[u]Chapter Ten: Class Rank[/u] Part Three But before it could be fired, I let go of my scout rifle and held out my hand towards the Captain's face, causing the poor fool to look in confusion from my hand to the abandoned gun it held and back. The scout rifle disappeared from the Captain's grasp, surprising it a little, and my shotgun appeared in my free hand. Four blue eyes widened in shock as the large barrel of a shotgun came into sudden life before its face, and the Captain didn't even think to fire in the moments before I pulled the trigger, blasting through its shield and tearing apart its helmet and face underneath. The poor being fell to the ground dead, dropping its weapon at my feet, but before I could move a Stealth Vandal tackled me to the ground, followed by a couple more. The group of Vandals had come in with their swords right behind the Captain, and now ripped my shotgun out of my grasp. I willed my shotgun to disappear, but had no room to summon a weapon to hand with the Vandals on top of me. Struggling to escape, the Vandals kept all of their attention on keeping me pinned and did not get the chance to stab at me with their Shock Blades. My left hand found the handle and trigger of a heavy gun and I swung my arm around, bashing one of the Vandals off of me with the Captain's Shrapnel Launcher. As the first Vandal hopped back off of me, I pointed the Shrapnel Launcher straight at the second one's chest, launching it off of me with flaming chunks of metal embedded in its torso. The third grabbed the Shrapnel Launcher and pushed back against it, struggling to keep me from shooting it next. My right hand found another, lighter gun hilt, and I curled my fingers around it, placing my finger on the trigger. The last Vandal felt cold metal against its throat and heard the whirring of an Arc battery charging up, then turned its eyes down to see the Wire Rifle of the very first Vandal I had downed in my hand. But it was too late to dodge and the Vandal's head snapped back as the charged Arc bolt fired into its jaw. I shoved the body off of me and pulled on the trigger again, starting the charge for the next shot, then I sat up and aimed at the Vandal that had jumped off of me and let the next round go off at its chest. It fell with a scortch mark on its chest and I looked at both of the weapons in my hands. "Rush, put these away," I told my Ghost, then the Shrapnel Launcher and Wire Rifle disappeared from my hands into my inventory. Once again I took position behind the rock and started firing frantically with my scout rifle to make up for the enemies that had slipped by while I was being attacked. But there were too many Fallen rushing our position and we couldn't keep them back. I had to start punching down Fallen constantly to keep them away, and didn't get many more opportunities to shoot enemies that were further away. Through constant glances around the area I could see that Sierra was having a hard time keeping the Fallen off of her as well, and Crag had been flushed out of his tree by the Vandals with Wire Rifles. "We need to fall back," I told them over the coms. "Fine," Sierra said grudgingly after a moment; never one to back down in a fight. All I got from Crag was an angry grunt. Just my luck to be stuck with two of the most stubborn people in the system. Sierra and I began moving back tree by tree, using each as cover. Crag gave in and started falling back as well once we got about halfway to him, continuing to support us with his sniper rifle. We fought our way back through the woods, taking out more Fallen with each piece of ground we gave. Eventually we were running to get space and quickly outpaced the Fallen, soon finding ourselves at a wide stream, relatively clear of trees in the space around it. The ground was rocky and small boulders littered the area. Crag climbed up into the largest boulder he could find on the opposite shore, which actually had enough boulders pressed up to make a large barrier. Sierra and I didn't cross the stream and set up behind some boulders. If we were pushed back, we would jump up onto the higher ground on the other side of the stream with Crag and easily be able to hold off the attack. But for now we had to hold as much ground as possible and keep the enemy away from our sniper. The rock wall would only be for if we got pushed back again. The Fallen rushed out of the trees once again and the frenzy of flying Arc bolts and bullets resumed. Using the rocks for high ground and cover, we were able to keep most of the Fallen from getting very far out of the trees. But after a couple minutes of this, the Fallen stopped rushing out, and we found ourselves sitting quietly in wait. What could they be up to? I pondered, looking to Sierra and Crag, who were clearly pensive as well. We knew there were more of them; we hadn't even seen that large machine that had been pushing through the trees yet. Then a loud call from a Fallen droned out in the woods and a few dozen Fallen moved out into sight at the same time, forming a long line across our field of view. The sound of many more beings moving through the foliage let us know that at least a few more dozen Fallen lay just behind the first line, ready to charge. In the center of the line, a massive Fallen stepped out, wielding a rather large Shrapnel Launcher. It's armor looked thicker than typical Fallen armor and was decorated with many lines of red paint, it's crested helm adding to its impressive height so that it towered several feet above the others, and its short red cape displayed the Devil's symbol as it billowed in the light breeze. "There's a Devil Baron leading this attack?!" John exclaimed, "Did you know about this?!" Sierra and I looked back to Crag questioningly, but he did not answer us. The Hunter's gaze was riveted on the Baron and his right hand drifted down to the hand cannon that hung on his hip, which I realized that he hadn't used so far this whole battle. Crag had known about the Baron, but didn't tell anyone so he would have a better chance to get his revenge personally. I looked back to the Baron and saw that it had followed our gazes to Crag. It studied him for a moment and then let out an inhuman laugh, pointing at Crag and saying something to those around it. A chorus of amused chatter arose from the line of Fallen, and a low growl from Crag could be heard over the com channel. The Baron seemed to be making fun of him for running earlier. "Crag, don't take the bait," I warned, "Sierra, we need to get onto that high ground." Crags hand left the hilt of his hand cannon, but after a moment he snapped up his sniper rifle and took a shot at the Baron's head. Even a high caliber round like that merely pinged off of the creature's helm, barely making it flinch at all. It laughed again and pointed it's two left hands at us, issuing an order to the Fallen around it. The line charged forward and many more Fallen surged out of the trees immediately behind, snipers jumping into rocks for clear shots and the rest running around the boulders to get to us. "Now Sierra!" I shouted, and we both began running for the other side of the stream, shots from Fallen and Crag flying over our heads. Sierra jumped up and used her Light to propel herself in two midair jumps, landing right next to Crag and turning to fire into the hoard. I took the old-fashioned way and leaped up onto one of the boulders, climbing up the rest of the way to reach the others. We held up there, shooting down as many Fallen as we could. But many were able to reach the natural wall and began jumping and climbing up onto higher elevation with us, especially since we were mostly busy shooting at snipers rather than those running at us. It became a mad fight to keep them from overcoming us on top of the high ground, grenades and knives flying from my allies' hands while I resorted to punching. Sierra continued to use her hand cannon while I switched to my shotgun to hold them back, but Crag oddly kept on using his sniper. He did somehow manage to effectively keep the Fallen away at such a close range, though, no matter how ridiculous it seemed. His hand cannon rested untouched on his hip. Luckily, the flow of enemies began to ebb and we were able to get a bit of elbow room. Several Fallen would be up there with us at any given time, but we could now shoot at snipers and some of the incoming forces. But the Baron was still there, prowling in the back and issuing orders as more Fallen came out of the woods. ____________________________________ Link to Chpt 10 Pt 2:https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/217492494/0/0 Link to Chpt 10 Pt 4:https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/217494881/0/0 Link to ToC:https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/212710816/0/0