Open Chronicles Skirmish for Taimin

[White Swallow]

(Please respect that this is a ~70 man conflict)

Hovels lined the distance, and even further back were the mountains, stretching far across the west-eastern line as one might see.
The village of Taimin has seen many bloody days, and today would be no different. It was a fruitful oasis ripe of resources with many eyes set on it, yet not everyone had the same interest in their mind.


The White Swallow's band stood on a dune, the cataphracts forming a small group which consisted of, as per most an enemy would say; too many legs.
The horsemen slowly split into two groups as they anxiously awaited for the scouts to return reports of the enemy forces.

 

[HotepseAken]

HotepseAken stood besides the White Swallow; while the humans needed horses, the Anaphite could simply run alongside them to keep pace. His purpose here was mostly to provide medical care during the battle, as well as to protect his investment in the Shakhmat state. He couldn't have one of it's most useful pawns dying before he could properly utilize it.

There was, however, another reason. HotepseAken looked over the hill; the village itself, and beyond it his eyes could pick out a spot of black that he knew would be there. Yes, the village was important. More so, however, it was important that neither side claim the village.

His leg was stiff and uncomfortable. The wound he had taken would hamper him, keeping him from keeping up with the charge itself. Still, during the battle he would not be so slow as to be a problem, and if anyone attempted to take advantage of his speed they would be in for a rude awakening.

Hotepse smiled maliciously, remembering the last time he had been charged by a man on a horse. He shouldn't have, it wasn't exactly who he was trying to be these days.... Still, the image of the horse digging a trench in the dirt with a surprised lancer spinning wildly in the air would never cease to warm his heart.

 

[Tera Lynx]

A low rumble began to shake the ground, the sand on the dunes began to shift as the mercenary army stood poised on the outskirts of the city. The rumbling and shaking went on for a long while, increasing in intensity till it reached its peak. Across from the mercenary army on the other side of the village something broke out of the ground in a geyser of sand. The head of a huge worm broke out and let out an ear splitting screech.

Spoiler

... Material...
... Essence...
... Supplies for the swarm...

It rose up into the sky for a moment before settling back down, it's head just above the sand. Then it's mouth opened and it was like the hordes of hell were unleashed.
The monsters streamed out of the belly of the beast, most were of a medium size, but some were much larger. The creatures swarmed around the head of the worm and looked down on the village, reptilian eyes gazing hungrily at their prize and the army as an appetizer.

Spoiler

... Feed...
... Take Power...
... Survive...
... Grow...

A deep throated roar sounded above the screeching of the horde, and out of the giant worm a huge creature covered in horns showed itself. Menace showed in its eyes as it regarded the mercenary troops that stood to prevent them from taking their goal. Without a signal or a command, a small portion the swarms light runners surged forward as one, descending on the village.

Spoiler

 

[HotepseAken]

Quite the entrance...

HotepseAken looked to the swallow; it seemed that, so long as the battle was won, that was two Phoenix with one bullet. He was impassive as ever, still, but the Dunestrider watching from afar made no move to intercept the horde.

What were a few hundred human lives compared to tens of thousands? Cooler heads must prevail, after all... though HotepseAken was not much cooler than most. The idea of those humans being killed painfully... still, what was he to do? Rush to their aid like a gallant knight?

He did not show how his desire to avoid violence was beginning to chafe. Not yet, at least.

 

[Jexlt Warren]

Jexlt sat on the roof of one of the buildings in the village. He watched as the swarm emerged from the worm's mouth. Disgusting, but, probably a very efficient way to transport those monsters underground quickly and without attracting attention. To the other side of the village, he watched as the other army got into position. Great, two armies, and now this village was caught in the middle. He had been hired by the villagers, with what little they had, to protect them and their village. Jexlt accepted, despite how little he was being paid, he still took the job; he wasn't about to gouge these villagers of their few belongings for their protection.

He considered the two armies. On one hand, the army of monsters would most likely kill all of these people for supplies. On the other, the other army most likely wouldn't kill all of the villagers, but just want the land or something else, not just kill them all. Jex couldn't be everywhere at once, so, he decided he would fight the monsters out; then, he would negotiate with the other army, or be forced to fight them off.

