Vitae Memorandum

62-Western Sabotage

In the West, Khaexyn's forces arrived first at the Wyxiri front, the entire armada a clockwork soldier to the last. The spread of the armada was a fleet spanning far into the distance, numbering far beyond count.

The second prince had gone to see the sight for himself, and was stunned in his revelation. This was no simple army, this was like a necromantic hoard. Clockwork soldiers moved to him like he could imagine the living dead, while the power armor looked more like a metal golem. The destroyers were like animated weapons, as far as he could tell from where he stood. Among them wasn't a single normal person, neither human nor elf. The second prince froze speechless, his face pale.

Even from her distance, Thanrie felt empathy for her brother. She understood the feeling of that fear, had lived it herself. However, terror would only work to their enemy's advantage. Thanrie nudged Ihzyhur forward, himself catching wind of her intent. Ihzyhur rushed to his brother and made the request personally. "Brother, your orders?" "That's- .. yes, forgive me. It seems tales of our enemy didn't have as much fluff as I had originally expected. This is truly some fearsome use of the gift. Yes.. yes, anyway.. let them approach the choke-point, so we can weaken their numbers. Our ranged forces should be ready to engage the moment they get in range, pressuring them closer. Pin them against our shields, divide them amidst our blades." The second prince expected that zombies would die much like soldiers did, but had no idea what to do about the larger monstrosities.

Ihzyhur returned to Thanrie, at a loss. "Proper tactics are difficult when we haven't even had time to present enough information. He wants to hold the line, fetter them from afar with bows and catapults, and trust in the strength of our own metal. Even I've faced one of those destroyers before, they will be within firing range soon. We both know our brother, he's not going to be rational about it." "No, but it might be possible to make his plan work. Doesn't the catapults have the same range as their destroyers? Have them aim in return, it will compel them to hold back a bit until our front lines fall. Destroyers are rather fragile large targets, after all.. at least compared to some of their stuff." Ihzyhur went back to his brother as Thanrie considered the situation. She knew leaping into action would only alarm her brother and his soldiers, but she would have to do it eventually. She just needed to figure out the best opportunity, possibly after the conflict had begun.

Thanrie went back to Zyuixqs, himself already in the power armor. Because the designs Thanrie had worked on involved such considerable customization, it looked only distantly related to the other power armors on the field, very easy to identify as one of their own. He had been seen in the armor already, so that others had time to distinguish him, it wouldn't do for him to be attacked on the field, after all. Beyond Zyuixqs, it was awfully convenient that all of their enemies were mechanical and their allies were not, it made it much easier to figure out friend from foe. The power armor had much better defense and maneuverability than destroyers, but far less range. The shots from either were far too dangerous, but that made the wide-area blast of the destroyers much more intimidating. She had to consider these weapons carefully.

Ah, range! The catapult wasn't in range because it didn't have enough power. Thanrie rushed off to a catapult, Zyuixqs following her. The catapults were still idle because nothing was nearly close enough. She considered the ballistics, if she boosted the tension of the catapult, the boulder would go flying an unknown distance more than expected. That would make aiming impossible. If instead she boosted the impact force of the boulder, a collision with the ground would not be enough to stop it's momentum. The hard part was, playing with projectiles was far more Lwyn's thing than her own. However, playing with the time of the boulder, she could have it play with matters of velocity at the time it was triggered, so that it's force of impact was compounded. It's not like she would be manipulating the boulder in flight, only the forces it was collected with.