The House of Light had all of its units in play, with multiple skiffs, futes, and a ketch heading towards Venus they were an army at least two hundred strong, with two Eliksni Knights on board. Shandri was in the cargo hold of the ketch, making sure that their new model of walker tank was working properly.
"Okay, check main cannon rotation!" She called to the driver. The tank began to spin its turret around in a circle. It was the anti-aircraft model that they had been looking for, with two rapid-fire Gatling turrets on top, with an anti-armor cannon on the lower half of the turret. "Okay, we're good! Get that thing hooked up to a skiff, pronto!" She yelled.
"Yes, commander!" The pilot responded climbing out of the tank. "Commander, it's so good to hear that again." She thought to herself heading towards the bridge. This was the first time Shandri had seen a mobilization of Eliksni forces in such mass in eight hundred years. It was awe inspiring to see them working so efficiently, everyone was pitching in this endeavor. Shandri opened the door to the bridge to see the crew of the ship working their hardest to maintain control over the fleet and coordinate. The inside of a ketch's bridge was usually operated by one pilot servitor and only a few crewmen, however, this was the first time that the pilot servitor was not used.
"My-Kell, we are approaching Venus' gravity well. Standby for contact." One of the pilots told Sidriks who was sitting in the ship master's chair.
"Excellent, are you picking up anything on the scanners?" Sidriks asked the group in charge of monitoring the communications.
"Negative, sir." The lead officer replied. Sidriks began to grow uneasy, there was no way that the House of Wolves wouldn't be able to pick them up on their scanners.
"All units, divert any energy you can spare to your shields. We may be coming into an ambush." Sidriks said to the groups that were outside of the ketch.
"Understood my Kell." The collective replied. The ships emerged from the jump tunnel to the sand colored atmosphere of Venus. The troopers in the bays of the Ketch were anxious and itching for a fight. Some loading multiple weapons just to pass the tense moments of anticipation. Sidriks pressed a button on the command chair. "Attention all units, we are in the final moments of our journey. I would wish you all good luck if I believed that you needed it." Sidriks said to them. "Do not mistake my confidence in you for assurance that we are going to win without loss. Remember what the Wolves are, they are desperate, and they will do anything to win this battle and bring home the people of the House of Winter. Sidrik's out." He said deactivating the on ship comms.
Shandri walked up to the side of his chair, he looked troubled. "Are you okay Dad?" She asked him. Sidriks looked up to his daughter.
"What if we are too late Shandri?" He asked her.
"Then we take down the Wolves, those who resist, we either imprison or kill," Shandri replied placing her hand on the grip of her new pistol. Sidriks looked back towards the bow of the ship. "Is your unit ready to go?" Sidriks asked her.
"We're all set and ready to drop." She replied as the fleet descended into the Venusian atmosphere. Skiffs and futes of the house of wolves began flying towards the armada of Light.
"Sir, we have incoming wolf fighters!" One of the deck officers yelled. Sidriks stared out the main view port, it was much like a swarm of Korrivaks back home. So large it could make a farmer believe that a storm was coming. Korrivaks he remembered were giant locust-like creatures, a massive pain to anyone trying to farm on Ralterra.
"Maintain heading of the transports, send our fighter craft to deal with them," Sidriks said as he sprinted off the bridges chair towards the hangar bay. His fute, which he now calls the Breath of Lumina, was prepared and ready to move out. He was going to fight alongside his men in the skies above the Ishtar Sink. Sidriks strapped into his vessel and took off from the hangar bay tuning his helmet into the communications chatter of his allies.
"Attention all fighters, this is Luminos One report."
"Luminos two, solid copy L-1."
"Luminos three, standing by."
"Luminos four, ready for action."
"Luminos five, at the ready."
"Excellent, luminos squadron alpha move into attack formation behind me, provide covering fire for the skiffs and the flagship," Sidriks ordered as the fighter craft formed up behind him. A battle erupted in the skies above Venus, the likes of which had not been seen for hundreds of years. Plasma fire flying across the Venusian atmosphere like lightning bolts as the two Eliksni fleets collided above. Shandi and her team boarded a skiff and made a break for the surface amid all the carnage.
"Alright, team listen up! What we're here to do is simple, save the citizens in the House of Winter who are still in the subway tunnels under the Ishtar Sink. We have enough room on the Ketch to keep the civilians inside, the soldiers of the House of Winter who remain don't need to be informed of the current situation. Their former Kell told them of the change of guard and gave them direct orders to stay with the people, we're going down there to evacuate subway stations, H through L. Understood?!"
"Yes, sir!" The units exclaimed over their radios. The skiff touched down on the surface of Venus, and the team made a break for the tunnels. Shandri looked up to the skies above that were ablaze with explosions and gunfire. "Be careful Dad." She whispered to herself before taking her handcannon off her belt and heading down to the passages.
