"Battle for Katabatic"

Guys, I know it comes as a shock that CDL warriors die! But real war is full of friends and fellow warriors dying. To make the story more "real" I have to write in the deaths of honorable warriors.

MuTeD, you died honorably in battle! What more can a Dragon Wolf ask for?

 

Hmmmm, I seem to remember that Rayzer gets 0wned by, what was it.... was it the Commander's attack poodle?

 

Hey, thanks Bruski! Kind words indeed! Well, here is a little more to the story... enjoy!

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Otto rolled over slowly, his head ringing and the world spinning around him. His whole body ached, and he struggled to remember exactly what had just happened. He automatically checked for suit integrity and was satisfied when he got a green light on the seal indicator on his HUD. He next sat up and felt for his phalanx cannon; it was still with him and operable. He heaved a sigh of relief. At least he could defend himself and his armor was undamaged! He looked around him and realized he was sitting on a small outcropping of rock and 230 to 250 feet above where he last remembered being. He glanced down at the ground below and could see the Jericho and some Dragon Wolves pressing the attack on a retreating TRA group. He sees who he imagines to be Hamma coordinating some troops to head in his direction, so he stands and waves them off. He can find his way down. It appears Hamma has seen him, as he waves off the CDL warriors that had prepared to climb to him. Otto looks at the TRA base he can see just barely through the swirling snow. There appears to be fierce battles raging there. All of the normal lighting that is normally associated with a base the size of the TRA base is out. Otto wonders what happened when he was portalling in. He glances around him looking for an easy way to the ground below. There doesn’t appear to be anything direct, so he takes a small route open back into the hills, leading somewhat away from the battle. This aggravates him, as it has been a while since he has had the opportunity to put his massive chaingun-like weapon into use. He grumbles to himself as he heads down the rough path, hoping he doesn’t get back too late. He always misses all the fun.

Team 3, now on the ground and getting reorganized, work quickly to get Oed comfortable as possible until they can get him repaired and ready for dust-off. Doomhawk has gotten his armor repaired as much as possible and is even now laying down a massive barrage of fire along with the rest of the team. Schrike is running around getting the team prepared for moving up and pressing the attack. ShadowSpawn has already parted ways to find a nice perch from which to take shots with his laser rifle. His range was limited due to the storm though, so he was forced to stay closer than he preferred. Racewiz was attending Oed, hoping to get him to come around so it would be easier to move him and also find out if he was badly wounded or not. It appeared he was pretty shot up, but they couldn’t pop his armor here on the planet until they found some shelter. The Team 3 warriors had been flattened by the shockwave earlier from the massive EMP emanating from the vehicle pad. They had seen the TRA warrior try to dial in the vehicle and then the massive pulse had happened. The pad was a mess, and the warriors closest had simply dropped dead, their heartbeats apparently stopped by the EMP shockwave. As they began to move forward, they also saw the fire coming in from one of the other teams. It was devastatingly accurate and was blowing a hole in the TRA warriors’ hastily propped up defense. The com silence originally held except for Oed’s earlier use, was now broken as the teams began the slow crush inward toward the TRA base.

The EMP wave had exacted a huge price from the TRA main base. Every electrical and any electronic component not shielded in some way was fused into an unusable mass of circuitry. The command center in the TRA base was chaos as the team captains frantically tried to get some control of their confused and in a lot of cases, panicking teams. None of them had ever seen an EMP of this size before. Most had never experienced one at all and only had heard of rumors of them. They were totally unprepared for the ensuing consequences of just such a blast. The attacking CDL warriors had devastated the perimeter defenses and somehow sidestepped the sensor nets. It also appeared that there were a lot more of them than the TRA intel-briefs had let on. There was almost more information coming in than the captains could handle; almost more than they could handle. They were battle trained and not given to panic. They knew that battles were not won until either all the combatants were dead or surrendered. They did not plan on surrendering. The command to stand till the last man was given long before by the commander. This was taken as if a god had commanded it and the captains all did not want to be sacrificed to this ethos. They fully intended on living! So to this end, they put maximum effort into getting control of the current situation. Their efforts began to pay off. The teams were starting to regain some sense of order, and they were trying to defend against the surprisingly lethal firepower of the legendary Dragon Wolves. KickedOut and scrub and eMa sensed that resumption of a sense of order as they walked hastily to an exit that would lead to the surface, and hopefully, a reunion with the main forces of the CDL.
“Seems the EMP blast, whatever it came from, messed things up a bit,” scrub said to his companions. The main lighting in the base was off, and a dim red emergency lighting system was on, giving everything an eerie color. The three had but maybe fifty yards of hall to go to the exit eMa had mentioned.
“This isn’t good. Look, there appears to be a door guard,” eMa says, nodding to the doors ahead.
“Hey, what’s a capper to do with an easy run? This is what gives us the “capper’s shakes!”” KO replies, grinning at his comrades. The door guards tensed as the three approached. This was going to be interesting.


