AN: Have posted this elsewhere, but then thought I might as well post it here. The Iron kingdoms belong to Privateer Press.
Guns rumbled in the distance, the sound carried over the tall trees of the Thornwood by a never ceasing cold wind that was coming down from the barbaric north, a clean smell that cut through the scent of leaf mulch and the more sinister smell of gunsmoke that emanated from the mighty fortress of Northguard. Journeyman Warcaster Scarlett Nash huffed to herself, not so mighty a fortress now.
The attack of the Khadoran armies had left a shattered bastion in its wake, she had stood with loyal soldiers of Cygnar through day after day of siege, she had fought in the frozen mud of the trenches, lending her arcane power to the warjacks that stood with her. She had been cut off from the rearguard led by General Nemo when a mighty wall of frozen wind blew over her, forcing the warjacks under her command to follow her she tried to find her way back to the main army, and now wandered in what she believed was the general direction of the retreat. Glancing back over her shoulder she sent a pulse of thought to her loyal Centurion's cortex.
'Ajax, help get that cart unstuck'
With great thuds that jarred the ground she walked on, the Centurion moved behind a cart that was stuck in a rut, setting down the huge spear the warjack had carried with him from Northguard. A gout of steam vented as the warjack's hands clasped the bottom of the cart and heaved it back onto solid ground. Scarlett allowed herself a moment to inspect the 'jacks she had brought with her, Ajax was the biggest 'jack in her command, standing taller and broader than any other in Cygnar's arsenal, armoured plates protected it's shoulders and masses of cabling and pipes full of steam wound through the 'jack. Carried on one arm was its shield and recently retrieved the huge Piston spear dangled from its other hand. Standing at her side like a faithful guard dog which it was often compared to stood her Sentinal, appearing frail when stood next to Ajax the Sentinel was nonetheless still a warjack, a shield covered one arm and in the other a chain gun was attached, Scarlet had yet to give her Sentinal a name, as she liked to do with 'jacks assigned to her.
A groan of pain was raised from the cart as it settled down on the firmer ground. The cart was the reason she had not been able to rejoin the advance, moving through the woods at speed was difficult due to Ajax's size and the strain on Scarlet's mind was taking its toll when they had encountered the cart, filled with half a dozen wounded men, Scarlet refused to abandon them, even at the insistence of the Captain of the mixed band of Trenchers and Rangers who had accompanied the cart. All dead now she thought, sacrificed to give time for the wounded to escape. Walking over to the cart she tapped the tired looking horse pulling the cart to keep going.
A rustle of the bushes behind her caused Scarlet to whip around pulling her pistol from her holster, blue runes flashed into existence around the pistol as she poured arcane power into the modified barrel and time seemed to slow, Scarlet was able to see the young man in the camouflage cloak of a ranger emerge from the woods, tears were streaked down his cheeks and his face was flushed beneath the thick mud and numerous scratches that adorned him. His rifle bounced against his back, held in place only by a sling. His mouth opened and a strangled cry emerged. This was the last thing he would ever say as a bullet emerged from the centre of his forehead, fired from behind. The bullet had lost most of the force by the time it reached Scarlet, but her Sentinel still moved its shield down to intercept. Scarlet stepped to one side once again allowing her a clear view of the trees. With seemingly infinite slowness a trickle of sweat broke out on the back of her neck and rolled down underneath her armour. From the darkness of the trees a shape emerged, more blocky and heavily built than even Ajax, the Juggernaut moved with a precision that gave away that it was not acting alone, Scarlett's eyes whipped left and right as she attempted to find the controller of the warjack, its eyes burned a sinister red, and the enormous axe clasped in it's hand gave off an aura of biting cold, painted a deep red, the 'jack seemed to be drawn to Ajax.
Scarlet felt a pulse of anger flash across Ajax's cortex and directly to her own mind, at the same time she felt her Sentinel prepare itself to intercept any shot that came towards her. Scarlett's eyes were drawn to the left as another shape emerged from the forest, it was another deep red 'jack, this time a Destroyer, the stubby bombard taking the place of the fist that the Juggernaut had. Another axe was clutched in its other hand. Breath hitching in her throat Scarlet was startled by the voice that came from a lithe well-built figure that stood between the two 'jacks. The voice was smooth and sensuous, clad in armour the same red as the warjack's that stood on either side. The woman had long black hair tied back into a ponytail leaving the pale skin of her neck and face exposed, a sword was holstered at the woman's side and a pistol was held loosely at her side.
"Hmm, what's this? A little Cygnarian. Cut off from the shambolic rout no doubt, it's a shame really, I had hoped to encounter a real warcaster, not a pathetic Journeyman.
