RP: Lorath Shards Of Unity - The Fall Of The United Outer Colonies

Dozer One was perched just at the edge of the final dune, the NMX patrols moved through the small depression less then five hundred yards away. Next to the average sized Nepleslian a large ID-SOL and another man had taken up position, all were prone, looking over the crest of sand down on their target.

"Dat ett boss?" asked the ID-SOL in a quiet tone.

Handing his optics over to the other Nepleslian, this one named Flint, Dozer One aka 'Brinkman' responded, "Yep that's it Booser" he whispered back.

The other Nepleslian took them and glanced from NMX patrol to patrol, "You know boss there has got to be more of them." He whispered harshly.

Brinkman keyed his mike, "Yuko where the hell are you?" he nearly jumped when a hand slapped his back and a small Geshrin crawled up between him and the ID-SOL.

Another larger soldier crawled up next to Booser, this time it was a Fyunnen nicknamed 'Boomer', she exchanged a nods with the ID-SOL before settling into the position bringing her gatling forward.

"You called?" the Geshrin named 'Yuko' mocked before snatching the optic from Flint, "Hell of a lot of them isn't there?"

Flint gave her the finger before bringing his grenade launcher into his shoulder and began tracking the nearest group.

Brinkman shook his head before looking back toward the NMX, "Yea, but theirs bound to be more, wheres Rico?"

The Geshrin smiled a bit, "Doing what Rico does best."

Opposite the squad's position on the north wall of the depression was a small rock formation, there were a few neko sentries posted here. Unknown to them a grim reaper had snuck into their midst.

One such sentry, a small brown skinned NH-29 had taken a moment to herself, sitting on rock and looking at the landscape around her. A slight noise, rocks moving, caught her attention, when she turned her eyes were greeted by a Nepleslian of average height less then a few feet away, his right hand had a large viscous looking knife.

Infantry Encounter

"境界上の未知の個々の！ヘルプ！" Exclaimed the NH-29, quick to act, as she quickly weighed her situation, with the Nepleslian a few feet away, her solution was simple... she just leaped backwards as she used her gravity manipulation systems to put a good ten meters of distance between herself and the intruder as she drew her khaki painted Type 30 Battle Rifle to her shoulder. With quick jerks of her finger, she unleashed ten rounds at the Nepleslian. Most of them, fortunately enough, missed due to her unstable firing position. Those rounds which did hit, only impacted with blunt force, unable to penetrate the body armor beneath the Nepleslian's uniform. It seemed, the Nepleslian's attempt at being sly was poorly calculated, especially as the whole NMX camp became abuzz with activity... fortunately for the team, it sent their attention in the direction of Rico, resulting in most of the nekovalkryja bearing their backs to the dune obscured group as they looked in wonder of the commotion, expecting one of the ever-so-heard-about displays of overbearing Lorath tactics.

Even the stealth Nekovalkryja became apparent, as they moved quickly, resulting in dust and sand being tossed about by seemingly unseen forces.

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TX-01 Encounter

A loud crack sounded through the air as the Hawk Fighter-Bombers launched their missiles, which quickly tore into speeds of hypersonic values. It was an oddity, only the shock waves of the explosions were visible, yet, they were not normal shock waves, it was light being bent by forces of gravity and magnetism, not by something as petty as atmosphere being shoved about. What caused the shock wave was unseen because the actual explosion took place in phased space.

What came next was another concussive blast, this time, it was due to atmosphere as the Gigamishhu surged back into existence in normal space-time. When it did, it was angry, as blasts of high intensity particles spewed from its cannons, instantly one of the Hawk Fighter-Bombers was vaporized, while another two were hit and knocked off course, as hull plates were torn away and the plates which remained glowed hot like cinders. The pair which remained mostly intact were quick to go into evasive maneuvers, though, that was not enough for one of them as it dodged one of the Gigamishhu's coil-gun rounds, only to be impacted by the other, which promptly tore the fighter-bomber in half, sending the fuselage flying off into the skies above, while the cockpit plummeted to the ground, thankfully, it slowed as gravitic systems came on line to save the pilot's life.