He pulled out his bow. The swarm was approaching fast. With some light runners charging the village. He fitted three arrows into the bow and pulled it back. He took aim, and released the arrows. They flew towards the light runners, and took down three of the monsters.

This was going to be a long day.

 

[White Swallow]

Some of the soldiers exchanged edgy gazes between each other as the worms began to emerge of the dire-worm mass. Indeed an unexpected force to take squabble over land.
To the Band of the White Swallow of the Shtakmat State, however, they were merely monsters beyond reason.
And land was no good if it was desolate.

The band of many black shields painted with white birds slowly began to descend off the dune, their horses edging to charge but remained tight under control.
The White Swallow waved at Hotepse, »You're not required to come along if you do not wish so. And there may be people more in need of your aid than us if it comes to such.«

 

[Tera Lynx]

The three runners went down from the force of the arrows, and two got up again, the third arrow found the space between the Swarm Hound's light back armor and killed it. The runners immediately began to randomize their approach, zigzagging and leaping to make themselves harder targets.
They moved surprisingly quickly across the sand, the loose ground normally making all out sprinting a challenge. The hounds reached the city within the next few moments and began hunting anything alive, but the harvesting group behind them were not idle.

Several large beetle like creatures with thick armored crests and shield like legs were moving around the village towards the mercenary army, they kept a formation and their eyes on the skies, at the first sign of arrows the creatures would hunker down, using their hard backs and broad front claws to form an impenetrable shield wall.

Spoiler

These beasts were larger than horses and two medium sized creatures could be seen riding on each of their backs. The bugs riding the shield beasts had long tails with wicked long spines like spears on the ends of them. Their contingency for when arrows flew is they would hide beneath their mounts whilst it formed a shield above them.

Spoiler

Once they got close enough to the enemy they would thrust their front claws into the sand, standing shoulder to shoulder to make their formidable shield wall.

The warlord watched over the battlefield with the main force still held back, sending light reinforcements to attack on both fronts. Some worker drones were busy spreading slime around the worm by spewing the bacteria from their mouths, this slime corrupted anything it touched and in the sand it began to multiply and spread quickly. Some of the drones began being absorbed by the creep, forming rapidly developing pods.

 

[Jexlt Warren]

Havilah White Swallow HotepseAken

Jexlt watched as the monsters advanced forward. He saw the runners continue moving forward. He noticed the shielded beasts, with riders on them. He fired an arrow at one, to see what would happen. The shielded mounts hunkered down, and the riders took cover behind the bugs. Interesting. He fired two more arrows. He managed to hit one of the riders, but it wasn't a kill shot. He only wounded it.

Jex noticed the runners approaching the village. One ran forward, almost reaching the house Jexlt was on, before stepping in the wrong spot. Then, a rope hidden under the sand sprang out from the ground, wrapping around the monster's leg. It lifted the monster up into the air, and Jexlt stabbed it with a knife. Jex had booby-trapped some parts of the area around and within the village. Not enough to keep the monster army out of the village, mind you, but enough to slow them down, be forced to search for the traps, and rethink their strategy. Of course, the merc army would also surely encounter his traps, but hopefully they would be smarter than the monsters and have better awareness of the traps.

As the monsters got closer, it should be easier to pick them off with his bow. So, he pulled out his arrows, and he fired.

 

[HotepseAken]

HotepseAken looked to the village; this... was an unexpected development. Dispatching him to deal with the off-shoot, and mitigate the casualties? It could allow him to quietly and quickly excise any individuals who knew too much and could harm his ambitions for the Seret. He nodded to the White Swallow, "If that is your will; I shall move to the village, and protect what I can... though, I fear the people shall find my form displeasing."

They absolutely would. Living this close to a protected ruin guaranteed that members of their community had stories, ghost stories. Ones that would make them hesitant to even approach, let alone accept the Anaphite. Worse still if they had ever seen the Anaphite themselves...

