Ok, since I still haven't got a new laptop, I've decided to use the old PC. I'm down to my last piece of backup now, let's hope it stays on. Anyway, after a three to four month gap, I bring you, chapter 54:
Out in the darkness of the night, unable to see the edge of the land, the watchers and guards standing on the wall sense the arrival of what they've been fearing for the past few days. Darst's eyes were fixed on what was coming for them, there was no doubt on his mind that they were finally here. The Jiralhanae have arrived at Warfang.
"Are sure it's them? It's probably nothing, it's too dark for even the Brutes to attack at this time night" Yapflop tried to convince the zealot otherwise, but the little Grunt only assured himself with a lie. Jabjab also knew they were here;
"Stop lying to yourself Yap, they are here. The Brutes obviously lied to trick us into thinking we'd fight them in the morning" Jabjab pressed the little switch on his Needler, causing the shards on top to rise instantly.
The very large Hunter raised its arm cannon, bringing his shield in front to defend itself. Its smaller colony brother roared out to the mole on the watchtower, even though he wasn't able to understand the Lekgolo's language, he knew what he have to tell the guards down below his tower, on the opposite side where the former Covenant group was.
The mole grabbed his crossbow and shouted out to that group, "THEY'RE COMING, ALERT THE BARRACKS! ALERT THE ENTIRE CITY!" the call wasn't going unanswered, and this small group of guards was now going down stairs to alert the rest of the city.
"Those brave warriors are going to wake people up as they run along the streets, but everyone will receive the warning once the bell in that dome tower over by the Blacksmith is rung. Anything else that should be done Darst?" the watch mole yelled to the crimson armored Sangheili, who loaded a power cell into the concussion rifle.
He shifted his attention to the mole, nodding his head, "It's up to them to tell everyone…but for now, we'll give them time to complete their task. Jump down from there and see if you can get your buddies who are trained to use those cannons, they might come in handy" Darst was determined to get the defenses up before they see the Brutes in sight.
The mole made a quick salute before climbing down the ladder, "Okie-doki elite", touching the stone with his claw feet, he sprinted as fast as he could down stairs.
Kino's face shown signs worry, what if the call takes too long to go out. He knew that they needed the upper hand with more numbers, a few cannons on top of the walls would not hold off a Brute attack force for very long. He was in charge for the time being, so now he needed everyone to be disciplined for this battle.
"Yapflop, Jabjab, take position near the 5th cannon on the other side of this watchtower and wait for my command. We need this wall to have every single little defense we can put up" Darst ordered them. They were near the third cannon, which is stationed atop where the front gates are below.
"You got it Darst, Yapflop! Move it!" Jabjab took his order well, running down to cannon 5.
"WAIT FOR ME!" Yapflop sprinted with Jabjab, carrying his Fuel rod with him.
"Ok Hunters, move between cannon one and two and wait for my go, I'll be on the watchtower. You see any machine with a Jiralhanae behind the wheel, you annihilate it! We can't those bastards terrorize us anymore!" Darst commanded the Hunter duo. They both replied with respectful growls, taking their heavy weapons to the position that was given to them. Their footsteps were easily heard as the metal stomped on the stone below them.
Darst rested the concussion rifle on his back and ran to the watchtower, climbing to its view advantage. When he reached the top, he took out his rifle again, aiming it towards the dark land. He noticed the group was in position. The Grunts aimed their weapons without hesitation, especially Yapflop, who now knows that it's not time for games. The Hunters too were ready to wreck the Jiralhanae war machine, their fuel rod cannons charging up to devastate all who oppose them.
"(Breathes in and out) Gods…please help us" these were his last words before he would pull the trigger.
Within the walls of the Grand Atrium, at the centre where the great hall is, Hunter was conversing with the guardians about the Meadow situation. Sparx was there too, having to listen to the bickering on.
"We are again sorry for your lost cheetah, but our decision is final, we won't allow a rescue to be made when the Jiralhanae are about to walk up to the front door and pulverize the city" Cyril's voice roamed though the hall with annoyance.
