Imperia Contact
The Flame Of Glory had been tailing a Multaria cruiser ever since the conflict on the surface of Talo'os Prime, where the Survival 13 squad 13th of 13 had destroyed the leader of the ground based threat. Entering the system on clean-up duty, Flame Of Glory's navigators had detected a Multaria Asteroid, space fort class, hastily departing the system. After rail-launching a tracker into the Asteroid ship Flame Of Glory signalled the other ships with the information about the asteroid, and that the Flame was going after it. They had been lucky, thought Captain J'or'Taoth, there hadn't been a Black Skull ship nearby, they would have destroyed the asteroid there and then, and anyone who tried to stop them.
The Flame Of Glory's Dimensional engines transported the ship after the Multaria asteroid and into unknown space. A warning light appeared showing that they were outside known Kimeric space. There was a world below the ships, a watery world with large landmasses and a thick patch of smog on the largest continent. J'Taoth saw at least ten Multaria Drop-Drills shooting towards the planet, disappearing in the smog and ordered the K'rae'Ken Cannons to be fired at the Multaria Asteroid to prevent any more Drop-drills being fired at the clearly inhabited planet, inhabited by whom? Wondered J'Taoth.
The cannons, either side of the great craft began to glow with a violet light as a whine of magnets was heard inside the ship, the plasma field rippled at the end of the barrel and then ruptured as the shell burst through it, the magnet-ringed shell melting and the liquid metal, plasma fire and igniting Electrolate sped towards the asteroid. The detonation of silver and violet was a sight to behold, before the fabric of space was shredded around the target, pulling the crippled asteroid-ship in all directions, then space reformed, hiding the warp behind it, and disintegrated the Multaria ship.
"Captain, we need to destroy those Multarias that reached the surface. I suggest launching a squad of Planetbound" came the voice of his second-in- command, K'or'Raen
"I agree K'or" Replied J'Taoth, using his second's Official title "which Duoas' troops do we have aboard?"
K'Raen Checked a Wrist-mounted computer "we have Blue Scythe troops aboard sir" replied K'Raen
"Call them to alert, ready the drop-pods" ordered Captain J'Taoth
"Aye sir"
The call came through to the Blue Scythe troopers sitting in the bowels of the ship, in their barracks near the launch bays. Squad 31, Final Number squad, heard the alert call and smiled, then they heard the order to get to the drop-pod bay, and their smiles broadened, Final Number squad worked best out of the drop-pods. The drop-deck was filled with strange shapes, they looked like eggs, but the lower quarter was hidden below the bulkhead and the upper quarter was grasped in a device with a plasma powered rocket booster installed in the top of it. The drop-pods were open, showing the seat for a single Kimeric Planetbound, and the space where the Kimerics equipment packs could be stored.
The squad members of Final Number stepped into the pods, their articulated boots sliding into the foot clips, the straps were fastened and tightened and the needle in the headrest slid through a channel in their skulls and connected to the Resurrected's mainframe of a brain. The doors in the front of the pods closed and the Spacebourn scurried to evacuate the launch deck before the drop-chutes opened and the rocket motors on the top of the pods fired.
The pods shot out of the ship like bullets from a gun, all 15 of them, and hurtled down towards where the Multarias had dropped scant Sectorans after before. As they hit the atmosphere the fragile seeming craft glowed bright red, the ceramics of the shell absorbing and deflecting the heat, preserving the fragile passenger. The contact the pod had with the trooper was seen as the display in the visor of their helmets showed sensory readouts from the pod, including video. They could see themselves plummeting towards the smog layer, then everything was grey and red and white for a few quartios before they broke the smog layer, a message showing them that they had reached terminal velocity, the response was to open the lower quarter of the pod, the triangular pieces separating and fanning out, like some great red and silver flower, to reveal breaking thrusters.
The thrusters fired and the petals of metal began to spin, the petals becoming akin to the whirling blades of a parasite's mouth, the pod's altitude dropping rapidly but slowing as the thrusters took effect. When the pods hit the ground the thrusters extinguished and the whirling teeth of the pod chewed their way into the ground, anchoring the one-way vehicle to the ground it had landed on. The needle slid from the trooper's heads, dropping their consciousnesses back into their bodies as they automatically undid the straps, the clamps and opened the pod door, grabbing for their equipment.
