Meanwhile on the ground...Fire and madness filled the air as the soldiers of Belisio battled on with all their might, each one of them bloodied in some way, but still holding on and facing down the endless horde of Vaimese invaders. Guns chattered, explosives thundered and above the din of combat, men howled their souls into the night with every trigger pull and thrown grenade. The Belisians knew that they were doomed, that this was their final hour and what remained of them would soon be engulfed by the endless tide rushing towards them, but still they screamed in defiance of that fate and fought on to the very last.
Minutes passed and the fighting was no longer at a distance, but hand to hand. Among the front ranks, Belisian combat knives clashed against Vaimese steel. Then seconds passed and a barrage of magic fire rained down from above, incinerating friends and foes alike. The mages of the Empire cared not for the lives of their slave soldiers, culled from the vestiges of nations conquered. Then just as it seemed that the end was near and the defences were finally about to be breached, a new sound emerged from the chaos. Compared to the noise of battle all around, it was barely a whisper. Only audible to those with still functioning commlink devices and augmentations, but the words were like trumpets heralding the approach of imminent salvation:
"This is Steed 1, reinforcements are en route. Coming in hot."
"Fight on you bastards!" shouted one of the men who heard the message. "The Knights are coming!"
"The Knights are coming!"The shout was echoed all around and the Belisians took up arms with renewed vigour, guns raging against the coming storm.
After a brief look on the battlefield below, Roland determined that the situation was worse than he had initially thought. Had there been another moment of delay, it might have been too late. There was no time however to feel vindicated in his decision as the shuttle propelled forth, shooting out of the carrier ship and into the fray with VTOL engines screaming like wings of fire. From thousands of metres in the air to the scene of battle below, the drop took less than a minute and in that time, the left flank of the Belisian defence had managed to save itself from the brink of collapse, fighting the enemy forces to a standstill.
"Open the door, pilot," Roland said as the shuttle neared the ground. "Let them see us."
"Roger that, sir. Door's opening."
And with that, the Knight Commander unbuckled himself from his seat to stand at the rear of the shuttle as the door ramp was lowering, allowing a clear view of the Belisian defenders below. With his hair and cloak whipping in the wind, Roland drew Starlight from its sheathe and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Warriors of Belisio, you
will stand firm!"
Then without waiting for the shuttle to land, he jumped out and landed light as a feather between the Belisian defenders and the enemy ranks, deflecting every bullet sent his way with the blade of his sword. As soon as a gap emerged in the hail of gunfire directed at him, he charged his ancestral weapon with Ki and released it in the form of a sweeping horizontal slash, cutting a swath through the invaders before him.
"Rally on me!" the Old Lion roared as he held his sword aloft, shining brightly with power like its namesake. "No quarter! No mercy!"
The Belisian soldiers echoed his shout as they formed a firing line on either side of him, emboldened by his presence. When the first shuttle at last touched down upon the ground, Roland called out to it, "Sir Vires, I shall hold the line here! Commence the attack and do not let a single enemy mage escape our wrath!"
The other shuttles were mere moments behind, but when they arrived it would be in a clear landing zone as the enemy forces were being pushed back further and further by the Knights of Belisio, charging into battle like the heroes of old.
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