The meeting has been going on for a couple of hours now, the first hour explaining what happened today mid-morning and the second asking for a small rescue party to being their lost comrade, even though Thel specifically told Hunter that it was too late now.
"I understand that we have limited time, but all I ask is to leave the city with a very small group and go to the Brute area of operations to extract Meadow from his captors, they've probably tortured him for information!" Hunter begged for their permission, dropping to his knees. But alas, Terrador shook his head.
"We need everyone here Hunter, they'll be here soon, and we need you leading the cheetah tribe along with Prowlus. Meadow's capture…or supposed death is on his head, and you shouldn't be an accessory to his mistake" the large dark sage dragon was not letting a great warrior like Hunter to waste his life trying to get one individual out of the deadly enemy's hands, for the danger was too great.
Sparx flew up to the orange cat's head, making a somewhat assuring attempt to turn Hunter's intentions towards defending thye planet, "Look, it may be bad that he's taken captive by those hairy bums, but for once I agree with the old geezers over there. It is absolute suicide, and I should know, I almost gotten split jaw leader killed" the glowing dragonfly told Hunter the Brute encampment suicide mission when Thel and Spyro were out looking for Cynder. The cheetah got a shock out of it and lost a bit of respect for Sparx.
But nevertheless, Hunter sighed in defeat. He stood back on both feet, looking down at the stone ground, ashamed, disheartened. He has let his friend fallen into the hands of an enemy that shows absolutely no mercy. An enemy that will soon be upon them.
"I have wasted your time guardians…Can I ask for your forgiveness?" Hunter looked up to them with the most regretful of faces.
"Our forgiveness and our blessing Hunter, we wish you good hunting and good luck in the forthcoming battle ahead. Don't let the past get in the way of the present" Volteer gave the strong willed warrior their word, and reassuring also to keep his head clear and unclouded.
Hunter bowed his head and stood up, walked away respectfully. As he was leaving though, about to exit the great hall, one of the mole guards from the wall came sprinting around the corner. The cheetah warrior quickly reacted, stepping out of they way as the dark blue armored guard ran up to his superiors.
"Young warrior, what bring you here in such a hurry?" Terrador politely asked his follower, who panted heavily from all the running.
"(Pants) Brutes! (Pants) They're coming! (Pants) Darst and some other aliens have set up small defenses; we're alerting the rest of the city in hopes of getting the advantage" the guard, absolutely exhausted, dropped to his knees trying to catch more of his breath.
Each of the old dragons looked at each other in disbelief, "But didn't the Brute leader say it was in the morning?" Cyril asked.
"He must've lied, probably thought they could lure us into thinking otherwise" the little fur ball slowly got back up.
Terrador grumbled, a dishonorable way to invade their city. "Volteer, go with Cyril to evacuate the innocent to shelter, tell them to go down into basements, hiding spots, the back of the city where most of the stronger and more withstanding buildings are. Whatever it is, make sure they stay there" the large elder dragon made civilians a priority. Volteer and Cyril, without words, lumbered their huge bodies outside the hall. Hunter had to go to Prowlus and tell their tribe to get ready, running to go outside the Atrium.
"Go find your group, thank you telling us. Get a move on warrior" Terrador demanded the guard, saluting and sprinting out of the hall. As soon as he was out of sight, the noble Earth guardian stepped over to the nearest window, looking out to the night covered city.
"I guess it's time for my own being to get a workout once more…"
At a higher level towards the apex of the grand building, inside Cynder's room were two sleeping teenage dragons. Tired from their passionate moment together, Spyro's front paws were over and under Cyn's upper body, keeping her close and under him. Cynder was facing away from the purple dragon, but covered by his wings to keep her warm, even though she was still in metal armour. Their tails were tightly intertwined, showing their unbreakable bond together.
The black dragoness' body slowly started to move, slowly fidgeting around and opening her eyes gently as possible. She could see out the window that night was still around, but maybe not for much longer. Her eyes shifted down to see her position on the bed, curving her head around to see Spyro breathing on her neck.
