EliteCommander

The Cradle

Rareth was mostly ignoring her eyes, instead focusing on the map she was creating as they went of the path ahead of them. They had not yet come to any divergence in the path, but if they did, she might slow down somewhat to give her sensors a chance to map them as well; at least as far down them as the echoes would be discernible.

”A Datius is as equipped as they need to be for their task, but it is not our technology that makes us.” Rareth replied. “A Datius is the…apex, excepting only for the Rahn’Saki. Not all of us are soldiers, but we are all the most capable in what we do. I will merely say this: there is a reason the Rothian special forces team assigned to this mission consists solely of myself.”

The Cradle

Rareth approached the Agent, looking down onto her with a stern expression. “I intend to finish this quickly, and I will not wait on you. I trust that you will be able to map the cave system as we move through? If you fall behind, return to the camp and wait for me. Otherwise, follow my path and keep watch for any dangers.”

With that, Rareth waited no longer. The rest of the Human soldiers were setting up their camp’s defenses, while the scientists were finally able to rest their feet. Even if nothing else was accomplished here, this break would help the civilians to keep up their pace once they started to move again.

Rareth followed along the edge of the river, into the entrance to the cavern, and just as she promised, she was moving quickly. In such tight quarters, it was not as if she could move as fast as her body was capable, but she had still not been lying about the fact that her pace would be difficult to keep. They did not have to go too deep for the ambient light from the outside to fade. She could illuminate their path with lights built into her suit, though even in complete darkness, she would have had no trouble navigating. Her echolocation implant was even more effective within the cavern than it was outdoors. The pulses of sound traveled far down the cave ahead, tracing out all the potential paths ahead long before she could see them. She could decide ahead of time which way she wanted to go, without stopping or slowing her pace at any point.

The Cradle

Rareth turned and looked down at the agent skeptically. “Do you have comparable capabilities to these soldiers? I would be fastest alone. One of your Sacred Band may not slow me down too much, but you…you lack their augmentations, do you not? Unless there is something you are hiding about yourself, I would be delayed too much by taking you with me.”

Though her words might have been harsh, Rareth was intending to make use of her full capabilities. She would not be holding back as she had been to allow the others to keep pace, so any help would need to be able to keep up with her.

The Cradle

“Regardless of the ordinance we have available, there are no guarantees it would be faster. And we may accidentally collapse it ourselves with the explosives. If the cave does not end up bringing us close enough to the other side, it may be slower to blast through it than to just go around. With the information we have, staying outside is our best choice.” Rareth reasoned.

This time, it was actually Nirann that spoke up with an objection. “Well…we could go about it in a way that would make sure we don’t collapse it ourselves, at least. I know the echolocation hardware you Datius have is top-notch. If you’re pinging the surroundings while we’re going through, not only could you map out the cave system, but I could analyze that data to get a pretty good picture of the structural integrity of any part of the cave. That is something we could work with.”

Surprisingly, there was something of a long delay from Rareth as she weighed the pros and cons of each option. One path would certainly be safter than the other, but they were in a hurry. If it was just herself and the other soldiers, the choice would be clear, but they had the civilians and their equipment to worry about, and all of it was essential.

“I can scout ahead myself.” Rareth finally continued. “I can move far more quickly alone than we can together. I can go into the caves and seek out an exit on the other side, mapping the cave system as I go. Based on the size of this mountain, it should not take me long to get through, unless the caves are particularly difficult to traverse. And if that is the case, we certainly should not use them. Whether I find a path or not, I can be back within an hour. You can use that time to rest, recover, and continue your work.”

The Cradle

Despite the discussion and debate among the others, Rareth had made her determination pretty much right away. She did not hesitate to speak up right after Thebes. “We cannot know for sure where that cavern leads, or if there even are any other exits that a person can fit through. But more importantly, it is too dangerous. We have already seen that life in this place can be titanic; easily capable of collapsing a cave right on top of us.”

Rareth moved over to the edge of the ridge and looked down into the valley. The visibility down into the valley was not exceptional, but it was still much easier to see the path ahead than it would be in a cave. “If we encounter difficult terrain, I can move ahead of the group and try to quickly scout our best path forward.”

