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Aeginvok was nothing more than a disaster zone. Smoke and fires everywhere, house and buildings destroyed, no people on sight and demons of all sorts destroying whatever was left of the civilization.

According to the last report, only 15% of the population was left. It was up to the GML volunteers to gain control of the city and stop this chaos.

((Heya, K`. Do you want those of us in jets to start selective bombing/strafing from above? I mean...that's what fighters are designed for. ^^))

"Shh..." he whispered as the engines of a AC-130 melted into the chaos of the distant fighting that no longer raged in the streets they passed through, although that didn't deny them the occasional Demon who sought out any survivor. The girl who gripped her father so passionately whimpered into silence as one of those Demons stalked over the ruins shattered throughout the road, sniffing the air as it palmed its giant mace. The Rakkirrik loomed its gaze in their direction, went to step, then carried on down the broken road in long, slow, heavy steps. He waited until the soft rumbling in the ground from the Rakkirrik's movements faded until moving from cover, stepping out onto the sidewalk through a hole in the damaged building wall.

Checking up and down the street, he spun around and outstretched his arms, hoisting the child out of her father's hands as the man passed her to him. Setting her down on the sidewalk, he led her by hand once the father joined them on the road; moving further from the fighting and deeper into the city. They stuck close to walls and took alleyways when they could, and the magicians he employed across the city helped him navigate the still strange streets with ease, weaving their way in the direction of the safe-house without a doubt in their step. He trusted the magicians to guide them safely; some of the civilians he had helped reach safety had been their friends and family they once thought lost.

A tingling ran down his spine before they had moved even five blocks, and his consciousness instantly sprung out from his mind, expanding until it brushed against the sweltering darkness of another Demon patrol. "Get to cover," he spoke swiftly, and the father quickly swept up his child and disappeared down an alley, climbing the rubble into the building he continued to walk past. Clenching his fists, an emerald power sprung out around his forearms and hands, and illuminated his cerulean eyes. From around the corner of the building, two Orrikons, one olive green skinned and the other moss skinned, stepped awkwardly into the open, followed by the soft rumbling of another Rakkirrik close behind. A containment of wind burst from his feet before he dashed towards his first opponents.

[ooc: Oh yeah, K`, I'm jumping into your story. BD]

[ooc: You only really have to read from the fifth paragraph down. xD ]

The two Orrikons walked instep side by side, so as Darius approached from their flank only one of his victims spotted him, but it hadn't the time to react other then a bloodthirsty cry and a raise of its battle axe. Moving at an accelerated pace, Darius lashed out with the energy on his left arm, releasing a single emerald twister that curved down then arched up as it struck the olive stained Orrikon deep in its chest, lifting it from the ground and over the second. As the second Orrikon appeared underneath the first, Darius struck out with the energy around his right arm, and another emerald twister lashed out at the Orrikon with the same dip-and-thrust movement. Still dashing, Darius came to an abrupt stop as the Orrikons were both thrown across the street into the adjacent building, crashing through into the first floor to have the second floor cave in on top of them. He knew they weren't finished, but his attack had placed him in the center of the cross roads, and directly in front of the approaching Rakkirrik.

A grenade went off in front of the Rakkirrik, changing the monster's attention and its expression went dumb. The beast started to inspect the area around its feet, looking for some small opponent who it couldn't quite see. “Stay back with the survivors!” he shouted to the man, whose armored car and insignia he didn't recognize, and whose weapons were like alarms to other Demon patrols. The Demon looked at him and grunted, and he turned towards it.

Instantly his vision was cut off from the street beyond the thirteen-foot tall behemoth, whose stupefied look quickly turned to blind rage as it eyed the blond haired spell weaver no more then ten feet from it. Its bark brown skin tightened around its massive chest and its trunk like arms as it lifted what was nothing more then a simple boulder high above its head. In that time a new, golden power had encircled his arms, and he raised two clenched fists high above his head, intensifying the power until it encased his biceps and seethed across his chest and back.

The Rakkirrik roared, he screamed, the boulder was thrown, and Darius brought his fists down heavily on the street, releasing all his built power into the earth below. Much faster then the Rakkirrik could hope to move, he charged the emerald power into his hands again and batted away at the approaching rocket of stone with quick bursts of wind, altering its course until he was sure it was beyond himself and the building that contained the father and daughter. Meanwhile, as the Rakkirrik went to lift its mace into the air, the pavement of the road split violently as three twenty foot columns of golden crystal shot out from the earth just in front of the behemoths feet; slender, sharp, and stronger then diamond. The spikes punctured the beast in the center of his chest, through his hunched neck, and directly underneath its jaw. With each spike that protruded through the monster, a river of sleek black ooze poured from the wounds.

He shivered, and felt the darkness of the Rakkirrik return to the fade, then felt the boulder land with a soft tremble through the ground. Looking to his right, he saw that the boulder landed atop the still struggling Orrikons, putting an end to their own shadows. He took a breath and let his consciousness expand; father, daughter, volunteers, but nothing else. They were safe; at least for now. He turned towards the building to see the father and the daughter emerge from the same alleyway, but he eyed the soldier's rover with caution as Darius approached them.