Still. Accidents happened. He could save some of them, so long as he carefully culled the problematic ones. HotepseAken reluctantly left the White Swallow's side, running towards the village as fast as one of his riders could. In the distance, the other Anaphite out of sight adjusted its position, moving quietly and near-invisibly through the distant hills of sand and rock. The sandy rocks around the village were difficult to maneuver over, though HotepseAken began to skip, pouncing from position to position.

He heard sounds from somewhere nearby, shifting his weight to get a better look he leaped into the air some twenty feet, scanning across the village. As he descended he spotted one of the creatures attempting to batter down a door with its shoulder. The last time he had seen something like this, it was Bhargheist's in the Spine.

Much like then, he would handle this. His feet kicked off the moment he landed, hurling himself into a soaring lunge across multiple shacks in the village, nearly crossing the small oasis community in a single bound. The creature seemed to sense him, likely from his shadow, and turned to snarl.

It didn't have much time to react before nearly three tons of Jackalfolk landed with a sickening crunch; the partially ossified leg of the Physician did more damage with its greater hardness. Dust and sandy grit flew through the village in a shockwave from the impact, knocking the door aside, weakened as it was from the assault earlier. Terrified farmers, simple folk, looked on in horror.

Rising from his crouch, the black furred Anaphite gazed into the dark shack. His eyes, his backlit figure, all of it some image from the village's own stories. Their own boogie man. A towering monster who haunted the far hills.

Ruin-Wraith.

HotepseAken turned from the door, watching as another of these creature ran for him. He heard it long before it got close, a hand extending to grab the hound-like beast roughly as it tried to land a bite. It seemed familiar...

The Grand Physician drove his scales and staff into the ground, grasping the struggling beast with both hands. He turned it over a few times, examining the skull, the eyes, feeling along the neck for the joints and connective muscles. He ignored the scratching its claws left on his body, largely superficial though they were a few would need tending before the day was through. Still...

He delivered a stunning blow to it's pressure point behind the skull, paralyzing it for a few moments. Long enough to proper examine its muscles, claws, teeth. Fascinating... It was remarkable similar to another specimen he had examined centuries ago, though this one seemed even further bred for desirable traits. The Creature began to twitch again, seemingly coming back to its senses. HotepseAken hoisted it, grabbing it by both legs, and with a grunt sunk to a knee.

The crack of chitin and bone snapping rang louder than his impact a moment ago. This animal was clearly a danger, and as such had to be pruned. He discarded it, no longer interested. He rose, turning back to the villages. With a scream, they shuffled and huddled deeper into their home, terrified.

Well... Atleast finding the ones he needed to remove would be easy. Blind terror from fear was easier to pick out from recognition. No one in this family recognized him, mouthed his name beyond 'Ruin-Wraith' or other such mortal titles. He knelt and daubed a sigil on the floor by the door; a heiroglyph of protection, one whose power was significant enough to repel a beast like this. A lesser mage or more brutish beast would be needed to shatter the ward.

He decided he would move house by house, checking each dwelling. He would leave wards against attack where there were innocent humans. Where there were threats to him, or his objectives?

There would be dust, left behind like so much ash before the fireplace. He moved on to the next house and opened the door, his scales sliding through the dirt after him like a faithful hound.

 

[White Swallow]

The Warband began to advance, their bows in hand as their horses slowly progressed from a walk to a comfortable trot.

The village was preoccupied with its own section of the swarm. But perhaps it might have been foolish to separate. How the village fared was beyond the Swallows' reach at the current moment.

The first volley of arrows deflected, However, the horsemen would not falter, they continued to shoot as the horses began to run father from the advancing bettleswarm.
»Peyam! Lead left, Soheil, right,« Shouted the swallow as part of the unit began to split left and right from the hulking beetles.

 

[Tera Lynx]

(Been Renovating the swarm and its creatures. Hope that's okay!)

The Warlord of the Swarm of Harvest, Ka'Gi, noticed the flanking move against the shield wall. It was a strategic move, only a foolish creature would charge that wall head on, and these humans were showing themselves to not be fools. But there was a cost they had to pay either way.

