Battle for Xilos

(to read The Chronicles of Karyle, Ch. 1, please see this battle report from Week 1: http://battleforxilos.warconsole.com/battles/vs-kurar-1466969458)

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The clansmen stood motionless, statues of obedience, as the Guildess paced in front of the medi unit. She was prone to impatience as of late, unhappy with her assignment from the Matriarch to oversee this fool’s errand on Xilos. ‘It was a great honor, though, to be chosen over her sisters.’ At least that’s what she continued to tell herself, hearing it in her head as the voice of the Matriarch over and over again, trapped within the confines of the gaudy Freeborn ship they had seen chartered for this expedition.

This blasted Overseer had been unable to save her grandsons, which caused her much grief, but she had to admit that he’d at least been genuine in his efforts to save them. It wasn’t his fault that the repugnant Algoryn had allowed him to live; he’d certainly tried hard to die, at least. Finally, the young Overseer floating in the medi tube opened his remaining eye, the other already grown over with the same scaly hide as his forehead. The Guildess slammed the release button, already yelling as the boromite crashed to the ground and the embryonic healing fluids sluiced through the floor grates at her feet, “Stand and receive your orders, Overseer!”

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Karyle pushed forward through the humid menagerie of fauna and scurrying wildlife, clicking away feeds from his Spotter Drones, annoyed. His two bodyguards kept close, the only two boromites he could afford to split away from his main fighters to accompany him directly. He’d been sent back to the surface of Xilos, assigned what amounted to little more than a suicide mission to destroy the site of an Algoryn transmat. He’d been told he could seek redemption from his previous assignment that should have seen him dead alongside his comrades. He’d been told he would receive constant reinforcements, but that he would only have a few men to work with at first, and that it was of the topmost priority to prevent this transmat’s construction. He’d been told a lot of things by the Guildess, actually. He really hadn’t paid much mind to the things she’d said, though, after being told that he would be assaulting the transmat construction site closest to his previous location on Xilos. Images of the imperious Kurar flashed through his mind every time he thought of it, the hateful Algoryn standing smugly over him, gloating at the death of his brothers-in-arms.

On his feed, Karyle was notified that his support team was in position, their X-Launcher set up and ready to fire; meanwhile his Worker Gang, sporting Mass Compactors, were in the same vicinity and preparing to charge the fortifications the Algoryns had prepared around their transmat. The spiny-headed bastards had built sizeable walls with gates around the transmat, clearly intending to wall it in completely. Luckily the walls were still under construction, as well, and there were openings enough that Karyle’s small contingent of fighters could hope to pull this off. Coming up on his position on the opposite side of compound, Karyle signaled the go-ahead for engagement.

The X-Launcher sent a deadly barrage of OverHead fire directly onto the defending Algoryns at the transmat, inflicting a casualty and drawing the attention of the Algoryn. Meanwhile, the Worker Gang sprinted forward clutching their Mass Compactors to their chests as they ran, collapsing from exhaustion in the relative safety of being shielded from view while immediately against the wall. The Algoryns’ weapon emplacement wasted no time, sighting up the boromite X-Launcher and dropping a direct hit onto it, obliterating the weapon crew. Karyle winced as the feed reached him, doubling his pace through the fauna towards the clearing up ahead.

Knowing the Worker Gang rested against the wall outside, the bold Algoryn assault squad rallied from the blast they’d received. Taking the Worker Gang by complete surprise, the Algoryns opened the functional gate in the middle of the wall, charging unexpectedly straight through into their ranks. They lost one warrior to the powerful Mass Compactor blasts, but utilizing their specialized D-Spinners they cut down the boromites to the man.

Roaring in frustration, Karyle had reached the clearing, taking cover behind some boxes that had been recently unloaded from a shuttlecraft. Checking his feed for reinforcements, he saw none with the sole exception of his new lavamite squad. Led by his former comrade’s brother, Leroy (apparently all the males in that family bore the name Leroy), the lavamites and their handler had somehow gotten off course, and were arriving at the transmat site from a different direction. Seeing the feed of Leroy’s arrival simultaneously with the Algoryn’s fixing on their weapons on the mites based on their obvious heat signature, he made the snap judgement to act. Rushing forward, Karyle and his bodyguards eliminated the Algoryns on the wall closest to his crew as they were sighting up the lavamites, using the angle provided to them from the unfinished construction of the fortifications to their advantage. The oblivious Leroy gave a battle cry and rushed toward the wall with his mites, unaware that without his Overseer’s intervention he would be dead upon the rocky ground.

Kurar, ever practical, saw that the destruction of the transmat was inevitable. The blasted boromite Overseer he’d allowed to live had returned to be a thorn in his side, after all. Viewing his sprawling feed of information, he saw the boromite reinforcements encroaching from their landing site several cliks away. He could keep his promise now, and slay the spiteful boromite Karyle, but he would be overrun in short order. It wouldn’t be honorable to command his men to die and ultimately fail their mission just to serve his ego. He would allow karyle this small victory, knowing full well that he would fulfill his promise to the ugly boromite soon enough. Smirking, the Algoryn commander signaled his squads to retreat their position, transporting them away to another nearby fortification on the planet’s surface.

Karyle managed to get inside and terminate the auto drones’ construction of the transmat with a quick burst from his plasma carbine to their control box moments later, finding only the dead bodies of his own Worker Gang. Growling in frustration, he slammed a stony fist into the plasteel wall of the fortifications, leaving gnarly knuckle imprints upon the otherwise smooth red surface.

Running up behind him, one of his bodyguards began to relay their new orders, “Sir, we’re being told th-”

“Yes, I know.” Karyle interrupted, the fury clear upon his face. “We hold here. For now.”

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— The Spotter Drones managed to capture a few shots of the event, detailed in the pictures to your right. The two most dramatic moments of the event were captured in action shots: One, Karyle’s furious charge at the Algoryn transmat station as he witnesses the slaughtering of his men through his Spotter feed, and the other being the dreaded Algoryn assault squad surprising the Worker Gang through the door of the fortifications, slaughtering them. I hope you enjoy! —