The Streets Fall (Anarchists/Rebels)

[Aetius Dux]

It had been the plumes of smoke that rose over the temple district that brought the attack down on the district. People weren't sure what to make of the brightly covered smoke at first, and for a good many minutes people stood completely still watching as the smoke flowed into the air until vanishing in mere moments. Right when the smoke vanished they moved in; the charge was led by Lee Dolus, who stormed Rebels into the closest police offices and had it overrun in minutes. That was only the start as the streets became vacant, smoke, darkness and gunshots soon filled the void left by the people.

Aetius Dux and Krazny led near two dozen Anarchists behind a column of heavily armed police officers, the slaughter had been quick and the streets were open to be advanced upon. The fight continued for three more hours as the government swarmed police cars forward, eventually pulling soldiers into the fray and punishing the rebels and anarchists heavily. The military pushed them back a block before they halted the push. By that time the amount of bodies in the street seemed innumerable and the stink it produced was retching.  

The military hadn't given up, twice they tried to thrust forward and twice they were thrown back. The Rebels held the corner streets well and the military stopped their advances as the sun began to dip below the skyline. 

"Get those barricades up!" Aetius called as four Anarchists rolled a two heavily damaged cars into the middle of the street to help hold the barricade. An occasional sniper shot would ring out and counter snipers went against them. One thing was for sure was that the Rebels now claimed these streets, for how long, well that couldn't be entirely said. Aetius took a couple of deep breathes, feeling the wear of the battle finally taking its toll on his aged body. This was what he was used to, what he was trained for... it was here he felt truly alive again. 

His eyes traced along the streets, Rebels and Anarchists alike were moving bodies out of the streets. He had given the order to his people that he would treat the bodies of their enemies as they would to their own. The last thing he wanted was pictures emerging of the Anarchists abusing the dead. He pulled himself away from the barricade and began to walk down the dark streets, power had been cut off during the second hour of fighting and he doubt the Government intended on turning it back on any time soon. He pulled himself up the stairs towards an old bar that sat deep in the Rebel secured streets, nearly slipping on a puddle of blood that had accumulated on the third step before entering into the bar, knowing it was here that the Rebels and Anarchists were using as a command post.

"Is Lee Dolus in yet?" Aetius asked a Rebel in his heavy Ellusian accent. The Rebel gave a glance towards the back room where the small lights of candles illuminated the path towards. Aetius walked heavily towards the back of the room where the Rebels had occupied the house. "Lee Dolus... I am Aetius Dux of the Anarchists, do you have a moment?" He asked, peering his head into the room. 

[Krazny; The Wyvern]

The battle had been long and arduous, but never before had Krazny felt more at home. Thrust into the middle of combat, he had been able to unleash his magic like he'd never had to before, his body coated in fire diving into crowds of the enemy in order to tear them apart with his blades. As they forced the opposition away yet again, Krazny took the opportunity to sheath his blades and shake the blood off of his hands and wipe what couldn't be shaken away against his legs. The already red material of his clothing turning darker when mixed with the blood. Standing up, he ran his hands through his hair, leaving red streaks in amongst the white as he wandered into the bar behind Aetius. The Ellusian was a bit stuffy, and was a former Imperial, but his head was screwed on right and nothing endears a man to another like bathing in your enemies blood together.

"I should hope they have a moment..." Krazny muttered under his breath. "They would never have won this battle without us, pffth... Even if they did they would have had significantly more losses than if we hadn't been here whatsoever." Krazny chuckled as a sly smile spread across his face. In truth, he was happy to have been here, he enjoyed combat, but there was nothing wrong with sparking some real passion into the conversation.

[Lee Dolus]

Lee was caked in sweat, dirt, and blood from head to toe. He didn't so much as glance in their direction he was far to busy stitching up a nasty wound on a fellow rebel, "Make it quick." Lee he responded. Blood was still flowing from the rebels wound, covering the table Lee was using, the rebel was sobbing. He screamed out and tried to sit up to make Lee stop, but Lee just shoved him back down and started to pull the skin together to close the wound. "Shut up and stop making this fucking difficult." Lee shoved a rag into his mouth.