Slinging the pack onto his back, Team Leader O'res'Tiroth flipped the sling holding his Plasma Pulse Rifle (PPR) round to the front and disengaged it from his pack, the storage sling flipping back over his right shoulder, and loaded both a pulse clip and an MRG clip, cocking the grenade chamber and loading an MRG. He looked around, he appeared to be in a park of some kind, with burnt grass and incinerated trees due to their abrupt landing, a Multaria drop-drill was embedded in the ground, and it was empty.
"T'res'Kino! They're out! T'res?" When the squad leader failed to reply O'Tiroth turned to where he had seen the T'res standing earlier, and gaped. "Fire of the Fates!"
Before the team stood a sprawling complex, pockmarked by the craters made by landing drop-drills, at its gates the warriors stood, staring in wonderment at the structure. Their first thought was that it was a Black Skull encampment, the design style was similar and that would explain why the Multarias had dropped here. It was then they looked at the gates they stood before, and saw a giant emblem of a two headed bird, this was definitely not a Black Skull outpost, and they were in alien territory.
T'res'Kino broke the silence by firing an MRG at the gates, careful to miss the bird emblem above them, the gates were flung off their hinges and into the complex
"Knock, knock" said T'Kino as the gates hit the floor
They ventured in carefully, senses alert for any Multaria presence within the complex, they dashed from hut to hut, between what appeared to be workshops and garages full of strange tanks with irregular, pentagonal track pods and a long barrel from the turret, a shorter one attached to the front of the machine. Scattered elsewhere around the complex were shredded forms in green and tan uniforms, pieces of uniforms, helmets scattered around, alien weapons left lying there on the ground by mutilated corpses and something new in the Multarian tactics, aliens pinned to walls by Multarian knifes, spread- eagled, knifes through their hands, feet, chest, head and through the bird insignia on the uniforms. This was not the usual killing of the Multarias; this alien had been left as a warning, made an example of. A scream shook O'Tiroth from his musings; it wasn't one of the troopers screaming, the scream sounded strange. Alien.
O'Tiroth led his team towards the screams and saw a group of Multarias, they were guarding a group of aliens, forcing them to watch one of their number, an officer by the decorations on his blood smeared green uniform, being impaled on the wall they were facing. The officer had knifes through both hands and the scream had come presumably because of the blade impaling his left foot. O'Tiroth decided enough was enough and promptly shot the Multaria with the knife in it's right forward hand in the head with a double shot from his PPR, the head exploding in a shower of gore and purple blood. The rest of his team took out the Multarias guarding the aliens and showered said aliens in the purple blood of the Multarias.
O'Tiroth opened his right shoulder guard and withdrew a med kit, wondering if it would work, it healed the flesh of the Kimerics, it might heal these aliens too, might. He was worried that it wouldn't heal and the aliens would blame him for their leader's death so he turned to the aliens, pointing first to the cross on the med kit, then to them, then to the officer, hoping the aliens would understand him. One did, it stood on its feet and walked over to O'Tiroth handing him a med kit with a red cross on it, as opposed to the light blue one on the Kimeric med kit. The troopers were spooked by the way the alien's legs moved, the knees bent the same as theirs but the rest of the leg just carried straight down to the boots the alien wore. O'Tiroth nodded a thanks to the alien and shouldered the rifle in the sling, flipping it back onto his back, he pulled the knifes from the officer's hands and legs, catching him as he fell, and administered the med kit. It was woefully low-tech but served the purpose, as he handed the aliens their officer he heard a familiar skittering noise, Multarias running their claws against each other.
"T'res'Kino, sir, congregate on our position, we have freed alien prisoners but are picking up incoming Multarias" O'Tiroth said into his COM
"Copy that O'res, moving in" come the T'res' reply
O'Tiroth and his men formed a circle around the prisoners and raised their guns to cover all approaches; the med kit alien stood beside O'Tiroth and raised an alien weapon. O'Tiroth opened the front panel on his helmet
"Aim for the head" he said, doubting if the alien could hear him and sealed his helmet again.