Nirann sighed, followed by a chuckle. “At this point, I’m wishing we could have just rode there on the back of that worm.”

The Cradle

Nirann mimicked the sound of breathing a laugh through a non-existent nose. “Oh, I’ve had subroutines running iterations on that since we left. Combat programming doesn’t take up that much processing power, so I can multitask. I’ll give you the update on my progress.” He said before sending Dr. Wetherall the data with a partial reconciliation.

Rareth might have objected to losing any focus on their surroundings, but ensuring their safe return was vital. Between her sensors and the Sacred Band’s, Nirann’s were likely redundant. He could afford to put more focus into solving the problem, if he needed to. In any case, Rareth kept leading on up the only path they could follow for the moment. Though, she was looking out for alternatives. They needed to take the most direct route they could.

The Cradle

Rareth naturally wanted to take the lead as the team moved ahead. She kept as far from the river as she could, though the path was not too wide. At the very least, there did not seem to be too many angles they needed to check for threats, but as they had learned, threats in this place would not always come from the most obvious of places. They just had to be ready to react, swiftly and efficiently.

Since she was now less well-protected, Rareth insisted that Carthage stick closer to the center of their group, along with Nirann and the scientists. Even without her suit, she was still a supersoldier, and still capable of easily outpacing the civilians, so their overall pace forward did not diminish. As they could all see, though, there was still along walk to the beacon, and there was not necessarily a direct route.

“So, for the Cradle experts here…” Nirann began, still keeping all of his sensors alert to their surroundings. “…is this what you would call…normal? I mean, I’ve read the report that some Cradle creature talked to Vreta and some others, and now we have some kind of intelligence that clearly does not know the meaning of the word ‘overcompensating’, with the size of that worm it sent after us. I know you and your people want to keep your secrets, and that’s fine, but are you sure there isn’t anything else you might know about Cradle intelligences? Just so we know what we might be getting into.” He asked, looking more specifically at the agent.

The Cradle

Nirann too gave a quick look over Carthage. “Emotion-based patterns? I like that touch. I used something like that for a while. Marae just loves how creative I can get with my avatars. I can go a lot more crazy than just colors and patterns like most Rothians. I just decided to go the more ‘natural’ route for my avatar in this expedition, so I wouldn’t be too distracting.”

When 595 questioned Nirann, he chuckled as he gestured forward to her. “What? Do I not look like enough of a pack mule already? No, I’m pretty much resigned to the fact that I’ll probably be carrying some of you by the time this all is over. But it’s up to you to fight over who gets to ride on my shoulders.”

Rareth, as expected, ignored much of the banter behind her and pressed forward as soon as they had gathered up all of their cargo. She agreed with Thebes’ strategy, though she still did not stray too far from the group until they were beyond the trees that had been surrounding them. There was now no doubt that this place was dangerous, so she wanted to be in position to provide assistance at all times, should something unexpected happen. Once they neared the far side of the basin, however, Rareth ran ahead to scale the cliff near the waterfall and see what she could scout at the top. The climb itself had the potential to be more difficult than before, given the proximity to the waterfall, but the rocks were not too wet to climb as long as they kept as much distance as they could. Rareth herself had no issue rapidly scaling it without a load to carry, but the others would need to be more cautious. In any case, she used her vantage point at the top to observe as much of the area as she could, especially what was ahead. They had been on their hike for almost an hour by this point, but there was still many kilometers of walking to go to reach the beacon in the distance.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Lorag had taken quite a literal shock from Arinette, but it was not enough to knock him out of the fight. After Fendros dragged him back among the rest of the pack, he struggled back up to his feet. Unfortunately, ensuring his safety did not leave them with the time they needed to retreat back into their lines. Their allies behind them fought off the Daedra as long as they could, but the enemy’s numbers were simply too great. With their reinforcements from the valley below, a force of Dremora were able to cut through some of their allies behind them, isolating Meesei’s pack from the rest of their army. On their left and right flanks, Skaafin mixed with more bestial Daedra closed in on them as well, and of course, Arinette herself was to their front.