Scarlet felt herself flush at the insult and in the same tone of utter contempt she normally reserved for gung-ho trenchers of other Journeyman who believed she was not fit for Cygnar's armed forces.
"Hardly a rout, as I recall the last thing I saw was the entire 'grand' Khadoran army being held back by an old man, the esteemed General Nemo. Of course I would not expect anything else from the barbarian north!" Scarlett smiled as she saw the other woman's mouth tighten.
"You dare talk to me like that Cygnarian dog, I'll gut you slowly and burn the name of Alexis Forkov into the minds of your wounded, your screams will become legendary!"
Scarlett felt her arcane power flair as she drew her pistol up to point at the Alexis's chest, dedicating part of her power to moving her Centurion up to square off against the two opposing 'jacks. She was aware that if she could knock one of the Khadoran warjack's out the fight early on she might stand a chance of surviving.
Scarlett's finger was tightening on the trigger when a booming laughter echoed around the clearing coming from the treeline, Scarlett turned her head slowly whilst trying to keep half her attention on the other Warcaster. She could see across the clearing that Alexis was trying to do the same thing. Shapes emerged from the treeline, the first thing either of them saw was the ominous green glow, then eyes that burned with hatred appeared. Into the clearing stepped a nightmare made flesh. Tall and pale as snow, a man stood, covered in black armour from head to toe, a spear was grounded at his side, a green glow surrounded his spear and runes were flashing across his armour.
In a hissing whisper that managed to reach across the clearing to both women the man said "Such passion in defence of your country, and such hatred! Oh my, you will both make excellent talent to be reborn in the Lord Toruk's image". Moving to his side from the cover of the forest came two shapes that stood around the height of a man, each had the face of a snarling predator, Scarlett recognised arc nodes sparking and glowing with green built into their backs. As she watched more shapes poured from the forest in a wave to stand without semblance of ranks around the man, Scarlet recognised some of the horror stories that had spread throughout the Journeymen quarters about the forces of Cryx. The man seemed to be an Iron Lich, the equivalent of Cygnar and Khador's warcasters. Sweat continued to dribble down under her armour as the implication hit her, she could potentially be facing off against a fully able Warcaster, nothing in her training had prepared her for this, she had always been under the apparently naive impression that until she was ready she would be joining the forces of a fully trained Warcaster.
Shambling things that looked like vile mixtures of machinery and flesh just kept coming, stopping after a few paces out of the forest, larger shapes strode from the forest, they looked like the equivalent of Warjacks but were painted in deepest black with horns and fangs.
Scarlet looked over to where Alexis stood and found the other woman was already looking at her, their eyes seemed to give all the messages that were needed, with a small nod it was decided.
Alexis acted first, her Destroyer turned to launch an explosion into the midst of the man shaped things, meanwhile Scarlet allowed the runes surrounding her pistol to wink out and manipulated her arcane power, Ajax moved as fast as he could straight towards the central mass of Cryxians, straight at the Iron Lich, meanwhile her Sentinel took up a braced stance and its chain gun rattled to life, one of the 'jacks with the beast heads was riddled with impact hits and went down on one knee as a shot struck its knee joint, another shot caused the arc node atop it to spark and die, Scarlet breathed a sigh of relief at the destruction of the Arc node. Transferring her attention to where Ajax stood she allowed her mind to take direct control of the Warjack. Pouring a constant stream of power into the 'jack, Scarlet sent him a command
'Kill them'
Satisfaction erupted from the Centurians cortex as with runes encircling its spear the weapon punched through one of the larger Cryx warjacks, ripping it back brought much of the enemy 'jacks innards with it, the green glow flared and died as the 'jack collapsed. Sending a pulse of thought to the generator set in the Centurians shield a field of energy flared and significantly slowed the charge of several fleshy constructs, as well as the other small warjack. The energy field's magnetic waves died but not before blunting the power of the blows that were delivered. Drawing the spear back for another thrust Ajax smashed his shield into one of the fleshy constructs causing it to be thrown back limp as whatever had animated it appeared to fail. Scarlett noted something out of the corner of her eye and saw another one of the larger Cryxian warjack's hurtle towards Ajax's unshielded flank.
The warjack moved as fast as the light warjack's Scarlett was often given to command, it seemed impossible for something of that size to move as fast as that. With a rending ripping screech claws ripped into Ajax. Raising its arm for another great glow, the jack was knocked off its feet as the deep red Juggernaut slammed into it, the greater bulk of the warjack sending the Cryxian machine flying, it crashed down and skidded through the ranks of the flesh-machine hybrids.
Scarlett tore Ajax's mind away from where it was watching the Juggernaut lay about itself with the axe it clutched in its fist. A heavy boom echoed and another bombard shot took the downed machine full in the chest, the green light flared as the 'jack attempted to right itself, before it could so much as get back on one knee a steady stream of bullets smashed into the machine's chest and head, Scarlett smiled as she felt her Sentinel's satisfaction as the 'jack slumped dead.
