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Post by Draft Design on Jun 22, 2014 15:49:17 GMT -5
The archer had gotten to him before Draft even had the chance to take the shot. With an arrow lodged into his muscles, the pegasus couldn't even manage to hold onto his crossbow, leaving him unarmed and an easy target.
To his luck, Polar and Starloft had arrived to even the odds. Even Urban had reappeared, and the four capable ponies were soon able to clear out the roof within seconds. Now there was just Draft, a useless sack of sand with an arrow in his chest.
The pegasus kept quiet as Starloft took care of the arrows jutting into him. He didn't have anything to say back to the Sergeant. He wasn't one for excuses, and he wasn't going to disagree with Polar.
Not that he could say anything once Starloft began removing the arrow in his front. It took most of his concentration to keep from saying anything. His thoughts had now moved from his screw up to the feeling of having his chest muscles wrenched out of him. He supposed he had to be thankful it hadn't hit anything vital, but right now he was the pain was making him anything but.
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Post by Red Charge on Jun 22, 2014 16:53:18 GMT -5
While the arrow was removed from Draft the corporals secured the rest of the roof. The lone blood bearer Diamond Dog was taken by the sergeant for interrogation, one that Draft knew would be most unpleasant for the paralyzed dog and would likely end with its death, unless the sergeant felt especially cruel today.
With Epsilon 1 controlling the opposing rooftop and Epsilon 2 covering the ground they were now poised to repel the Diamond Dog invaders. They could only hope that Zeta squad and Gamma squad had as much luck, or they would be facing a dire situation. They haven't received any radio communication from the other squads, which was a good sign, because there were no requests for reinforcements, but all the while a bad sign because it seemed they haven't managed to secure a foothold against the invaders yet.
After Starloft removed the arrows from Draft's chest and wing he applied some poultice to the area, returning the use of Draft's muscles. It was still not nearly good enough to aim properly from such a distance however, after consideration, Starloft and the corporals went to exchange Epsilon 2 at ground level, they could hear the paralyzed Diamond Dog's blood curdling screams and pleas for mercy as they descended.
They took Epislon 2's place and the pegasi team immediately took off to take their spots on the rooftops. The sergeant joined them after perhaps twenty or thirty minutes of an intense shootout between them and the Diamond Dog archers. Considering the amount of blood and bile covering the sergeant's front it was obvious that the blood bearer's pleas for mercy went unanswered.
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Post by Draft Design on Jun 22, 2014 18:07:13 GMT -5
Draft exhaled deeply once the arrow had been taken out of his chest, glad to have the stupid thing out of him. Getting the arrow out of his wing wasn't nearly as bad, and at least now he didn't resemble a pin cushion. His wounds had taken a toll on his muscles, though. Trying to shoot anything at a reasonable distance was practically pointless.
Seeing the sergeant drag the blood bearer off, and hearing its screams as they descended only brought him a small amount of satisfaction. He could only wish it had been the archer instead.
In a ground level shoot-out Draft's aim was useless, and trying to shoot at any of the archers was a waste of bolts. The best he could do was suppress certain archers if the others in his squad needed it. From behind cover Draft spotted the sergeant approaching them from the apartment building, now covered in diamond dog fluids.
"Anything useful?" he risked asking.
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Post by Red Charge on Jun 22, 2014 18:22:07 GMT -5
"Apparently they're moving everything they have in here. It's not going to be easy pushing them off. try capturing more of them alive, I could use the stress reliever. Cable, ask for an ETA on W.A.T.C.H." Even as Cable radioed Base, the sergeant turned to Draft. "Something's fishy here. These cannons were inspected this morning, why aren't any of the City Council's guards here to help us?"
"I know I wouldn't mind Kondo and Snowblind here helping us." Urban Shade said, causing the sergeant to look slyly at Cable Twist.
"I'd prefer Sunray and Sunshower myself," Said Starloft, "But everyone swings where the wind takes them I guess." He insinuated, causing Urban Shade to flush.
"Hey, I'm not like that. If anything I'd like a piece of Firefly Razorwing, that's a hot piece of flank." Urban argued.
"You have better chance getting Percheron." The sergeant laughed, "She's a total fillyfooler anyway with her all mare mercenary gang? Too obvious." At that an arrow shot right past his ear from above the armored carriage they moved to block the entrance to the intersection.
"Alright colts, enough chit chats, for every Diamond Dog prisoner you get a day of leave on my tab, you too Draft. So better get me some more stress relievers."
"Sir, no E.T.A on W.A.T.C.H yet. Apparently they're mobilizing the entire unit."
"The entire unit? That's a whole battalion strength!" Starloft said, lifting a broken taxi and hurling it at some dogs.
"All the better for us, now get back on it."
