the Grungust draw its sword now that its fist had been winched back into place, Kusuha carefully begins climbing the heavy machine down around the dragon's right side to try and get within reach of the troublesome rider.
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Not that he left the dragon completely alone; the drake had overcome its surprise, and started breathing a plume of flame at the much bigger dragon's opposite shoulder. The heat made him start and growl again, but he couldn't do anything else that would bring more targets in range of that spear. And the rider was too close to roar away at. He could always drop the creature, but that would defeat their purpose...
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Kusuha doesn't feel endangered by the spear, particularly, but it would be alarmingly easy for the rider to make the armor lose its grip or its balance and fall at this angle. Acting on adrenaline and reflex, she powers up the Grungust's magical cannon and fires it again at point-blank. She closes her eyes as she does so, and when they're open again, the drake in front of them is riderless. "S-sorry..." she mutters. At least that should make the drake easier for Temeraire to handle.
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As his armor cooled, Temeraire snapped his teeth and snarled at the creature, which recoiled with a squall even as three boarding soldiers made the leap across at once. One did not secure himself in time, and plummeted off of the side with a shout--and out of sight, Hopefully one of the winged beastmen caught him...but it was enough to make the soldiers aboard the drake seize the reins with all haste to send the creature diving like a stone after him.
It also made Temeraire's shoulders huddle a bit, even as he stared down after the shrinking figures. He couldn't break formation again, he kept telling himself--or more soldiers would follow.
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"Make sure you take care of yourself... I only need one good shot at this!"
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When the drake darted to the right, the dragon lashed to follow it like a snake, closing the distance sharply until the drake crashed into his chest broadside instead of making a proper pass.
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Ergo, it was the perfect target for Katina.
Holding on tightly, she waited right up until the moment of impact to throw herself out, down, and around Temeraire, flinging herself onto the briefly entangled drake, sword drawn and swinging in a wide circle at the rider. "Knock him off balance!"
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But very next moment he had disappeared; the saddle cut loose and empty and flapping against the drake turned almost sideways like a flag. The rider's last attempt to save himself was to grab the reins as he fell, which twisted the drake's head sideways and down at an awkward angle that made the beast shriek again.
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By the time she'd recovered enough to swing again, he was gone, though, leaving her bareback on an angry, pained drake. Maybe not the BEST plan ever, and it takes a lot of strength out of her just to get into a position where she can hold on.
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"Are you all right?", the dragon asked Katina this time, still holding the drake as if it were a toy as it attempted to squirm away.
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He could not finish what he had been going to say, only twist and snarl and raise his claws to engage these new threats. Katina was on her own for the moment.
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She can't just let Temeraire fight everything off on his own, no matter how big and awesome he is - she quickly pulls out a pistol, firing a shaky shot at a drake pulling away from Temeraire for another charge.
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His head whipped around like a snake, and the massive jaws snapped shut on the lead drake's neck and forequarters. No time for boarding this go around; Temeraire shook the drake back and forth like a dog worrying a rat until bones crunched and the neck snapped. The dragon released the spasming creature to fall to earth, like a bloodied leaf.
The beasts on the tail of the now fragmented formation had changed targets from Temeraire to Katina, two of them, both behind and slightly above Katina's drake.
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It was frustrating, because waiting meant she stayed out of the action for quite a while, outside of deflecting arrows or other such attacks from enemies. She had no ranged weapons, and the other soldiers were doing a fantastic job keeping the drakes and their riders at bay, so that really left Nero with nothing to do.
Until now! With the rest of the boarding party gone, it was finally Nero's turn. And boy did she look eager, even as she continued to fend off the occasional attack.
"Now, Temeraire! Find me the strongest, most capable drake you can spot! One that can match my abilities as closely as possible!"
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But the roar also disrupted the rank, breaking it up from a smoothly disciplined maneuver to shrieking, backwinging drakes wheeling this way and that. The one flying highest in the formation toppled from the sky completely, blood streaming from its nostrils. Still others lost their riders, but one of the most notice was the drake that crashed down on Temeraire's back, missing Nero but causing the big dragon to nearly buckle in surprise.
Even as big as he was, if most of the boarding soldiers hadn't already been deployed, they would have been crushed. The drake had landed on its belly, aft of Temeraire's shoulders and signal flags and where Nero was sitting. The creature still possessed a rider, but was too busy scrabbling at Temeraire's armor trying to regain traction to breathe any fire.
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She couldn't muse on Temeraire's strength for too long, though, as the drake that had been shot down landed nearby. Large enough to disrupt the dragon's flight even for a second, and strong enough to still put up a fight?
Perfect.
With the lance her cousin had given her still strapped to her back, Nero unsheathed her blade - a common gladius, as she was still without Aestus Estus - and charged. She approached from behind the beast, using its hindquarters as a step up so she could launch a strike at it's rider.
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Temeraire had come to a hovering stop in the newly vacant altitude, where he had to look down to see the other drakes wheeling like so many birds. Instead, though, he was snarling and snapping and otherwise occupied with his new and entirely unwelcome passenger.
"Off!"
But he couldn't just roll to dislodge it, at least not this instant--Nero hadn't locked on yet, and he would inevitably throw her as much as the drake. And that was also bad.
On the other hand, the armor on his back was mostly chainmail, to allow the dragon to make full use of his flexibility; as reinforced as it was, the harness was still flammable. No amount of wire and chain sewn in could fix that and remain pliable.