Chapter Seven
A kiss, a bath, and a night of love was all the rest Faasnu and Kabier needed. As they slept wrapped in each other's arms, they lay unaware of the impending enemy strike. In the early hours of the morning, long before the sun came up over the horizon, the alarm blared and anti-aircraft guns began pounding. Faasnu and Kabier hurried into their armor and grabbed their rifles, and headed outside, meeting up with Tullius.
"What are we looking at this time?" Faasnu asked.
"Dominion assault force riding in on Necromyan Stealth drop ships," Tullius responded. "It was lucky we detected them when we did."
"They inside the city, yet?" Kabier inquired.
"A few teams made it inside – if you hurry, you may catch them before they do whatever it is they're here to do!" Tullius answered.
Faasnu and Kabier rushed off into the city, and it wasn't long before they came across a team of Dominion troops making their way toward the shield generator. Needless to say, they didn't make it to their objective; the armored duo drilled them all dead before they knew what hit them.
It wasn't the end, however; another drop ship dropped a team of Thalmor Saboteurs, who then opened fire on Faasnu and Kabier. But, in their haste to attack, they failed to check their rear flank, and were gunned down by a squad of Stormcloak troops, who had happened to wander into the area.
"Sergeant," Faasnu asked the senior NCO present, "What's the situation?"
"We've got Dominion forces dropping in everywhere," the Sergeant replied. "We think they're trying to take down the shield generator to allow their artillery to level the city!"
"Is the generator defended?" Kabier asked.
"Yes, ma'am," the sergeant responded. "We've got MG positions encircling the generator – it's safe."
"Ulfric to Faasnu," Ulfric said over the radio. "We've got problems, over."
"What's new?" Faasnu asked. "Over."
"We intercepted an encrypted communication from the enemy – they're sending stealth fighters to knock out the generator, over!" Ulfric exclaimed.
"Deploy the Stealth Nullifiers!" Faasnu barked. "It's the only chance we'll have at taking those bastards-"
"Too late! Take cover!" Kabier exclaimed. She dove in one direction, tackling Faasnu to the ground. An explosion rocked under the shields, sending debris everywhere.
But something wasn't right. The shield was still active. So, what exploded? It took only a glance up to learn what was going on; a massive starship with a narrow, horizontally-thin profile was descending through the clouds as the morning sun came up – a DMC Ravager-class Planetary Assault Cruiser.
The Dragon'taan Marauder Corps was here.
"This is General Kyle Indari to allied forces," said a familiar voice to Faasnu over the radio, "The Dragon'taan Marauder Corps stands ready to assist. Sergeant Major Faasnu, are we too late for the party?"
"No, you're just in time, sir!" Faasnu responded with glee.
The Ravager was soon followed by two more ravagers that landed in areas around Whiterun, deploying gravity beams to anchor them to the ground. One of them had it's broadside facing the enemy, and opened up with a barrage of disruptor cannons and gauss cannons. The enemy artillery was decimated, and the enemy chose that moment to fall back.
As the allied troops watched the Dominion and Necromyan forces retreat, they cheered.
"We did it," Kabier said. "We won."
"Yes," Faasnu responded, "The Battle for Whiterun is over... but the Battle for Tamriel has only just begun."
With the Dominion forces and their Necromyan allies driven back, Faasnu decided the time was perfect for a counterattack. With the timely arrival of DMC forces, the Imperial and Stormcloak armies now had access to even more deadly technology – battle tanks, artillery cannons, assault fighters, helicopter gunships, and more.
However, a coded message was received from one of the DMC warships that touched down near Windhelm. This warship was being sieged by the Dominion and their Necromyan allies. Ulfric, not wanting to see his city and hold burn, urged Faasnu to turn his attention to Windhelm. With assurances that the forces at Whiterun would hold until his return, Faasnu agreed, and took a transport – guarded by a flight group of Skyrim's dragons – to Windhelm.
The situation at Windhelm was both better and worse than anticipated. The landed DMC warship – one DMC Victorious-class Attack Cruiser called the Dragoon – hovered above Windhelm on an antigravity beam anchored in the center of the city. The Dragoon Projected a shield around the city to protect it from a variety of attacks, and it was under bombardment from recently-deployed Dominion artillery cannons.