"Mmm…he just couldn't resist holding me…males will always be males" she sighed, but happy to see that Spyro will always be there for her. As she didn't want to wake him up, she untied her tail from Spyro's and wiggled out of his grasp.
Landing on all paws, she stretched her body to work out the small crack noises she could hear, but she was partially limited due to the armour. Nevertheless, she trotted up to the window and the edge, standing high up to see the city and enjoyed the refreshing chill go down her spine.
She wasn't smiling, nor was she sad. Whilst Cynder enjoyed the comfort of her partner, it was only a matter of time until they both had to part ways for the battle against the Jiralhanae. Spyro had to fight his own battle and Cynder with her own, for if they both fight together, they would draw too much attention to themselves and eventually ended becoming Magnaruckus' primary target. That monster would stop at nothing to kill them, especially what she had done to his eye.
"We have to do what is best for our well being…I can't let emotion get in the way of fighting, it's too risky. I just hope he'll stay out of a ton of trouble. We need to win this battle by any means necessary" She spoke quietly, reassuring herself that victory had to be theirs, if she wanted her future to come true.
Suddenly, there was the sound of a loud banging noise. The dragoness widened her to what it was, coming from somewhere in the city. It banged again, a dreadful and horrible sound that could have led to one thing. She looked down to where the war bell was situated. That was where it's coming from, two moles holding onto large pieces of rope and pulling it towards them and back.
"…Ancestors…they're already here…" her mind spoke aloud, her heart racing extremely quick. She could glimpse of moles exiting buildings, large masses of civilians in panic. Battalions of armed moles were swarming out of the plentiful barracks, with crossbows and swords at the palm of their hands.
Cynder's forearms were trembling, a reaction to thinking about the battle, but she knew they were coming. Right now, she must battle the beasts, or die trying. Cyn pushed away from the window's edge and jumped on the bed to get Spyro up.
"Spyro…Spyro, open your eyes!" the dragon continued to snore in his sleep, proving Cynder's attempts almost useless.
"For ancestors sake Spyro, please get up!...Grr" she exposed her teeth in frustration, so to wake him up she placed her right forepaw on his head and her left on his right arm and started shaking him.
"SPYRO! WAKE UP DARN IT!" Cynder yelled at the top of her lungs, echoing throughout the room. The purple dragon was finally out of his slumber, getting up in fright from Cyn's yelling.
"Ungg…Cynder? What the heck was that for?" he wiped his eyes and spread his wings out, feeling the stretched bone cracks within the edges of them.
"I'm sorry to wake you up like that but you were snoring like an ape addicted to dark crystals, and that's some bad snoring" she smirked with a bothered tone of voice.
"Hrm…that's because I was having a wonderful dream…" his expression said everything she already needed to know.
"Yeah? Keep dreaming, cause it isn't happening for a VERY long time" she jumped off the bed, leaving a very disappointed Spyro on the bed.
"So why did you wake me up in the first place? It isn't morning yet" he could see the night out still, but this leads Cynder to her next topic.
"Do you hear that bell out there?" she shifted her attention towards the window. As he cleared his mind to hear what Cyn was listening to, it was the sound of a bell. A big bell.
"Wait…that's the war bell…but it isn't…oh those lying beasts" Spyro growled angrily, walking off the bed to confront the dragoness.
"We should've known that they would do this, Mag never had any intentions to let us be ready for battle" Cynder felt an itch on her left wing, bringing it over to her maw and scratched it gently with her teeth. Spyro paced around the room, anxiously hoping that his own battle armour fixed and fully repaired from the damage he sustained at the Shadow of Intent.
"I don't feel ready enough, I'm not properly equipped to fight. I have to go to the Blacksmiths and get my armour on immediately" Spyro ran up to the window and was about to jump out, but something just popped into his head, "Cynder…are you going to be ok on your own?" he walked back to her.
"(Sigh) I'm glad you're out to protect me, I really do…" she heard another bang from the bell, "But I can take care of myself. I know it's hard for you to leave me alone for a couple of minutes and I don't blame you, just this once though…let me kill something without having you to do it for me. Can you do that for me?" her face was irresistible, her innocent but proud tone of voice. Spyro had to admit it.