A shard of metal whizzed into the circle and struck a trooper in the neck, severing the spinal systems and the Nano-fluid cables in the neck, the clear liquid oozing out then evaporating leaving rapidly oxidising Nanobots giving the trooper the blue blood of the resurrected flowing down his ice blue and silver armour. Them the Multarias struck, dashing down the streets towards the 6 Kimerics and the 10 aliens. The Kimerics opened fire, pulping the nerveless heads as they threw themselves towards the troopers. A lance of red light shot past O'Tiroth and into a Multaria's head, burning through its brain; the alien standing beside him fired another light lance at the foe as O'Tiroth's greatest fear rounded the corner.
A Multaria with twin, heavy Cyclone ripper cannons. There was a silence, and in that silence there was a hiss-whine is both cannons began to get up to firing speed. The team leader ordered everyone to grab two aliens and dive for cover; he grabbed the fighting one and the officer and threw himself into the building the officer had been pinned to just before the twin cyclones opened up, tearing shrapnel shells into anyone not under cover, which was a trooper with two aliens, the trooper and one alien died whilst the second dove into cover fractions of a quartio too late and got its legs shredded below the knee.
Switching to x-ray filter, O'Tiroth saw the weapon laden Multaria through the wall. Switching to grenades, then to the ones stored in his second clip, O'Tiroth sighted on the monstrosity with the whirling barrels of death and fired.
The MRG shot away from the gun like a Qu'an'os at the Annuan Hunts as it burst through the wall, opened up, armed and struck the Multaria straight in the eye, exploding as the unstable matrix of plasma was shattered. The Multaria's head popped with a sound like an overripe fruit being hit with a hammer, gore and blood raining down everywhere as the disembodied arms flew away from where the body they attached to had been Millias before, still firing the cyclone cannons, carving up other Multarias that had taken cover. T'Kino's squad slaughtered the crouching Multarias, catching them from behind, exterminating them from this alien planet
Later, after shipboard scans confirmed that all 28 Multarias that had come down in the drills, the one with the cyclone cannons having had one of his own, the remnants of the squad were standing before the aliens when the officer began to speak
"I would like to thank you for what you did for us, those Xenos came at us from nowhere and killed some respected guardsmen, may the Emperor rest their souls, and I have one request. That we see our rescuers face to face," the officer said, shocking the troopers. He was speaking some form of Kimeric, albeit a dissected, mashed version but Kimeric nonetheless. The Troopers thumbed the catches on their helmets. The visor slid up, the mouth cover slid apart to the sides, the sections of the helmet slid away from each other and the neck seal slid in half and round to the back. They lifted their helmets off, gaining gasps from the aliens. The skins of the Kimerics was a pale blue due to the Nanobots in their bloodstream, their long pointed ears ached from being confined to the helmet, and the two, slightly raised, nasal slits dilated, taking in the smells of this alien world.
T'Kino spoke "We are Final Number squad, squad 31 of the Blue Scythe Duoa of the Kimeric star Imperia. I am T'res'Kino, squad leader," T'Kino told them
The aliens were equally stunned that they spoke similar languages
"I am Colonel Colmin of the Primus division of the Urban Fire regiment of His Imperial Majesty's Imperial Guard. We are Humans of The Imperium of Man," Responded the officer
In the distance was an explosion; the humans raised their rifles nervously
"Relax, that's just our drop-pods detonating" said O'Tiroth to the jumpy imperial guardsmen
"Drop-pods?" asked the guardsman who had been helping O'Tiroth
"Well what did you expect us to come down in Guardsman?" retorted O'Tiroth, a smile playing about his lips
The guardsman came back with "I am Guardsman Jeser, I thought you would use drop ships. Kimeric?"
O'Tiroth began to chuckle "O'res'Tiroth, it means team leader Tiroth of the Planetbound, O'Tiroth to you. Our drop ships are coming to pick us up" O'Tiroth replied in answer to the guardsman's comeback
Almost on cue, the drop ship Scything Fates dropped out of the sky behind the Kimerics; the still jumpy guardsmen raising the rifles again
"Put them down, that's for us," ordered T'Kino
The Kimerics turned and strode off to the drop ship, O'Tiroth giving Jeser a wave from the boarding ramp before he sat down and the ramp slid up, locking into position, the shielding sliding into place as the drop ship blasted up to the orbiting ship. Tagging the planet as the first property of the Imperium Of Man thus far discovered, the Flame of Glory started up the whirling plasma of the dimensional drives and jumped into the warp, heading for Kimera Prime to make a report.
