*Fort Triumph outskirts, Auroria*
Lord Vellus Tacitus stood atop the makeshift barricade that his men had erected and frowned, looking down over the devastated countryside below the rise where the Dominion encampment had been set up. As far as the eye could see was devastation and debris, the ruin of war scattered over the green fields. Shattered warbots, discharged energy weapons, and the remains of tanks were oddly intermingled with primitive spears, hammers, and bits of armor laying here and there.
As he watched, a group of people began to make their way into the battle zone, carefully picking their way over the more difficult obstacles as they headed towards what was once the first barricade line that had been overrun sometime during the recent fighting. Lord Tacitus shook his head, sighing as he watched the group.
They numbered twenty in all, their gold and red uniforms glittering in the early morning sun. Leading them was a shorter woman, her red hair visible even from where Lord Tacitus stood, and the sight of her made him frown further; a Highborn should not risk herself so when there were others to do the fighting for her, and he had already advised her that they should hold their positions until reinforcements came from Fort Triumph.
A smile made its way across his face as he recalled her response, her face twisted into a sneer that did nothing to detract from her beauty, "Aliens control lands claimed by the Emperor. It is every citizen's duty to protect His domain, and I'll not sit idly by while His citizens are enslaved and His property is destroyed. You may sit atop your wall and brood all you wish with your men, but those under my command will fight when I tell them to fight."
If he were being honest with himself, Lord Tacitus would be forced to admit that he was rather smitten with the fair Lady Flammadies and that her fire and passion only added to the long list of attributes that were, to his mind, things that made a Highborn like Biara more lovely.
It was a shame she was about to die, or worse, have her mind shredded by foul magics as she was enslaved by the alien brutes just beyond their defensive perimeter.
With another sigh, Lord Tacitus shifted his gaze, watching the smoke-shrouded wreckage just beyond where the Lady Flammadies had her men set up their defenses. Predictably, figures began to move in the smoke, slowly making their way out into the open to reveal the Osun attack force that had been rampaging all through the area over the past few days.
Huge brutes with primitive weapons and the muscle needed swing them, Osun were fearsome enemies that gave no quarter. One either killed them or was killed or enslaved by them. There was no negotiating with them, no reasoning with such beasts. As if to give evidence to this, smaller figures shuffled alongside the huge bipedal aliens, the tattered clothes and hunched backs of the figures instantly giving them away as former Dominion citizens that had been captured and forced to drink the foul Soulrot potions, effectively turning them into freak zombies fighting for their new masters. It was a scene out of a nightmare, and with hundreds of the figures now shambling from the ruins around the first barricade it was obvious to Lord Tacitus that he was going to soon have to write a report about the brave but ultimately foolish Lady Biara Flammadies.
With a roar, the first of the Osun began their charge, lashing their slaves and driving a mass of them across the debris strewn fields before the barricade. As Lord Tacitus watched, Biara's men took up positions and opened up on the attackers with a wave of withering fire, felling many of the slaves and even killing a few of the brutes with well placed shots. While admirable, Lord Tacitus knew that they would never slay enough of them to stop the group from crossing the distance to the outnumbered defenders.
As predicted, a few Osun warriors and their chattel succeeded in surviving the onslaught from Lady Flammadies and her men, their huge hammers and spears coming up as they jumped over the low barricade where the Dominion loyalists fought. Instantly the battle went from a tightly controlled firefight to a crazed melee, with Osun laying into the smaller humans that sought to stand against them.
Lord Tacitus watched with a mixture of dread and admiration as Biara rose from her position behind the barricade and aligned her mag-pistols. Even from the distance he could see her weapons bucking as she flipped them to full auto and emptied their charge into the attackers. Osun that had crossed the barricade near her were struck repeatedly, the beasts going down after they had received several wounds. One of the creatures jumped the barricade behind Biara, only to be gutted by the energy sword of a rather large, mask-covered bodyguard that Lord Tacitus had seen silently following the Highborn since she'd arrived at his command.
The bodyguard turned, cutting down several Osun slaves as they attempted to flank him, even as Biara twirled around him and crouched underneath his right arm, her mag-pistols flashing over and over and causing two Osun that were behind the slaves to quiver as they were struck repeatedly and thrown backwards over the barricade they had just climbed.
Amazingly, the first wave of Osun began to falter, even as a second wave started to make its way across the field. Biara's men had not gone through the fight unscathed, and Lord Tacitus estimated that she had maybe fifteen souls left to her. Even as he completed his count, jagged lightning arced across the barricade and struck one of Biara's men, the energy charring his armor and hurling him to the ground.
All eyes turned as one of the Osun's witches strode across the field, her magics lashing out again and this time striking the barricade before Biara. The Highborn ducked as the energy coursed over her, her personal shield flickering around her and protecting her from the brunt of the attack. The witch's magic forced the defenders to stay down as she walked the rest of the distance to the barricade and hopped over it, grinning as she brought her hands up.
