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Post by Red Charge on Jul 13, 2014 13:33:38 GMT -5
Polar was the only Rainlock to land in the intersection. With the dogs in it clear they could now push back to their choke hold. But not a moment later Polar, looking over his shoulder to shout commands at his troops, dissolved into a ball of fire as a heavily armored dog landed in an earth-quaking thud at the entrance to the intersection.
"NO!" Urban yelled, the other ponies immediately opening fire on the landed dog, but every bolt sent his way simply bounced off and invisible shield, none of them even managed to reach the dog's dull dark red... armor...
"It's the General! Shoot him down!" The Epsilon LT. called, shooting bolt after bolt at the rapidly approaching dog to no avail. Cable tossed a grenade, but it was easily deflected into a nearby building, blowing on the side of it and causing a lamp-post to fall noisily on a nearby wagon.
"Get to cover!" Urban shouted at Draft shoving him towards Cable and Starloft, but not a moment later, a hook burst through his wings and he was yanked downwards, cracking his skull on the concrete road and being dragged harshly on the concrete road before he was thrown into one of the burning windows.
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Post by Draft Design on Jul 13, 2014 14:30:58 GMT -5
Draft, with his attention focused on shooting at the dogs in the intersection, had to spend half a moment processing what had just happened to Polar. The sergeant was gone in an instant, vaporized. All it had taken was the sudden presence of a blood bearer in the intersection, one whose Draft and the others bolts couldn't even make contact with.
No. No. Nothing. Every shot, every grenade deflected as if nothing. This dog was an impenetrable, unstoppable mass of destruction. Nothing the Rainlocks were throwing at him seemed to halt his advance.
Urban seemed to have realized this sooner than Draft, as the other pegasus had shoved him towards Cable and Starloft. Draft quickly did as Urban had commanded, but could hear behind him the Pegasus struck by an attack. The last of Urban Draft saw was his bloodied body getting thrown into a window.
"Bolts and grenades aren't doing squat," Draft spoke, glancing towards Starloft, the only unicorn in the group. "Unless you've got something you think can get through, we need to regroup. A squad this small with ineffective weapons isn't even going to slow him down."
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Post by Red Charge on Oct 6, 2014 14:41:09 GMT -5
General Tremor, the true terror of the Diamond Dog siege over Manehattan. Behind closed doors, Draft's commanders expressed many concerns about this Disciple of Nathair. Admittedly, even the Rainlock crew, with their global-scale distribution knew little of this order, whatever it was. But rumors from Stalliongrad only expressed two things about them, both of which equally troubling. The first was that they are all devoted blood bearers, the second that not even Winter Wolves would accept contracts against them.
Draft was experiencing the full truth behind these rumors as the Disciple continued his rapid approach towards them, shrugging off pretty much everything the Rainlocks could throw at him. How was he doing it?
"By the Lady, the armor he's wearing, it's made entirely of blood!" The Epsilon Lieutenant said, "Look!" He pointed a hoof as Cable tried another grenade, cooking it slightly more this time. Now Draft saw it, before the grenade had even touched the dog, the armor reacted, almost looking like it fired a part of itself at the grenade, throwing it completely off course so it detonated harmlessly. The armor was alive, it shot out tendrils at incredible speeds to deflect any projectile fire aimed at its wearer. No dossiers about blood bearers ever mentioned the ability to manipulate their blood to such an extent. What they were now facing, is an unprecedented level of skill in blood bearing.
Starloft tried launching several kinetic bombs from his horn, but those had just as little effects as the grenades, as the tendrils shot out to detonate them prematurely. "He doesn't need weapons," Starloft cried, "He is a weapon!"
It was hard hearing over the sounds of the fires and the chaos, but the roar of a cannon firing right behind was more than enough to turn both the Rainlocks' attention and Tremor's. The Diamond Dog general was forced to dodge out of the way of the incoming cannonball, obviously even he could not stop such a fast moving and heavy object, which was a good sign for the Rainlocks. The cannonball exploded upon impact with the ground, the shockwave fanning out the flames in the buildings, concealing the Diamond Dog general in the rush of smoke.
Draft had little time to react as the team of WATCH ponies took over the fighting. Leaping out of a strange steam-powered cart, six ponies emerged immediately. The first one rushing into the clearing was one of strong, large build. Draft's skill with inventions and gadgets almost slowed time for him to look at this pony's armor. Heavy metallic plates, shiny and new, the way the armor was constructed, the bulges and seams. Draft knew Lady Rainlock was powerful, but what he was looking at was an adapted Griffon Power Armor design. It was truly an admiration filling site to see how far Rainlock's influence actually spread. The heavy built pony approached the smoke screen, carrying what appeared to be a pneumatic powered cannon, within it were loaded six harpoon sized bolts and from both sides of the weapon were reloading belts, connected to two heavy saddlebags on the pony's armor.