He tied the wound off, "Get the hell out of here." He ordered the rebel who stumbled away. Dropping the blood soaked rag onto the table, he groaned in frustration, "You got fucking kids out there dropping left and right." Lee wiped as much blood as he could off his face and hands, "Do we not have any damn competent fighters?"

[Aetius Dux]

Aetius glanced back towards Krazny and spoke, "We couldn't have won it without the rebels, either." He reminded the man. To be honest if they just had a couple more people like Krazny the amount of losses would have been far lower, nothing was more impressive than seeing Krazny charge onto a group of soldiers and tear them apart as if they were nothing. True warriors of the Drakos Nisi.   He couldn't blame Lee for his frustration, the Rebels were just kids after all, most soldiers were. Yet the Rebels had no real training, soldiers had discipline and discipline was what separated warriors from scared children. He had seen the Rebels break when they should have held and held when they should have broke. The same went for the Anarchists as well. 

They did their job though, the streets had been claimed and held. Perhaps not as much as they would have liked but enough. "Your boys fought bravely today, Mr. Dolus." Aetius bowed his head respectfully, "You should be proud of what they have done."  He shouldered his rifle and held himself carefully, "The Thelotians have not made any attempt to retake the streets yet, I don't suspect they'll remain quiet for long. Have you contacted the Rebel Commander and told of our success?"

It would not be a success for much longer if they didn't get more troops in here to hold the area. He didn't even wants to think about the next week from now, the Government would have no problem cutting off the flow of food and bullets into the held district. They would rot here if they didn't do something about it. 

[Katori T'elva]

Katori had returned to Lee's side not two minutes before the Anarchists entered the building. Before she had been pulling the bodies of fallen rebels out of the streets, there was nothing more painful than having to see the young faces of the people you had just seen earlier so lifeless and cold. Her hands had been caked in blood when she entered the building in hopes of washing the blood of her hands and seeing if Lee Dolus had anything else he needed of her. Yet the water wasn't running, the Government had cut all of it off when the battle started, she wiped as much of it off onto a towel as she could but still her hands were red with it. 

"Shit..." She whined softly before pulling herself out of the small bathroom and into the room where Lee was dealing with wounded Rebels. Katori had stayed remarkably calm during the fighting, having cut down countless police officers and soldiers the battle seemed to wash away with little horror entering her. Aside from when the military began to push them back, she had kept a cool head. Seeing all the wounded Rebels though brought an ill feeling to her stomach, hearing their whines and cries reminded her exactly what type of death would have awaited her...

Katori was about to ask Lee if he needed any help when the Anarchists stepped in. As much as she distrusted the group nobody could speak against how well they fought in the fight. They were a vital part in their success.  It occurred to her there that she hadn't seen much of Kri, Hana or anyone else she was close to in the fight. A sort of panic overcame her as she slipped away from Lee and the Anarchists and back out onto the streets, hoping to catch a glimpse of her ice wielding friend or the man she was supposed to be protecting. 

[Aldo Garland]

Among the riot, A 6 foot 11 inch elf, was going though, blades attached to his metallic hands. He was cutting, punching, kicking, and throwing soldier, giant chunks of the street, and a lot of car doors at the opposition. The sound of his laughter echoed during the fight, as he took pleasure in it.
"Man, this is fun!" Aldo said as he pulled another car door off of it's hinges and tossed it at the Government. "TAKE THAT, PIGS!"

[Lee Dolus]

"Don't bow to me I'm not goddamn royalty." Lee hissed, as he peeked out the boarded up windows to the wrecked streets below, "I phoned rebel command a while back. They're doing what they can to supply us." Lee pulled a chair around and sat down "I don't have a lot of faith in their abilities so we're doing what we can to get by." he had been on his feet for the past hours, "I don't need to remind you that without any damn supplies we're fucked." he crossed his arms, and grimaced.

