Baelsar's Breach

Baelsar's wall
Gridania. 04:05am local time.
Previous Relevant Thread

==

"Second company, live and ready. Moving when we see the smoke."

"This is third. Launching now... you keep the commander safe, y'hear?"

"Relax, he's not gonna be in my Kestrel. This Soldat ain't big enough for the both of us!"

A silent command heralded a much louder assault. Mortars screaming out of the Twelveswood to impact upon Balesar's wall. Some fell short, smashing craters into the dirt and spewing out thick smoke across the killing field. Shell after shell rained down, the barrage continuing for a full minute. Stopping as suddenly as it arrived, the silence of the guns followed by the unmistakable revving of engines. Whoever was attacking, they clearly weren't Eorzean.

Between the smoke and the noise it was difficult to determine just how many machines had just advanced on the wall, their guns still firing blindly. With a target that big it was impossible to miss, and the intermittent rain of bullets slamming into the wall was more for suppression than outright destruction. Each individual machine was twisting and maneuvering within the smoke and doing their best to stay alive - the Sutherlands in particular, their payload being more fragile than the other machines.

Once the Sutherlands crossed the no man's land their cockpits would crack open, each depositing an additional figure on foot once they had smashed through the outer perimeter. Ernst hadn't originally planned for the extra... but he wasn't going to turn down an extra ally.

Garlemald, the land of her Father and the place where her end goal laid. It would be a challenge and a half to get there though, as the country was basically closed off to all in their war with Eorzea. It was her luck that she ran into this mercenary company and the one known as Ernst, along with their plan to breach Baeslar’s Wall. It was her best chance to get into Garlemald, and be one step closer to her goal.

Wrapping her body and covering her head was a stained and dirt-covered cloak that hid her features from her allies, and her enemies as well. Perhaps they thought it strange that a young woman had the desire to go to Garlemald, whatever reasons they may be.

“Ah… the smell of Aether… scattered in such numbers, it will be a feast.”

Aurora could hear Balor speaking in her mind.

“Basil’s Wall was it? You’ll get your feast yeah, yeah. Just give me your power.”

Aurora murmured within the cockpit. Maybe the pilot would find it bizarre, even cryptic; the girl seemingly talking to herself

“Of course. I can’t have my meal if you’re dead.”

Aurora gave a grin, satisfied by the Voidsent’s answer.

As the Sutherland arrived at the camp perimeter, Aurora leaped out of the machine, unsheathing her scythe with a twirl as she landed on the ground. The chaos spawned by the artillery fire proved good enough a distraction as the Garleans were likely scrambling to the defense.

Aurora dashed into the camp on foot, scythe emblazoned with Black and Blue energies as the voidsent’s power began trickling into the woman’s body. Any footsoldiers she would meet would be swiftly culled by her blade, and if one was so unlucky enough they might see the third eye that laid prominent within her forehead.

A cacophony of explosions rained down upon the perimeter and rocked the defenses. Yet Garlean steel was a sturdy thing. Scorch and pot marks littered the wall itself. Metal bubbled and hissed where direct hits still scalded the surface. These walls were built to withstand far greater firepower than this. And as suddenly as the deadly rain began, all went quiet. If only for a moment.

The silence of the forest broke once more by the familiar rev of engines. And thus, the assault began in earnest. A wave of foreign machines from beyond the rifts charged the wall. Patrols outside ducked for cover. Some, caught, in the open fell to the hail of gunfire upon the wall. Boulders and trees served as makeshift barriers for those swift or lucky enough. And as the enemy drew nearer, the alarums began to blare. Warning lights rotated, splashing the walls and ground with their red light.

Beams of violet energy criss crossed the gate, barring entry to the invaders. The men outside rose to the challenge, to do their duty. To die for Garlemald, whether they believed in her or not. Enemy units belched out extra hands to be engaged in direct combat. The 3rd Cohort would not go down without a fight, nor abandon their duty. Men with shield and sword charged into combat, toward those on foot. Archers lined the walls, raining arrows upon the men caught outside. Behind them, the thaumaturges cast, bringing fire and ice down upon the machines. A scant ten on the wall and twenty on foot engaged with the intruders, falling to superior firepower and strength.

"Hold the line! Hold for the Vanguard!"

