AN: I realized I stopped crossposting this at a rather large cliffhanger... My bad.
Of all the monstrosities Legend had to fight, the Simurgh was perhaps the worst. Every victory was a defeat of far worse measure; every success a possible prelude to disaster. As the best speaker of the Triumvirate by far, he was also assigned to give the brave souls who showed up to such a fight a bracing speech.
This was no pep-talk, no rallying cry to invoke a sense of heroic audacity as they fought against a force of nature, far from it. His job was to let the noble people who decided to risk something even more than their own life - their mind, their sanity, their very sense of self - know exactly what to be prepared for. Hopeslayer, indeed.
Somehow, some way, he then had twisted his words in such a way to uplift their sense of duty, regardless of the fact that the many faces before him were unlikely to return alive.
It was at the tail end of his speech that he'd somehow cobbled together on the spot, when Dragon had interjected, every armband in hearing distance chiming to alert them.
"This is Dragon, the Simurgh is within a minute of landing. Before the assault begins, we are allowing a new force to begin the assault. Please listen closely to your armband for warnings on when to retreat from the Simurgh as they will be periodically performing bombing runs as well. The fleet responsible will be appearing soon - do not attack them."
The modulated voice cut off, and all eyes turned towards Legend. He shrugged, and decided honesty was better lying about knowing what the hell was going on.
"You heard her folks, the Simurgh is almost here. Let's gather outside in your assigned groups and prepare to follow up after the first wave. The plan remains the same otherwise, but above all PAY ATTENTION to your armbands, we cannot risk friendly fire."
The various groups before him grumbled in general compliance, but they all swiftly exited the gathering area they'd put together so Legend could speak to them and give them their grouping instructions.
Deciding to take to the sky to get a better view, Legend rose above the tent-line and took in the sight before him. From his new vantage point, he was treated to an unimpeded view of their arrival.
Coming from seemingly nowhere, the first 50 black ships were swiftly followed by more. They kept appearing until Legend's rough estimate put them at a few hundred, but they were varied in size and he could have been off. Engaging in his own comms, he asked a question. "What's the plan here guys?"
The personal communications between him and his fellow Triumvirate was heavily encrypted, though they tried to keep anything confidential off of it just in case. It merely allowed them to talk without including the entire cape population that was there to fight.
Alexandria's voice crackled through, as calm and collected as always. "Dragon spoke with someone named Logic, who wanted in on the fight but isn't physically present. As you can see, they are packing some kind of serious firepower, though exactly how serious cannot be determined yet. We have our Thinkers assessing them, but the results will take a bit beforehand. Supposedly they have countermeasures in place so they can't be used as fuel for the Simurghs creations."
"I see. Well, sending in a wave of... remote piloted ships? Will allow us more time to get into position. I'm going to begin moving the capes into the outskirts of town so they're ready once the first assault dies off."
"Sounds good, Legend. See you on the battlefield."
Discussion over, Legend gave the baleful-looking ships a onceover. They gleamed in the sun, burning high in the sky as it was just approaching noon, wicked looking black curves and guns obvious for all to see.
There was a wide variety apparent throughout the cluster, though there were a couple significantly larger than the others. It was too far to make out any clear details, but overall, they looked quite menacing and heavily armed. Hopefully they would make a difference - every life spared was of vital importance.
His armband beeped as a voice emerged, which he could hear coming from all the surrounding capes as well. Legend's blood chilled as the new voice spoke, one that was distinctly not a robot or automated voice - which was alarming because it meant someone had hacked into Dragon's tech and was now using it to announce themselves.
"Greetings heroes. Simurgh is touching down in 20 seconds - our first assault wave of ships will begin in 5 seconds. Secondary waves will follow up after the first begins their assault - please keep your distance. Operation Commencing."
Legend didn't have time to ponder the consequences of such a thing as the smallest ships he noted amongst the horde vanished. It wasn't an immediate thing, it looked more like they simply disintegrated from the bottom up, completely disappearing within a half second.
Stealth Technology, he thought. They were a fair distance from the probable landing point of the Simurgh, however, so they were probably planning on using something else and were going to ambush the false angel with them later.
Swiftly he realized he needed to take the lead. Shouting to be heard, he began directing the other capes towards the city so they were close enough to take action once the ships were killed off or retreated. And wasn't that a depressing thought - at best they were likely going to be cheap distractions, but possibly hundreds of hours' worth of work for whatever Tinker came up with the things.
Well, he hadn't seen their firepower yet, but powers (most of the time) were balanced in some sort of way. Panacea, for her incredible healing ability, couldn't affect herself. For all her power, a single gunman at 20 feet away posed a massive threat to her life.
Quantity rarely was accompanied by quality, and vice versa. Which is part of the reason Legend was so convinced this fleet was likely many, many hours' worth of work, based on their size and without seeing their capabilities as of yet.
Perhaps he would be proven wrong and this would be the work of a new cape capable of great things - a new Triumvirate-tier power. The darker, cynical part of his mind laughed at such a thought. Natural triggers were more likely to be restricted, so the chances of a truly powerful new cape being vial-born was far more likely, which in turn meant Cauldron probably already knew about them if that was the case.
Which also meant if that was the case it was yet another thing he wasn't informed of.
The New York Protectorates leader was quick to banish such thoughts - they held no place on the battlefield they were joining.
No doubts, no hesitation, no remorse. The Simurgh would try to tear apart everything that was good or loved in Canberra, and he was here to stop her.
The line of capes, numbering in the hundreds, entered the outskirts of the city right as the Simurgh began slowing her descent above the city, knowing her it was to increase the terror of the occupants below her, as they prayed she landed elsewhere so they could be spared.