As the Gigamishhu made its rage known, freshly birthed Battlepods spewed from its innards, two thousand of the vicious machines spilled out into the blazing noon sky, before moving like a swarm of bees to begin their attack run on the TX-01, that was until dazzling explosions again filled the sky, as L-Mark-Two fire rained down upon the area. Battlepods exploded in mass numbers as mixed ordinance of plasma and antimatter rounds tore into the group. It sent the Battlepods scattering to avoid the artillery fire, as the Gigamishhu placed its attention on the annoying little bug, which was the TX-01

"I WILL KILL YOU, LITTLE SPIDER, I WILL BREAK YOU." Roared the massive living attack carrier. Its voice was carried as a mix between a communications transmission, and an actual bellowing voice as it rang out loudly enough so even those at the Peacekeeper base could hear its rage.

At that moment, the Gigamishhu did the one most obvious thing that it could possibly do, as it dropped beneath the L-Mark-Two range of fire, and it dropped against the TX-01's weapons fire, as its fresh shields took the blows for the most part. What it did, was a cruel thing, a vicious thing, it simply intended to crush the TX-01 beneath its girth. Sand dunes were flattened beneath the shields of the machine, the sea of dunes parted for the beast, as it shifted its girth to attempt to crush the TX-01 as it moved. There was one thing in the TX-01's favor though... the shields, they had a gap where it had fired upon, resulting in the sands being crushed around the Tarantula, as it passed through the shield perimeter, though, the Gigamishhu's physical bulk still threatened the tiny ship if the crew did not act quickly!

The Nepleslian smiled under his ghillie suit, a moment later the knife went flying through the air ending it's journey in the neko's face just below the forehead. He unshouldered his sniper rifle and dropped a fist full of small objects into the sand before retreating into the rocks, a small invisible wire trailing behind him.

All heads turned toward the sound of the shot, Brinkman began handing out orders as he slipped away from the crest of the dune and stood up, "Yuko, Flint, your on me, Booser, Boomer, you know what to do." He slid down the rest of the way and started running toward a small wadi that ran into the depression. Yuko and Flint slid down and followed after him.

The Fyunnen and ID-SOL looked at each other and smiled, there was a pair of loud racks as both weapons were armed. A few seconds later the small depression was filled with the sounds of automatic weapons fire as the pair opened up on the nearest patrols. Booser fired in short bursts, making semi-accurate fire the name of his game. Boomer merely used her gatling as a bullet hose, laying waste to entire groups as they scrambled for cover.

Infantry Encounter

"砂丘上に、それらの多くがあります！" Called out one the sentries which remained at their post, before a round of 7.65mm tore through her neck, leaving her gurgling for breath, before another round slammed into her leg and shattered her kneecap, sending her toppling to the ground while clenching her throat to try to hold in air and blood. "私を助けて！助けてください！" she gasped through blood, and cried out through nekovalkryja telepathy.

With the exclamation of alarm, the nekovalkryja which were sensible enough not to be distracted by the initial fuss took to their knees, placing their respective weapons in supported firing positions before unleashing volleys of fire at Boozer and Boomer's position. They were not terrified into scurrying, there was good reason, they knew that they had to fight to the death against the people who wore the uniforms of the Lorath Self Defense Force. They knew that fighting to the death would serve them far better than being POWs, they would rather have their corpses ground into the next day's rations than to be subjected to the humiliation which they figured the Lorath would force upon them.

In the deepest portions of their encampment, the Ripper units assigned to the group took defensive positions around their commanding officer, as they went about calling for a troop transport ship to provide evacuation. Since the location of the site had been compromised, it was most prudent to make a break for it.

While the bulk of the camp was torn between the initial contact with Rico, and the contacts on the dune ridge, a few foolishly focused NMX NH-29 took off in Rico's direction, intending to rush him, and take him down. While one fell quick to Rico's fire, the remainder of the group of three pressed onward, oblivious of the wire which the Nepleslian left behind, as they charged the outcropping of rocks with battle rifles blazing.

Kryth and his crew acted quickly, communicating with another telepathically in order to speed their reaction. The extra shield power diverted to the top of the Tarantula afforded it a few brief moments of resistance against the incoming ship when it touched, and during that time, it began to use the Plasma Arc Disruptors mounted on the cockpit. It leaped sideways will still inside the perimeter of the shields in order to land beside the gargantuan ship when it landed, jumping high enough to scrape the incisors across its belly.