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Post by Draft Design on Jun 22, 2014 19:14:45 GMT -5
"If I see the wolf or zebra I'll tell them you were thinking about them," Draft said with a chuckle. "I just ask you do the same if you come across Trotschild's guards. He may be a stuck-up jerk, but he's a jerk with a good taste in mares."
Regardless of their kidding, the sergeant was bringing up good questions, questions Draft hadn't had the time to think about. When he'd been handed the crossbow, he'd figured that questions could be answered after the dogs had been sent packing, but... where were the council's guard. A memory of Rainlock's meeting with Baron Trotschild popped back into his mind, but surely even he wasn't so slimy as to go out of the way to not defend the city.
An arrow whizzing past Polar Flare's ear snapped Draft back to reality. The dogs were advancing, and regardless of Draft's aim he had to give it his all. He'd have to fire at the closest targets, and aim for their torsos. His aim was too uncertain to firing at anything but the biggest targets.
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Post by Red Charge on Jun 29, 2014 9:22:27 GMT -5
Even as they were talking the Diamond Dogs began amassing for another wave, archers fired off volleys after volleys in their direction, some directly forwards, others from above. They had yet to encounter any more blood bearing archers, Polar figured they were now facing the rookies to soften the soil for the more veteran warriors. Either that or one of the other units was facing the brunt of the invasion. It wasn't really clear why the Diamond Dogs were not yet in full mass in the city. They definitely had the numbers to swarm them, but for some reason did not, almost as though they were waiting for something. Though for what, remained unseen.
Cable Twist quickly pulled the communication unit off his back suddenly as it buzzed, "Zeta and Gamma are in position! Flanks secure!" He reported, to their collective relief.
"Get on the comms, I want to know how much resistance they were facing, if it was as little as we are, we should alert HQ, they might be trying to breach from elsewhere while we're tight here."
As Cable Twist got on that, the Diamond Dogs continued to advance, Draft, even with his bad arm still managed a hit or two in center of mass. Urban was the first one to claim a prisoner, managing several lucky shots in a row on an archer. Epsilon covered him as he dragged him back behind the cover. The sergeant made sure to drag him off, probably to where he dealt with the blood bearer, obviously he made an example of him.
Epsilon 1 and 2 were still on the rooftops and Epislon 3, covering the rear, moved forwards once the report came that the flanks were secure. Now the full force of Epsilon Squad was on scene. Their LT dismissed Delta 3 for now, but told them to stay nearby. Not wanting to interrupt the sergeant in his "interrogation", the team retreated to the supply point.
"Whoo," Starloft whistled tiredly, taking a sip out of his canteen. "Now this is what I call action. I think we all got at least one kill right?"
"I think we're square with at least two each." Urban said, looking at his filthy bloody uniform. "Better get some eat and get back before sarge catches us laying about."
With an agreement the others quickly took out their rations, each sharing a third with Draft.
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Post by Draft Design on Jun 29, 2014 9:53:40 GMT -5
The dogs seemed to be sending a good chunk of their archers towards Delta 3's position, though luckily or not, none of those seemed to be blood bearers. Draft even managed to take down two of them, feeling a pang of satisfaction each time he sent a dog to the ground. The squad as a whole was doing quite well, and by the time Episolon had dismissed them, Draft's mood was much lifted.
"And congrats to you for getting the first captive," Draft said, nudging Urban. "Keep it up and maybe we'll have enough dog hides to make Polar a new rug."
The pegasus ate his share of the rations, his mind wandering back to the image of two adult and foal-sized body bags. He quickly shook the image out of his mind, however, returning his focus to the squad's minor victory. Every dog dead was a load off Draft's shoulders.
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Post by Red Charge on Jun 29, 2014 13:15:45 GMT -5
But even as they were eating, the sound of a loud collapse caught their attention, rushing back the team found one of the buildings on the intersection collapsing due to a raging fire. Epsilon 3 was desperately trying to extinguish the fire, Epsilon 1 was shot down trying to escape, there was only one survivor, injured, far away from the rest. Obviously left alive for an ambush.
"We can't leave him out there." Starloft said, as the sergeant re-emerged, this time nearly drenched in blood and bile, the team shuddered to think what he had done to that poor diamond dog. Poor? That foul Diamond Dog. Yeah, that sounded much more correct.
"Don't go out there, that's an order." Polar said, "It's a trap, they have archers just waiting for you out there."
"I'll distract them." Said Cable, "You can open fire while I draw their arrows. I'll fly up and over, they won't give up the chance to bring me down."
"No way, too risky." Polar refused.
"Sir," Cable protested, but Polar wouldn't hear it.
"I'll do it then. I'm a lot faster." Shade stepped up.
"We can't just leave him there!" Starloft argued.
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Post by Draft Design on Jun 29, 2014 13:43:32 GMT -5
Draft was mid-chew when the sound of collapsing structure rang out from behind him. Draft raced with the rest of the squad to its source, finding a building going up in flames. The dogs weren't giving any of them a moments of rest, and were going to resort to anything to successfully invade the city.
