04/10/2021
A Fast Run for Fun
For more than a Hundred centuries the Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. His is the Master of Mankind by the Will of the Gods and Master of a Million Worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is the rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium, for whom a thousand souls die every day, for whom blood is drunk and flesh is eaten.
Human blood and Human flesh-The stuff of which the Imperium is made.
To be alive in such times is to be one amongst untold trillions and trillions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable; this is a tale of those times.
Commissar Carl Korhonen wearily looked over the line of what was left of the Imperial Guardsmen under his command. He could not find a fault with them or their fighting spirit. After three days of non-stop vicious attacks by the hated Greenskins they were still holding. Early on some of them had to be made an example of to properly motivate the others. Now, after three days of non-stop battle the useless chaff had been removed, leaving the fighting wheat still holding the line.
The Orkz had learned from these days and were changing strategy. Instead of endless waves of infantry, everyone could hear the tread of the approaching Gargant. It was still some way off, but the bright yellow paint and towering height of the war machine made it easy to spot even at this distance.
Commissar Korhonen called over to his vox caster and said, "He we gotten a response from Headquarters on artillery or air support yet?"
The weary Guardsman carrying the vox caster did not change his position and just looked the Commissar in the eye and in a steady voice said, "Sir they have only repeated other parts of the line are in a greater need right now, but we are a top priority as soon as some becomes available."
Commissar Korhonen kept his personal opinion about the answer to himself. He knew he needed to set the proper example. He said loud enough for those nearby to hear, "Very well then, we will make do with what we have until the Emperor provides us with more."
In a quieter voice he said to the vox caster Guardsman, "Keep trying and let me now the second we have some support of any kind."
The vox caster Guardsman did not reply for a moment. Instead he clamped his hand over the earpiece and then said into the mouthpiece, "Understood we will hold until then. Praise the Emperor."
Commissar Korhonen tried even harder to not show any emotion and waited for the vox caster Guardsman to report. Still he did lean closer to him.
Looking up at the Commissar with a mixture of both hope and fear the vox caster Guardsman said, "Sir the 4474th Leman Russ tank company is enroute to assist us."
Despite their usual discipline a cheer went up among all the Guardsman who had heard the good news. Commissar Korhonen though knew there was more to the report by the look on the vox caster Guardsman's face. He held up his hand to silence the others. When they quieted he then said, "Go on."?
The vox caster Guardsman swallowed his dry throat and then said, "They will not arrive for approximately thirty minutes."
Commissar Korhonen and all the Guardsmen still alive, knew the Gargant and the horde of Ork Boyz following it and in it would have overrun their position by then. Still they had a duty to do.
Commissar Korhonen girded himself and raised his voice and said, "Wonderful, the Emperor has provided us what we need. He expects us to hold until our brothers and sisters arrive to destroy that affront to the Emperor's sight. That is what we shall do."
There was a scattering of "Yes sirs." and more "Praise the Emperors". All of the Guardsmen spread the word down the line and checked their weapons again.
Commissar Korhonen moved himself to where there only remaining heavy weapon they had left was. The auto cannon had seen a great deal of use in the last few days, but it looked to be factory fresh thanks to the crew's mighty efforts to keep it in the fight. Commissar Korhonen was proud of this crew and hoped they would survive. Still he was practical and had two back up crews ready to take their places when they were killed in this attack.
When he arrived he noticed the gunner was not sighted on the approaching Gargant but on something on the left flank.
Dreading that there was another Gargant or something worse heading their way. he said, "Report Sergeant."
The auto cannon Sergeant did not take his eye away from sight and replied saying, "Sir there is a grav vehicle coming in fast, very fast and heading straight for the Gargant."
Commissar Korhonen was not relieved by this news. He was confused. The only Imperial forces with grav vehicles were the Adeptus Astartes. He knew there were none of the Emperor's Angels of Death on this world. Either some had arrived, and he had not been told or he and his Guardsmen were in greater danger now than they had been a minute ago.
Grugel Rageshard hit the button to send chems and poisons into the armless and legless Adeptus Astartes mounted on the front of his Ravager. The music of his screams filled Grugel Rageshard with more joy then the stims he himself was taking did. It added to the wonderful essence coming off the wounded and dying who littered this battlefield. Still it was not as much as when they would start firing their weapons any moment now.