No matter which way they looked, the situation was seeming more and more grim. They were surrounded on all sides, and even Meesei did not have the power to simply push through any one of them. Perhaps with the Staff of Magnus it would be possible, but with the power Arinette currently wielded, the staff was needed to face her. All around them, the Daedra were dedicating an overwhelming force purely to finish off the Champion’s pack. Perhaps that was an over-commitment that would give them ground elsewhere, perhaps their allies would be able to take advantage to rescue them, but they would need to survive long enough for that to happen.

Meesei was the nearest to the right flank. Skaafin spearmen pushed forward, archers loosed a volley from behind them, and a pack of clannfear were sent charging forward at the same time, all focused on taking Meesei’s head as a prize. Meesei wanted to take down Arinette as quickly as possible, but the other threats simply could not be ignored. Before the clannfear could reach her, Meesei unleashed a wave of telekinetic force in a wide arc in front of her, stopping the clannfear in their tracks, staggering back the spearmen, and knocking arrows out of the air. With an enraged roar, she followed through with a powerful bolt of chain lightning that electrocuted most of the clannfear, and a few of the spearmen. One of the reptilian Daedra did escape the lightning and was close enough to leap for Meesei, but alone, she had no problem catching the beast in her claws. It tried in vain to scratch at her armor, while she brought her hands to its neck and snapped it in one simple motion.

Unfortunately, there was no easy way to deal with the numbers bearing down upon her. The spearmen resumed their charge as soon as they could, archers nocked their next volley, and more Skaafin filled in the gap her chain lightning had opened. Still, Meesei would do whatever she could. It was as if lightning coursed through her veins when she unleashed her next storm from both hands, though it was not targeted at the Daedra directly, but rather the ground in front of them. It was a flood of lightning that charged the ground itself, creating a wall of magical lightning between them.

“I will hold this flank myself! Just…look for any options you can find!” Meesei shouted back to the others. She did not see any means of escape, but her power was still considerable. If she could hold this flank by herself and demand disproportionate resources from the enemy, maybe the rest of her pack could find some kind of opportunities? She just had to put her faith in her pack.

The Daedra on the other flanks were no less aggressive than the ones Meesei was dealing with. As they were closing in, Ahnasha stood just behind Fendros, bound bow in hand, with an increasingly frustrated expression. “I can’t feel it. The titan…I can’t feel its mind.” She said, looking to Fendros. “We need a plan, here.”

At their front, Arinette shouted in frustration when Sabine’s ward proved just as formidable as her own spell. Regardless, she was undeterred. In pain and anger, she screamed as she started to sprint forward, straight at Sabine. It was hard to say what exactly her strategy would be, if she even had one in mind at all. She might have been a mage, but they really had no idea what she might be capable of, even in melee.

The Cradle

Although the team’s relief was understandable, Rareth was, as always, focused on the mission. She deactivated her sword and returned her arm to normal, then went straight to drawing her fusion cannon once more and turning her gaze to the path ahead of them as soon as she could. She acknowledged Carthage’s gratitude, but Rareth was not a woman easily distracted from the tasks in front of her. The trees had stopped their attacks, which suggested the path ahead of them was clear. It seemed likely that the creature had perished, but there could be no guarantees in this place. It would be best for them to move on in a hurry. She scanned ahead to try and see if the trees ahead were still active, but with only limited points of reference to work with, it was hard to say.

“You can watch while we are moving.” Rareth commented to the agent. “We should not linger here. The creature may be dead, or it may not. We cannot know its true size, and this is a strange place. Besides, we still have a long walk ahead of us, and only limited time to make it. We need to get through this forest, and out of this basin.”

Nirann had picked up on Rareth’s determined attitude before she even spoke, so he had already returned his weapon to its compartment and picked back up the cargo he had been carrying. He grunted and groaned as he hoisted up the heavy load, despite lacking any form of strain on his mechanical frame. “Getting on in a hurry are we? I’d suggest we at least raise a toast to our victory, but I didn’t bring my wine glasses…or any drinks…or a digestive system.”