To Lord Tacitus's surprise, Biara rose behind the witch, eldritch energies dancing in the air around her as she began to summon her own magics. Although he was familiar with the fact that many in the Dominion studied the arcane, Lord Tacitus had little knowledge on the subject and was shocked when Lady Flammadies shouted something incoherent and literally tore a hole through space and time. In an instant she disappeared from where she was standing and reappeared directly in front of the witch, the wake of her magic disrupting the Osun and dazing her. Biara's pistol came up and flashed point blank before the alien, the force of the weapon's projectile pitching the Osun witch backwards over the barricade even as the rest of Biara's men opened up with their weapons again, the shots flying across the no-man's land before the barricade.
It was too late to stop the second wave. Too many Osun were roaring across the field now and Lord Tacitus cursed in frustration as he watched them closing on the barricades. He had warned the foolhardy Lady Flammadies and it was a shame that she would now die when she could be sitting and having wine with him safely behind the lines instead.
Unable to look away from the impending disaster, Lord Tacitus's gaze remained glued on the distant red-haired figure as she took up a position next to her men, her mag-pistols adding to the fierce resistance the group was putting up. Just as it looked like they were about to be overrun, there was a roaring sound that shook the very ground beneath their feet, and Lord Tacitus looked up in amazement to see three ships screeching down out of the sky in a maneuver that was so dangerous only a highly skilled pilot would attempt it. Two of the ships were Dominion interceptors, proudly displaying the emblems of the Dominion on their hull and smaller emblems of the Flammadies family beneath that. The third ship was a heavily laden troop transport with cannons sticking out of the open sides on both sides of the craft.
I'll be damned; she tricked them into coming out into the open. She knew all along that she would win if her ships could get target locks on the creatures.
As if to emphasize Lord Tacitus's thoughts, the interceptors immediately began firing their cannons into the charging Osun below, the roar of the weapons discharging punctuated by the explosions that erupted from the ground amidst the alien threat. In a heartbeat the fearsome charge turned into carnage, with Osun being thrown up into the air as high-powered lasers stuck the ground over and over, searing through flesh and slaughtering those who did not immediately seek shelter.
As Lord Tacitus watched in disbelief, Lady Flammadies rose from her position behind the barricade, her warcry echoing even from the distance, her men rising with her as they jumped the barricade and fired on the aliens that were scattering amongst the explosions. The troop transport dove down, hovering just over their position, it's side cannons firing as more Flammadies family soldiers repelled from the vessel with jetpacks, the side cannons adding to the carnage amongst the Osun.
From the smoke shrouded ruins beyond a rallying cry rose up as an enormous Osun charged forward, leading a third wave of attackers into the blistering laser fire. To Lord Tacitus's disbelief, Lady Flammadies strode towards the massive figure, marching with her back ramrod straight and her mag-pistols held low and ready by her side.
The ground erupted in explosions as massive alien beast and red-haired Highborn approached each other, the Osun commander roaring with a warhammer held high above his head, and Biara striding forward confidently, seemingly unconcerned with the carnage all around her.
Halfway across the battlefield, Biara paused, her hips shifting as one arm came up. Lord Tacitus could see the glow of her mag-pistol and the shimmer in the air around Lady Flammadies as arcane energy built, the weapon slowly overcharging. The massive Osun commander roared, picking up speed just as Biara's finger caressed the trigger.
A blinding streak of white-hot light erupted from the mag-pistol, crossing the ten feet to the Osun battle-lord in an instant. The creature stumbled as it ran, still holding its hammer in hand. Lord Tacitus gripped the barricade before him tensely as the beast neared Lady Flammadies, only to see the massive creature collapsed to its knees and slide to a halt a foot from the Highborn.
With almost delicate movements, Biara brought a leg up and put one red leather boot on the beast's chest, steadying it so it would not collapse on her. Although Lord Tacitus could not hear what she said in that moment, he saw her mag-pistol come up again and unload repeatedly into the beast's chest before she pushed the now-dead Osun commander backwards and caused him to collapse in a heap.
The execution-style death of the alien leader sent shockwaves through the already stunned Osun attack force, and their final charge faltered as more and more weapons joined in the barrage pelting them. Their morale broke a moment later, and the creatures fell back, dozens of them dying as Biara's men continued to fire on their backs, driving them into the ruins of the battlefield beyond likely for good.
As the battlefield fell silent, Lord Tacitus watched the silhouette of Lady Biara Flammadies as she stood over the fallen Osun commander, smoking mag-pistol in hand. In that moment, his admiration grew and he mentally began preparing the poem he would include with the wine he would have sent to her as a gift for her contributions to his command. As he watched her, he knew he was looking upon a fine example of a loyal citizen of the Dominion, and one whose deeds would please her Emperor in the many battles to come.
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