© Alex Pringle 03/05/04
The Flame Of Glory had been tailing a Multaria cruiser ever since the conflict on the surface of Talo'os Prime, where the Survival 13 squad 13th of 13 had destroyed the leader of the ground based threat. Entering the system on clean-up duty, Flame Of Glory's navigators had detected a Multaria Asteroid, space fort class, hastily departing the system. After rail-launching a tracker into the Asteroid ship Flame Of Glory signalled the other ships with the information about the asteroid, and that the Flame was going after it. They had been lucky, thought Captain J'or'Taoth, there hadn't been a Black Skull ship nearby, they would have destroyed the asteroid there and then, and anyone who tried to stop them.
The Flame Of Glory's Dimensional engines transported the ship after the Multaria asteroid and into unknown space. A warning light appeared showing that they were outside known Kimeric space. There was a world below the ships, a watery world with large landmasses and a thick patch of smog on the largest continent. J'Taoth saw at least ten Multaria Drop-Drills shooting towards the planet, disappearing in the smog and ordered the K'rae'Ken Cannons to be fired at the Multaria Asteroid to prevent any more Drop-drills being fired at the clearly inhabited planet, inhabited by whom? Wondered J'Taoth.
The cannons, either side of the great craft began to glow with a violet light as a whine of magnets was heard inside the ship, the plasma field rippled at the end of the barrel and then ruptured as the shell burst through it, the magnet-ringed shell melting and the liquid metal, plasma fire and igniting Electrolate sped towards the asteroid. The detonation of silver and violet was a sight to behold, before the fabric of space was shredded around the target, pulling the crippled asteroid-ship in all directions, then space reformed, hiding the warp behind it, and disintegrated the Multaria ship.
"Captain, we need to destroy those Multarias that reached the surface. I suggest launching a squad of Planetbound" came the voice of his second-in- command, K'or'Raen
"I agree K'or" Replied J'Taoth, using his second's Official title "which Duoas' troops do we have aboard?"
K'Raen Checked a Wrist-mounted computer "we have Blue Scythe troops aboard sir" replied K'Raen
"Call them to alert, ready the drop-pods" ordered Captain J'Taoth
"Aye sir"
The call came through to the Blue Scythe troopers sitting in the bowels of the ship, in their barracks near the launch bays. Squad 31, Final Number squad, heard the alert call and smiled, then they heard the order to get to the drop-pod bay, and their smiles broadened, Final Number squad worked best out of the drop-pods. The drop-deck was filled with strange shapes, they looked like eggs, but the lower quarter was hidden below the bulkhead and the upper quarter was grasped in a device with a plasma powered rocket booster installed in the top of it. The drop-pods were open, showing the seat for a single Kimeric Planetbound, and the space where the Kimerics equipment packs could be stored.
The squad members of Final Number stepped into the pods, their articulated boots sliding into the foot clips, the straps were fastened and tightened and the needle in the headrest slid through a channel in their skulls and connected to the Resurrected's mainframe of a brain. The doors in the front of the pods closed and the Spacebourn scurried to evacuate the launch deck before the drop-chutes opened and the rocket motors on the top of the pods fired.
The pods shot out of the ship like bullets from a gun, all 15 of them, and hurtled down towards where the Multarias had dropped scant Sectorans after before. As they hit the atmosphere the fragile seeming craft glowed bright red, the ceramics of the shell absorbing and deflecting the heat, preserving the fragile passenger. The contact the pod had with the trooper was seen as the display in the visor of their helmets showed sensory readouts from the pod, including video. They could see themselves plummeting towards the smog layer, then everything was grey and red and white for a few quartios before they broke the smog layer, a message showing them that they had reached terminal velocity, the response was to open the lower quarter of the pod, the triangular pieces separating and fanning out, like some great red and silver flower, to reveal breaking thrusters.
The thrusters fired and the petals of metal began to spin, the petals becoming akin to the whirling blades of a parasite's mouth, the pod's altitude dropping rapidly but slowing as the thrusters took effect. When the pods hit the ground the thrusters extinguished and the whirling teeth of the pod chewed their way into the ground, anchoring the one-way vehicle to the ground it had landed on. The needle slid from the trooper's heads, dropping their consciousnesses back into their bodies as they automatically undid the straps, the clamps and opened the pod door, grabbing for their equipment.