He and his crew had been sent ahead to deal with a large problem before the rest of the raiding party arrived. The target Gargant loomed ahead in all its squalor and ugliness, Grugel could not wait to remove it from existence. Like all Drukhari, beauty was especially important to him. This made him want to destroy the Gargant more than as just a threat. Looking at the sleek lines of his grav craft, with its many decorated and engraved skulls and fluid scriptures of torture painted upon it gave him a calming sense. The pained screams of his favorite trophy mount added to his pleasure too. He had genuinely enjoyed removing its primitive blue power armor, breaking its spirit, and crafting the wailing trophy.
Still he thought to himself, "This was turning out to be a better raid then he had first thought. After all there was only supposed to be a few of the Human animals on this planet. A quick grab of some slaves for the Kabal's Archon's day of birth celebration and then back to the most magnificent city in the universe for the pleasures it gave to those who succeeded on a raid.
To find two armies engaged in one of their silly struggles for their lives that did not matter and only ended their pathetic existence sooner, for him to be able to swoop in and take them both on, showing both the Human animals and Ork beasts who the true masters of the Universe were.
Looking over the other three members of his crew, he saw they were also ready to show the lesser races who the true masters were. Thanks to his own chems, he could feel them and what they genuinely wanted. One to kill him, one to bed him and one to replace him. While he did not care for what they thought, sensing what they felt gave him a small thrill stopping the drain of his soul ever so slightly.
Each of his crew had his or her own favorite stim to take into battle. He could see they had already done so by the slight reactions of their bodies. Eina and Kurloch were on the Dark Lances on either side of the Ravager. One of them had chosen to heighten their perception while the other chose to heighten the intensity of the combat. One was more tense while the other was so relaxed he thought they might fall out of the fast-moving vehicle.
After swerving over a pile of dead Orkz, Grugel turned his attention to Misikla who was on the Disintegrator Cannon. Since he had the most powerful weapon, he would need to be on target if they were to finish off the Gargant quickly to allow the rest of the raiding party could come and collect some Ork beasts for the arenas and Human animals for special pleasures.
The timing would need precise. Once they had taken down the Gargant, Grugel would have less than a minute to kill Misikla before the other arrived. It was nothing personal. Misikla had made someone angry back home and that party would pay handsomely for his death. It just could not be seen as a deliberate act or Misikla's family would seek revenge. No one wanted that so an honorable death on the battle was called for. Grugel had a splinter pistol ready under his control panel to give him that death.
Grugel's train of thought was broken by several rounds of fire hitting the railing around him. He quickly determined the fire was coming from above and looked up to see some of the Orkz were flying above them using some kind of rockets strapped to their backs. Grugel let out a laugh. The sheer audacity of these beasts always made him laugh. He did a flash calculation, then gave the control panel a subtle twist. Instead of landing on the Ravager, the Orkz feel short. Most of them crashed to the ground except for three who were sliced to pieces by the Ravager's bladevanes.
Grugel's centuries of experience allowed him to get the swift vehicle back on track immediately. The three gunners were in range and opened fire on the Gargant having not lost their targeting track. Armor plating was blasted off the Gargant, flying through the air. Some of it landed among the Ork Boyz following the Gargant squashing them into flat green pancakes. Instead of terrifying the other Orkz, they just laughed at the ones who died.
That was why Grugel hated the Orkz so much. If it had been Humans or Aeldari they would have continued to fight while underneath the first stirring of fear would be building in them. Orkz were just too dumb to realize they should be afraid. Still his chem assisted senses picked up some hope building up in the nearby Humans. This made him glad as the destruction of the Gargant would give them more hope and then the extreme satisfaction of destroying that hope as they were taken for the Drukhari's amusements would be very satisfying indeed.
Lost in these thoughts, again Grugel did not notice until almost too late the ground exploding in front of the Ravager. At least one of the Gargant's makeshift weapons had come close to hitting them. The near miss did shower them in dirt and rotting pieces of Orkz killed in the previous days battles.
