Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-5824038-20150203191459/@comment-5583506-20150211151548

(One post.)

The guards on the walls of Brightwall had been successful so far with holding the steel clad troopers away from the city gates, blasting rounds after rounds of ammunition against them.

The majority of the shots were in vain and simply grazed the armours or put a few dents into them, yet some of them were lucky enough to pierce the thin gap in their helmets, resulting in instant deaths.

Yet more were coming, landing both inside and outside the city. The vessels in the air had started to fire at the slums, putting buildings ablaze. Most of them were luckily empty already due to the sudden evacuation, but the results of the incoming siege was devastating.

Valkyrie could barely hear a thing. Above her the guns of Maximilian's ships had started to sound, indicating that his prime weapons were beginning their approach. Yet the battle on the ground carried on.

"Don't hold back, you hear?!" shouted Valkyrie as she reloaded the Bereaver. "Just keep firing at them! Aim for their heads!"

"Lock your shields, men!" roared the captain of the fanatical troop.

The soldiers slammed their shields together and put out their rifles through the carved holes in them. "Ready! Aim! Fire!"

"Get down!" shouted Valkyrie to the small resistance she had managed to gather.

They responded in time, though a few of them weren't so lucky and collapsed to the ground in the haze of gunsmoke.

"Dammit!" growled Valkyrie. "I have had it!"

She rolled over the barricade as soon as the Bereaver was reloaded. Some of the men tried to hinder her, but she didn't care at this point. These soldiers had come to lay waste to the city she was living in. It was true that she was a noble, but at least she had the heart of a commoner. These people were her own, and she hated to see them butchered all for the sake of one man's ego and ambition.

"DERAQUE!" she roared as she darted against the soldiers with the Bereaver pulled out in front of her.

"This bitch is insane", muttered the captain. "Get ready for another round! We will..."

Valkyrie broke herself through a small gap in their shield wall and toppled an soldier to the ground with a vicious kick to his chest. It hurt in her foot, but she continued anyway. Using the soldier as a ramp she launched herself high up in the air and fired one single round straight down the gap of the captain's helmet.

The man groaned and fell headlong in the middle of amongst his comrades troop.

"Cap-Captain?!" stuttered a soldier confused.

Valkyrie fired another round, and another, piercing skull after skull with her bullets. As she landed in the middle of the confusion she threw herself to the ground before she commanded her men by the barricade.

"NOW!"

The men fired their guns. The soldiers were taken by surprise due to all staring at the Nord woman who had landed in the middle of their troop in what seemed like a far-fetched suicide attempt.

More soldiers collapsed until only one remained. He looked around at his slaughtered men before his eyes twichted with uncontained rage. "You... you bitch!" he roared and drew his sword, getting ready to bring it down on the Nord woman.

She spun around on the ground and delivered yet another kick, this one kicking the helmet off the soldier. He groaned and made himself ready to swing his sword at her again, only this time he was met with the orifice of her gun down his throat.

"Yew... dwirty bwitch!" His voice was silenced by a sickening sound as Valkyrie burst his skull and throat open with a shot at point-blank range.

He fell to the ground.

Valkyrie spat. "I am a true noble. My hands are cleaner than yours. Go to the hell you so eagerly sought..."

The men cheered by the barricade as she returned to them. "Don't celebrate yet", she announced. "This was merely one street. The vessels have put the slums in flames and more troops are probably patrolling the eastern side of the city."

She threw a threatening stare at the two larger approaching skyships. "And I'd hate to drag this battle out long enough until those two are upon us. The worst hammer strike to come. At least The Bastard's Edge is incapacitated for now", she said and reloaded the Bereaver. "That's one less ship to worry about... but their soldiers... There must be almost two thousands of them left. That's an army of death right there."

One of the vigilante squad swallowed. "So... what can we do? We don't have their armour or any of their technology!"

Valkyrie shrugged. "Yet still we took down one of their troops." She looked saddened at the men by the barricade that had fallen. "Yet not without losses. At least they proved that this enemy can bleed and die just like any other."

"Where to then, mylady? The city gates might be under attack... maybe we should..."

"No", responded Valkyrie. "The city gates are a death trap. They may be landing their troopers outside the city, but that's just an acting decoy. You saw what happened here. Defending the city gates is irrelevant when the enemy is within our very walls, they will approach the guards by the gates from two sides, and then there will be nowhere left to run."

"So... what's the plan?"

She felt like she could die for just one bottle of mead. "To the slums", she said. "There might be people there who might have still not been evacuated and we can't allow anymore of these troops to trample upon our people."

"Ammunition is sparse", said a man, "but there is a guard barrack not far from here where could find some."

"I am a smuggler", said another without shame. "Was going to load a big shipment of guns to Samarkand just before the attack, but hey... fuck it... my city is burning. I think we have far more need of those guns now than my clients."

Valkyrie chuckled at the same time the burning remains of a pirate ship crashed somewhere east of them. "To think that smugglers would be our salvation. Go ahead and see if you can bring that shipment to the town square in the slum district, but be wary of anymore troops."

"Yes, mylady", said the smuggler and ran down an alleyway.

"The rest of you: follow me! Even though this battle might not seem to be swaying in our favour, there is still time to even the scales."

-

"Yes!" chuckled Maximilian as he overlooked the burning district. "Have you ever seen such a beautitful sight, sergeant? You only get to see a bonfire in the middle of the night such as this one once in a lifetime!"

"It's... it's wondrous, sir", said the sergeant. "But what should be done with the pirate ship? The Bastard's Edge have taken severe damage and will not be able to fight further during this battle."

"Ah, she can take it", assured Maximilian. "Let the pirate ship remain where it is for now. As soon as this place is a pile of dust we will land and topple it from our deck. Let the others do the fighting for now. Dear Helena and Tytarion, still haven't reached the city."

"Pardon me for asking, sir. But the Hull-Breakers? Are you intending to use them against the city?"

"Well, of course! What else would I use them for? Firepower of their calibre were only constructed for one single purpose: do destroy any obstacles in their path, whether they ships or cities filled with revolting creatures."

The sergeant looked at his lord with confusion. "But... our men are down there!"

"Yes?"

"If we fire upon the city, won't they be killed as well?"

"Much must be sacrificed in war, sergeant", said Maximilian and wiped some pirate blood off his blade. "We have more."

"We have over 2000 men left of the original 3000! If you demand that Dear Helena and Tytarion fire their Hull-Breakers upon the city as soon as they are in range, we will perhaps lose another thousand!"

Maximilian sighed. "You disappoint me, sergeant. Our force consisted of 3000 men, that is true. But the Council of Nobles have spared yet another twenty thousand for their next plan."

"Next plan?"

"Yes", shrugged the lord. "The siege of Brightwall is just the beginning. Don't underestimate the Council of Nobles, sergeant. They are a superior force not to be trifled with, and their many eyes and ears surrounds Tamriel ever so discreetly."

The warlord groaned all of a sudden. "Oh, I just wish that this 'Wraith' threat that idiot warned me about was real! I expected a real war, more than just some feeble pirates! And this 'Wraith' was supposed to be a character not to be trifled with?! What a joke! He hasn't even shown up! Maybe he is already lying dead in the streets down there somewhere? Such a shame."