Raider Assault - Air Division

[get_off_my_lawn]

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.]

Comments

[grandtheftmecha]

About as inconvenient a place for a quiver as it could be, for Katina, and she couldn't do anything but swipe her sword at him as he quickly fired a second arrow. This time, she missed her swing entirely, the arrow grazing her side and digging into the light armor she wore.

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.

[not_the_ship]

"Stop that nonsense," Temeraire's voice rumbles from above, and one of his massive talons comes down on the rake's shoulders, torquing the entire creature level. If the drake hadn't been so neatly immobilized, it would have frozen anyway from something much larger than itself growling at it.

"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.

[grandtheftmecha]

"Ah... shit, didn't actually figure out how I was gonna do that." Katina scoots up the drake's body a bit, pulling a rope from her side to loop around it's neck as an extremely rudimentary bit of control. "I'm doing good now, though I dunno if it'll listen to me well enough to fight the others yet."

[not_the_ship]

Temeraire's reply was cut short; while he had been manhandling the drake, others had surged in t take advantage of his distraction. A formation of drakes all but smashed into his side, shaking the captured drake out of his talons and knocking the bigger dragon sideways with a roar of surprise.

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.

[grandtheftmecha]

"Shit shit shit!" Now Katina's forced to cling again, holding the rope tight until she can spare a free hand.

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.

[not_the_ship]

The drakes were not as used to the sound of gunfire as Temeraire was; most of his own crew had brought swords and bows rather than risk gunpowder around the firebreathers. The shot went wide, but the sound alone was enough to startle the lead drake away from the dragon's side and fragment the formation.

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.

[grandtheftmecha]

That didn't really go quite as planned either. Sure, scattering their attackers worked out in their favor, and it was satisfying to see one brought down because of her interruption, but her own drake was just as skittish about guns, darting off to the side as Katina held on for dear life.

On top of that, the riders pursuing them, and their drakes, were much more familiar to Katina's mount than Katina herself, so it wasn't exactly ready to avoid them. "Hey! HEY! They aren't your friends any more! Get a move on!"

[not_the_ship]

Temeraire bought Katina a little more time to make a pass; seeing an opportunity, the dragon threw himself bodily downwards in the air, between Katina's drake and her pursuers--momentarily throwing them into further disarray. He was now at a lower altitude, though--and a puff of firey breath scorched the end of his tail as he passed by.

[grandtheftmecha]

"Ah damn... oi!" She yanked her improvised reins, then pressed forward on the drake's back, bucking it through the air, trying to at least make her flight erratic and hard to follow. Fortunately, the raiders hadn't taken any shots at her yet, but she needed Temeraire to actually have a decent shot at taking them down, unless they decided to close in to melee combat.