Halcyon and the Goliaths - Printable Version

You know there's this fantastic job that can do all of this for you, right? It's called air support.

Their mind belonging to an ever-growing collective, it was expected for Halcyon to be accustomed to the constant press and boom of others' thoughts. Born a faithful servant of Order, most often this proved no trouble, their well-crafted design ensuring they didn't buckle under myriad potential sources of input. Nevertheless, they did possess limits: volume for one, an aspect of communication their winged warrior compatriot repeatedly failed to adjust. So as this latest snippet of snark reverberated through their skull, a stumble and wince answered it.

They leaned harder upon the staff clenched in one hand to prevent a headlong fall into a snow drift gathered on the mountainside. Once certain their stance had regained stability, they shook their head, a sigh gusting out from a tensed and grimacing jaw.

I am well aware. This is not intended as an encroachment on your duties. However, it is simply more reasonable to have some manner of protection against Chaos beasts for us landbound. Experience dictates we cannot become complacent and rely solely on... humble soldiers like yourself to come to our aid.

If the hint of retaliatory sarcasm had been noticed, their conversational partner didn't address it, instead plowing past the explanation like the words were little more than the snowflakes he presently flew through. Equally ignored was the unspoken request sent to soften his mental voice.

I mean, the whole idea you've got ain't the worst. The best fight I've had in a while is chasing my own tail for Mother's sakes! But come on, he whined. Let's be real. A tiny stick isn't doing anything against me, let alone whatever stinking Oildripper manages to catch your scent. You'd be better off allowing the rest of us to do our little spar and giving us tips from the side. You small ones are supposed to be good at catching details and talking; leave the hurting to the professionals.

No matter whichever angle they approached the subject from, always did they return to the same tiresome argument. Halcyon might have possessed a deep well of patience, but it had begun to run dry after minutes of this circular discussion. There appeared no way to chisel past Ace's stubborn viewpoint, and while they were close to giving up entirely, he had not flagged once in his endless egotism. For what felt like the billionth time, they found themselves digging claws into their palms, incapable and unwilling to lash out at a fellow Hive member no doubt still miles away and out of reach in the skies.

Lacking the appropriate vocabulary or disposition for vulgarity, their frustration was a thick haze they refused to let bleed over their mental link. Pointless to direct such toward a being so oblivious to the emotions of all but his own. They settled for merely replying, We don't have scents. Humor me then, just this single time, and trudged onward.

Sure, we all know it'll be a joke when I snap that twig of yours in half!

No big surprise that the gibe received zero response. Its importance ranked far below reaching their chosen destination and ensuring the trail of footsteps behind them were filled in well by the persistent snowfall. Unable to grasp the end of an interaction—or understanding quite well but preferring ceaseless noise over silence—Ace filled the void for the remainder of the journey with all manner of inane chatter.

Up until Halcyon announced, Here, and waved over others through multiple links at once. Time for the exercise to start and skills to be honed.

Bone had become aware of the faint notes of discord threading their way along the link. While every Hive member could hear the ongoing chatter of every other, Bone's preference was to do her best to ignore those parts that seemed... private. Still, it was hard to wholly shut out the needling of Ace directed off at the cold snaps of Halcyon--especially when Bone wholly respected the latter's attempts at improving the Hive.

That was their purpose, after all--all of them, together, to improve. So what if the tactic was not yet perfected? That was the point of it: to iterate, to train, to learn. She was pensive as she rose from her den, spreading wings to shake free what snow had settled there. As the powder cascaded down, she wondered what exactly she planned to do. She wasn't about to direct any thoughts along the link, though undoubtedly her unease at the disagreement (such as it was) would have joined with any other reactions flowing through the Hive. But she felt it important, at least, to show her support to Halcyon. Her approval, the same approval that she had no doubt Mother and the rest of the Hive would show, too.

White eyes studied the flanks of the snowbound mountain and found no danger there, and so the dragon took flight. A heavy jump into the air, the thud of struggling wings and then she was rising. She knew Ace to be far more agile than she; she was more of a tank in the air. But as for this practice that she suspected Halcyon had in mind, her own abilities with magic allowed her--when it cooperated--to also strike from a distance, often out of range of those who relied on teeth or claws. Whatever this training might be, she could at least provide a target, and test, perhaps, whether magic might prove to outweigh the strategy. Though it is unreliable, she thought, and this whisper slid unintentionally along the link. Realizing she had 'spoken' a brief internal monologue now, rather than her carefully guarded thoughts (simply to avoid flooding with nonsense, by necessity, rather than any desire for secrecy--what was secrecy to a family, after all?) she broke in with a more proper response to the summons.