"So, as you can imagine I'm busy right now so do you need anything else, or do you want to waste more of my time?" Lee stood up.

[Kri]

Kri was sat behind a low wall, lighting a cigarette awkwardly with one hand. He kept the gauntleted hand bandaged up all the same, he didn't want to spook the Rebels by having a giant frickin' metal hand. This obviously meant that he couldn't use a rifle all too effectively and had been limited solely to using a revolver and his magic during the battles on the street. He had to be careful with his magic, the last thing he wanted was The Stalker to suddenly pop up halfway during the battle and turn everything South, so in reality, he had really just been limited to using a revolver. Either way, there was a lull in the combat for the time being, and taking a quick peek over the wall to check he wasn't going to get shot in the back, he started shuffling in the direction of the Bar which they were using as a command centre. Just as he was walking in, he bumped into Katori who was walking out.

Almost instinctively, he started to apologise for his clumsiness before it suddenly dawned on him just who he had bumped in to.

"Ah Sor- Katori!" He quickly changed the nature of the conversation with the realisation. Much like the others, flecks of blood coated Kri, and numerous little cuts, scratches and bruises decorated his body. The fighting was taking its toll on everyone, but this rebellion had now escalated into open warfare, and they needed this first victory or else morale had crumbled.

"Hey, listen." He continued. "Everything's gone quiet here and I don't know how I feel about that... I'm worried that they're going to go round and cut off our supplies, then bring reinforcements on our front, we'll be sealed in a ring of steel and I don't fancy our chances like that..." He sighed as he scratched at the back of his head with a bandaged hand. "We could pull some troops back and then protect our supply lines but we'd leave our front exposed, I was just gonna' go and propose it to Lee... You coming with?"

[Katori T'elva]

Katori's eyes widened as she collided with Kri and she found herself enormously pleased at the sight of the man. "Oh gods, Kri." She yelped, bringing her hand to her chest as if to calm her heart, "I lost sight of you up there, I wasn't sure if you..." Katori paused, glancing around the streets where streams of blood still ran from the dead Rebels, Police and Anarchists, "We've lost so much, Kri."

Katori looked distressed but she didn't feel the sting of tears. She vowed she would have plenty of time to cry later but for now Katori needed to remain strong.  It was Kri's words that caught Katori by surprise, "Pull them back?" She gasped, "A-Are you mad, we've only just established a foothold. If we pull troops back we'll be leaving our line open to be broken." She pointed out, she couldn't bear the thought of losing more people...

Her eyes fell to the floor as she thought carefully about the entire situation. "We should talk to Lee, certainly." Katori knew he was still talking to those Anarchists. So long as Ataxia wasn't there she would find her voice to speak in front of them. Honestly it was Lee she feared talking to, the man had no respect for her and Katori got very... nervous when he spoke.

[Kri]

"Look..." He placed a reassuring hand on Katori's arm. "We've lost a lot I know, but I'm acting on a gut feeling here, and my gut has kept me alive all these years so I see no reason to stop trusting it now... Yeah, we are going to go talk to Lee." With that, Kri walked into the Bar in a burst of cigarette smoke, a bad habit he was seemingly picking up from Konig. God, if he starts smoking cigars just shoot him now. Lee was apparently talking to the Anarchists at the moment, but this was more likely far more important than whatever they were discussing, so walking around to Lee's side, he rested his hands against the table on which he was operating.

"Lee, we need to talk. Do you not find it weird that the Government's giving up so easily? I think they're planning on cutting off our supplies, bringing reinforcements round to the front and then catching us in a pincer, and if that happens, we're all dead... I can't prove it, I don't have any evidence for it and I'm only working off of a gut instinct, but I think we should pull some of our men from the front, round them off to the back and ambush anyone planning on attacking our supplies... It's risky and for all we know it could be totally the wrong move, but I just don't like this silence, the Government has the resources to hammer us, why are they not doing so..?" He looked over at Katori and coughed awkwardly, looking down at the floor.

