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Post by Red Charge on Jun 21, 2014 10:46:01 GMT -5
Manehattan was under attack, after a surprising explosion in their cannon lines, the Rainlock Forces were unable to hold the city border. It was almost as if the dogs knew where to be, because as soon as the Rainlock artillery was down, they were already upon the city, moving en mass to secure as large a foothold as they could in the shortest amount of time possible.
The Rainlock crews were quick to assemble at the area where the Diamond Dogs have breached the city's defenses, they worked their best to evacuate the civilian population. Unfortunately, the Diamond Dogs have already advanced far enough to trap an entire sector behind their forces, innocent ponies who were trapped in their homes, unable to flee. Tremor's forces may have appeared stupid, but they were definitely well trained, as they progressed in effective formations, both protecting themselves and launching counter-attacks. They quickly spread out across the buildings, taking vantage in the higher floors and using rooftops to position more dogs to cover the skies.
Delta 3 was a standard guard team, one specialist, two corporals, a sergeant and now Draft Design, Delta 1 and 2 have spread out to the flanks to prevent further advancements towards the city and the main body of populace, Draft and Delta 3 were left behind. Draft's own squad, Gamma squad was also spread out in the area as heavy weapons support. Before the Diamond Dog invasion, each location guarded by the Rainlock Security Forces had their own companies. Since they've taken charge of the entire city however, these forces were spread out and divided into sectors. Each sector had a number of companies fitting the amount of population and danger level in the sector. Each company had a name an insignia and a motto. Draft's old company, the Desert Riders was originally securing Rainlock facilities in the Griffon Desert, a vast difference in conditions compared to where they were currently fighting. As the desert mostly consisted of vast open areas, his company was designated long range and heavy weapons. Draft himself, was trained a marksman and not a close range fighter.
Delta 3 was not however part of his company (His company contained Alpha, Beta and Gamma) but rather a part of the Iron Chariots company. The Iron Chariots and Desert Riders both trained together from basic to specialization, so Draft knew his teammates well, a great relief.
At first it was completely chaotic for Draft, fire and explosions kept bursting everywhere around him in a devastating fireworks display, but soon after entering formation his trained instincts began to take hold and he could start making sense of the situation. Positioned behind a makeshift barricade, Draft, Sgt. Polar Flare, Spc. Starloft, Cpl. Cable Twist and Cpl. Urban Shade, were preparing for another wave of Blood Bearers. To their close flanks were Epsilon 1 and 2 teams Zeta and the rest of Delta squad were out of the immediate area. Epsilon 1 and 2 maintained suppressing fire. But in their current positions it was only a matter of time before they were roasted.
"We need to take this next intersection before they can use it to flank us." Polar Flare said, nodding with a smile at the newly joined Draft. Currently the cross-intersection was occupied by a company of Blood Bearers and archers. Once more Diamond Dog forces arrived however they would be able to easily flank them. They needed to push the Diamond Dogs back at least past the intersection to secure a proper foothold or risk losing the entire sector.
"Briefing says blood bearers are medium to short range combatants, so closing in would be bad. On the other hand those archers will take us out if we as much as move from here." Starloft explained, lifting his head behind cover for just a moment to peep and not a moment later an arrow glanced off the armored carriage they had been using as cover.
"Any ideas?" Polar Flare asked his team, motioning to Draft to include him as well.
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Post by Draft Design on Jun 21, 2014 11:34:41 GMT -5
It felt unreal at first. Not just because this wasn't the sort of combat environment he knew, but also because this wasn't the Manehattan he knew. With fires blazing and explosions setting off to his left and right, this place felt like anything but the city he had grown up in. It was as if that knock on the head had woken him up from reality into a nightmare.
But soon things started to sort themselves out, and once Draft was in formation he began to get a better handle on the situation. They needed to take the intersection, but the blood bearers and archers kept them vulnerable at all distances. And from back here, sitting behind this armored carriage, they were useless.
"We have them surrounded on three sides. Are their archers able to fend off an advance from that many directions?"
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Post by Red Charge on Jun 21, 2014 13:30:28 GMT -5
"You crazy? That'll just get us all out in the open. What we need to do is focus fire on the archers, Corporal," Polar turned to Cable Twist, "Call out the comm for Epsilon Squad, have them focus the archers, if we all fire at once they can't protect them all, the ratio of archer to blood bearer is too large. Pick your targets carefully and aim for center of mass, I don't want any head-hunting games, this is the real deal gentlecolts, the LT is counting on us." At that the group began loading their pneumatic crossbows. The Blood Bearers have been able to carefully divert incoming projectiles from the ponies, but Polar was right - a focused attack on the archers cannot be repelled by the smaller number of blood bearers.
As Cable Twist spread out the word to the other teams and recieved an acknowledgement, they gave pause to the fire to allow the dogs to advance slightly. "Just a little more," Polar said as they quickly approached blood-bearer range. "Just a little more..." The diamond dogs lit their blood, merely a few steps away from getting in range.
