As the cloud of missiles broke through into the light, Callie did her best to redirect as many as possible.  Unfortunately, one jamming unit was simply not enough to make a large dent in the oncoming horde.  Though many missiles fell or crashed into each other, many more passed beyond the madly weaving SAMAS.  Still, too, there were those that looked likely to pass through, or at least run into, the young woman's power armor.

Aristotle is in the midst of getting a headcount of the Salvation militia assigned to HQ when the missiles brake through the defenses.

"EVERYONE GET DOWN!" He yells as he drops to a prone position, pulling the nearest militiaman down with him.

HQ Platoon hugs the ground, along with Mukhali and a platoon of Salvation Militia. Major Karno, and Lieutenant Dyvalis are inside the theater when the missiles land.

At least three crash into the lakeside hotel (#6) destroying a large portion of the front right corner and shattering all of the windows. The others blow gaping holes in the face of the building. Entire rooms are vaporized, yet the building stands.

The theater is hit with two. Every window is shattered, but the building holds strong. The Grovelake Appartments (#7) is hit at its' base, and on the top(6th floor). Civilians are blown out in pieces and in flames. A mother screams for her vaporized children. A man with out legs slowly drags his torso towards Aristotles' position on the street. A missile lands among the Salvation army. At least three men are disintigrated, and several others are sent hurling through the air, and others set ablaze.

Renford Manner (#3) is protected by an invisible forcefield of some sort. The building takes no damage. The civilian homes south of the Mansion are peppered with missiles however, and several of them collapse sending a dozen people scattering into the streets facing what they denied this entire time. The battle has been going on for exactly three seconds and they had already lost everything.

A family and two men run towards Aristotle and the other members of HQ screaming for help...

The rest of the town is hit just as bad.... and this is just the beginning...

Calliandra manages to dodge the missiles in her path and can only turn to watch as they land.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:37, Sun 03 Feb 2008.

"No!"  Callie cried as the wave of missiles flashed by.  Almost unconscious to the effort, she kept her power armor aloft despite the dozens upon dozens of explosions below.  She could only watch helplessly as the carnage unfolded below, a prayer, unheard, slipping from her lips.

Aristotle is back on his feet before the debris from nearby explosions is finished falling. His voice is loud, authoritative, and resonates through the area like a tenor in an opera house.

"Mukhali take your men and begin setting up a hasty defensive perimeter around the theater. Medics get up and get to work!" He reaches down and hauls the militiaman he dragged down earlier back up to his feet. He points the man in the direction of the incoming civilians. "Go find out what those people want!"

He walks over to the legless man and draws his ion pistol and radio. He sets the radio to the HQ frequency, and brings it up to his mouth. "Sgt. Aristotle to Lt. Dyvalis, report extensive damage across the city. Civilian and military causalities significant, anticipate much greater casualty count as time passes. Request permission to direct civilians into nearby hard points, such as the theater. Over."

PM
This message was last edited by the player at 16:28, Mon 04 Feb 2008.

Mukhali stands up and looks to Aristotle "You want us to line up around a building?! my men need cover sergeant!"

Aristotle turns, his face is emotionless. "A hasty perimeter includes the use of cover. It is a simple concept, but I will elaborate for you: Your men with anti-aircraft capabilities should set up in a rough triangle pattern around the theater in nearby buildings. The higher they can get, the better. You should place men with defense and support abilities with them, but not so many that it hampers their mobility.
Place your remaining troops in covered positions guarding the streets leading from the front lines.
All of your men, while they wait for the next attack, should be digging in: collecting debris for cover or literally digging holes. None of them should get comfortable, as they will be reinforcing the line when casualties mount.

As militia leader you should have understood the basic concept of a defensive perimeter. I will not make the mistake of overestimating you again.

Now get to it!"

Dyvalis' composed demeanor became more and more frantic as he waited for the missiles to land. When he finally gets the report and sees the explosions all over town he seems to snap.

HQ Radio Frequency: "Fuck Hades! I need to know about these things BEFORE they happen!! I need reports up to the second people!!"

Pluto Frequency: "Radar: I need to be able to imagine your screen; give me details! All platoons report your casualties; how many injured, how many dead? The town hall clinic is at the disposal of Tolkeen regulars, mercenaries, militia, as well as Salvations men and fighters from Madtown. Not civilians. Any displaced civilians should be directed to the Lakeside Theatre where they can establish their own triage."