Not unusual of her.
What was unusual, however, was the serene smile adorning her face to suddenly change to one of frustration and anger.
Nearly as soon as that happened, the comm system sparked to life. "Watchdog just lost sight of Canberra! I repeat, our Thinkers can no longer see Canberra!"
That must have been from the other communication system they were a part of - a channel with both the Triumvirate and Watchdog, only to be used in case of severe emergencies they all needed to be immediately aware of.
Legend immediately voiced his observation. "Simurgh's expression just changed to one of anger - could she be being blocked right now as well?"
Normally such a thing wouldn't be of great importance, but the Simurgh's expression very rarely ever changed. It was part of her unholy image - the serene angel of death and insanity.
"Unknown, but we just confirmed it is only Canberra itself. We have no readings on anything inside the city, including the Endbringer, but right outside the city limits everything works fine."
The situation was both alarming and held great potential. If the Simurgh was affected... It would change everything.
He promptly switched channels to the Triumvirate-specific option. "If the Simurgh vision is being blocked... This might be our chance. Alexandria, the moment those ships engage we need to see if she still has full precognition. The potential..."
Legend didn't need to say anything else. Eidolon, Alexandria, they both attended every Endbringer battle, just like him. The Simurgh was only truly scary defensively because of her ability to turn attacks into friendly fire and the impossible dodges she could perform.
"I'm keeping my eye on her Legend, if she loses her ability to predict attacks, I'm in agreement. This is our chance. But don't get your hopes up just yet."
Of course. Legend took a steadying breath - Simurgh was known as the Hopeslayer for a reason, and she wasn't beyond giving them false confidence just to shatter it for greater effect later.
Any idle thoughts he might have had were shattered as the world exploded with noise. He'd attended a military presentation once, included in the showing was a display of their new M234 Minigun. When it fired, it screamed at you to pay attention to it - and it was impossible not to. The blaring noise that was several thousand rounds per minute being fired was impossible to drown out or ignore.
This was just like that, only multiplied by 100. The capes below him immediately tensed, believing they were under attack, until one pointed towards the Simurgh and shouted something inaudible.
Legend started, realizing those small ships he thought were preparing for an ambush were doing just that, only earlier than he expected.
The large collection of ships, easily reaching 100 at the minimum, had appeared underneath the Simurgh, appearing like a landing pad indicating where she should go.
Every single one was spitting out nearly invisible rounds that struck the wings and feathers of the Endbringer, actually causing it to flinch back from the brutal onslaught. The Triumvirate member was quite surprised at the reaction - while Endbringers were capable of being 'knocked back' especially the Simurgh, the sheer surprise and sudden trepidation that appeared on her face was quite unusual.
Besides that fact, whatever the ships were firing was nearly invisible to the naked human eye, making him wonder just what they were packing.
Before he could continue his observations, the Simurgh struck back, using her telekinesis to rip several roofs off nearby buildings before using them like fly swatters, smashing them into the earth with a vengeance. Every single ship rapidly evaded, and Legend couldn't help but notice they all took unique, individual routes to escape their imminent doom.
Separate intelligence? If the ships were all 'individually' piloted they were even more effective than he thought. Powers often helped with multi-tasking if their unique ability called for it, but to be tied in with ships of this caliber? Unusual.
The small ships continued unleashing their incredibly loud payload and evading the increasing number of fly swatters the Simurgh was wielding when his armband chimed again, and the same male voice spoke.
"First assault successful, please stay clear of the AO. Bombing run commencing."
Bombing run? A sudden shriek that sounded oddly familiar emerged from behind him, and he whipped around to witness a new section of ships and one of the larger vessels begin rapidly approaching. They passed, the strangely-pitched noise wavering in tone as it passed by him.
"Everyone stay clear of the Simurgh's general vicinity, bombs of unknown payload are being deployed."
Not knowing the capabilities or firepower of any of these vessels was going to give him a headache, so he passed a general warning to the capes nearby. Several shields popped up to cover the main body of capes in preparation.
The larger ship maintained a small distance between itself and the back of the shrieking ships, an ominous glowing beginning to creep up the arms of the craft.
Legend had to tear his eyes away from the large bomber because the smaller ones immediately unleashed their payload, but instead of dropping something as he expected, glowing blue orbs ripped themselves free and swiftly collided with the Simurgh, who failed to dodge as he would have expected.
They erupted with a noise that eclipsed the ungodly droning of the minigun-wielding ships, a visible shockwave blowing the dust away in a rapidly expanding sphere.
As the Simurgh turned away from having successfully smashed a swath of the smaller craft, she was blindsided by the larger bomber as it unleashed its payload. Its weapon was similar, but appearing to be much larger.
Legend wore the Simurgh eyes widened a fraction right before it impacted, but all vision was lost when it detonated in a wreath of blue light and energy.
Everyone stopped and watched in awe as the dust that had been blown away from the initial impact slowly settled, allowing vision to return several moments later.
It became clear that the Simurgh had raised a wing to block the shot, but it was the end result that left Legend in shock.
Numerous feathers had been blown off, leaving a rather threadbare looking limb behind, which had several cracks and clear faults running through it. It was far from a decisive blow in the grand scheme of things, but it was far more devastating than the Simurgh had ever received this early in the fight.
Anger adorning her face, the wicked angel opened her mouth to scream her displeasure to the world, large pieces of debris and structures rising to circle her and provide protection.
Apparently, the ships had been waiting for just such an occurrence, as a new ship made itself known from the backline.
A rapid fwoomp followed by the loud roar of a rocket's exhaust was all the warning they got before something rammed itself down the Simurghs newly exposed throat and detonated with a loud crackle of electricity and force.