"Fire!" The sarge roared, and immediately all sprung to action, an arrow glanced off the carriage next to Draft's head as they opened fire, the volley of bolts penetrating through the Diamond Dog defenses and laying wastes to several of the archers and even a few blood bearers, opening the intersection for advancement.
"Move!" Polar shouted, his auto-reloading crossbow already sliding in the next bolt as he charged out firing. The blood bearers, surprised by the balance shift pulled back slightly to regroup, and a volley of arrows rained on the ponies. Draft heard someone from Epsilon getting hit, but the ponies didn't stop, they forced the blood bearers back, taking cover at the base of the buildings near the far side of the intersection. With the Diamond Dogs contained to that street, they were at a disadvantage. Of course, the dogs on the roof were still a big problem.
"Draft and the corporals you go up this end, Starloft and I will take the other, meet on the rooftop, Epsilon 2 will hold ground, Epsilon 1 will get the other building." Polar ordered.
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Post by Draft Design on Jun 21, 2014 13:51:48 GMT -5
Draft bit his tongue as the sergeant shot down his suggestion. Focused fire was a much better tactic. Draft's idea of a three way advance had been a very weak proposal, and he knew that when he'd said it. If he didn't have a good idea, maybe he needed to keep his mouth shut. There was no point in wasting anyone's time when someone else likely had a not-so-useless suggestion.
Draft got into position as he was ordered, waiting for the command to fire at the enemy archers. He kept his hoof on the trigger and his crossbow as steady as he could, letting loose a bolt from his crossbow as soon as he heard the word from the sergeant's lips. An arrow nearly hitting his head caused Draft to duck down, but only for a moment as he reloaded his crossbow to fire again.
The ponies had soon pushed the diamond dogs back away from the intersection, and now the rooftop archers were there next target. Draft nodded at the sergeant's order, going with the other corporals up their end of the building.
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Post by Red Charge on Jun 21, 2014 14:48:27 GMT -5
Clambering up the fire escapes, Draft and the corporals worked their way up quickly, only to find their route broken halfway through. The fire escape was sabotaged by the diamond dogs! No easy way up it seemed. Cable Twist broke through a window, the apartment was fortunately empty, they needed to proceed carefully through the corridors, if the fight spilled into any apartments, innocent ponies could be hurt.
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Post by Draft Design on Jun 21, 2014 14:54:33 GMT -5
Draft followed the other two corporals through the window into the apartment building. The corporal didn't dare say anything, trying to be as quiet as possible. The last thing he wanted was to give away their position, which at worst could result in civilian ponies getting caught in the crossfire.
Bring up the rear, Draft made it an issue to guard their flank. If a dog tried to catch them off guard, they needed to be able to react fast.
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Post by Red Charge on Jun 21, 2014 15:17:32 GMT -5
No dogs were in the corridors at this level, the apartments around them remained shut as they headed towards the stairwell. Apparently the dogs either did not have time to send anyone down to fight, or they were setting an ambush on the upper floors. The group advanced quietly and reached the opening of the stairwell. "Think it's safe to go in through here? I say we continue up the side of the building through one of these apartments." Urban Shade said.
"No, they know we're pegasi, they'll be expecting that won't they?" Cable Twist retorted, the two argued shortly before turning to Draft.
"Your call buddy."
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Post by Draft Design on Jun 21, 2014 15:29:47 GMT -5
"They sabotaged the fire escape to force us in here. Wouldn't be surprised if they're defending what they think is the only way up. Vote goes to continuing up the side."
"Watch for civilians. We don't know how they're gonna react."
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Post by Red Charge on Jun 21, 2014 16:17:25 GMT -5
"Up it is." Urban agreed heartily, sneaking through the apartment they entered through, they hovered along the side of the building facing an alley on the Rainlock side of the conflict and slowly hovered up one floor at a time. Diamond Dogs had extremely sensitive hearing so every flap had to be coordinated to an explosion from the ongoing battle beneath them. Eventually they were right beneath the ledge to the roof, apparently they managed to remain unseen sticking to the side of the building. Urban Shade crawled along the ledge until he reached an air conditioning vent which he could hide behind and then pulled himself up silently, peeking around. He pressed his hoof against his forearm twice, three, four times. Four hostiles on the roof, he indicated a slashing movement on his wrist, to be interpreted as blood bearer, then pressed his forearm again twice. Four Diamond Dogs, two blood bearers. Quite the fight. They could probably take down a couple of archers, maybe a blood bender if they were lucky but then they'd be disadvantaged. This time, however, Draft's plan from before would work best.
Shade signaled the two pegasi to spread out to the corners of the building for maximum surprise. He would act as a diversion, hopefully nailing one of the archers and allowing Draft and Cable to get the blood bearers down at the very least.
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Post by Draft Design on Jun 21, 2014 16:30:56 GMT -5
Draft nodded, to show he understood Urban's signals. As Cable made his way to one corner of the roof, Draft headed towards the other, mimicking the three's behavior of movement during their ascent. If something went poorly, the three would need to react fast. Draft or Cable getting noticed was undesirable, but if it happened, the noticed pony could swap out Urban's role as the diversion.