Slinging the pack onto his back, Team Leader O'res'Tiroth flipped the sling holding his Plasma Pulse Rifle (PPR) round to the front and disengaged it from his pack, the storage sling flipping back over his right shoulder, and loaded both a pulse clip and an MRG clip, cocking the grenade chamber and loading an MRG. He looked around, he appeared to be in a park of some kind, with burnt grass and incinerated trees due to their abrupt landing, a Multaria drop-drill was embedded in the ground, and it was empty.
"T'res'Kino! They're out! T'res?" When the squad leader failed to reply O'Tiroth turned to where he had seen the T'res standing earlier, and gaped. "Fire of the Fates!"
Before the team stood a sprawling complex, pockmarked by the craters made by landing drop-drills, at its gates the warriors stood, staring in wonderment at the structure. Their first thought was that it was a Black Skull encampment, the design style was similar and that would explain why the Multarias had dropped here. It was then they looked at the gates they stood before, and saw a giant emblem of a two headed bird, this was definitely not a Black Skull outpost, and they were in alien territory.
T'res'Kino broke the silence by firing an MRG at the gates, careful to miss the bird emblem above them, the gates were flung off their hinges and into the complex
"Knock, knock" said T'Kino as the gates hit the floor
They ventured in carefully, senses alert for any Multaria presence within the complex, they dashed from hut to hut, between what appeared to be workshops and garages full of strange tanks with irregular, pentagonal track pods and a long barrel from the turret, a shorter one attached to the front of the machine. Scattered elsewhere around the complex were shredded forms in green and tan uniforms, pieces of uniforms, helmets scattered around, alien weapons left lying there on the ground by mutilated corpses and something new in the Multarian tactics, aliens pinned to walls by Multarian knifes, spread- eagled, knifes through their hands, feet, chest, head and through the bird insignia on the uniforms. This was not the usual killing of the Multarias; this alien had been left as a warning, made an example of. A scream shook O'Tiroth from his musings; it wasn't one of the troopers screaming, the scream sounded strange. Alien.
O'Tiroth led his team towards the screams and saw a group of Multarias, they were guarding a group of aliens, forcing them to watch one of their number, an officer by the decorations on his blood smeared green uniform, being impaled on the wall they were facing. The officer had knifes through both hands and the scream had come presumably because of the blade impaling his left foot. O'Tiroth decided enough was enough and promptly shot the Multaria with the knife in it's right forward hand in the head with a double shot from his PPR, the head exploding in a shower of gore and purple blood. The rest of his team took out the Multarias guarding the aliens and showered said aliens in the purple blood of the Multarias.
O'Tiroth opened his right shoulder guard and withdrew a med kit, wondering if it would work, it healed the flesh of the Kimerics, it might heal these aliens too, might. He was worried that it wouldn't heal and the aliens would blame him for their leader's death so he turned to the aliens, pointing first to the cross on the med kit, then to them, then to the officer, hoping the aliens would understand him. One did, it stood on its feet and walked over to O'Tiroth handing him a med kit with a red cross on it, as opposed to the light blue one on the Kimeric med kit. The troopers were spooked by the way the alien's legs moved, the knees bent the same as theirs but the rest of the leg just carried straight down to the boots the alien wore. O'Tiroth nodded a thanks to the alien and shouldered the rifle in the sling, flipping it back onto his back, he pulled the knifes from the officer's hands and legs, catching him as he fell, and administered the med kit. It was woefully low-tech but served the purpose, as he handed the aliens their officer he heard a familiar skittering noise, Multarias running their claws against each other.
"T'res'Kino, sir, congregate on our position, we have freed alien prisoners but are picking up incoming Multarias" O'Tiroth said into his COM
"Copy that O'res, moving in" come the T'res' reply
O'Tiroth and his men formed a circle around the prisoners and raised their guns to cover all approaches; the med kit alien stood beside O'Tiroth and raised an alien weapon. O'Tiroth opened the front panel on his helmet
"Aim for the head" he said, doubting if the alien could hear him and sealed his helmet again.