As soon as the horses began to veer to either side the lancers aimed their bladed tails at the riders from underneath the protective bodies and between the thick legs of the shield bugs. A foot long spine grew from beneath the tail blade and then fired with crossbow like force. The hail of spines shot out from the shield wall into the cavalry, some men were slain instantly as the spines found their marks, others severely wounded either from the spine, or their horses being shot from under them.

The swarm in the village had the benefit of a single mind, whenever one of them fell the rest adapted their tactics. There was a powerful creature hunting them through the village, as simple runners they were only tasked with slaying humans, which they excelled at. But Ka'Gi was realizing there would be no resistance from the villagers themselves, the battle lay away from the village.
The Runner Drone's began leaving the village and its two defenders, letting them alone for now.

But in their place a swarm of insects began descending on the village, the bugs were about the size of large pinecones and looked like wasps with glowing green abdomens. They went into the houses and began stinging the inhabitants, after a single sting and injecting their venom the bugs would die. The villagers screamed as they were attacked, but it was rather anti climactic. No worse than a bad hornet sting.

The runners bolted across the sand to join the battle, their eyes trained ravenously on the horses and their riders.

 

[HotepseAken]

A village usually had no more than a hundred people; usually further out farms could house higher populations, but Taiman was an exception. Between trade, oasis limits, and the rough soil, it was nearly double the population average. It was on a fast track to becoming a town in a generation or two.

So that HotepseAken had made good time, warding seven households already, was a bit of an achievement. Certainly not enough to save the village but more than plenty to ensure that, if the battle was won, something might survive. Perhaps sixty, maybe more, human souls were cowering in the safety of their homes while the battle raged. They would live to see tomorrow, most likely.

Then came the plague of disease-bearing insects. HotepseAken knew intimately what these were: Mutator brood. He had no questions left as to what exactly was opposing him and the Shakhmat state, it was a horror from the lost city, deep within the dunes.

Another magical mishap from an age long past. Something his people should have stamped out for the headache they would prove to be. Now, these things were an annoyance to any designs the Anaphite held for Amol-Kalit as a whole. Their hive-mind could be useful to their designs, if not for its single-minded biological imperative. It had proved too difficult to manipulate before, and it was doubtful that it would be worth dealing with now.

The flies swarmed the village. The Grand Physician sighed, watching as most of the populace were beset by insect whose stings had a limited window to cure. He could save another handful, at best. A dozen if he got lucky. The village was dead.

He watched as a few slammed into the wards, splatting into it as if a glass wall were around each clay-and-brick hovel. He chuckled, before frowning. A prick, a brief pain... he looked down, his face contorting in disgust; one of the damn things had stung him.

He'd run a fever for an hour at best, before fighting off the virus. The biological agents of this species paled in comparison to what the Anaphite immune system could accomplish, and that was before the amulets upon his wrists could do their work of further protecting him from infection.

Still... that offered a chance. He would have antibodies soon, and if he remembered correctly, he could give a rough and dirty transfusion. It wouldn't save the villagers, no, as having sand in your blood was a deadly condition. Still, living ten years longer was superior to dying in hours.

And so he got to work; he made for the next hovel, entering without ceremony. A small family, this, about seven. The children were developing the fastest, and both the most likely to survive longer as well as requiring aid more immediately. A cut upon his hand, a swift slit upon their wrist, and he began to intone a chant.

The magic of his words helped his body draw in the tainted blood, absorbing it and adapting it to his body. He reversed the chant, and the altered blood began to retreat. Mixed with the now-propigating antibodies of the Anaphite, it should give the child a fighting chance. As well he might develop stronger and faster, though petrification of the blood cells would inevitably kill him by mid life.

HotepseAken moved onwards. He had a lot of work to do if he was to save anyone else. It was a race against the clock in truth because of the sting he had suffered. He would need to rest, meditate, and eliminate the mutagen fully from his body before it taxed him too much. If there was to be a fight, he would rather be able to defend himself when it came.