The crew used the fresh cut as a starting point to open up a hole in the side of its hull. With that done, they turned the Tarantula around and fired into the hole with the main gammatron cannon before leaping off in the opposite direction to avoid the ensuing blast.

Rico waited until the middle neko had stepped over his little surprise before detonating, the two nekos where blasted with thirty tungsten ball bearings sent skyward by a powerful explosive charge.

The Nepleslian smiled as he racked another round into his rifle, scanning for the anymore targets.

The two machine gunners stood fast under the barrage of fire, returning the favor as often as they could. Eventually Boomer's gatling ran dry, the Fyunnen let out a loud curse as she tossed the weapon aside and shouldered her service rifle. Firing short bursts as Booser continued to lay down suppressive fire on any large patrols left standing. All the while particle beams and rifle bullets continued to smack into the sand around them or fly off into the sky.

Brinkman, Yuko, and Flint were double timing down a dry river bed that dropped into the depression through a gulley, it was the only real cover that would allow them to get closer to their targets. A few moments later they dropped down steadily as they moved forward, eventually reaching the same elevation as most of the neko combatants. They all crouched and started following the river bed growing ever closer to the hostiles.

Infantry Encounter

Compared to the general commotion which gripped the encampment, the explosion which Rico set off was a mere pip-squeak, but it was certainly enough for the job at hand, as two nekovalkryja were pelted by buckshot. In the front of the group, the most zealous of the NMX Nekovalkryja which chased Rico was rewarded with the bulk of the explosive's discharge, resulting in her abdominal cavity being torn open, spilling her digestive tract upon the sands, she tried vainly to pile her organs back in, as she rapidly bled out and collapsed into the sands which were darkened by her own blood, only to be joined by the foolish Nekovalkryja which followed her reckless charge, a neko which was so graciously handed her defeat, which resulted in, ironically, the loss of her hands and her feet, which was only insult to the injury of one-inch holes which were torn through her chest.

Elsewhere in the encampment, Nekovalkryja personnel kept the suppressive fire on the pair on the ridge, as several fell, another group approached. This time though, they seemed to mean business as they stepped over the bloodied corpses of their sisters, before they set down a pair of objects upon groups of cargo containers. It was easy to see what the objects were; a pair of Type 30 35mm Machine Guns, and as soon as the Nekovalkryja set them down, they pulled back the bolts on each, and a split second later, the dune which Boomer and Booser were firing from was rocked by 35mm rounds slamming against the tops of the sands. Though, only the first few shots were mild enough to just shake the dune, the ones which came after, further down the ammunition belt it seemed since the first ones appeared to be tracers, were canisters of flechette.

In the first burst of the canister rounds, the unfortunate Fyunnen, Boomer, was slammed in the abdomen by a group of five darts, which embedded in her uniform, and partially into her bodyarmor, piercing into the first layers of flesh and muscle. Fortunately, not into any organs though. One of the darts happened to cut its way into Booser's left bicep, and somehow, it merely ended up passing through the flesh, out the other side, avoiding any arteries or major veins. It seemed, the NMX Nekovalkryja were done playing the bitch to the attacking squad's efforts.

There was something to be thankful for, the efforts of Booser and Boomer were enough to take the NMX's attention off of Rico, for the most part, aside from a pair of NH-29's which looked upon the outcropping of rocks, and wondered just what they should do, as they decided to lob a fragmentation grenade into the outcropping, in hopes of flushing Rico... and they lobbed another... and another... it seemed they had plenty to spare.

All the while, they failed to notice the group approaching from the wadi.

TX-01 Encounter

With the TX-01's nimble movements, the threat of being crushed seemed a slight bit distant, as the Gigamishhu's hull parted with the rush of plasma which cut through the synthetic biological material. As the TX-01 leaped away, the Gigamishhu proved it was no fool, as it twisted, like a hog in the mud, moving the gash in its hull out of the TX-01's line of sight, causing the Gammatron's discharge to fruitlessly impact against its healthy thick plate which prevented the particle reaction from properly taking place, but, it did produce quite the blast none the less, as the Gigamishhu twisted and writhed in the sands, before lashing out with its regenerated tentacles, intending to grab the TX-01 if it was not quick to move... though, the trouble was... it lashed out from beneath the sands, out of sight of the unit!

