Title: Victory or Death.
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: General for 40K and SAO
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Warhammer 40K or Sword Art Online.
Summary: Four Hundred Thousand players log into the much anticipated Warhammer 40K Apocalypse Online, only to find themselves trapped inside with no way out. 40K SAO crossover.
Jen surveyed no-man's-land through the tiny vid-sensor that was peeking through the cammo-netting and concealing vegetation above her. Stepping away from the vid-sensor Jen sat down as Rose took over the surveillance. Jen sat against the wall and began to hone the edge of Constant Companion with a whetstone.
Jen and her squad were hunkered down in a Foxhole they had dug and then concealed about a hundred meters in front of the Imperial Lines in Echo subsector. Serrin; Marias; Marthris; Wilkies; Doon; Kreel; Questor; Dai'Shan; Comanche; Ryker and Restor were also in concealed foxholes with their Squads. Three Sisters squads, three Storm Trooper squads, three Skittarii squads and three Infantry Commander squads, all arranged in an arc out in front of Echo Subsector and almost completely invisible. A dozen of the most powerful squads away from the protection of the trenches.
It was a few weeks after the scouting guilds had been sent out and Jen had been feeling that a massive offensive was overdue for days when they received a report form one of the scouting guilds. Very large party of T'au headed for Echo. The estimate had the T'au arriving three hours ago.
Quietly, Jen was excited to be in the field again. It had been too long with her stuck in the Command Role, mostly confined to the HQ to organise and 'General'. Naturally she had sparred and gone to the firing range to make sure her skills did not degrade, but for almost five months, apart from that first big T'au raid, she had not been in any real combat and she was getting antsy.
Sure, Jen had been in command of the Breaching Raid in The Sectors, but between the Raids she had been actively involved in clearing The Sectors and that meant fighting, and lots of it.
Of course, if the enemy does not show up in the next few hours the entire Echo Subsector was fucked, as Jen and Remnos had shuffled things a lot to make sure all of the best Player Squads were available right now to blunt the attack. If it comes later then all the best squads, three shifts worth for the subsector, would be crashing from exhaustion and the only defenders of Echo for the next sixteen odd hours would be a dozen third tier Player Squads and a bunch of Tarus Sixteenth Squads.
Only Echo Subsector had been rearranged in such a way, as there was no way in hell Jen and Remnos would screw up the entire line, though squads had been shuffled between Subsectors. Also, the other Subsectors were under the command of Subsector Commanders, rather than a cohesive overall command.
Remnos was in command of the trenches of Echo Subsector, with Tona as his second. The rest of the Hand, The Hammer, The Crimson Warriors, the Sisterhood of Silence, The Magna Guard, and all the big name Guilds in Jen and Remnos' Sector were all concentrated in Echo.
"Got movement." Rose said.
"Thank the Emperor." Sister Joyce said, raising to a crouch.
The Sisters of Jen's squad got ready for combat, tired of the waiting, with Sister Hospitaller Nora checking both her Bolt Pistol and Necrathiam. Some discussion had been had about leaving Nora back at the trenches to deal with the wounded, but Nora herself had shut that argument down. Her place was with the Squad and Jane could handle Triage until the battle was over, and then either Nora would take over or they all would be dead making it a moot point.
"Jen to all forward units, do not engage till I give the signal." Jen ordered on the frequency for the concealed units.
The force of T'au was a fast moving one, with their units being transported in a line of TY7 Devilfish Transports and escorted by fast and agile TX4 Piranhas, the two-occupant vehicles like a hover version of a combat motorbike and a pair of Hammerhead Gunships. The line of T'au vehicles had not even reached the concealed foxholes when the longer-range Imperial Weapons opened up. Lascannons from the Heavy Weapons Teams and the Melta weapons from the Devil Dogs began to fire at the Devilfish, mostly only gouging blackened lines into the hulls at this extreme range, but occasionally doing more substantial damage. A Krak Missile from a Heavy Weapons team flew into a Piranha that was passing between Jen's and Marias' Foxholes, the stricken hovercraft ploughing into the ground and almost impacting Marias' Foxhole.
The tip of the barrel of one of the Hammerheads glowed, indicating it was about to fire, when the Neutron Laser from the sole Skittarii Maniple Dunecrawler in Echo flared across the space between and disintegrated the armour of the Hammerhead in the seam between the hull and turret, causing its power core to go critical and the entire Gunship to explode.
A number of the Devilfish were brought down by the heavy weapons and the Fire Warriors inside piled out as they could and began to engage the entrenched Imperial infantry forces at long range as the remaining transports pushed forward into the fire of the Imperials. The elite nature of the forces that Jen and Remnos had concentrated began to quickly tell as more and more of the Devilfish and Piranhas began to go down, and the Fire Warriors who had evacuated their transports being cut down by disciplined fire.
Tona's squad, which was front and centre, had managed to take down the surviving Fire Warriors of a crashed Devilfish at what was, according to the Astra Administratum, five metres beyond the maximum lethal range of a Lasgun. Zenith's squad had taken down two Devilfish and four Piranha from a combination of Marcus' Meltagun and their Meltabombs. Hawk's exhortations and Kestrel's regular and empathic timed orders to fire to her two squads set up a rhythm for an entire section of the line, including a number of Stormtrooper and Skittarii Payers Squads who would all fire in time with Kestrel's orders.
Luckily for the Imperials, the remaining Hammerhead, which could have caused significant damage to the line, had entered into a duel with the Skittarii Maniple Dunecrawler, effectively taking both vehicles out of the broader battle for the time being.
Once the T'au forces were fully inside the perimeter set by the hidden Foxholes and were fully engaged with the entrenched Imperial forces, Jen ordered the concealed squads to attack. Coming unexpectedly from behind, the fire of the dozen formerly concealed squads came as demoralising blow for the T'au force, particularly as the fire of the ambushing squads was poured into the opening rear hatches of the Devilfish were the Fire Warriors were disembarking in 'Safety'.
Serrin managed to get a shot into the back of the Hammerhead with her Meltagun, into one of its engines, just as the Duncrawler's Neutron Laser melted the half of the nose of the Hammerhead. The two combined attacked knocked the Hammerhead out of commission, allowing the Dunecrawler to begin picking off more of the remaining Devilfish. The Neutron Laser was so powerful that the Devilfish were almost completely atomised and no Fire Warriors escaped those transports.
Caught between the ambush and the trenches, the Fire Warriors were on the brink of breaking, but had no where to go. The dozen ambushing squads began a slow and steady 'advance' back towards their own line, pushing the T'au ahead of them into the anvil of the Imperial lines.
Jen's own squad was in some of the thickest fighting, with their bolters roaring in their hands. With Marias and Serrin alongside Jen, with Serrin's squad on the far side of Marias' so all three squads could get the bonus from the Simulacrum Imperialis carried by Sister Ellen in Marias' squad, the Sisters Squads utterly crushed the Fire Warriors in front of them and leaving several hovering Piranhas with their crew dead but the vehicles themselves almost completely untouched and incapacitated Devilfish taken out by Krak Grenades thrown into open hatches.
Jen's blood was pumping as the vibration of her Bolter rattled her bones and the jarring impact of Constant Companion biting into Fire Warrior Armour when they got in close. The aches were a welcome feeling. The noise and chaos of combat a balm to her mind and soul. Emperor, she had missed this.
TBC….