The first objective was simple: Knock out the Dominion artillery positions bombarding the Dragoon's shields to allow a brief respite to recharge the shields. To this end, SSF troops led by Faasnu and Ulfric landed in an area just south of the enemy artillery positions so as not to alert them of the action. Faasnu and Kabier hopped off the drop ship and met Ulfric at the center of the gathered squad of Stormcloak troops.
"Faasnu, Kabier, good," Ulfric greeted them, "I was about to brief the men on our objectives."
"Don't let us stop you," Kabier commented. She was subsequently elbowed by Faasnu.
"Show some respect," he told her.
Whether or not Ulfric took any offense to Kabier's comment wasn't clear as he began, "Alright, men; the war against the Dominion has begun... again. And with our new allies, we will take the fight to the Dominion and their bigoted, rigid Thalmor agents! This time, they will be the ones to be driven back! They will be the ones to broker a treaty to save their cowardly hides! This time, we will emerge victorious!"
The troops let loose a war-ready cheer, either unaware or uncaring of any enemy sentries in the vicinity. Faasnu kept an eye on his motion tracker.
"Our objective today is the Thalmor-manned Artillery positions firing on our home city of Windhelm," Ulfric continued. "We must destroy these cannons, then finish any stragglers that remain. Sergeant Major Faasnu, anything to say?"
"Just this, boys and girls," Faasnu responded as he walked through the ranks with Kabier. "Keep your eyes downrange, fingers on your triggers, and we all go home in one piece. Am I right, Stormcloaks?!"
"Sir, yes, sir!" the Stormcloaks shouted.
"Damn right, I am," Faasnu said. "Let's move out! Staggered formation, double-time!"
The troops headed out in the requested formation, and Faasnu, Kabier and Ulfric kept at the head of the formation. It wasn't long before they came across the artillery positions.
"Man, this brings back memories," Faasnu mumbled.
"Seen these things before?" Kabier asked.
"Yep," Faasnu affirmed. "These cannons are based on an inverse version of the old German Flak 88 Cannons – notoriously easy to destroy. I've no idea why the Thalmor are using these."
"Their mistake," Ulfric said. "How do we attack?"
"Well," Faasnu began, "Given that your troops' armor doesn't have the same shielding that you, Kabier and I have, I'd say we stage a frontal assault while your boys attack their flank. We'll drill these Thalmor bastards and then blast the cannons to hell, then high-tail it to Windhelm and see what the situation's like."
"Perhaps when we secure Windhelm," Kabier suggested, "We can take a trip to Black Marsh. I know the Argonian Royal Family would be anxious to meet you."
"Perhaps," Faasnu responded, "But we may not have any time for a 'meet my friends' get-together."
"Who said anything about something like that?" Kabier asked. "I was suggesting we make an alliance with the other Argonians."
"Oh," Faasnu said. He frowned, then asked, "Didn't you already suggest that?"
"You two done?" Ulfric chuckled.
Per the plan, the Stormcloak troops snuck around to one of the Thalmor flanks, and Ulfric, Kabier and Faasnu made for another. Then, when everyone was in position, Ulfric pulled the pin on a high-explosive grenade and tossed it into the enemy fray. One of the Thalmor soldiers screamed in surprise, and was blown away when the grenade detonated, putting down half of the Thalmor troops. As an added bonus, the grenade ignited the Cannons' ammunition pile, and put two of the four big guns out of commission. Faasnu, Ulfric and Kabier rose from cover and assaulted the Thalmor, who were surprised to see them. While the Thalmor were busy with the three interlopers assaulting them from one direction, the Stormcloak troops came in from behind and decimated them. There were no survivors.
"Good work, men!" Faasnu told the troops. "Now lets rig these cannons to blow and high-tail it to Windhelm!"
The Stormcloak troops placed plastic explosives on the remaining cannons, then took drop ships to Windhelm as the cannons were blown apart. With Windhelm safe for the moment, Faasnu was eager to learn what the situation was...