"Be careful then Cynder. I want to see you alive and still with me. I still remember what you said back on the Shadow…" Spyro nuzzled against her face.
"Hmm…It's hard now that we found out that I'm infertile…but there must be a way to cure that, there always is a way. But that isn't important right now, now go Spyro, go get your armour. We fight now, or we die defending till our last breath" Cynder walked past him towards the window and waited for Spyro to leave.
Wiping away all the sweet emotion he had, Spyro ran towards the window, opening up his wings and taking off through the window, saying a quick goodbye to the dragoness, "Take care Cynder, fight long and hard".
She sighed when she watched him fly away from her, "…I love you Spyro" and with that, she took off from the building and sped towards the front of the city.
Arbiter was kneeling on the edge of the Library's rooftop with his carbine in his grasp, staring at the ringing war bell with a precise and deadly gaze. The warrior blood within him circulated around his body, feeding off the noise to strengthen his resolve, his mission to destroy every single enemy he encounters. On the cobblestone ground, he could see mole guards rushing to different homes, shops and barracks, attempting to wake up the inhabitants.
"EVERYONE GET UP NOW, ENEMY FORCES WILL SOON ARRIVE"
"Move it! Move it!"
"Out of your beds, they're coming!"
It was like the end was nigh, all people could do were run to safest place they could think of. Many of the moles were just innocent people, soon about to become victims of a vicious fight. The lightly armed but numerous Warfang forces readied their weapons and armed themselves with as much ammunition as possible, mostly just arrows and small knives though. They put on their newly made armour created by the hard working blacksmith employees, who spent a couple of days without sleep to make this much stuff for their soldiers.
Arbiter, without the hesitation of falling off, stood and rested the carbine on his back. As strong as he was, it would be dangerous that he's still got his chest still healing up from the chieftain Drektus' assault. It's too late now that the Brutes are incoming, too late to do anything about it. With speed and determination, he jumped from the Library rooftop and landed, rolling forward on the building next to it, towards the front wall. Getting up, he noticed Cynder flying overhead.
"I pray that the gods are with you and Spyro, Cynder" he didn't stop at this rooftop, he continued pressing forward, jumping rooftop to rooftop, having more speed and strength than any human. He used this as a way to get to the wall quickly.
At the lower level of the Grand Atrium, Tetrestu awoke to the sound of the bell finally getting to him and the rest of the Sangheili. He jumped from the bed and quickly re-equipped his armour, rushing in hopes the Brutes haven't hit yet. Dropping to the floor, using his hands to slide out his chosen weapons from under the bed and place them at his thighs.
"By the rings, BY THE RINGS!" he sprinted out of his room, going door to door down the hall and kicking them wide open, immediately frightening Sarvasu and Tesk.
"Get up warriors! Do you hear that ringing? It means only one thing, NOW GET DRESSED AND GET ARMED! MOVE IT!" He knocked Veatra's door, being respectful to the female Sangheili, "I hope you're awake and you heard that miss".
"I heard, I heard!" she replied, shouting from the inside the room.
Tesk was the first to walk out of the rooms, "Where's our captain?"
Tet turned to his comrade, "Probably still out and about in the city. It's best we find and meet up with him first and get some orders. Wait for the other the two to come out first" suggesting that it was best to find Ventor first, they waited patiently for the other two.
It only took around 30 seconds for Veartra and Sarv to get them selves prepared. They both came out of their rooms, reuniting as a squad.
"Ok, let's get this over with then" Sarvasu cracked his neck side to side.
"C'mon then, we have no time to waste!" Tetrestu starting leading the small group out of the building through the many halls of the Atrium's massive infrastructure.
Whilst most of their minds were set on the forthcoming battle, Tesk's eyes were fixed on the cunning and sleek Veartra. Every time he looked at her, there was someone in the back of his head telling him to protect her with his life, to make sure she'd never get hurt. The reason for this was unknown to him.