"I want everyone to hold position. Dig yourselves in. We wait this out."

He turns to the Daemonis and Ramenhotep. "Lock and barracade this area. We want to keep people isolated in lobby and theatre. We can't have them right outside our door."

Something about Dyvalis' frantic tone seemed to ground Callie, to bring her focus away from her grief and shock and back to the task at hand.  "Lieutenant," she beamed on the private HQ platoon channel, "You should have been getting up to the second telemetry information from me, including targeting data." her voice is calm and controlled, "If there's something specific you want tracked, I need you to tell me though.  I can only juggle about 150 targets at a time, and when there's hundreds of incomings it's all I can do to jam what I can."

HQ Frequency: "Understood Private. The fucking box wasn't working. It's back on now though."

OOC: I assume HQ has some sort of link to Callie's radar then?

"On it." Callie said to herself as the latest report came in.  Within the calm zone around Madtown it was almost embarrassingly easy to stay aloft, the young woman felt a stab of momentary guilt for the relative peace of the skies compared to the chaos below her.  That thought was quickly quashed, however.  Linked as she was with the power armor, it was almost as if her own senses were reaching out to the oncoming wave of death.  She did her best to confound the missiles while a separate part of her mind worked to unlock the communications frequencies being used by the oncoming Coalition forces or, if she could not unlock them to at least isolate the signals so her jamming suite could scramble that as well.

Dyvalis can watch the massive volley of missiles come closer as Calliandra transmits the data from high in the sky. Mukhali has The Salvation Army platoon take cover in the surrounding buildings, and most of HQ platoon gathers inside the theater, while the officers are inside the cash office of the building.

The fleeing civilians are met by members of the Madtown militia. They attempt to gather as many as they can, some carry the wounded and they are all being led to the church when the missiles break through the intense winds.

Calliandra is the first line of defense. Hundreds of missiles are out of her range, however she manages to scramble and redirect many of the missiles into each other, or to fall short of their targets and land just outside of town. Calliandra is then forced again to dodge missiles coming at her.

75% make it past her, and Van’s missile pods begin blasting the nearby missiles, detonating several of them in the air. They do their job effectively and another 15% are stopped from hitting the town. Many more are shot by the towns’ defenders just before impact.

The theater is hit again, but holds strong after a violent shake.

The residential areas are hit again, destroying more homes. Many of the civilians on their way to the church are unable to protect themselves or unable to find cover, many have overburdened themselves with their possessions, and a lot of them are vaporized or devastatingly wounded.

Entire rows of houses are on fire, the streets have filled with smoke, and dust. It is impossible to see anything without proper protection, and even still it is difficult to see far at all. Explosions and screams fill the air.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:26, Thu 21 Feb 2008.

Bat stares up into the sky looking for a third wave of missiles. "There is nothing we can do... but watch them fall..."

Callie did her best to stop the next incoming wave, biting her lip to hold back her anger and despair that so many missiles were coming through despite her best efforts.  Still, she did what she could, that's all anyone could do, right?  The CS couldn't possibly keep up this level of bombardment for much longer.  At least, that's what the young woman hoped as she pushed her old SAMAS suit through another set of punishing turns to avoid the second wave of missiles.

The legless man whimpers and shakes at Aristotlee's feet bleeding out into the street. Aristotle stares down at him for a few moments, before smoothly lifting his pistol from its holdster, shooting the man in the head, and places it back in its place all in one fluid motion.

A full ten minutes pass before the next volley is launched. Robertson reports it in over the radio again, and a few moments later they land.

Again, 25% of them are destroyed in the hurricane winds surrounding the town, and this time Calliandra has no effect on the missiles, all she can do is blast a couple on their way down. Van's missile pods seem to be much more efficient the second time around, and another half of the missiles are destroyed before meeting the covering fire from the platoons. The Demon Horde has begun firing several grenades into the air above them as the missiles come close.

The Salvation Militia holds position and fires at them as they fall, destroying some. Another six soldiers are vaporized when they land.

More civilians are killed, they are now in a mad dash for the church, running for their lives.

Entire sections of the theater cave in with a large piece of the roof (10ft x 12ft) landing on Razgriz, and showering the rest of the platoon in chunks of cement, and dust. Attila and Khan are relenless in their anit-missile defense, but they cannot stop them all. Dyval;is remains inside the cash office with an unconcious Major Karno and Ramenhotep.