Draft also had to make sure to keep distance if things went so bad that the blood bearers couldn't be taken out. Like Starloft had said, they were best at close-medium range. Hopefully it would be a non-issue.
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Post by Red Charge on Jun 21, 2014 16:52:00 GMT -5
Draft nearly fell off the ledge twice as he crawled along it, but fortunately for him, whatever noise he made either went ignored or unnoticed by the Diamond Dogs. He could hear the strings of their bows occasionally firing arrows at his compatriots. After he and Cable got in position, they exchanged signals. Once they did, Urban burst forth, shooting at a Blood Bearer. Immediately all eyes turned at him, prompting Draft and Cable to fire. One of the blood bearers was caught by Draft dead in the back of the neck, taking him down immediately. The one attacked by Cable however, was quick enough to protect himself with his blood, redirecting Cable's bolt.
The archers split up, two firing and Shade and one on Draft and Cable each. The last remaining blood bearer charged at Draft, who he interpreted as the bigger danger. He was close enough to launch an attack and two sprays of blood quickly coated the vent Draft was hiding behind, immediately eating through the metal, revealing the pony and exposing him.
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Post by Draft Design on Jun 21, 2014 17:11:16 GMT -5
Two direct hits to one of the blood bearer's, bringing one threat down. Cable's was quicker to react, however, able to put up a defense before the bolt made contact. The blood bearer, and an archer, soon had their focus on Draft, the former doing away with the air vent he had been using as cover.
"Distance, distance," Draft recited, firing a shot at the blood bearer as he tried to swoop out of the dog's range. He needed to stay moving and put the blood bearer on the defense. And he needed someone take out the blood bearer. Draft didn't have high hopes of his own bolts making contact while it was focused on him.
There were four archers and a blood bearer against three pegasi. Starloft and Polar Flare's arrival would have been much appreciated.
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Post by Red Charge on Jun 22, 2014 14:52:19 GMT -5
Unfortunately, distance was not the best option, as the archer trained on Draft immediately let loose a barrage of simultaneous arrows in Draft's direction, one of them scratching his side but another pierced the stem of his wing painfully. It didn't pierce any major blood vessels, but it did slow Draft down and made every flap a painful one. At least until he could remove it.
A sudden explosion threw Urban Shade off the side of the building, glancing over, the others could see what had occurred, what they had marked as an archer before, was not just an archer, but a blood bearer archer. Using his blood, the bearer archer turned his arrows explosive. Urban Shade's fate remained unknown for now, but with another blood bearer between them and occupation of the roof and one of their numbers down the situation seemed dire. Cable Twist was able to cause his archer foe to retreat behind cover and turned to try and assist Draft with his blood bearer, managing to snap his side. The blood bearer however showed great endurance and took the arrow like a warrior, staying in the fight and still focused on Draft, while the archers previously trained on Urban Shade now fired at Cable, decimating his cover.
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Post by Draft Design on Jun 22, 2014 15:26:38 GMT -5
Trying to keep his distance from the blood bearer had let one of the archers get a hit on his wing. Now in the air he was a slow moving target, and another shot to his wing could send him plummeting. He needed to stay above the roof to keep such a thing from happening.
To make matters worse, the dogs were now up one blood bearer while the corporals were down one pony. Draft was still doubtful he could get a shot on the blood bearer focused on him, considering how easily it had deflected Cable's bolt earlier. He could at least take out the archer though, something he needed to do before he could divert his attention to helping Cable.
With his injured wing slowing down his air movement, the pegasus landed onto the roof, taking aim at the diamond dog archer focused on him.
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Post by Red Charge on Jun 22, 2014 15:34:29 GMT -5
Stopping in the open was a bad idea, immediately Draft's archer let loose another arrow, striking Draft dead center. Fortunately his tough front absorbed most of the impact, but the arrows used were the fierce bodkin kind, though it was lodged in muscle rather than organs, it caused much damage and immediately Draft's forehoof slumped down, unable to carry the weight of his crossbow.
To his fortune however, Polar and Starloft, a mere second later burst through the door, Starloft using a surprise telekinesis attack to throw the archers off of the roof while the sergeant immediately zoomed forwards, using his talent to creating frost to stiffen the blood bearer's movement, allowing Cable another shot at them. Urban Shade also rejoined the struggle and was able to shoot down the blood bearer archer in the small of the back, paralyzing his legs and causing it to fall in a heap on the floor, writing.
The final blood bearer, seeing the odds stacked against him, decided to pull out, jumping off the roof top and down the broken fire escape, where he was picked off by a member of Epsilon squad.
Immediately Starloft tended to Urban Shade's burns and Draft's wounds.
"Curse it all Draft, your hot head is going to get you killed one day." Polar said with a sigh, as Starloft began the excruciatingly painful procedure to remove the arrow.
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