---

Magnus sat in his war room, a stack of reports before him. Experiments with the outlander technology proceeded apace, a promising addition to their arsenals. One which they could stand a chance against foreign invasion without the need to bend knee to Eorzea or her brutish ways.

"Sire! Baelsar's wall has requested assistance! Foreigners and an Eorzean are launching an attack from the Shroud."

Magnus grunted without even lifting his head from his reports.

"Father, perhaps we should turn our attention to-"

"Let the wall fall." He rumbled.

The Legatus and Mila stared at Magnus, eyes wide in shock. "E-excuse me your highness?" The Legatus stuttered.

"Father, We cannot risk-"

He waved a hand dismissively to the pair, "I will not repeat myself. The wall will fall."

"But I can get there in time if-"

Magnus slammed his hand upon the table and turned cold, cruel eyes upon his daughter. "The wall will fall. The invaders will be blamed. We will use this as a means to cow Eorzea to submit themselves to us, lest more invaders be emboldened by this. If we must, we will use Ala Mhigan loyals to incite the invaders into destroying the country. Sacrifices must be made if we are to bring Eorzea to heel and stand against the outsiders."

Mila stared at her father. Shock melted to anger. She slammed her fist on the table, "We must protect our people!"

"Yes. And a cohort is the price we must pay. Order evacuation of key personnel at the wall. Let them put up a good fight. We will deploy the RUBY weapon, but make sure it is too late to do anything about the invaders. Ruby's objective is to defend the capitol at all costs. Approve use of the experimental canon."

Mila stood swiftly, her chair clattered to the floor. "Father this is madness!"

"If you cannot control yourself, you will be grounded and another will pilot Diamond. Legatus, escort the princess to her chambers and post a guard until she calms. Then prepare Ruby for deployment. The wall falls."

Explosions, conflict such as the twelveswood would punish with only one suitable answer. Yet within the edge of the woods, hidden from all until now by the foliage lay something. It was almost egg-like in its structure, yet the shell did not crack but instead like a door opened. Two figures stepped out, coughing as for the first time in as long as they could remember fresh air embraced them.

The man paused as his foot touched the grass beneath, there was something surprising yet completely expected about this. A fresh sensation, but the thing that drew the most attention was elsewhere. The giant structure that emerged amidst the foliage, and from the sounds of it that was where the interest lay.
One turned to the other, jutting a thumb in that direction.

"We can't just leave that be, no?" She spoke as he took a step past her. "Well obviously not, there's just one thing to do here. The only logical solution."
They were in agreement as she stepped besides him, a smirk forming on her lips
"We fight." They jointly said, whoever they were this was something they more than agreed on.

Who was wrong, who was right? Mattered little frankly, a good fight was a good fight and they were not keen to pass up on the opportunity. They sprinted forwards, Aether flowing through their forms as the pair closed in on the wall, the battle was about to get much more messy. From out of the woods, a different angle than both the mortar fire and the main assault two figures sprinted, blonde hair being the primary thing visible from atop the wall, but that would not be the case for long.

Instead as soon as both cleared the forest their Aether surged, spiked upwards as their forms grew soon they stood taller than the Knightmare Frames that assaulted the wall, seven meters in height were two metallic giants colored in silver and black. One male and one female, the latter hung back as the spear or perhaps staff in her hands glowed with energy, the other instead rushed forth. A blade in his hand as he threw his might against the unfortunate sutherland nearest to him. The blade aiming to bifurcate the machine down the middle.

As for the staff, as the aether flowed through it around the battlefield there would be explosions of flame. Seemingly uncaring about their target, those casting on the wall would be the primary target but the area around the voidsent wielding warrior would find itself also under assault by the unknown assailant. Then the staff was readied, the eyes of the grey humanoid scanning the battlefield to see the destruction wrought.

"This feels great." She commented, mostly to the other that came with her.

"I have to agree, feels like its been ages since I moved." The other replied in agreement, both seemingly uncaring about who they were or weren't attacking.

"Awright, looks like the first strike worked out! Blast the mages first, then shoot anything glowy or electric! And keep your distance from the locals, if they're rushing us on foot they've got something sneaky planned!"

Those foolish enough to charge out would be met not by men, but machines three times their size. Machines that utterly refused to stand still and be attacked. The two scopedogs closest to the gate immediately slammed into reverse, launching backwards from the incoming Gareleans and spraying them down with machinegun fire. Scopedogs were hardly the most durable of machines, and even in a situation that seemed non-threatening none of the pilots were wiling to risk themselves.