“Don't worry, they're friendly.” Darius said quickly, and the father relaxed, but kept his daughter close by and safe. Directing his attention to the soldier, he looked to the rover vehicle he had come in on, then to the survivors. “We'll be safer without that machine, but maybe you can help us.” His sights returned to the soldier. “We've gathered some of the survivors, and a few magicians within those ranks, but we're low on supplies and this war isn't getting any easier. Report back to your commanding officer, and ask him to relate a message to the commanding officer of the reinforcements that just flew in on the AC-130. Ask them to send a small force deeper into the city, escort them as far as you can, and I'll have the Aeginvok magicians lead them to us once they're spotted. Once you've dropped them off, return to the battle field. They need as much help as we do.” He gave the soldier a quick confident smile. “I'm counting on you.”

With that, he turned to leave, and the father went to follow in step with his daughter close in between. The solider sat stupidly for a moment, before Darius' spell took effect, forcing the soldier to kick the rover's engine to life. “Wait!” The soldier cried out, and Darius turned to look. “Who should I say the message is from?”

He stopped, looking back to the soldier for a final time. “A Passenger,” Without another second, he took to a jog, leading the father and his girl past the street where the drained Rakkirrik stood erected by his spikes, past the crushed building where the boulder struck, and down into an alleyway not shortly after.

((Will do, K`!))

Watching the ground units belch forth from carriers, readying themselves to take on the various demons and Fade beings below, the wing commander of Alida's jet squadron of 5 barks over the wing's private channel, "Let's soften 'em up, ladies and gents! Make it easier on the ground-pounders!" then directing his wing to dip lower, strafe those horrors advancing quickly upon the GML forces.

With precise and calculated viciousness, each jet working in tandem as a single force, there soon comes not only the rat-a-tat of Vulcan cannon gunfire from above, but also bombings, and bursts of laser fire...cutting into the invading forces well before they could get to the arriving saviors. Outright killing some of the lesser fiends, damaging others to various degrees, the weapons fire ceases as the 5 jets peel off and fall back to regroup, make another run.

Jonathon shivered as a shell from a demon AA gun rattled the AC-130. He knew the power and armor of the plane, but the idea of disregarding a highly explosive shell was... stupid, at best. He received the transmission from K' roughly two minutes later, and thanked God that they hadn't loaded the whole damn ship up with firepower. "Roger that, K'. Echo One triangulating your position now. Hold fast there momentarily, you'll have your supplies in five. Can you hold? It's a matter of limited manpower up here. We can get your supplies together in five minutes with limited or no fire support, 20 with about half and half, and 30 if you just want me to run around with my pants around my ankles. Your call. Also, we're taking heavy fire up here, so we may be goin down within the hour. We've got weapons enough to hold a crash site, but have a search and rescue prepared. Good Fighting. Echo One out," he muttered, almost angrily. His plane was falling apart. Fast. And frankly, he didn't know if they would be able to hold.

He sighed and listened to their footsteps echo through the hollow stairwell, the sound growing softer and more distant with each step taken. He spun around and took the steps two at a time, rushing up to the third floor, the study of the library. Stepping through the closed door at the very top of the stairwell, he walked into something he could only describe as the library staff kitchen. There was a stove, a sink, and a fridge; all inoperable. Cupboards lined the walls off the small room, and a counter stretched all the way from the stove to the fridge, with the sink in between. The kitchen door hung open into a staff lounge, another small room with a few couches, a coffee table, a chair, and a disabled monitor that hung from the upper right hand corner of the room, and from there he entered into the study. The entire floor was lined with long empty tables, and even more empty chairs, the only light being from the broken or dirty windows. At the far side of the room sat the magician he touched minds with earlier, who nodded to him when Darius entered.

Directly to his left sat another magician at a table, stationed over a large map of the surrounding area. He looked to Darius as he leaned over the map, nodding his head to say he'd rescued the survivors. Relief came out in the form of a sigh, and the magician picked up a square piece of blue paper from the table and swapped it for a red square on the map. They had a bit of system in place when it came down to rescuing any stragglers in the city. The map was marked with three different types of paper; red squares meant there were survivors in the area, blue squares meant that the survivors were rescued, and yellow triangles represented the other magicians he had scattered throughout the city. There were ten triangles, twenty blue squares, and only four red squares left.

"There's still heavy fighting in the west," Darius said while tapping his fingers on the desk. "But while I was out I saw reinforcements come in from the sky, and encountered an ally on the ground with a rover. I asked him to deliver a message to send us some reinforcements and supplies. Have any of the scouts been to the eastern section yet?"
"These two," Said the magician, poking at the upper-most two triangle markers on the map. "They went looking shortly after you left and knew they weren't needed to assist you. There was nothing there but more rubble and a few Demons."