The Coalition seem to regulate to sending another volley every 10 minutes, with no sign of them letting up. The sun is beginning to set, and the missiles continue.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:33, Sun 24 Feb 2008.

After the third volley, the Theatre taking a lot of damage, and still no end in sight to the bombardments, Dyvalis has gone quiet. He leans against a wall, constantly checking his watch and the radar-feed. His face shows that there are gears at work in his head, but what he's thinking about he does not make clear.

Daemonis is getting extremely worried. The shock of being conjured into this new dimension only to be thrown into the middle of a relentless barrage of missiles in a world he had only heard stories about has got him more than a little antsy (especially considering that until today he had not been in any kind of conflict for weeks, and he was growing comfortable).

"You better not have summoned me here to die with the rest of your fucking grunts," he says in Elven/Dragonese. Even if one didn't understand the language, the harsh, gutteral pronounceation of the Dragonese cursing speaks louder than words.

Dyvalis snaps back at his lesser half in the same language. "Of course not idiot. That's why you're in here, not out there. Now if you don't shut your mouth and let me think I won't be able to do my job. Try to make yourself comfortable, cause this will be a while yet."

He looks at his watch, then back at the radar.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:01, Tue 26 Feb 2008.

The volleys continue every ten minutes well into the night. After the fifth volley, Corporal Banshee yells out that Bat and Deacon were dead. After the sixth, part of the church collapsed, covering Razgriz in rubble.

The streets filled with smoke, ash and dust the only thing to do is wait.

Major Karno regains consciousness slowly...

Callie stayed aloft as long as she could, landing only long enough to catch 30-40 minutes of sleep, then taking off again.  Though her jamming suite was making no impact on either the incoming missiles or the enemy communications net she still did what she could to shoot down missiles or warn those in areas about to receive especially thick concentrations of fire.  Mostly, though, she knew that her comrades were depending on the radar information that only her suit was currently able to provide, and that with such a concentration of missiles coming in every 10 minutes it was probably safer for her aloft than perched, stationary, on some high point.

The missiles continue until the sun rise the next morning. Explosions every ten minutes for the duration of the night kept most awake, and many killed. Robertson and the radar tower stopped reporting in around 0300 hours. The missiles finally stop around 0730 hours, Major Karno orders everyone to stay put for the next twenty minutes to ensure the barrage is over.

At 0737 hours Calliandra calls in over the radio "large aircraft is coming in from the east, 37 miles away, traveling at mach 1 at 40 000 feet"
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:55, Mon 03 Mar 2008.

Immediately after making her broadcast, Callie made sure to light up the incoming aircraft for all who could receive the telemetry she was broadcasting.  Since the craft was coming out of the east, it would be protected by the glare of the sun against those using just optics to spot it, and at that height and speed there was nothing she'd be able to do against it directly.  In the 3 minutes before the craft's arrival, the young Psi-Tech focused all her attention on what new threat the aircraft would bring.

Karnon, Dyvalis, Daemonis, Aristotle and Ramenhotep stand together awaiting Calliandra's report on the incoming aircraft. Attila and Khan stand guard outside the main doors to the theater, and the Salvation Militia remain in a perimeter around the building. Banshee, Specter and Dragon are among the militia organizing them and assisting with transporting the wounded. Privates Bat and Deacon were both killed in the missile attacks, and Mukhali reportedly lost 11 men.

Calliandra can see Oksana holding Karnon appear in the air beside her at one point and then vanish just as quickly. She is unsure if she actually even saw them when the aircraft comes into view. It is a Death's Head Transport slowing down as it appraoches the town.

This is going to really suck  The thought flashed through Callie's head when the transport came in to view.  "One helping of Death's Head Transport, coming right up.  I'm coming down, making myself less of a target for that big boy."  Her voice crackled over the company's channel.  As she spoke she dropped rapidly towards the ground, jetting hard to slow her descent at the end of the fall.

Callie stiffled a shout of joy when the transport crumpled and entered freefall.  Gotta be professional now girl. she silently reprimanded herself.  Quickly checking her descent she sped off towards the falling transport, unlocking her rifle from where it was strapped for most of the flight and checking her spare clips.  "Remind me to find something with weapons next time." she muttered to herself as the transport approached.

"Roger that, Van, on my way." she broadcast on the company channel, "Radio free madtown is back on the air folks, bringing you the best of today's pop and telemetry hits."