Nobody wanted to go down in history as the first Scopedog pilot to be killed by an arrow.

Of the three remaining, two kept up their suppressing fire against those on the walls. Mixing their own blind spray of bullets with an intermittent 'grenade' - more like a rocket at this scale - whenever a thaumaturge poked their head out long enough to cast a spell. The final pilot had a more... destructive target in mind. Spraying down anything that even vaguely resembled a Ceruleum tank or storage facility. Eukarys's Kestrel soon joined him in that, the beastwoman's laughter lending a new backing to the symphony of destruction.

All this carnage and blood was in and of itself still a cover, though. Both for the mercenary freshly deposited, and the Sutherland that had brought her. Both of its Slash Harkens slammed into the upper reaches of the wall, steel drills trying to find purchase in the metal to allow the Knightmare frame to be reeled in. Should they hold the Garleans would be presented with the sight of a machine driving up the wall, rifle primed and ready to fire the moment it crested the top.

---

The man's sword would slice through the Sutherland like butter, splitting the cockpit along with the rest of the machine and reducing it to scrap metal with a scream. One man down. A second only barely escaping the wreckage. This extra conflict lost in the chaos of battle, leaving Ernst alone to face the threat.

Battered, bruised, slightly confused - but alive. He took a second to survey the situation, quickly settling on the interlopers that had interrupted his carefully planned operation.

"More? You don't look like Garleans. Well... if you want a fight, you'll get one."

Ersnt drew his axe in a single smooth movement, slamming it into the ground in front of him to issue a challenge to the two interlopers. A single human making that gesture might not have been worth noting to the giants, but it just felt right. And they'd definitely notice what happened next.


"AWAKEN! TESTA-ROSSA, THE VERMILLION KNIGHT!"

A flash of blue light heralded Ernst's call, the summoned machine towering over the Sutherlands and Scopedogs present. Even slightly taller than the twins who had picked this fight with a weapon to match. Seconds after it had appeared the man himself vanished. Warping inside before any of the factions present decided he was a soft target. Not that the inside of a Divine Knight was exactly safe...

Testa-Rossa's own axe was a match for the one the man wielded on foot, plated in red to be indistinguishable from the rest of the machine. And it was already in motion, cleaving a furrow through the earth as Ernst charged the two - swinging it up from below to try and bisect the male with a brutal uppercut!

The chaos and destruction that rained around Aurora became all but muted background noise as she pressed onwards into Baelsar’s Wall, slashing her way through the grunts that stood in her way. It wouldn’t be long before she reached the first ‘gate’, blocked by the Cohort, and lasers of energy behind. She stood face to face against her foes, taking note of all present, understandably outnumbered, yet far from outpowered.

Her hooded cloak kept the specifics of herself hidden from sight, at least at this distance, but the scythe would be noticeable to all, and what came next was doubly sure to do so.

“Balor.”

She spoke softly the name of her Voidsent, a ‘shroud’ of darkness rising above her back and shoulders, before taking a solidified form of the monster. ‘He’ stood at almost double Aurora’s own height, his faceless head turning to ‘look’ at all the nearby Garleans.

“But mere snacks, my young Aurora.”

He ‘spoke’ to his host, perhaps somewhat disappointed at the spread before him. She looked back at him in frustration, about to speak, but not before he did first.

“But this isn’t everything… is it?”

He could ‘sense’ the aether of those further, beyond the immediate enemies.

“...Very well, let us finish this quickly.”

The Voidsent touched the blade of the scythe, causing the weapon to become ignited in red and black energies, almost like flames roaring off the edge.

“Right.”

Aurora shifted her focus back to the enemies, brandishing her scythe and taking a step forward. Balor followed behind, channeling aether in his hands, dark energies beginning to form. Those who would come close to her, she would strike with her scythe, the blade carving through their bodies, and at the same moment, draining from them the aether that was present in them, the energies entering Aurora’s own body. Incoming arrows were cut through by her blade, magic was evaded and side stepped, Balor’s form following almost effortlessly behind Aurora’s.

“Perish.”