Veartra curved her head around and caught Raskar red handed, "Tesk? Tesk! Could you stop staring at me and focus on the situation at hand?" she made him get out of his trance.
Tesk was fully embarrassed and looking down at the ground he was running on, ashamed that he stared at Veartra like that. Sarvasu slew down to run along with Tesk, nudging him in the right arm with his Repeater.
"You're eyeing on her aren't you?" Sarv whispered, grinning with a sly face.
Raskar widened his eyes in total surprise, "What? No, I just…Baa! Are you seriously talking about this when we are on the brink of being shot?" the young warrior tried to hide his feelings, using the battle as an excuse.
"C'mon Tesk, she's a good catch, no argument there" Sarv turned his attention back to the path in front of them.
"Now's not the time!" Raskar snapped at him, but Sarv calmly chuckled inside of his throat.
Near the city gates, Ventor climbed some stairs to a rooftop not as high as the gates themselves but still have a good advantage point where a turret emplacement can rain plasma fire upon its invading enemies. Arriving at its flat top, he knelt down and dropped the cases and proceeded to set a turret up.
Odesa pulled the cannon itself out first, setting it down gently in addition to pulling out its small tripod mount where the controls were designated. He flicked its legs out and placed it near the edge of the roof, from there, the captain lifted the turret itself then slipping it onto the tripod. The controls came online instantly, whereas Ventor started putting in a code with Sangheili language numbers.
Arbiter was on a higher roof near Ventor, so he hopped down to greet the elite with good manners, "(Landing) Evening captain".
Ventor turned around sharply, "Arbiter! I was just-" he got up and walked in front of the turret.
Thel rested his right hand on Ventor's left shoulder armour, giving him some battle buddy encouragement, "It's a good idea to place those turrets near the gates. Saves some of the troops to worry about what's coming through their front door".
Ventor cleared his throat and shook of all the nervousness he had, "Thank you Thel. Good hunting" suddenly, the turret making small beeping noises, telling them both that the plasma sentry was operational and working, turning its turret side to side, scanning the area in front of it.
Odesa picked up the second sentry brief case and ran down the stairs, having no time to converse with the Arbiter, but he knew deep in his mind that chit-chat has to be cancelled for all of the battle. The mole guards regrouped at the front gates, carrying large wooden boards to put against the gigantic doors, supposedly to help delay Brute advance.
Arbiter jumped down onto the cobblestones and ran to an area that will take him up to the top of the walls. He needed to rejoin Darst and the rest of the front guards.
Darst kept good aim at whatever was approaching the city from the darkness, preparing to bombard his enemies with deadly concussion fire. He noticed moles running up from multiple stair cases, some even putting themselves in the cockpits of Warfang's defense cannons. They readied them for the fight, their drivers pulling the levers to load a fireball.
The rest took places near the Hunters, the Grunts and everywhere else between the cannons. Kino noticed that even though the bell was going, not everyone was up.
"Where is that cheetah tribe, where is the rest of the Sangheili, Where is Arbiter and those two dragons…huh? What's that sound?" Darst turned his attention back to the dark area outside and spotted a maroon heavy plasma bolt heading straight for this tower.
"OH BY THE GODS!" He jumped out of the crow's nest in panic, a split second when the bolt hit and blew the nest into small pieces, creating a somewhat alarming explosion.
Moles stared in shock when the wooden pieces of the watchtower sprinkled around them, staring back out to the black darkness.
Darst landed face first into the stone bricks of the wall. Shaking off whatever dust that plagued his face, he stood back up with his concussion rifle in his hands and shouted in one clear voice.
"PHANTOMS!"
10 Phantoms, Jiralhanae Phantoms, flew out of the dark night, flying directly at the city front. All forward plasma guns aimed towards directed target, about to unleash their fire.
YES, FREAKIN YES, I bought an Ethernet cord or internet cord whatever from one of my local stores, paying up a bit of money, but the old PC can now easily run the internet with reliability. I can continue the story, I can patch up mistakes quickly, whoo! I made this lengthy chapter in hopes of getting some people back into it, so I hope you enjoyed, peace out