Scarlett once again immersed herself in Ajax's cortex. From the height of the Centurion Scarlett saw the Iron Lich, he had a smile on his face when he had first confronted the two women, but he was no longer smiling.
Scarlet surfaced briefly and looked around at the battlefield they stood on, with both the Cygnarians and Khadoran jacks working together, utilising their heavier weaponry and thicker armour the forces of Cryx had been ground down, the fleshy constructs had seemed to focus on the closest targets, which in this case were the heavily armoured 'jacks. Scarlett began to smile, she had given herself up for dead when the Iron Lich had first emerged.
At that moment a low laugh rang, the source was none other than the Iron Lich, "I see you smile young one, do you think you have survived this, thus far I have allowed my minions to do the fighting, but now it is time for me to enter battle myself."
Green runes flared brightly from the maelstrom of combat and a bolt of energy soared towards Alexis.
Scarlett watched as if in slow motion as surprise and pain crossed the pale woman's features, her power field flared and died as the power of the Iron Lich's energy crashed against it. Slowly, almost majestically, Alexis toppled. Crashing to the ground with a thud of armour plates. Scarlett heard both of the Khadoran 'jack's crash to a halt, as all guidance to their systems left them. Green runes flashed again and Scarlett saw her death, she knew the power of that bolt would go straight through her power field, preparing to embrace death, she was determined to see it coming, however at the last second the shape of her Sentinal intervened, the Sentinel flew. the bolt had caught it right in the center of the shield and in a great arc it crashed over her head and landed in a heap of broken metal and venting steam, Scarlett felt its cortex flicker...and die.
Anger coursed through her veins at the death of the noble warjack, summoning her arcane power Scarlett raised her pistol and runes erupted along its length, sighting down the barrel the Iron Lich's head she cracked off with the entire clip, several of the shots were imbued with arcane power, each one flashed and cracked off the power field of the Iron Lich as he slowly walked towards her, hearing her clip click empty, Scarlett looked to where her Centurion was locked in a death grip with a spider like jack, seemingly Cryxian from the green glow that suffused it. Turning her head back to the man walking towards her, she was just in time to see a look of horror cross his face, a series of thunderclaps reached her a second later, several shells took the Lich in the chest, his power field was useless as he had expended most of his energy with the two killing bolts, his armour stood no chance against the power of the shots boosted with arcane power. Scarlett watched him disintegrate.
Looking over her shoulder she watched a Charger step into the clearing, followed by another just like it. A figure in armour similar to her's followed into the clearing and let loose a deep shout of joy on seeing her.
"Scarlett! By Morrow girl don't scare me like that again." Scarlett finally recognised the man in the armour as Edward Smith, a fellow Journeyman from Northguard. A gangly blonde boy, Edward was not the sharpest tool in the bucket, but he was a good man with a strict code of morals. He was always the first to volunteer to help others and he had an amazing amount of raw potential.
A slight smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, suddenly remembering Alexis she urgently called "Edward, please tell me you have some medical supplies!?"
A frown slid across the young man's features and reaching into a bag he had slung over his back, he slung her a brown leather bag. Scarlett grabbed the bag from the air and hurried to where Alexis lay, amazingly she was alive. Stripping the ruined breast plate away from Alexis's chest Scarlett set cutting apart the undershirt, she heard Edward approach from behind and suddenly realised that she had bared Alexis's chest to the air, whipping her head around she said
"Edward turn away!" Used to obeying orders without question the young man whipped around and looked resolutely away from where Alexis lay. Scarlett turned back and opening a jar of burn salve began to liberally smear the salve across the harsh red burns.
Edward's voice sounded from behind her "who's this then Scarlett?"
Taking a bandage from the bag Scarlett bit one end and began to wrap it around the other girls chest.
Turning her head Scarlett spoke to Edward's back "A Khadoran who saved my life Edward, saved Ajax too."
Huffing Edward spat on the ground "Vile place this is, smells of death."
Scarlett grunted in agreement, finishing off the final knot Scarlett stood and dusted off her knees, looking down at Alexis she saw her eyes open in slits and her head turned up to her. Scarlett turned and tapped Edwards shoulder, linking her mind back in with Ajax she set the jack to walking.
As they walked Edward nudged Scarlett and said "fine looking girl that Alexis, huh? I know you swing that way, no other explanation as to why you have turned down just about every bloke who has ever wanted to be with you."
A sharp yelp of pain echoed into the clearing as Scarlett delivered a heavy thump to Edward's shoulder.
AN: Yay, first chapter!