"Okay." he fell silent for a moment, looking over the map. The four red markers were spread pretty wide from his current location, except two that were only a few blocks from one another, and the other two were marked after he left. The two close together were set off to the north, with the other south, and the fourth deep west-southwest.
He pointed to the red square in the southwest. "The survivors in the southwest are in the greatest danger; the battle could take a turn for the better and could be pushed back to their location. I'll set out for them first, and on my way back rescue the survivors in the south," he pointed to the southern square, "then return and embark for those in the north." he moved his hand up the map and touched both northern squares, them put his hand back on the edge of the table.

The magician nodded, then had a thought. "What about the reinforcements? How will they know where we are?" The magician knew Darius had trouble navigating the streets, so it wouldn't be likely he could have given them the safe-house location.

He paused again, then set about adjusting the triangles, explaining his plan as he did. "I'll have the scouts intercept the reinforcements mentally and guide them here. I suspect if they're bringing supplies the load would be too heavy to carry on their own, or I would also have the magicians ask them to leave their vehicle behind. Once they've arrived and the supplies have been dropped, we'll take the vehicle and set it off in a dead location to draw the Demon's attention away from here. Hopefully with the reinforcements we can secure this location, the remaining survivors, and I can join the battle from the rear with a small team of magicians for support." He finished arranging the triangles when he thought the magicians were in the best position for their duel task at hand. There were two leading out to the southwestern square, another in between that square and the southern square, and two more leading out to the northern square. The other five were spread along the western part of the map, just outside each others mental reach.
"I need you to contact the magicians and tell them to move to their new locations with their new orders. Whoever comes into contact with the reinforcements first will decide how to best to lead them to us here. When the supplies have been dropped, ask one of the magicians downstairs to meet me at the southern survivors. I should return within a few hours." Darius stepped away from the table and the magician nodded, closing his eyes as he began to communicate with the magicians throughout the city. The Aeginvokians way of communicating mentally was much different then his own, and Darius wasn't too keen on trying to discover what that exactly was. If an outsider like him could break into their telepathic thoughts, the most sacred of places to any magician, they'd think all was hopeless.

In a matter of minutes, the magician open his eyes and turned his sights on Darius. "They understand, and are moving into position now." He said in a tired voice, leaning back in his chair. Darius touched him on the arm, gave him a confident smile, then pushed a small amount of his own energy into the magician. The magician's face instantly returned to life and he looked at Darius dumbfounded, then uttered a thank you.

He took his leave down a different stairwell, set on the far left side of the study that lead down to the first, and emerged in the same spot only on the first floor. He was soon in the front foyer and out the entrance doors, which were barricaded seconds after they closed behind him.

[ooc: If you actually read both of my posts; good job!
If you didn't, well... this is what happens when my character's alone.]

The small troop continued walking for what seemed like hours. The sun wasn't beating on them. Instead, the sky was dark with hints of light peeking through here and there. A magical wave of energy could be seen in the horizon, though in reality, it was all around them. Most of the people in that group kept a serious face, not a single one of them daring to show a sign of fear or doubt. They all marched silently, following that one rover.

The driver continued looking around, tapping his eyepiece every now and then to make sure they were going in the right direction. In the meantime, K' did his own share of scouting. He had been careful enough to plan a route that would require them to fight as little as possible. Their numbers were small and they couldn't afford to risk everyone's lives before they even reach their destination. So far, they had been lucky enough to continue their traverse without the need to fight. As silent as ants, they continued walking ahead, being led by the rover.

"Echo One. Take your time. We can hold for that long. Just make sure you guys are alright." K' said through his eyepiece. If anything continued as planned, they would be the ones providing the help around there.
"It's gonna take a while before we get our supplies." K' sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes, "How long till we reach our destination?"
"We should be getting there soon, sir." The driver answered, "But I can't see anyone around." The driver squinted as he tried to look for some sign of human life, "And I'm sure this is the right location!" The man said a bit louder.
"It's okay! Maybe they're taking cover or they moved to a safe location. Don't worry about it!" K' patted the man on the shoulder. The pilot continued squinting, nodded and kept driving. Of course it would make sense if said group of survivors moved somewhere else. Otherwise, they'd be sitting ducks. And he knew the man wouldn't be lying. This was a serious situation. But the same could be said about them right now. They were traveling together but they were in the middle of an open field. For all they knew, the enemy could be getting ready to launch a surprise attack upon them.

It was normal for K' to feel a bit paranoid. One could said that was his normal state of mind; never trust anyone. But this time, this would prove useful if he could manage to get everyone else to safety.

K' stood up on his seat and turned around. He was now facing the soldiers, the rover was still set in motion. The men looked at K' with interest, awaiting for his instructions.
"We need to move to a safe location." He said in a low tone of voice. He didn't want to yell out their location. K' glanced around for a moment. The men appeared to be doing the same.
"Ah-ha! That should do it." With a smirk on his face, he pointed to a small and not-so deteriorated building. It only had two stories and it seemed to be abandoned, obviously.
"Let's move there and look for these survivors. We'll be safe in there...or at least for now."

The men nodded and moved quickly, yet silently, towards the building. The rover followed them, parking on the side of the building and hidden from view. "And now we wait..."


((I read both posts. ;D And sorry for the lame post. It's kinda late here. ))