Pressing in closer to the TRA main base was getting tougher by the minute. Team 1 was beginning to face a well-coordinated defensive perimeter that was settling into a more solid wall. The EMP blast had caused some immediate excitement among the TRA teams, but it appeared they had some stern leadership guiding them back to an orderly retreat and defense. Manitou was finding it harder to probe the line and come away successful. The group of lancers had extracted a lighter price that he had assumed. After the EMP blast, they had momentarily been without energy in their armor to operate their lances. This was fortuitous to Team 1. Great Dane had been particularly happy about that, and had waded into the TRA warriors with a newfound vengeance. Every member of Team 1 still had the image of MuTeD’s torn body fresh on their minds. The battle had been ferocious but lopsided. There had been no prisoners and the surviving TRA warriors had fallen back to the defensive positions now being reformed ahead of them. Team 1 had not come through it unscathed though. Arglaar had taken a storm hammer shot and had found his armor moderately damaged from the blast. He had mid-aired the TRA warrior, though. Unfortunately he had been forced to use his repair kit. His armor was secure, but weak on that left side. AP had been attempting to snipe a few stragglers and had been working his way around the flank with Asmo and h0micide. But a counter-attacking platoon of TRA had discovered them and banged them all up pretty badly. Asmo had taken a full on body shot while trying to protect an unsuspecting AP. It hadn’t destroyed his chest plates, but it had seriously depleted them and also used up his repair kit. The blast had knocked him back into AP, who had just been firing his rifle. The shot had gone wild and had glanced off of h0mi’s shoulder plate. It wasn’t too bad, but it also required the use of his repair kit. They had successfully painted the attacking TRA platoon and Groov had lobbed in a mortar round and finished the work. The got back to the main team, but were a little worse for the wear. AP had thanked Asmo with a slight grin, and a slap on the back. Asmo, knowing AP’s normally stoic behavior took that as a great thank you. The newest Dragon Wolves had equated themselves well in battle. RaptorMax had begun sniping immediately and had scored three headshots in a row, before counter-sniper teams forced him to cover. Dio, Pan, Marsman, SwiftasFeather, and Manitou, along with Groov’s and test’s mortars, had pressed the main attack hard. Pan had mid-aired a leaping TRA warrior sending him into another TRA warrior who had been trying to jockey for a mortar shot into the Team 1 group. This caused the mortar to drop short, and the ensuing blast had killed a number of TRA warriors, including the man firing the mortar and the deflected warrior. The main group had thus far escaped without having to use their repair kits, but their armor was still showing signs of battle. Scorch marks, dents, some surface stress cracks, and some shallow chips decorated most of them.
“We need to root these guys out. We are supposed to be at the doors in about 10 minutes. We are going to have to attack across this flat area here,” Manitou coms to his team, stabbing a finger at the map he holds. The sound of intermittent fire still crackles around them. Groov, test and Marsman are still keeping a pressure on the defenders, keeping them honest. They hadn’t counter-attacked in the last few minutes.
“That area is pretty wide open, Mani,” h0mi remarks, his brows furrowed in thought. “Why don’t we faint to the right flank with test, Groov, and Mars, then myself, AP and Asmo will faint here in the middle” he points to a spot on Mani’s map, “ while the main body does a pinwheel folding the TRA left flank up. There is a slight rise there on the left which will afford you guys a bit of cover, plus the resulting slope will enable you to roll mortars and grenades down into the TRA company.” He underlines his idea by running his finger along a section of the map showing the terrain features.
“Yes, good call, cide,” Mani replies. He looks at his team and snaps off the orders over the com. The Team 1 troops rally to their appointed positions and begin the attack to the objective. It pretty much goes off without a hitch, except for one detail.