The other members of his crew returned fire while also cursing Grugel over their com system. For his part he swerved the Ravager in a wide arc around the Gargant to keep ahead of its weapon fire. He kept them almost out of range of their own weapons and most of the Orkz weapons. This did not keep them out of range of the ground troops both Human and Ork who fired at them at every opportunity. Only a few of these shoots came close to hitting the Ravager or any of its crew. This just added to thrill of the raid for Grugel.
As minutes ticked by, he began to get more and more frustrated with the attack on the Gargant. It was too big to miss even at this range. The problem was there was so much armor on the Gargant their superior weapons were like unpoisoned needles being stuck in the hide of a Clawed Fiend. If the Gargant was not taken down soon, the rest of the raiding party would arrive causing Grugel to not only lose honor, but he would not have the chance to kill Misikla. He needed to do something fast to change their situation.
Pumping another shot of chems into his system, he scanned the Gargant trying to find a weak point his gunners could exploit. When he did not see one he decided on a plan of desperation. Spinning the Ravager into a tight turn he aimed it straight at the Gargant approaching it from the side.
Over the comm he said, "All of you concentrate all firing on its arm joint."
Each of his crew had centuries of experience allowing them to coordinate their fire as second nature. They begin to strip off the armor around the arm joint. Up to this point the Gargant crew had ignored the small craft swarming around it except for a few shoots of opportunity. As the last of the armor fell away from the arm joint, it stopped and opened its belly allowing the horde of Ork Boyz to stream out. All of them opened fire and/or attempted to swarm on to the Drukhari vehicle.
Grugel called out over his comm again and said, "Shoot the inside of the abomination."
He then jerked the Ravager straight into the Ork Boyz using its Bladevanes to cut them down literally left and right. He tried to enjoy the damage he was inflicting but since the Orkz were enjoying this more than he was, the carnage did not give him any satisfaction. What did give him some satisfaction was the sudden explosions coming from the inside the Gargant. Has he had thought the Orkz could not help stacking massive amounts of ammunition inside that once hit, ignited consuming the entire Gargant in flames.
Once again he jerked the Ravager in a new direction, then hit the boosters to speed away from the now exploding Gargant. With the Gargant going up in such an extreme way, he knew this was his chance to take out Misikla. He drew his splinter pistol and fired in one smooth motion sure he could blame his death on the exploding Gargant. What he could not explain was why Misikla's head exploded, the pistol was not loaded with that kind of poison. Before he could think of an explanation he and the other two crew died as the Ravager was torn apart and exploded just as spectacularly as the Gargant.
Commissar Korhonen watched the autocannon shells tore the Xenos vehicle apart. He gave praise to the Emperor for their deliverance from one Xenos by another and also for the chance to take the grav vehicle down too.
In the middle of his prayers of thanksgiving he felt the ground start to shake again in a rhythmic pattern. He looked up and down the battlefield and at first could not see anything because of the smoking remains of Gargant blocking the far horizon. There was also the distraction from the remaining Ork Infantry who were still trying to break their line. Slowly the rhythmic shaking became heavier and heavier and then he saw the cause of it. Commissar Korhonen gave one last praise to the Emperor before starting to bark orders out to his remaining Guardsmen.
Twenty-five minutes later Captain Bearup of the 4474th Leman Russ tank company arrived behind the line formerly held by Commissar Korhonen and his Guardsmen. Picking up his vehicle's vox mike he called into Headquarters and said, "Alpha Six to November Eight we have arrived at position. Still unable to contact infantry. Current situation is the Gargant has been destroyed however there is Xenos Mega-Squiggoth currently occupying position. We request permission to engage."
A voice came over the vox and said, "Alpha Six what is the threat level of the Xenos Mega-Squiggoth?"
Captain Bearup replied and said, "November Eight, current threat level is minimum. Xenos Mega-Squiggoth has stopped forward advance and is currently eating body remains left on the battlefield. Will have surprise for initial attack."
The voice on the other end of the vox said, "Understood. Permission to engage granted. Inform when line is clear. We are moving another two battalions of infantry to retake position once you have cleared it. Praise the Emperor."
Captain Bearup responded and said, "Praise the Emperor."