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Post by Draft Design on Oct 20, 2014 1:05:30 GMT -5
Draft watched as the diamond dog general's armor effortlessly deflected grenade and bolt alike. Even Starloft's kinects bomb were useless, detonating early as the tendrils shot out to intercept them. Was anything short of a building toppling onto him going to cause this dog to flinch?
They were outgunned here. With the peashooters and fire-crackers they were holding, re-coordinating and regrouping might be their only efforts. Maybe they could find something bigger to fight him with. Or lure the dog into a trap. But right now-
The roar of cannon-shot coming from behind them cut off that line of thinking. Here was the firepower, finally something that could make even Tremor think twice about continuing his casual stroll towards them. Draft could have almost let out a cheer of joy at the site of who had arrived. The arrival of WATCH, Rainlock's finest, was a sight to behold. But it was the armor of one particular pony the caught Draft's attention. It's perfectly crafted design, brand new sheen almost made it look like it belonged in a museum. It was Griffon in design, or more accurately adapted, and its presence alone made for quite the symbol of Lady Rainlock's reach.
"Keep an eye out for the general," Draft said to Starloft and Cable. The corporal turned his attention to the cloud of smoke Tremor had disappeared into, making sure his crossbow was ready. "This is WATCH's fight, but we need to be ready for orders if they've got them. Doubt that sanguine mutt can deflect WATCH's firepower and our bolts and grenades.
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Post by Red Charge on Nov 28, 2014 19:38:19 GMT -5
Draft had little time to react as the team of WATCH ponies took over the fighting. Leaping out of a strange steam-powered cart, six ponies emerged immediately. The first one rushing into the clearing was one of strong, large build. Draft's skill with inventions and gadgets almost slowed time for him to look at this pony's armor. Heavy metallic plates, shiny and new, the way the armor was constructed, the bulges and seams. Draft knew Lady Rainlock was powerful, but what he was looking at was an adapted Griffon Power Armor design. It was truly an admiration filling site to see how far Rainlock's influence actually spread. The heavy built pony approached the smoke screen, carrying what appeared to be a pneumatic powered cannon, within it were loaded six harpoon sized bolts and from both sides of the weapon were reloading belts, connected to two heavy saddlebags on the pony's armor.
Behind this pony, two more ponies, followed. These ponies had medium armor, but it lacked the power component that the heavy one had. They instead advanced forwards with what appeared to be high tech riot shields of some kind and with wrist-crossbows. The tips of the bolts were red… these were explosive bolts! The shields, of course, Draft immediately recognized, after all he had helped develop them.
Magitech shields, Draft's responsibility in their creation was to design a reasonable power-sink for the etheric energy. In a way, their development would not truly be possible without him. His ingenious idea of making a spiral energy sink across the entire inside of the shield not only ensured that excess etheric energy would not cause overheating or malfunctions, but also that it would provide a second layer of shielding against magical attacks that would normally penetrate the armoring of the shield. One of the reasons he was put on the fast lane to promotion. He didn't know who designed the magitech element itself, whoever did, it was brilliant. A seamless combination of technology and magic resulting in a breakthrough for the security industry. Well, at least for the Rainlock Security Forces.
The shields themselves were six sided, beyond the metal armoring extended semi-transparent etheric energy shields, giving additional protection without unbalancing the shield proper and without putting too much weight the defender holding it. They were easily able to repel Tremor's counter attack, retaliating back with a hail of explosive bolts as the larger pony continued his advance unimpeded. His power armor more than enough to weather Tremor's blood tendrils.
The Diamond Dog general dodged out of the way of the projectiles, but was still unbalanced by the shockwaves. One of the shields tossed a grenade his way, not a grenade Draft ever saw before. It exploded in a bright electric light and Tremor's entire blood armor melted off of his body.
Both the Diamond Dog and the survivors of his attack were stunned. "What just happened?" Asked the Lieutenant. "It did something to the iron in his blood… I think it magnetized it." Starloft said and true enough, solids appeared in the blood pooling on the road. Tremor growled and the blood on the road began to move again, but before he could do anything with it something pierced him straight in the chest. Draft could see the blood before he heard the sound of the shot. He knew that sound, he was there for the demonstration, it was a Gauss Rifle. Magnetically accelerated projectiles shot at high speeds, more technology the Lady lorded over the Griffon inventors. She already had them kissing her hooves for a chance to look at the schematics, but she enjoyed setting the bar too much to let them match it.