Balor had finished channeling aether as he spread his arms out to his sides, releasing the built up energy. From the ground below the tanks and melee DPS present, the earth seemed to become ‘weakened’, as the weight of their own bodies seemingly broke the ground at their feet, before rising up, a field of black and red ‘thorns’, formed from dark aether unleashed in a massive explosion from underneath, impaling and skewering any unfortunate enough to be caught within the radius. Those impaled, would feel their aether being drained, the spike taking in their energy and returning it to Aurora, which then was fed to Balor.

“Exquisite, the lives of Garleans. Bearers to such great Aether, yet unable to use it in any way… Unfortunate…”

Aurora could sense Balor was ‘smiling’.

“Yet delicious.”

Balor faded back into Aurora’s silhouette, aspects of the Voidsent’s self becoming incorporated into Aurora’s character. The gold ring formed around her neck, with the cloth-like fabric enwrapping itself around her arms downward to the ends of the blade-like tips. Aurora flung one side of the blade upward to the wall where the archers and thaumaturges were, in a manner somewhat similar to the slash harkens, pulling on the cloth and reeling herself up to the wall where the remaining enemies were. Once in close, it would likely be little issue to clean up the remnants, and then press onward further into the wall.

The giant humanoid towered over the challenging human with a bemused aura at the notion, one man with an axe against him. Oh he was really curious what was going to be pulled now before a more suitable opponent was selected. It was then, that the call for the Divine Knight was made, the giant figure was certainly surprised by this turn of events as he raised his off hand to defend against the 'surprise' attack.

Which then suddenly transmuted, the gloved hand shifting into silver and growing, broadening. Taking the form of a shield as the axe crashed into it.
"Well would you look at that." He seemed as surprised himself at the protection as any other, the defense clashed against the axe, slowly beginning to cleave it as the shield seemed to regrow as it was 'wounded'. But this left the unknown's sword arm free to retaliate. The blade was raised up before it was brought down hilt first upon the shoulder of Testa-Rossa, even if this one held no weapon.

"Are you hogging all the fun?" Came a query behind him, the female variant had more than noticed the appearance of this new adversary. One which seemed most interesting.
"You're free to join in." the one in front spoke in an almost annoyed tone as if it was his fault that she hadn't done anything about Clifford the big Red Murdermachine.

"How kind."

That was all the prompt the second of the pair needed to point her spear forwards, a sphere of blue enveloping her as beams went every direction shooting out like spikes from the barrier that offered no protection, instead they curved around the male defender before raining down on Ernst from his flanks. Yet for seemingly no reason this ranged specialized adversary crept closer after this assault.

Something was wrong, very wrong about that. After all the melee oriented one showed little interest in retaliating beyond that basic strike, something more in line with incentive for Ernst to stay where he was. He was hiding a trick, a plan, some strategy. One that wanted Testa Rossa right where it was now.
And for that reason there was one more blow from the man, against the red machine, a kick to its knee. Intent on grounding the Divine Knight right where it stood.

"Oh and for your information." The female one responded late "We are not Garleans."

"At least we're pretty sure about that one." The other joined in as he kicked.

The men had been promised a battle, maybe a fight. But what they got was a slaughter. Body after body hit the ground, no match for the mech mounted men. Ranged attackers used the wall to their advantage, ducking down behind battlements and really anything they could to avoid the spray of machine gun fire and explosions of grenades. The cover did not last long once one drove straight up the wall and began to pepper the inner court yard.

The woman who had gone on foot clad herself in the spectral shroud of the voidsent. The few true blooded Garleans among them had a brief moment of heartening at the sight of a reaper, only for reality to crush their resolve as the blade of her scythe was turned upon the soldiers.

Adding the titans to the mix, the defensive line broke. Whatever command remained among the cohort broke. Men dropped weapons and surrendered or sought shelter in the safety of cover, others fled for fear of no mercy. Chaos spread through the channels of their linkpearls. Incoherent reports and babbles of mechanized assailants and giants of unknown origin, as well as the enemy Reaper.

Command struggled to bring their men to heel while evacuating. How could they hope bring the chaos under control when they themselves were abandoning their posts? Overrun with fleeing soldiers, they could not even turn their weapons upon their subordinates for fear of being over run by the cowards. Magnus had given his decree, their death warrants signed. Their priority was their own hides, and any who drew too close to the air ship were shot. Override sequences were issued to the automatons. And within short order, they turned upon their own. Deeper within the castrum, Reapers, Predators, and Collosi were occupied with fending off the onslaught of Slashers, Claws, and Vanguards.