A shard of metal whizzed into the circle and struck a trooper in the neck, severing the spinal systems and the Nano-fluid cables in the neck, the clear liquid oozing out then evaporating leaving rapidly oxidising Nanobots giving the trooper the blue blood of the resurrected flowing down his ice blue and silver armour. Them the Multarias struck, dashing down the streets towards the 6 Kimerics and the 10 aliens. The Kimerics opened fire, pulping the nerveless heads as they threw themselves towards the troopers. A lance of red light shot past O'Tiroth and into a Multaria's head, burning through its brain; the alien standing beside him fired another light lance at the foe as O'Tiroth's greatest fear rounded the corner.
A Multaria with twin, heavy Cyclone ripper cannons. There was a silence, and in that silence there was a hiss-whine is both cannons began to get up to firing speed. The team leader ordered everyone to grab two aliens and dive for cover; he grabbed the fighting one and the officer and threw himself into the building the officer had been pinned to just before the twin cyclones opened up, tearing shrapnel shells into anyone not under cover, which was a trooper with two aliens, the trooper and one alien died whilst the second dove into cover fractions of a quartio too late and got its legs shredded below the knee.
Switching to x-ray filter, O'Tiroth saw the weapon laden Multaria through the wall. Switching to grenades, then to the ones stored in his second clip, O'Tiroth sighted on the monstrosity with the whirling barrels of death and fired.
The MRG shot away from the gun like a Qu'an'os at the Annuan Hunts as it burst through the wall, opened up, armed and struck the Multaria straight in the eye, exploding as the unstable matrix of plasma was shattered. The Multaria's head popped with a sound like an overripe fruit being hit with a hammer, gore and blood raining down everywhere as the disembodied arms flew away from where the body they attached to had been Millias before, still firing the cyclone cannons, carving up other Multarias that had taken cover. T'Kino's squad slaughtered the crouching Multarias, catching them from behind, exterminating them from this alien planet
Later, after shipboard scans confirmed that all 28 Multarias that had come down in the drills, the one with the cyclone cannons having had one of his own, the remnants of the squad were standing before the aliens when the officer began to speak
"I would like to thank you for what you did for us, those Xenos came at us from nowhere and killed some respected guardsmen, may the Emperor rest their souls, and I have one request. That we see our rescuers face to face," the officer said, shocking the troopers. He was speaking some form of Kimeric, albeit a dissected, mashed version but Kimeric nonetheless. The Troopers thumbed the catches on their helmets. The visor slid up, the mouth cover slid apart to the sides, the sections of the helmet slid away from each other and the neck seal slid in half and round to the back. They lifted their helmets off, gaining gasps from the aliens. The skins of the Kimerics was a pale blue due to the Nanobots in their bloodstream, their long pointed ears ached from being confined to the helmet, and the two, slightly raised, nasal slits dilated, taking in the smells of this alien world.
T'Kino spoke "We are Final Number squad, squad 31 of the Blue Scythe Duoa of the Kimeric star Imperia. I am T'res'Kino, squad leader," T'Kino told them
The aliens were equally stunned that they spoke similar languages
"I am Colonel Colmin of the Primus division of the Urban Fire regiment of His Imperial Majesty's Imperial Guard. We are Humans of The Imperium of Man," Responded the officer
In the distance was an explosion; the humans raised their rifles nervously
"Relax, that's just our drop-pods detonating" said O'Tiroth to the jumpy imperial guardsmen
"Drop-pods?" asked the guardsman who had been helping O'Tiroth
"Well what did you expect us to come down in Guardsman?" retorted O'Tiroth, a smile playing about his lips
The guardsman came back with "I am Guardsman Jeser, I thought you would use drop ships. Kimeric?"
O'Tiroth began to chuckle "O'res'Tiroth, it means team leader Tiroth of the Planetbound, O'Tiroth to you. Our drop ships are coming to pick us up" O'Tiroth replied in answer to the guardsman's comeback
Almost on cue, the drop ship Scything Fates dropped out of the sky behind the Kimerics; the still jumpy guardsmen raising the rifles again
"Put them down, that's for us," ordered T'Kino
The Kimerics turned and strode off to the drop ship, O'Tiroth giving Jeser a wave from the boarding ramp before he sat down and the ramp slid up, locking into position, the shielding sliding into place as the drop ship blasted up to the orbiting ship. Tagging the planet as the first property of the Imperium Of Man thus far discovered, the Flame of Glory started up the whirling plasma of the dimensional drives and jumped into the warp, heading for Kimera Prime to make a report.
© Alex Pringle 03/05/04