Case in point, Epsilon 1's lone survivor was shot down into the open street. A rescue for one pony would be suicide, and the dogs knew it. The situation wouldn't have been more obvious if the mutts had hung up a sign reading 'TRAP'.
"Any of us go out there and we risk his life and our own," Draft stated. "Killing and fighting dirty is all the dogs know how to do. If they haven't taken their chance to kill him yet, it's because they're using him as bait."
Draft had to pause after saying that. Bait. Saying that about a fellow Rainlock made him feel disgusting. "They've already killed civilians. Sparing a soldier is not something they'd do out of sympathy. His best chance for survival is for us not to do what they want and expect."
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Post by Red Charge on Jun 29, 2014 14:00:22 GMT -5
"I'm with Draft." Polar said decisively.
"If they see we're not doing anything, they'll kill him anyway!" Starloft insisted.
"Hmm." Urban said, observing the road, "They seem to be hiding in the alley behind those buildings..." Urban shade pointed at the buildings in the second row after the building they secured earlier.
"We'll draw their fire, keep Starloft here for support, you go up on Epislon 2's building and navigate the rooftops, see what they're up to and how many they are and if you can, wipe them out. We'll be ready to get him as soon as you give the all clear." The Epsilon Lieutenant, Lieutenant Fire Shield said. Ironically, before he was a rainlock he was a fire fighter but without the proper equipment his team was not able to stop the building fire. If there were any civilians in that building, they were now casualties.
"Alright, up we go." Polar said, unable to refuse a command from a superior officer. He led Draft, Urban and Cable up the stairwell, Cable and Urban seemed thankful that they didn't run across Polar's prisoners, judging by the amount of blood and bile he had sticking to his fur, their end could not have been a pleasant one.
Soon enough they were at the top, slowly jumping off to an adjacent building to make their way off the sight of the street. They crawled along the rooftops, observing the alleys beneath them. The nearest rooftops were empty, save for several civilians, which Cable quickly carried back to Epsilon Team, saying he'd catch up afterwords. One of the civilian stallions was so grateful to the Rainlocks he smacked a smooch right on Polar's nose with excitement, making the sergeant very uncomfortable.
Urban whispered how he wished they had enough ponies to evacuate all of these civlians but was shushed by Polar quickly. They had one more building to reach above the alley they were trying to get to, but there were Diamond Dogs at the top of it and the one adjacent to it. Three archers, one of them had blood bearer tattoos on one building and more diamond dogs on the adjacent building, four archers, one blood bearer warrior.
They might be able to silence the three with perfect aim, but with Cable missing they only had Draft to rely on for the initial volley, lame hoofed Draft.
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Post by Draft Design on Jun 29, 2014 14:20:30 GMT -5
Upwards the three went, following Polar across the rooftops. This was a much better strategy than rushing in to save the Epsilon 1 survivor, and if the dogs really were in the alley, that would give the squad an aerial advantage.
But the dogs weren't that stupid. The rooftop they needed to get two had three archers guarding it: two regulars and a blood bearer. To further complicate things, the adjacent roof had dogs watching it as well. If Cable wasn't occupied with civilians, they would have had a good shot at silently taking the three on their target roof out. But with Draft having to take his place instead, their chances of the other nearby dogs not getting alerted were... questionable.
Ultimately this was the Sergeant's decision. Waiting for Cable might be too late for the survivor. But trying to take out the three dogs now was a risk. Either way though, if Draft was going to shoot a dog, it needed to be the closest regular archer. Draft signaled this to Polar, waiting to see what decision he would make.
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Post by Red Charge on Jul 1, 2014 17:17:08 GMT -5
In the grim orange light of the fire, the Pegasi team's decision was made, Sergeant Polar signaled that they were going to take the shots. The ponies were lying in wait, they knew the other dogs would undoubtedly hear the twang of the bowstrings, or at least the impact on their companions. Polar was waiting for another part of the burning building to collapse and cover their noise.
The backup plan in case nothing collapsed in the next minute or so was to shoot anyway, if they managed to shoot them all down silently, they could maintain an unknown position and manage another volley. However, Polar's plan was a gamble, but if it paid off they could have gained a significant advantage over the dogs.
Polar lifted his hind leg, the others catching it in their peripheral visions, they knew as soon as the leg drops, they fire. The wait was tense and almost unbearable, but Polar's gamble payed off, another section of the burning building collapsed in a cacophony of metal screeching and concrete crashing.
It happened as if in slow motion, the bolts were launched from their crossbows, to Draft Design, a weapon engineer, the motion of the bolts became clear, it was as though time slowed to a grind, looking straight down his sights at the three bolts in flight, it was almost as though all of the data was drawn directly into his retinas.