Tremor groped the hole in his chest and growled again. This was the second jaw dropping moment of the day, as the large chest would Tremor had previously exhibited now closed up, it wasn't healed, but it was not going to bleed him out. No wonder The Lady was warning them not to underestimate these Disciples of whoever. Their mastery of blood was awe-inspiring. Tremor's fur became red with blood as he generated more to create another layer of armor. It looked as though it seeped through the pores in his skin. Truly an unnerving sight. However, the dog didn't stop there, immediately two large balls of blood pooled in his hand and were immediately sent at the power armor pony and the shield ponies, catching flames as they did. The three ponies were fending off Tremor's minions in the meanwhile, the amount of dead, or maimed Diamond Dogs in the street rose to an alarming level. The shield ponies leapt in front of the power armor one, with shields raised. This was a moment of truth for the magitech.
… and it prevailed. The three ponies yet remained unharmed. Draft knew exactly where the sniper who shot Tremor was based on the entry angle, but he was no longer firing, choosing to retain his ammunition for a more opportune moment perhaps. More explosive bolts were sent to the Diamond Dog general, shocking him but not stopping him in his endless advance. Though the shields and power armor were more than enough to handle blood tendrils, Tremor's exploding blood spears were much more of a problem for them and they were being pushed back.
"There's no stopping him!" The Epsilon lieutenant sighed in resignation, but Draft had noticed something. Whenever a part of Tremor was exposed by an explosive weapon, grenade or bolt, his skin was getting brighter. His movements were also becoming sluggish. The WATCH team couldn't notice this while they were busy fighting off the hordes of Diamond Dogs swarming the street, but he was becoming anemic. He expended blood faster than he produced it and his resources were finite to begin with.
Starloft quickly caught on to what Draft was paying attention to. He broadcasted it loudly to the WATCH –
"He's slowing down! Focus fire on him!"
Watch did not need to be told twice and the sniper joined back in, firing bolt after bolt through Tremor's body. The now swaggering General no longer had any choice but to retreat, they knew they had him on the ropes and his pathetic soldiers were no match for Watch. He turned to flee and with the Diamond Dogs bogging WATCH down, it looked like he was going to succeed.
That is until he was thrown painfully into a nearby debris pile. His blood armor crumbled around him. He was unconscious.
"What happened?" Cable called out, "What hit him?"
The Diamond Dogs who saw their leader go down were smart enough to drop their weapons and run to hide. The battle was for all intents and purposes over. But what just happened?
"The cavalry came." A low female voice said, as a mare dressed in odd light armor and carrying a strange looking weapon walked through them towards the blood tarnished street. She was chewing on a stem of hay and tipped her WATCH hat as she approached the other ponies.
"I'm loving this new tech Rainlock gave us." She said to the Watch ponies, who turned to acknowledge her.
If what she said was lost on Draft at first, soon he and the others understood, two ponies wrapped up in skintight seemingly completely light absorbent armor simply appeared in the street Tremor was attempting to run to. They were using cloaking technology? Draft didn't even know there EXISTED cloaking technology. A double buck from those two ponies must have sent Tremor flying.
"When you take this guy home, you can tell your 'security' to thank Officer Chase and her boys." The mare winked at the Epsilon Lieutenant. "Alright, let's roll out. We've got an invasion to stop here and I'm not paying by the hour!" the mare yelled, moving in the direction of the breach, leaving Draft's crew alone and confused.
It wasn't long before reinforcements showed up, the dead were dragged to the sidewalks, the wounded, to the field infirmaries. With news of Tremor's falling and the new "unstoppable pony warriors" the Diamond Dogs soon ran with their tails between their legs, that is, those who still had legs. Though there were many reports of prisoners being rounded up, a lot of them seemed to have 'died from battle wounds" on the way to the holding areas. Only the brass of Tremor's army was there a number constituting about 30 diamond dogs.
Tremor himself was sent with Draft to the security forces holding cells, for Draft to 'question'. Why Draft? Well because the other interrogators were too busy with the top of Trotschild's forces. Essentially, there was no information The Lady really wanted from Tremor, but a lot she wanted from Trotschild. Although an earnest attempt was to be given just in case Tremor knew who helped his forces get in. Draft was the closest pony, so the highly sickly looking, anemic, diamond dog was chained to a wall, naked and unarmed with a couple more doses of blood drained along the way for good measure, with Draft the only one in the room. The only instructions Draft was given were to 'have fun'.
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