 

[White Swallow]

A vile spike peered through his shield held over his upper body.
It's point glistening.
The machinations of these monsters were vile, but their armour was sound and their horses clad in many interlocked platelets. Mayyadah was spared from one of these ends.

The White Swallow let out a whistle and waved his banner to side. The left-wing of the cavalry, which was closer to the village descended upon the runner drones exiting the village.

The remaining troop within the White Swallow's command continued their trot, but they retreated farther from the bulwark beetles.

 

[Tera Lynx]

The Runners kept their charge against the approaching flank, but they were far from heedless of their enemies weapons. They ran in a loose and weaving formation, presenting a fluid front that would give the horsemen no resistance and very little to charge into, rendering their momentum and any group formation as ineffective.

When the Runners met the horsemen they broke off and weaved through the enemy ranks and dodged between the hooves of the horses, they used pack tactics and going two or three on a single horse before taking the rider. A few runners were killed in the initial clash by the weapons of the cavalry, but by having a fluid line they stole the momentum of the charge by forcing the riders to turn and fight instead of charging straight through, lest they exposed their backs to the runners while they used their superior mobility to run circles around the horses.

_____________________________________________________________​

Ka'Gi was eager to get in on the fighting himself, but he was no fool. The humans were posing a formidable threat and he would not underestimate them. His swarm was not designed to withstand a drawn out battle, they were only meant to be swift raiders. Slaughter, harvest and leave.

He was afraid that if this band of human warriors proved much more resilient he would be forced to retreat, abandoning the village and its resources in search of easier prey.

The Larva drone were growing and soon they will have replenished their losses, but it may be for naught.

_____________________________________________________________​

The Shield drones with their lancers didn't pursue the horsemen, rather they kept their front, a wall between them and the rest of the creatures around the burrower drone.

 

[White Swallow]

Peyam got snagged by the foot, but the runner drone was easy to kick off. He slashed one across and another got lanced through the chest as he ran forth to save one of his comrades a brutal death.
A lone buffalo will eventually tire off by a pack of wolves.
But once the riders congregated into a coherent charge, they were a blur of armour and sharpened steel as they waved among the drones that seemed more like leaves in wind in their movement.

Yet their goal was not to slaughter. The unit moved into the village, at first surprised, but it was not hard to find the Anaphite in the mangled mess of the village.
»We need to evacuate survivors,« barked Soheil.

The rest of the unit formed a defensive perimeter with their lances, looking like some kind of mounted hedgehog.

---

 

[Tera Lynx]

Several dead villagers already lay in the dust as the cavalry rose through between the houses. The runners did not pursue the cavalry further than the village border, instead they were instructed to harass the main cavalry group.
They peeled off and bolted across the sand back towards the swarm defensive line.

Inside the village the people were hiding in their houses, those that the Anaphite warded were unable to leave without the barriers being lowered for them.
But those who were in the unprotected house began to stagger out at the word "Evacuate". But they were in sorry shape.
A woman staggered forward in the gathering crowd and approached the soldiers, a red welt on her arm.
"Please, help us. We need to get out of here before the monsters come back!"
The cry of pleading voices rose up from the other villagers as well.

"... Too late..."

The woman cried out and fell to the ground, her flesh began to ripple and swell, her limbs twisting and growing. One by one the other villagers followed suit.
Her screams turned into roars, her eyes turned black, her fingers lengthened into claws, she even sprouted another arm from her back with a scythe like blade on the end of it. The others transformed as well with a wide variety of grotesque mutations.
They all hissed with feral rage and immediately attacked the horsemen without a shred of tactics or organization. They practically threw themselves against their weapons, climbing over each other, and using the piling bodies as steps to reach the horsemen.

________________________________________________________
​

The runners pursued the moving cavalry, but they didn't directly engage, preferring bleeding tactics, circling and looking for openings to make quick shallow attacks to wear their enemy down.

Back at the Burrower drone the larva emerged from their birthing pods, but now they were another wave of runner drones and immediately dashed across the sand to reinforce the first wave.
Behind them, worker drones moved to collect the corpses of both man, beast, and swarm creature, dragging them back to the burrower.