Chapter 460 (1/2)

Book 4, Chapter 78 – Fortitude

Entrusted with an impossible mission, Cloudhaas nonetheless forced to accept

What choice did he have? Whatever the intrigue, whatever the anger, first they had to survive Nothing was erous than the position they'd been thrust in

The old drunk and Barb brought Dawn below decks Her fragile state of mind made her unstable No one was sure how she would react Selene, Phain and the Te orders They represented the power of the Teitimacy

The pain and s had to be put aside until this dark hour passed What happened could not be undone, but they could work to edy didn't worsen They had their work cut out for theed attack

“Ten divisions were gathered for this excursion, totaling roughly sixty thousand men The fleet currently stands at three hundred and five warshi+ps Twenty of thee, and eighty nine arewith istics and supple shi+ps Now the divisions, they are as follows; the Vanguard, Flank, Airborne…”

Roc rattled off the current state of their armed forces All of the divisions he named were populated with experienced soldiers While the attack on Fallowed shi+ps, total losses were still h to threaten the core abilities of the expeditionary force While Skye Polaris had been a brash and angry ist He wasn't foolish enough to break hihting force was the last vestige of the Polaris fae

He knew that, whatever the cost, they had to get home safely

Phain's suspicions about Cloudhawk's co a force of this size However, during his years in hell's Valley he was taught the basics of tactics and leadershi+p He also had the guidance of others with e Cloudhaas fairly confident he could e

This was a time and environment where confidence and bravery were important Wisdom and tactics, there was none to speak of in this clash Whenever your opponent had such an overwhelies' and 'tactics' were nothing more than minor parlor tricks that could only be used to stall for a time

Cloudhawk looked to Roc “How many do we have in our demonhunter battalion?”

“Three hundred demonhunters have been dispatched with our forces,” he answered “Two hundred or so are still in fair enough condition to fight”

The Polaris family wasn't like the Cloudes, ere rich in deroup of ten thousand soldiers was considered a good haul for them But even this small battalion would play an important role

Out here, a demonhunter's combat proficiency was secondary

In a fleet of several hundred shi+ps, only so nals This was especially true in this dust stor more than a few meters out from view

To counter this, each battle group's command shi+p was fitted with a psy-tower Psy-toorked differently from the three other towers typically found on Elysian warshi+ps, but were just as important in function

Demonhunters, in their ability to manipulate and summon mental poere able to tap into a neural network created by these psy-towers Through it infor critical battle conditions and orders in a fraction of the time

Where was the enee reports, combat orders – the psy-towers made sure the information was quickly delivered to every part of the fleet This neural network is whatforce, and prevented the chaos of battle fro their formations apart

Now, Skye was not a demonhunter As such he was forced to rely on reports froain when any orders needed to be relayed Fro a co it to the fleet, the procedure was a lengthy one with a lot of nificant delay and an increased chance that so was ative results were greatly compounded

A ishness in responding to the Dark Atom sneak attack was because of this chain of information

Luckily, Cloudhawk could prevent this froed his own mind directly into the neural network

After plans were discussed, the Elysian shi+ps began to reforeneral was slain in trying to reestablish co as fast as possible

Cloudhawk relayed his orders Although it was a critical tio below and find Dawn

Everything that had transpired was a particular cruel blow to the girl She looked like an entirely different person, drained of all that vivacious energy that usually surrounded her Like she was dead

It was all so… sudden She wasn't ready A loved one, gone in a blink

What tor his killers were just a few feet away, and there wasn't anything she could do about it This sort of rage and helplessness changed a person Cloudhawk knew that it had struck to the very core of her, otherwise the Dawn he'd knoould have let anger devour her He also knew that this sudden change in disposition didn't coers would only be revealed in the future

It was the last thing he wanted to see a friend go through

“The General was good to me I'll always appreciate his respect, and the chance at a new life he'd given me” Cloudhaalked to Dawn and placed a hand on her shoulder “I hope you can understand that you aren't the only one going through this I'm with you, so don't carry it all yourself No ht by your side”

Dawn's eyes were red and swollen She didn't react, like she hadn't heard She just sat there, un, like she was made of wood

With a scowl he put both hands on her shoulders and roughly pulled Dawn to her feet His dark eyes looked deeply into her own “Hey Where the fuck did that girl asn't scared of nothin' go? hell, far as I re face Where the fuck did this weak kid come from?!”

Any other day and Daould have put her fist through his face That's what he wanted, what he was hoping for It at least would prove that she hadn't been coht left in her, soiven up

But she didn't There were only the tears that welled up in her eyes, and silence