Boomer recoiled as the pain from the impacts registered, she started cursing loudly as she took cover behind the dune. She began muttering even more curses as she pulled the small flechettes out of her body, one by one. Booser joined her a moment later after continuing 35mm machine gun fire rendered the position untenable.

"Ey boss they get us figured out, werr displacin to possissin two." The ID-SOL glanced over at the Fyunnen, she merely nodded in response as she flicked the last dart into the sand. A moment later they were both crouch/running along the back of the dune toward the western edge of the depression.

Brinkman merely clicked his COM twice in response as they carried on a similar pace, they were getting closer now, a few more seconds and Flint's personal favorite would be a viable option. That however would only happen if they didn't get noticed by the now agitated nekos all around them. Preparing for the worst however Yuko and Brinkman each slid a 40mm grenade into their respective weapons, ready for a pop shot if things went south.

Rico had started running at the sound of the first one landing, the continuous bombardment of hand bombs left him with little choice then to abandon the relative safety and advantage of the rock formation. He moved along the outside of it, still out of line of sight of the nekos until he reached that particular bit of exposure. He crouched and shouldered his rifle before peaking out and firing at the nearest target, the roar of the Longshot hidden in the chorus of grenade explosions.

The TX-01 was fortunately equipped with sensor systems that far surpassed the visual. The tentacles were noticed before they even emerged from the ground, and the Tarantula simply leaped upward with a powerful bound and landed on the Gigamishhu's back once again. It dove forward and slammed its incisors into the armor plating to tear it open, using the smaller gammatron guns to blow away the tentacles as they approached. Repeating its earlier maneuver, it fired the Gammatron into the hole with the intent of obliterating the carrier from the inside out!

Infantry Encounter

Once Boomer and Booser were forced from the dune top, the Nekovalkryja decreased their output of fire to a mere occasional burst of suppressive fire, as a reminder to the pair that they were not welcome. However, the suppressive fire soon became a secondary issue, as one of the khaki-clad Nekovalkryja with boards upon her shoulders barked a series of orders in Yamataian.

With orders given, a group of ten Nekovalkryja broke away from their defensive positions, before they skimmed along the sands and soon ascended over the dune. As they floated in mid-air, they peered down to the ground below, in an attempt to spot Boomer and Booser, sure enough, their superior vision picked out the pair. From their position in the sky above, the group began to hail down a steady stream of weapons fire. Though, their unsupported position did produce a considerable sum of inaccuracy, enough to possibly provide Boomer and Booser the opportunity to escape.

With ten less nekovalkryja, the troops which defended their position were forced to reduce their suppressive fire on Rico's position, more so once one of their comrades spontaneously lost her head as a shot from Rico's Longbolt tore through her skull, sending chunks of flesh, bone, and hair splattering upon the sand. It was enough to make the troops duck for but a moment, before they began to advance on Rico with every intent of hunting him down.

Meanwhile, as Brinkman and his group approached, there was something notably wrong... the sands, they shifted, they twitched. That was the only warning, before a dozen NMX parasites burst out from the soil, leaping at the group, intending to latch on and burrow into flesh if they could get a grip! It seemed, the NMX were not as vulnerable as they appeared. When the trap was sprung, the parasites sent warning up the chain of command, straight to the classic-bodied Mishhu which hovered with its Ripper escort, which readied their weapons for the incoming infantry.

TX-01 Encounter

"BEGONE YOU MISERABLE PEST!" came the roar from the Gigamishhu as it twisted and turned upon the sands, scraping its hide against the ground, before it began to call upon its support craft for assistance... though, it meant little, as the Lorath fighters in the area and the remainder of the infantry had managed to subdue the bulk of the Gigamishhu's more formidable units. All which the Gigamishhu had to call upon at that point were Battle Pods, which closed in upon the TX-01, firing upon it with volleys of weapons which would certainly cause it some distress if it were to remain latched to the breach it was attempting to make. Fortunately enough, there were so few of the battle pods, perhaps the TX-01 could take the four dozen out on its own. Or perhaps, it could use their fire to its advantage somehow.

