Allagahn's Diary

Chapter 15 - Riders of the Apocalypse

I sat the generals down and discussed the upcoming battle strategy. We were moving quite slowly to Elysium due to the horsemen, so I decided to push the mechanised troops and equipment as fast as possible while the horsemen rested and then return for the horsemen while the mechanised troops rested for a while. This meant I didn't get a lot of rest myself, but we managed to get the mechanised troops, including mages and microlites, to the castle about a day and a half ahead of schedule, and get the horsemen there on schedule. Each time the groups rested, I sped up the local shadow, to decrease the relative time they had to spend resting, which saved us a bit more time. Charity arrived when I was quite close to the castle, I sent her back to bring in the horsemen, while I continued with the mechanised troops.

With more than half the troops safely in the castle, we were in less immediate danger. They unpacked the equipment and began to man the towers. We set the microlites on top of the towers ready for launching and got some rest. I found Cordelia dunk and asleep in one of the main buildings, apparently she had been socialising with some demon creatures, similar to the ones who carried us from the unicorns grove. Well at least they seem to be on our side! No body else seems to be around.

I got some sleep until I was awoken by one of Deirdre's tentacles, knocking me off the couch. I figured something must be wrong, so I alerted the demon who was sleeping nearby and headed outside. From one of the towers I could see two large groups on the horizon, bringing up a scrying lens I could see the Charity leasing in the horsemen. The other group was a horde of demons trying to intercept them. I ordered the microlites to launch away from the approaching groups, behind the castle and gain as much height as possible. I didn't want them being caught at low altitudes in a dogfight with more manoeuvrable flying creatures, so I aimed at keeping them safe until we could make a dent in their flying creatures and then make good use of them against the ground troops.

From my calculations, it didn't look the horsemen were going to make it to the castle before they were caught by the hordes of demons, so I ordered the APCs out to meet them and bring them back in. If they can make it, we will abandon the horses and load the troops into the APCs, if they get close, we can at least lend some heavy fire support and get as many troops as possible back to the castle. If they don't make it, we will be able to return them to the castle as they can outpace the demons.

I headed out to meet the horsemen and try to lend some support. I analysed the walls of the ravine they about to enter, to see if it was possible to cause a landslide onto the enemy troops, but the shadow is too real for anything like that. The horde wasn't far behind, as the horsemen hit the entry to the ravine that leads up to the castle. They were forced to engage an advanced party of them, who had gotten too close for comfort. About two dozen of the enemy went down and the troops were able to continue.

A large group of winged demons (roughly 50) came for me, after noticing I was picking off their lead troops with impunity, using a gauss rifle. I tried to lead them away, but they realised I could out-fly them and instead turned their attentions to the horsemen. This may be a good opportunity to put a large dent in their aerial contingent, assuming we survive it!