<Architect> The Kroot shook his head and lifted the parchment - it had blood on it. Cair was able to recognize that as a declaration of war between tribes... A war horn resounded and primitive gunfire began echoing along with war cries beyond the wall. It seemed the Eldar had been deceived by the southerner chief, who was now probably laying siege to this tribe. The northern chieftain roared: "Kill the Kadariis! Kill the messengers! To war!"
<Visethianne the Poet> "Cair? Cair, translate - what's-" The Avenger dodged a shot fired his way, the Guardians opened fire as they retreated. Minna fired at the Krootox riders and Visethianne finally assumed a fighting stance. "Weapons free."
<Cair> "Khainedammit!" The Reaper swore in Eldarin before drawing his Launcher to take out the chief's guards, assured that their Ranger would drop the Shaper immediately, but Amriel beat him to it. <Amriel> "NOT AGAIN!" The Corsair leaped into the Shaper's guards, who were busy drawing weapons on the big Reaper in front of them, and so did not notice the smaller, one-armed Corsair leap into their midst, gracefully cutting them down in a blur of motion as his Power Lance glided effortlessly through the Kroot.
Liriasol swore under his breath only after he had taken the shot. Until that - until the pulse of laser fire had passed into the thick skull of the feathered savage - he had no time for anything but his duty, as focussed as any Aspect on his chosen Path. That done, the sounds of combat and wild warriors running amok, he shot and swore freely, both aimed with precision and vehemence. "Visethianne! Fighting retreat to the Serpent, fall back! I'll cover!"
Kara'shanwe leapt. The warp opened, waiting, and darkness swallowed her whole. There was a blur of feathers and skins and carnage. The high, screeching cries of bird-warriors, the deeper chorale of the Aspects at war. Somewhere, the warcry of the Corsair amid his foes. The staccatto punch of shuriken into flesh. Webs spun and spat, death falling in graceful rains over lightly-armoured savage forms. The Warp Spider struck out with her blades, harrying the flanks, seeking to keep the Kroot from gathering enough momentum to charge the Guardian forces.
<Cair> The Kroot were clearly unprepared for what happened next, as the Reaper showed them just exactly what "delivering death" meant, Maugan Ra style. His Reaper Launcher blazed in the shade of the primitive Kroot structures, cutting down warriors from both tribes indiscriminately. <Amriel> The young Corsair, having made short work of the Shaper's "elite" guard, leaped onto the wall, dodging the spears and such from the besieging Kroot as he cut down the defenders in an effort to reach the gate. The Kroot, though much faster than the slow Mon-keigh, proved no match for Amriel in his fury.
<Architect> A set of crude iron gates made way for a beast bigger than an Lynx, it's beak-like jaws bigger than an Eldar. The creature stomped forth, running towards the Host at a threatening speed. Minnaloushe focused fire upon it, but even her shots with the Star Cannon didn't seem to stagger the beast. "Everyone - in here, now!" She yelled... But there was no way all Eldar were going to be able to rally in time. Minnaloushe engaged the flight mode of the Serpent, and looped upward so her passengers would fall from the cabin - she then lit up the Star Engines and fired herself against the thing.
<Amriel> The Corsair leaped from his position on the wall on to the head of the beast as it passed underneath the gate he was just attempting to open, as he landed he drove the entirety of his Power Lance into where the spinal column would be on a vertebrate, praying that the beast had a similar physiology to the great reptilian beasts that stalked Ferdan Prime.
<Architect> The pilot opened her eyes, her sight was hazy. There was the notion of movement all around... "Khaine's iron b-!" Minnaloushe let out, undoing as swiftly as she could the grav-belt that had kept her alive during the crash against the beast. Now she remembered what she had done, and she could make sense of the oozing purple organic material that covered all that she could see outside... It was the maw of the Great Knarloc. Outside, the lumbering creature had caught the Intemperate Serpent with it's beak-like jaws, shaking it violently as it slowly crushed it. The Kroot numbered in the hundreds, all in the open courtyard swinging blades at each other. Krootox riders, hounds and smaller Knarlocs all joined their Kroot masters in the onslaught where the Eldar were caught in an irrational melee.