The team sprinted through the empty, partially collapsed corridors of the tunnels of Ishtar. The tunnels were damp because of the nearly constant rain storms that covered the planet, the sounds of rain and thunder were speckled with the distant rumble of explosions. Shandri's unit consisted of her, several vandals and a captain. Servitors were too big to maneuver in these conditions. The unit had their headlamps activated, and their weapons clutched tightly in their hands.
This was more than just a rescue mission to them, it was an opportunity for revenge and to prove themselves to their new Kell. The units kept moving ahead, listening to the chatter on the radio of their comrades in the sky. "Squadron move up behind me, switch to attack formation," Sidriks ordered them. The five other fighters followed up behind him as their units took off into the sea of explosions occurring up above the clouds. The ketch had landed, and now the full force of the land army of The House of Light had been unleashed.
Walker tanks set up their positions on the ground while entire squadrons of soldiers made their way into the subway tunnels. Those who they could save would head to the ketch, others would take the skiffs until they could get on the flagship. "Break formation, engage all enemy craft that even get close to the ketch, is that clear?!" Sidriks ordered his units as he fired the Futes plasma cannons to destroy one of the vessels that was ahead of him. The fute combusted, with the flaming wreckage of the ship falling to the planet. "Yes my Kell!" The pilots exclaimed over the comms as their ships continued to fly about in the heavens.
On the ground, Zorrin was leading another team into the stations looking behind him for a moment to see their anti-air unit tank a plasma shell from a skiff before shooting its attacker down. The team sprinted into the subway tunnels as others were on their way out with the escorts. "Shandri's unit was detached to head to the tunnels at the deepest end of the network." Zorrin thought to himself as he delved into the darkness. "I hope she's alright." He thought aloud. Inside the caverns, the team lead by Shandri made their way to their first target location.
They kept quiet as they approached the lights ahead, they heard people screaming. Shandri without hesitation sprinted ahead, and her unit followed close behind. All the while a sense of dread encompassed Shandri as they approached the light. There was a team of Wolves in there already. She pulled the team to the side and told them to wait up with a hand signal. Shandri got a focus on the unit. A captain was trying to separate a woman from her child. A boy by the looks of him got in his way. To which the captain just slapped him aside.
The boy tackled the captain to the ground giving her time to run. "We're not waiting anymore!" Shandri called out drawing her shrapnel launcher as the captain pried the young Eliksni off of him. The unit sprinted into the station with their guns drawn, firing upon any wolf soldiers in their way with deadly precision.
Shandri sprinted up to the captain who beat the boy and slammed him through a wall with one of her arms. The captain stood up and drew one of his shock swords. Shandri smirked under her helmet. "Bad move pal." She thought to herself looking at the silver blade glint in the light. The captain rushed her in a lunge with his sword. Shandri spun out of the way and cracked the butt of her rifle on the helmet of the captain, causing it to break and sent him sprawling to the floor. Shandri's focus then changed to another group as her soldiers continued to fight the wolves. In a broad perspective, they were winning, it wasn't much of a fight. The wolves were untrained, for the most part, only knowing basic combative skills and tactics.
A vandal drew his gun and pointed it at the back of her head. She turned around quickly and ducked underneath the barrel before he could fire grabbing his arm. The vandal looked at her slightly annoyed and drew his dagger with one of his spare arms and swiped at her helmet. She grabbed that one with one of her lower arms. This vandal was unfortunate, he had the armor, but not the two limbs that came with it. Shandri then took her upper arms then slammed them onto his cubital fossa, hearing his bones snap as she broke his arms.
The vandal cried out in absolute agony as Shandri turned his pistol on him and put a round straight through his skull. She heard a dreg sprinting up towards her from behind, causing her to quickly turn around give her a punch right across her jaw. Four minutes ago this station was filled with Wolves, but now, there was only Light soldiers, and puddles of dark blue blood. The civilians were located and taken to the ketch by a detachment of the units. The rescue was all going according to plan for the House of Light. Skolas was outraged looking through his quadriloculars.
"THEY DARE DEFY ME!?" He exclaimed breaking them into two pieces. "I AM OUR PEOPLE'S GREATEST HOPE! AND YET THIS PRETENDER ARRIVES THEY ALL FOLLOW HIM?! HOW DARE HE!" Skolas exclaimed. His barons both looked at each other then back to Skolas. He was infuriated, of course, but what was he more angry about? More people following Sidriks than him or the fact that they were both in control of three houses a piece. Now, there was only one way that this could end, with either Sidriks dead or Skolas. Skolas then got an idea, he was a commander a long time ago, and there was an Eliksni battlecruiser that he had the command codes for. The best part was that it was never boarded other than a pilot servitor.
"Get me to the communications center, I have a plan to end this charade," Skolas said with a devilish smirk under his helmet walking away from the battlefield. The remainder of the Wolves fleet retreated off towards space.
"My Kell the Wolves are retreating!" Zorrin remarked watching the ships fly away from the battle.
"Excellent work, all of you, I will be landing near the ketch soon. I am proud to call you my comrades." Sidriks replied turning off his comms unit.