When the battlepods began to attack, the Tarantula's crew reacted quickly. The Tarantula activated all its ECM at once and optically cloaked, then leaped into the air and fired its SWARM missiles downward. Once the battlepods had been taken care of, it deactivated its cloaking and used the magnetic system to latch onto the Gigamishhu's hull. It continued to tear away at it until it had enough room to shove its abdominal turret inside and blow it apart, and if it looked like it would be impossible, Krythe would instead have the crew crawl along the hull until it reached the shield generators, and attack those directly with the incisors to allow for air support to finish off the supercarrier.

Boomer continued to shamble down toward more cover, cursing each time she moved a shredded muscle. Booser in the mean time did a 180, flopping down on his stomach and pulling the MG-32 into his shoulder. Drawing a bead on the thickest part of the group he squeezed the trigger, sending a spray 9.36mm bullets into the exposed nekos. His goal was simple, buy time for the wounded Fyunnen to get to cover, whether she liked it or not.

Rico meanwhile had displaced from his own position, sprinting along the backside of the rocks as he dropped small, tan colored boxes every few seconds. Small, nearly invisible wires trailed behind him as he ran. Once he reached the backside of the rocky mass he slapped a small camera device onto a particularly large boulder before continuing on. Finally climbing up on top of one of the huge stones and nestling himself inside a crevice and positioning his rifle, ready for the first tango to come into view.

As the small creatures leapt toward Brinkman and Yuko, both scrambled to step away and bring their own weapons to bare. Flint just turned and smiled, leveling the Plasma Thrower and squeezing the trigger. The parasites and the bank of the wadi flashed white as the two second burst of plasma instantly raised temperatures to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, ashing the parasites and turning the sand in front of his squad mates to glass. Both Yuko and Brinkman were knocked back as the air expanded in a loud 'BANG', both could hear Flint's maniacal laughter.

TX-01 Encounter

This time, there was no weaseling away for the Gigamishhu. There were no support craft to aid it, its tentacles were shredded, its weapons could not manage to gain a firing solution on the tiny combat vessel. A certain miscalculation was made, it was a matter of simply being swarmed. Lorath air support was competent enough to keep its massive number of support craft in check, and that resulted in the Gigamishhu being at a disadvantage, like any carrier without a compliment of craft to tend to it.

It started with streams of plasma, which tore through the hull of the vessel, cutting a breach before the TX-01 was able to wedge its cannon into the newly created cavity. Calculations for this kind of shot were simple, and it just made the task all the easier as the Gammatron cannon discharged its payload of precisely targeted particles. As the TX-01 would undoubtedly bound away, the interior of the Gigamishhu underwent a catastrophic reaction. Particles were disturbed, atoms were destabilized, molecules were torn asunder, as particle charges turned upside down, and fresh antimatter reacted with matter. There was plenty of both matter and antimatter, plenty enough to send a brutally catastrophic explosion through the interior of the living carrier. Hull plates bulged, cavities and breaches spewed blinding light, then molecular bonds gave way as the Gigamishhu's midsection blew open like a classic novelty exploding cigar.

As the Gigamishhu fell to the sands, the remaining pair of Hawk Fighter-Bombers placed the final nail in the coffin, as they unleashed a salvo of plasma munitions, which washed over the once living carrier, putting the task of incineration into motion. "Sensors confirm target neutralization. TX-01, you are clear to depart the front-line for resupply." came the voice of one of the higher-ups of the command chain back at the Peacekeeper base. "Your flight data has also been recorded, and has been forwarded to your project team. Congratulations on your successful test sortie."

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Infantry Encounter

Nekovalkryja which were too slow to react fell in bloodied heaps as suppressive fire left them to scramble or duck behind cover near their machine guns. They were smart though, smart enough not to go after the pair of attackers. Once they had fled, the group of Nekovalkryja picked up their MGs and took to moving their position.

There was a learning curve present, as the NMX Nekovalkryja were quick to pick up on the methods of those which stuck their position. It was clear they moved like bandits, picking at the weakest spot, and moving quickly enough to evade a heavy-handed blow. With this in mind, the Nekovalkryja were smart enough not to commit to a pursuit, or a defense in the open, instead, they fell back to the camouflage net canopy, where they took defensive positions in machine gun nests, constructed of re-purposed starship hull plates, which had been turned into protective cover for infantry deployments. Though, they had not fortified the end of the encampment in which the Rippers covered, figuring the pair of power armor would handle the task.