'I think any training will improve us. We must try new things to find out what works,' she offered, diplomatically. All the while, anyone glancing through her eyes would see the sheets of snow sliding past far below, a tumble of fog and drifting flakes noting Bone's location as she approached. The thud of wings would become physically audible just before the white dragon herself became visible through the snowfall, her bulky body rocking backward as she maneuvered herself to slow instead of simply plummeting into the ground.

Claws thudded into the ground, wings folding, some twenty yards off; a brief search with squinted eyes found Halcyon, and Bone began to forge her way toward them through the snow. She left a broad trench of draconic footprints and sweeping tail behind her. Her expression was kind, soft, as she came closer, her head dipping low so that her eyes could reach the level of her Hivemate.

"I thought you could use a target-? If Ace isn't coming. Or you could use two-?" She hesitated, her urge toward supporting Halcyon clashing briefly with the uncertainty of what use she could actually be. She wasn't sure, yet, what was planned. A smile tried to curve rigid face, and she blushed warm humor along the link. '...Just tell me where you need me,' she settled on, this thought purely silent.

Social tact and compassion—while Bone was Hive by adoption and not creation, no better balm existed for being subjected to Ace's exhausting brand of arrogance. Her presence, sedate and concerned, brushed against minds as a gentle breeze in the aftermath of a relentless cyclone. Any leftover tension gripping Halcyon by the shoulders had begun to bleed away under her attention.

A shame that it would return with a vengeance.

The period of talking to no specific audience had not been a sign of the living storm fading away into self-imposed dormancy. He'd merely had his thoughts drawn toward a more pressing matter than haranguing those perceived as overstepping their station: of course, this referred to gabbing about himself and however many virtues he'd been blessed with. Once the lesser of fliers in Mother's service converged on Halcyon's position, the movement snapped Ace's mental jaws shut and threw him back into laser focus. Limbs tucked in closer to his wiry frame, and the lash of a stinger-tipped tail burst him out of the cloud cover he'd been cruising within.

While distance prevented him from having any chance of beating Bone in a one-sided race to the mountain, plenty could be made up for in the form of a much unneeded dramatic entrance. Where his comrade has opted for a careful touchdown, he threw any concept of caution out before it could even be considered. A white bolt streaked down through the snowfall, never losing speed as it reached the ground. Any whose arrival might have placed themselves in his path would be forced to run or else risk being plowed into.

For no other reason than to enhance his approach, Ace had plunged the very ends of his hooked forelegs into the landscape as he flew. Great walls of snow gusted up on either side of him, a scene that drove Halcyon to retreat, staff arm upraised to defend their face from wayward clumps cast out by the display. Eventually the rising masses shrank as the rapid descent slowed to a calm hover. Then, at last, the ostentatious Drone plunked onto his behind, fangs bared for the widest grin.

"I say you're best off as a shield," he crowed. "Golden Glow here's going to need all the help they can get!"

"Zero-Zero-Five Steward," came the exasperated correction, "can decide their own needs. Thank you."

Although delivered in a clipped tone, the emotions behind that last bit were split down the middle. In the same moment sharp reprimand was sent to the ongoing needle in their side, Halcyon sent a warm nudge of gratitude through their link to Bone. At the very least her presence would provide a pleasant counterbalance to the other Drone's incessant self-conceit. Even higher hopes suggested that she might make this small exercise more worthwhile due to actually cooperating with their requests.

This in mind, head shaking slowly, they lowered their arm. "Granted there is merit in seeing how this"—a claw stroked over the smooth bark of the staff—"works alongside comrades. I'd prefer, however, we start more simply: a test on moving targets. It matters not whether one, two, or if more offer their assistance then. I understand others could still be travelling in the meantime to join us, and so that will give them more time for their arrival as well."

"Bone," they said, "I intend to determine the usefulness of my new tool against opponents less stationary than trees. Should you and Zero-One-Zero Skyreaver be amenable, I'd like for the both of you to engage in a nonlethal assault for me to respond in kind to."

Halcyon knelt down. Staff leaned against their shoulder to free both hands up, they scooped from the snow blanketing the mountainside and began sculpting out a ball.

"The gathered snow is harmless enough for attacks if that offers you any ideas, provided you avoid flinging ice as well."

Bone tilted her head, listening with genuine interest. Her pale eyes went to the staff. "How does it work? -Wait, don't tell me," she added, with a grin. She stretched her limbs, looking to Ace. "Let's give it a shot?" she half-asked.

Clawed forelimbs set to forming snowballs (caves, it was cold) though they were (Bone didn't really realize it) more suited to a dragon's size than a smaller drone's. She was quite focused on this task for several moments, before gathering up an armful of the things. A nod was fired Ace's way. "Tell me when," she said at last, and launched with a powerful thrust of her haunches into the sky.