He could see it happen almost as though he was writing it down for a test; the weight and aerodynamic data of the bolt, the calculation of the trajectory according to the angle and force of emission against the air resistance with the correction for the wind speed and direction. A line of action was drawn from each bolt to where precisely it was going to hit.
Long before the bolts ever crossed the gap between the rooftops, Draft knew whether or not they had hit. Draft Design's bolt caught the blood bearer archer, who was closest to them right in the eye, killing him instantly. Polar nailed another in the neck and Urban's bolt tore right through his archer's temple.
The three dogs collapsed instantly and the trained pegasi immediately hopped over to the other rooftop, while their advance was still silenced by the collapsing building. By now they could notice the blood bearers have set fire to more buildings, trying to intentionally hurt the civilian populace to pressure the Rainlocks to retreat. An inexcusable and cowardly act.
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Post by Draft Design on Jul 1, 2014 19:02:02 GMT -5
It should have been over in a flash. But this critical flash of a moment stretched on and on as Draft's mind began to whir. As the bolts fired away from their crossbows, Draft began calculating, simulating their speed, trajectory, movement. He could have been sketching the situation on paper, measuring arcs and distances while factoring in weight, gravity, and air resistance. He knew well beforehand when and where the bolts would hit, formed not from a prediction but a combination of math and equations. Draft had never felt such certainty of an outcome.
Draft was the first to hop across to the other roof, waiting only a split second for the confirmation he didn't need. Three dogs dead, four left oblivious. Perfect.
Now came the time to assess their situation, to determine how many dogs were in the alley below and what they needed to do next. Draft was confident he and the others could do so quietly and while staying hidden, especially with the blaze of other buildings within sight.
Buildings with civilians in them. Civilians that were being burnt alive.
The dogs were desperate, and barbaric. Savagery like this didn't deserve mercy.
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Post by Red Charge on Jul 3, 2014 13:24:39 GMT -5
Looking down from the rooftop into the alley, the group saw nothing. There was no ambush by the archers, no stretched bowstrings waiting to fire. Quite in fact, it was almost as though the forces that were here moved somewhere...
"Epsilon..." Draft heard Polar whisper, not a moment later, an arrow twanged off his helmet, it came in at just the right angle to bounce off, otherwise the bodkin would have pierced right through his brain. Lucky for him he was wearing one, Draft was not. The four diamond dogs on the nearby roof had noticed them they were already preparing a volley. Delta 3 was able to dive beneath the railings to avoid it in time. But they knew now the dogs' plan. It wasn't an ambush, it was a feint. The dogs weren't trying to hold position after all, they were trying to lure them away.
With Cable and the radio still absent from the team, they had no way to keep in touch with Epsilon, or any other Rainlock unit. While they were trying to initiate stealth, was there something else going on?
"Jump off the side and fly back to Epsilon!" Polar ordered, shooting several bolts in rapid succession as Urban and Draft went over the railings on the other side, diving into the protective cover behind the building and swooping towards where they had come from.
Polar was quick to join them, but no doubt the Diamond Dogs were already aware of where they were going. They still could not see what was going on in the main street, but when they emerged from the alley they could. Starloft and Cable were back on the other side of the intersection, where they had started, along with the Epsilon Lieutenant. But they were the only ones left of Epsilon Squad. Draft was able to catch one of Epsilon's squaddies getting dragged off by Diamond Dogs, stabbed and mauled along the way.
Following Polar's lead, the group immediately opened fire from the air, taking out as many Diamond Dogs as they could and giving the others enough of an advantage to press forwards, pushing the dogs back past the intersection. But with both corner buildings on fire now, defending the intersection was going to become a lot harder.
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Post by Draft Design on Jul 3, 2014 17:25:48 GMT -5
There were no dogs in the alley. The dogs hadn't been trying to lure the Rainlocks into an ambush. They had been trying to weaken the group by sending them after something that wasn't there. The group holding the intersection was weakened with Draft and the others detached to the alley, just as the dogs wanted.
The dogs on the neighboring roof didn't leave the three peagsi time to discuss. After diving into cover, Draft and Urban quickly did as ordered, swooping around back to Epsilon.
The first thing to hit Draft's retinas was the strong lack of Rainlocks in the intersection. The second was a member of Epsilon, being mauled and stabbed as the dogs drug him to his death. Cable, Starloft, and Fire Shield were still alive, but the same couldn't be assumed for almost all of Epsilon.
Draft fired his crossbow alongside Urban and Polar, aiming to take out as many Dogs as he could. He wanted ten mutts dead for every member of Epsilon, twenty for the one he'd seen get dragged off. Keeping cool and collected was the only way it was going to happen though. He'd steam about it later; about epsilon, about the civilians inside the burning buildings, about Lens and Frost. Later. He couldn't afford to now.
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