Time for an old fashioned battle!

This is our first look at the Black Paladin's enemies as well as our first chance to see the four new space elves in action.

 
"You don't want to tangle with us," Jen scolded the Black Paladin. "There are far more of us now. Depart and you may live."

Four elves and one heroic human stood against Paladin and his two cohorts. Each elf looked ready for battle. Jen, an expert in light weaponry and close combat. Tarvel, suited into a special battlesuit, heavily armored like a paladin of old and equipped with enough firepower to obliterate a mountain. Raven, whose thin, agile physique could land many blows on his opponent from unexpected angles. Glyn, a scientist, ready to exploit any weakness. And finally Dash, the hero who had triumphed over so much adversity and armed with his mirror-sword that could deflect any spell. The group looked formidable indeed.

Three figures stood in opposition of the five. The Black Paladin was well known for his fighting prowess, mastering multiple styles of fighting in addition to a wide array of weapons, most of which he carried around simultaneously. Aside from the dangerous Paladin stood one male and one female.

"We find your numbers unimpressive," the female said. She seemed to shift in and out of visual range. "Surrender now and we promise a relatively quick, painless death for all of you other than Aleena and the one you call Sebastian."

"Personally, mate," the male said with something of an other-lander accent. "I hope you put us up a nice little fight. Gotta prove myself. We all do."

Jen was never one to waste time. She broadcast her orders to her elves. Helmets appeared over all four as their suits formed protective barriers. The elves sprang into motion as their favoured weapons formed from their suits. In Jen's case, twin longblades attached to her forearms and wrists. Glyn's energy bow quickly took shape in his hands. Raven preferred throwing daggers and Tarvel's arm cannon managed a shot at Black Paladin. Paladin dismounted the large war horse which he'd been riding, rolling out of the shot's path.

Out of nowhere, shadowy and nearly invisible wraiths in the image of the male ally of Black Paladin fought back. The others, Dash included, soon found themselves under similar assault. As soon as the attack registered, a wave of nausea washed over Dash and his elven allies.

"Even the mightiest of fighters is but nourishment for the peerless Soul Shield!" bragged the female.

As the paladin pulled twin blades from his back, the male smiled. "They don't look so tough, Soul. They don't seem ready a shadow puppet king, that's f'sure."

Dash's grip on his sword faltered for a moment as something kicked him from behind. "What the Hey Daze is going on?"

<Fool me once, shame on you... can you ever fool me twice? Let's see: magic? Definitely, considering how troublesome it was for even my spec's to pick up... but just barely detectable is good enough for a forecast. Now, we can see them coming, and I think a small bit of deforestation is in order - light 'em up, Ship!> Glyn quickly concocted a method that allowed the other space elves to track the shadowy wraiths, and powered up the ship's point defense weapons. By targeting the more numerous foes, Glyn hoped to allow the elves and Dash a chance to recuperate from the abrupt discomfort, and to take an initial impression of what would harm the creatures.

Raven didn’t waste much time after he recovered from the initial stun of the nausea. He spread his large, powerful wings and took flight, almost straight upwards, where he was most useful to his allies, with a wide view of the battle below he was able to warn the others of danger that neared them. With the aid of the sensors that Glyn activated and the targeting system on his HUD, Raven was able to throw a skillfully placed dagger at the aggressor behind Dash, hoping to help give Dash a chance to recover. Aided by the momentary distraction, Dash swung around, aiming to slice his mirrored broadsword through the creature's midsection. It vanished in a puff of evil smoke before Dash's weapon connected. How could smoke be evil? Maybe it's addictive.

Dash turned and rushed toward the Paladin, engaging him in solo battle. "You're out of your league, Paladin!"

Raven paid close attention to how the creatures seems to vanish and reappear. It really was a neat trick, much more effective than the stealth capabilities the cysuits offered.

The starship's point defence weapons burned blackened holes into the grass as shots hit and burned through the increasing multitude of shadow creatures. Jen's dance sliced many of the shadow creatures into puffs of smoke. It was a battle that was almost too easy, but for one critical kink. They were only fighting the nameless minions, most of which dissipated before they could be totally dealt with.

Another, more powerful wave of weakness swept over the elves and Dash. Drawing her hands together, the female started firing bolts of force at them. The first set of attacks took Dash and Jen off their feet. In response, Tarvel aimed her weapon and returned fire. The first few shots bounced off a shield which seemed to be extended from the woman herself. Unfortunately, her allies had no such protection; a stray shot struck the male in the chest, causing him to fall over. Garland would be proud.

The woman was forced to severely slow her attacks down under the assault. Meanwhile, Paladin's horse nearly trampled Dash to death.

Seeing that woman firing force bolts at his allies was protected from their counterattacks by some sort of shield, Raven wondered if it protected her from all things. He took the risk of swooping down at her from behind. He kicked off from the woman’s shoulders, causing her to face plant into the ground in front her, caught off guard with her focus on her magic. Raven would have propelled himself back into the air too, but unfortunately, the Black Paladin moved fast, jumping midair and catching Raven's wing. Paladin spun him midair and flung the winged elf at the ground with terrain shaking force. This certainly wasn’t the first time the winged elf had come crashing down to the ground and he knew quite well at how to roll with the blow, and he did go rolling along for quite a distance, escaping serious injury from the crash. He even tried to catch the paladin off guard by throwing a dagger at him, propelled by the force of the roll. Paladin swatted it away with an oversized armored forearm.

"Raven!" called out Jen. She climbed to her feet to rush the Paladin, joined by Dash. The Paladin looked ready to deal with both.

Meanwhile, Glyn levelled shot after shot at the sensitive hooves of the Black Paladin's horse, forcing it to back away from the adventurer who was being kept on the defensive. The projectiles' effect was somewhat limited by the thick badassium metal protecting the horse's hooves. A clever thought popped into Glyn's head as he watched the exchange between Raven and the Black Paladin, and he silently messaged Tarvel that the soul shield might not fare as well from a widespread maneuver, like perhaps a not-so-subtle minor earthquake?

"Where's that coward called Aleena?!" Paladin's remaining ally, the female who'd called herself Soulshield, called out. "I demand she come and face us herself!"

"She's gone home," Jen replied coolly. The pause in fighting gave the elves a chance to surround Paladin and his allies, one of which, the male, was still unconscious. Paladin had Dash on his shoulder. Though still carrying Dash, he mounted the black warhorse.

"Now, that was downright inconsiderate of her!" Soulshield called out. She started to glow lightly as she focused her full abilities on draining every bit of life energy out of the elves. As her nose started bleeding, several tentacles of pure force split the ground, lashing out at the elves like a less erotic version of a tentacle monster. "Maybe this'll send her a message!"

"Message sent: Loathing still populated by moronic arch-villains, wishing you weren't here." Glyn said as he took unsteadily to the air - he also put the idiot on his list of folks to punch out, as he really hated flying! Glyn took out one of his sai, and threw it hilt first at the final opponent, trusting his suit to provide the correct trajectory. It turned out he was wise to do so, as the sai landed squarely on Soulshield's forehead, knocking her flat.

Raven finally recovered from his crash landing, and wasted no time in ensuring that Soulshield was secured and unable to fling anymore bolts of force at his fellow elves. Though he cursed having let the Paladin get away. He was more distraught that Jen and Dash were both missing. He certainly did not think of it as a fair trade.

Certainly not a fair trade at all, Raven!
    The mission got an amazing variety of player characters as well as a few familiar NPC's, so next up, we visit with three characters making their first appearence for this mission. After that, we'll get to the aftermath of this co write.