When the Nekovalkryja regrouped, it ended up including their numbers which were in pursuit of Rico. His well laid trap was nearly predictable at that point, enough so that there was no pursuit, just a fall back to a better position, as the Nekovalkryja kept an eye on the direction they saw him dash off to, as they mulled over the idea of laying down heavy weapons fire to neutralize the pest.

On the matter of pests, plasma fire was certainly a way to handle some, as parasites burst into flames, before turning into ash, then vapor. It was a quick matter to handle the creatures with a plasma thrower, and it left the group which intended to move in through the wadi to continue their approach, as the Ripper duo remained at the ready. With the Rippers in a defensive position, and the Nekovalkryja doing the same, it resulted in the once spread out position, being condensed under a single camouflage canopy, holed up behind barricades of starship-type hull plates, and with fingers on the triggers of heavy machine guns. It was time for the NMX to make like a turtle.

After a few minutes had passed Rico found himself displacing, in this case scrambling up the far side of the large rock outcropping to get a firing position on top. He'd be slightly exposed but the risk was well worth the firing position, at least to him. It took a few minutes, going from natural hold to hold, but he was soon sitting on top of the roasting boulder. His rifle was up and he was scoping the depression, what he saw was soon flashing across the squad's heads up display as he flagged targets. He keyed his COM, “Boss your not going to like this.” his voice was a whisper.

Brinkman was against the sandy bank of the wadi, his eyes watching the video feed as Rico swept his rifle scope across the retracted NMX defense. 'Rippers had to be bloody Rippers.' He keyed his COM, dialing in the support net frequency, “This is Dozer Actual requesting fire mission on data linked coordinates, requesting multiple HE and airburst fragmentation.” He motioned for the other two to follow him as he started moving back the way they came, no point in being danger close.

Infantry Encounter

"Dozer, your request is acknowledged Routing airborne assets to indicated location and will dispense ordinance on target. Clear the area and follow proper precautions for proximity to high-explosive detonations." Came the reply through the communication line. "CAS flight en route from orbital position, ETA, ninety seconds."

With the request put through, a wing of five Hawk Fighter-Bomber craft were routed from an orbital position. Target details were routed from control, sensors aboard the craft were then fixed upon the target location, as the five small craft took to a plummeting descent through the atmosphere, as they used energy shield systems to cleave through atmospheric turbulence. Internal gravitational regulators kept the pilots comfortable, even as the fighter-bombers screamed into the atmosphere at a mile a second.

"Dozer Squad, this is Wing Sierra-Two, Warrant Officer Gospel speaking." Came a transmission from above, as intended for Dozer Squad. "Ingress in progress, recommend at least one hundred meters distance with cover between friendlies and designated target. Five hundred meters would be ideal, hold onto your butts. Over" Warning was given, as the units closed distance, sending ripples through atmosphere as they sharply pulled out of their dive as they came into firing distance.

Ordinance doors opened before a series of streaming trails spewed from the fighter bombers. Missiles, those were the sources of the ribbon-like trails of white which formed in the sky like spiderwebs. Before the missiles could even impact, there was a roar which lagged behind the fighter-bombers as they remained on target, Gatling weapons surged to life as bursts of high-explosive rounds blazed through the air at speeds that caused the atmosphere itself to become a weapon, as molecules of air were thrust aside with such force that concussive waves rocked the desert sands. On impact, the rounds produced immense shock-waves as the sands shifted, and the ground rumbled, dust spewed from the impact site, before missiles impacted and turned the plume of dust into a blazing orange ball of superheated gas.

"Gospel to Dozer, ordinance on target. Will loiter in area to confirm target elimination."

Though, the courtesy seemed moot, as the dust blew away in the wind, revealing the blackened crater which was once the NMX forward encampment. It seemed, the mission of Dozer squad was a success.

Elsewhere, in the Asura System

With the victory of the TX-01 over the NMX assets it faced off against, and the efforts of infantry units, the NMX advance on the system was thwarted, long enough for defense batteries to go into action. Railguns roared as NMX ships were picked off in the space above the worlds of the system. Lorath Self Defense Force ships moved to counter the NMX which slipped past them, and with the events of the Jiyuu system, Peacekeeper space assets displaced from the capital system, before arriving in Asura, where they only strengthened the position, where the Lorath Matriarchy had managed to hold the line.