"Kat.. Uh... Kat disagrees..."

[Katori T'elva]

"The government is just gathering their strength. They've pulled the police back and replaced it with the army, that takes time. I'm sure we'll see a new frontal offensive by the government soon, probably with one of those damned Presidential Guards leading it." Katori hissed at the thought of the Presidential Guards, they were fast and extremely deadly. She hadn't seen people fight the way they did. "If we pull anyone back they'll ram right through us." She cautioned.

Katori couldn't bear the idea of seeing more people lost and if the government attacked them at a weak point it would overrun them all. 

[Aetius Dux]

"The boy's gut speaks truly." Aetius said with a nod to Kri, "They've cut the power and water, it's only natural they'll be looking to cut away our supply route." He added grimly, "It would do me a great honor to lead the defense of the back streets. I've seen the way the Thelotians fight and I can assure you that I can defeat them in battle." Aetius had more raw military experience here than anyone else, having commanded countless Ellusian troops his knowledge of warfare certainly would be helpful. 

[Lee Dolus]

Lee crossed his arms and glared at the two rebels, he didn't like the options they were proposing. It would make sense for them to try and cripple the rebels by cutting off their supplies. It was also very possible that they might try to just overpower the rebel forces, although that seemed like a rather foolish idea, he would think the government would be more cunning in their attempts.

A growl of frustration came from Lee, "Katori, I can see why you would disagree with Kri. We'd obviously be vulnerable to an attack that would leave us with many losses. However, if we don't to keep the supplies coming we'd all starve to death, and lose hold of the district." The only thing on Lees mind right now was to try and minimize loses, "That would mean that all who died, died in vain. I'm sure that's the last thing you want."

He let off a deep sigh, "So, we'll go with Kri's idea." Lee most certainly didn't want to, but, in the continued absence of any better ideas it would have to do, "Aetius round up the troops you need, I want you to make sure the convoy makes it here unscathed." Lee turned away from the two, "For everyone else its business as usual. Get back to work."

[Aetius Dux]

"It will be done. I'll round up close to one hundred Rebels and Anarchists, the boy with the good gut as well." He shifted his gaze back to Kri before back to Lee, "We'll keep the streets secure until we're told otherwise." With that he turned on his heels and started towards the back door, "Krazny, a street can be held by twenty good soldiers, so round up eighty Rebels and Anarchists to hold the two streets behind us."  

Rest Drive and Steel Street were the two streets they would be guarding. Rest Drive was thin in comparison, the roadways were cracked and old and the buildings were mostly small apartments that were as old as the streets. Steel Street was paved just three years ago, the pavements was still nice in comparison and the shops that lined the streets were refurnished under a restoration program, at least until they came through, the street was a rather nice looking area.

Aetius stepped out of the building and looked around, "What else is your gut telling you, boy?" Aetius asked, eyeing the man's  bandaged arm before asking, "Were you shot?"  

[Kri]

Kri let out a barely audible sigh of relief as Lee went with his decision but seemed less comfortable about being lumped in with an Anarchist... Still, he'd seen how well the two had fought during the battle, so he could hardly complain too much. As they turned to leave, he paused in front of Katori and gave her a shrug and a weak smile. Placing a hand on her arm he gave her a nod.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine, just trust me." With a small wink, he was on his way with Aetius.

By the time they had left, Aetius was already asking him what else his gut was telling him, as well as questioning his bandaged arm.

"The Government are looking to ambush, they'll be lying out and they'll be waiting for the convoy. The one thing they won't expect is to be ambushed themselves. I'm not suggesting they'll be lax, but they're not expecting any kind of action until a set time, we'll be able to catch them off-guard, hopefully. As for my arm..?" He paused for a moment as he looked down at the bandages.

"No, I wasn't shot, it was a... Well, a fracture, but I didn't want to risk just a sling and a splint in the middle of a battle, so I went for the full shabang."