She rose into the air and began to circle, snowballs held to her chest-scutes, waiting for the 'go.'

Removed from the battlefield, Ace may have possessed the discipline characteristic of a military mindset and Drone, but often he proved to lack in the social niceties more personable Hive members understood. Without the deadly excitement of Chaos' violence threatening to sear his hide, nothing could prevent a yawn prying apart his jaws during Halcyon's explanation. No disrespect was intended, hard as it might be to believe from the loudmouthed flyer. However, listening to such formal phrasing was equivalent to marching through narrow, winding passageways; much as he tried to pay attention, wings yearned to soar. The sooner his elder got to their point, the faster he could move on to the more interesting part of this meeting, and so far time was being wasted on fancier wording.

"Right. Me and Bone get to smack you around with anything but our claws."

Hear that? Simple enough without rambling on about the possibility someone might show up still or whether the both of them agreed to the terms presented for this one-sided fight. Far less than a minute was spent on demonstrating his understanding of current expectations. So why couldn't the stiff-backed Steward reach the point as succinctly?

"A shot?" he laughed. "More like an explosion against small and slim here."

That piece said, sickle claws began to scrape at the piles of snow around him. Embarrassingly, what should have been a simple task for a great beast like himself turned out to be more complicated than first thought. Although his design was well suited for swift slicing and stabbing, excelling at destruction left him ill-prepared for gathering and shaping. Wide sweeps of his forearms over the landscape managed to form a large mound, but repeated attempts at scooping lead to powdery curtains spilling from grasp. Restricted to two hooks, Ace couldn't pack the snow into a definite shape, a predicament which caused a low irritated hiss of "stay still."

After writhing about for a fair while, eventually a muscled together vague blob of white was hefted between his claws. It leaked snowflakes a good deal upon liftoff but due to sheer size would likely remain substantial for when he decided to heave it at his target. Instincts fond of symmetry led to Ace flying counter to Bone's circle. He watched, calm and unconcerned, as Halcyon took the moment he gave them to load their sling with a ball from their small stack of cold ammunition.

Pincer maneuver. A visual of talons clenching reached over the link. If we hit, they're snowed over. Miss, and we get lots of cover for the next move. On my call.

Ace swooped to Halcyon's left, hollering, "Hope you can dig!" Not waiting to see if he'd caught their full attention, he flung his arms out and released the carried snow.

For all of his boasting, Ace, as with any of his siblings, was a predictable sort. It came with the territory of being Order's vanguard, designed specially for their assigned tasks. As a being belonging to the air, he reveled in the act of flying; every bank and dive he did using unnecessary additional flare, adding a barrel roll or dramatic swish of his stinger, an excuse to stroke his massive ego just as much as an attempt at intimidation. A soldier, he'd been born wired for a fight, quick to leap to aggression in situations demanding claws and fangs. Even though told to not use them, that snarling aspect remained. Halcyon, well-acquainted with their opponent's brash mindset, had expected a sudden assault. They hadn't accounted, however, for the sheer force behind it.

What should have been an unflinching standing of ground against an ill-mannered brute fell to pieces the moment a great plume of snow exploded from hooked forearms. Poised to fling a snowball directly into the Ace's boastful, gaping jaws, Halcyon squinted against the frigid wind battering their face and witnessed the Drone disappearing from view behind a veil of flakes. A solid white dot emerged out of the center of the haze, growing rapidly by the second. No great deal of pondering was required then to understand their dire position. Arms cast to either side of them, they flopped to the ground. Bruising their face would be much preferred over having their head knocked clean off their shoulders.

The thrown mass, although heavy, had been fortunate to not carry any significant blocks of ice within. At most, razor-thin chips bit their backside as it sailed over them. The worse outcome proved to be whatever snow fell away from the pile while it followed its current trajectory. Although their upper body only received a fine dusting, the lower was a different story, buried from the hips down. Unless they could thrash their way out of this bind quickly enough, they'd be an easy target for the next attack before launching a counter.

It would, Bone knew--from experience--be poor sparring to prepare for real life, simply because of the Hive link. It was hard to strike a hit when the 'enemy' knew exactly when the attack would come, and how, even if they weren't deliberately trying to listen in. Still-... at least they could test Halcyon's strategy.

She followed Ace's lead, and when the first swept in she matched their symmetry, her heavier form no less elegant once airborne. The curve of her back flashed white as she dropped lower, and she spun to fling her gathered snowballs for Halcyon as she passed.

No sooner had she launched her strike than it registered that Halcyon had ducked from Ace's attack. As Bone continued her arc--sweeping lower to gather more snow as she crossed the drifts--she sent a tentative thought the smaller drone's way.

Is this part of the weapon testing? she asked along the link, uncertain.