Garek, peering at the front lines with what was left of his sight, saw Jenara Tomme, and the rest of her archers, now clad with short swords, idejs, and the liking, begin hand-to-hand combat; he knew that they were out of arrows. He then turned to his engineering teams.
Garek, and his group, were situated nearly one hundred yards away as the back up barrage of archers, mainly, because his group, and some of the Borial archers, were the most accurate. The reason for this being that Antilles was one hell of a teacher, which is one of the main reasons he picked her to lead the Alpha engineering Team.
"Ensign!" Garek yelled out. Just before the battle, per Johnny Chee's orders, they were fitted with new helmets. Garek thought they somewhat reduced visibility, but he, being the prime example of the need for these helmets, gladly took them over being blind.
"Yes, sir!" Jennifer Antilles yelled back. She was positioned in a straight column with her archers, ready to fire another round of bolts into the Horde group still inside the gates.
"Get the teams together and have them start sniping off any of those Horde archers that could cause any damage. I don't want more people getting blinded or killed in there."
"Can do, sir." She turned to give a small briefing to her teammates. Garek then told the same to Celchu, Jacobsen, and Wiley, the other team leaders. In order to give the Horde archers and such less targets to shoot at, he had broken up the groups into three teams. Antilles, was in charge of the main group, composing of Alpha and Beta teams, with Celchu her XO. Marcus Jacobsen was placed in command of Gamma and Delta teams. Wiley, who wasn't the most pleased of the group, was in charge of the Borial archers. The reason for the unpleasantness was because he wasn't able to be in command of his own engineers. However, he was starting to make friends with the Borials in his group, especially the female archers. All Garek could do was roll his eye, and shake his head.
"Save your bolts archers. Only shoot when you see the yellow in their eyes!"
"Uh, sir. How are we going to do that. They're pretty far away," Wiley asked, making a joke.
"You know what I mean." Garek grinned.
"Eagle eyes fire!" Antilles screamed out. Her archers opened fire at a group of Horde foot soldiers that were making their way across a walkway that ran above the gates, around the massive complex. Antilles had given her team a nickname, hoping to raise their spirits, and be more productive. It appeared to pay off when nearly all arrows struck a target moving across that walkway. "Good shot team! They won't be a problem!"
"They won't, but those guys on the boat will!" Jacobsen yelled out, pointing to a craft, fashioned similar to that of a Viking ship. It was loaded to capacity with nearly 100 Horde in it.
Well, this isn't going to be good. Garek looked at the boat. He couldn't see any archers on it, but they could be laying in wait. "What's our count on the arrows?"
There was a slight pause, and then numbers started coming in. "We've got about 100 left," Antilles called out.
"About 70 over here, sir," Jacobsen followed.
"We're down to only two per man." Wiley replied, disgusted. He wasn't the best archer in the world, and he was disgusted by the fact that he flew through arrows, barely hitting anything.
Garek thought for a moment. "All right, get your arrows to the best four archers in each group. The rest of you, start digging out those acid arrows." Garek despised those weapons. Ever since he lost his eye, he still can't stand to go to where they're made in the Borial camps, or even be around them when they are used. Except for this, he's made an exception.
The groups shifted positions, aligning themselves up parallel to the boat. "Begin firing at will!" Garek yelled out. His response was the sound of bow strings vibrating after the release of over 120 arrows. The weapons flew over the murky waters surrounding this fortress, and then, they found their mark.
The gelatin acid arrows used by the Horde against the Borials at the Battle of the gate were now retrofitted to be used more precisely by the Borials. The Borials fitted a small black powder charge at the end of an arrow, and then carefully formed the acid bulb over the top of it. With an extra hardening agent, the acid held together in flight over long distances, instead of breaking up in mid-air. Once the arrows hit the ground, the small packet of black powder exploded, forcing the acid out in all directions, functioning just like a shrapnel grenade.
The arrows hit their targets. The normal bolts hit individual Horde foot soldiers while the acid arrows struck different parts of the hull, ranging from inside, on the deck to the mast, raining acid down on all the Horde inside the boat. Screams of anguish and pain could be heard, while steam started to rise up from the inside of the boat itself. Finally, there was no sounds coming from the boat at all.
A cheer and screams of celebration rang out from Loran's group, except from Garek himself. He knew the pain that the Horde on that boat went through before they died. However, he then thought about the menacing, and ungodly acts that these creatures were performing on the Aody people, and an evil smile crossed his face. These people would pay for what they have done. "Let's move out!" Garek cried out. Cheers erupted from the group. They all picked up their weapons, hooking their bows up to their backs, over their quivers, and took out out their swords and axes. Garek unsheathed his idej from it's walking stick holder. "Let's go give 'em hell!" They then made their way to the frontline where Chee's group of Marines were scaling down the numbers of the Horde quite efficiently.