- Inquisitors note. "While all of the Astartes situational updates had to be destroyed following the incident of 375-13 there remained two untainted logs recovered from the battle barge. Curious yes. But deemed to be a benign accident. Sources for examination of these can be provided upon request. What follows is a system vox record of the last servitor shorthanded time log of Shipmistress Arteme Read sworn to the tenth echelon of the Dawn Stalkers. Second log to be examined further in this report."
(ESTIMATED MARK 26654…) XXX DISREGARD XXX
[Estimated Mark 83.15.]
- Alert. Ork Flag Ship has rammed and lodged upon the Starboard side of the Brimming Rays.
Dest. All Users- "The Greenskins have boarded."
: All decks Red Alert. Seal bulkheads and transit routes. Quarter Masters begin general weapons distribution. Security teams Defense Stance alpha zero one. Secure vital areas.
Priority Absolute. Ext Praetor Officium, Shipmistress Secretariat. Dest All Users. Terminate any Astropaths or Navigators encountered with extreme prejudice.
=Intruders sighted on Decks A,B,C,D… (Read more.)
- CCIC Sights major force heading for Port side gun batteries. Starboard side completely overwhelmed. Airlock controls not responding. Contingency Zeta no longer an option. All hands abandon the starboard gundecks. Addendum: Seal transit routes and bulkheads T-Minus 4 minutes
Engineerium reported sealed for the moment by Adept Egli. Magos Dominus Struebacher not responding. Inconclusive reports of an HVT attempting to gain entry.
(Secondary vox whispers most likely from the Praetor, transcribed as) - "…Bastards will pay for that… If any Astartes can hear this, the hangar bay is completely overrun. I repeat, the Orks have taken the embarkation deck. You're going to have to find another way on board brothers."
} Seventh Company warriors have broken into the Destroyer Vaults and taken entrenched positions in the command deck. All command deck security personnel ordered to report to the Bridge. Three minutes till we seal ourselves in.
/
· Auspex and Vox reports concur
-(Vanguard flight en-route to the Brimming Rays.
-(Seventh Company Terminator wing en-route to the Brimiming Rays.
:;Estimated arrival. Ten Minutes.
/
Thought for the day.
"I am born to kill judge and condemn. I am born to win slay and maim'em. I am born to live, fight for glory. I am born to die."
- Alleged final words between XIth Legion Master Antinous and Lord Malcador the Sigillite before the Astarte's unauthorized strike on rebel forces approaching Eternity Gate while His Majesty was off world.
"Flight this is Vanguard One, do you read? Send last again please…"
Diligently and without waiting for orders the mortal pilot thrall had attempted to answer the Praetor's last vox blurt warning us of the situation on the flagship.
Vaurion said the Orks had taken the hangar, and I could believe it. Looking out the wide viewport through the void to the rapidly growing silhouette of our Battle Barge and the Greenskin monstrosity latched onto the starboard side like a carnivorous fish we approached from below.
Surrounded on all sides by the debris of three fleets.
The dead metal carcasses of the Ra'Chaal not yet fallen into the atmosphere to burn from days ago. And this new mix of Ork and martyred Imperial ships all turning into one unrecognizable floating miasma of scrap which our Stormbirds were weaving through. The 375th had taken most of the Greenskins with them before being destroyed. Yet four smaller ships remained, excluding the beast currently mauling the Rays. Those were trading fire with the last Frigate remaining of the 375th expedition force. A ship now pulling back from the deadly brawl the two flagships were currently locked in.
Perhaps it was a happy accident, or an intentional ploy by the Shipsmistress. Either way the Orks had followed their prey right into the firing lines of the Ray's port broadside lance cannons.
Beams of blue stabbed out and made the three lead vessels explode like nuts hit with a thunderhammer. The survivor raked the flaring port void shields with cannon fire as they tried to come about and escape the deadly weapons.
I twisted and craned my neck to try and see the fate of the ship they had been pursuing, looking straight "above" our Stormbird.
The frigate hung there, engines flaring as it swam through the void. And to myself it looked like they were coming dangerously close to the true edge of the Warp storm. About to begin skimming the rolling flames that had trapped us in this system.
A decision I believed their captain instantly came to regret.
Once again I came to doubt the truthfulness of what I saw with my own two eyes.
As the frigate drew closer, the Warp fire suddenly lashed out at the ship.
In tendrils that to my unbelieving brain looked like a hand.
Dragging the poor, unfortunate crew into the storm. Out of sight and reality.
A shocking sight. But there was nothing to be done now. I turned my attention back to our flight. The chills running up my back dying down under something to focus on. The pilot made to slam the accelerator forward but I raised my hand and halted him. The mortal chose not to question my orders. But another noted the suddenly sedated pace of our dropship.
"What is it Commander?" Master Bruis voxed in from another Stormbird.
I answered Master Bruis with a thought itching in my mind, "I am pondering where we should board."
"Pardon?"
"The hangar is overrun Master. We would be facing a hot landing under fire. I know it would take more time but I believe it would be prudent to…"
My words trailed off into nothingness as my enhanced eyesight picked up seven new rocket trails ascending towards the wrestling ships. Master Bruis noted this silence,
"Skius?" His static drenched voice asked,
"I'll be damned…"
Down to my left, many kilometers distant still the Terminator wing was on approach.
Their flight of Caestus assault rams soared, burning through their fuel reserves like a formation of sky-borne sharks moving in for the kill. Twice I managed to convince myself that the Sergeant Naylor wasn't planning what he appeared to be planning. And then otherwise with the evidence right before my eyes.
He getting on board the Rays, in the most direct way he knew.
I tried to open a vox link, "Sergeant? Sergeant Naylor can you hear me? Assault flight respond…"
There was no telling how much damage the twin nosed craft could cause blowing melta charges and smashing through armor decks. Especially now with the flagship already stricken and injured. And it just didn't sit right with me. This was our own ship!
Again I tried to reach the Terminators, "Sergeant, turn back and wait for boarding instructions. That is an order!"
I was almost relieved when the giant warrior's reply came into my ears, until I deciphered the static laced vox.
"What's that Commander?" He asked, loudly and clearly, "I can't hear you!"
"Sergeant," I growled at his defiance, but it was too late.
The rams performed a perfectly executed tight formation roll. One last rocket booster blasted these half dropship, half ballistic missiles up and straight into the port side of the Brimming Rays, disappearing in distant puffs of escaping atmosphere and armor plating.
I winced but luckily the ship appeared to be holding. A credit to the Mechanicum's gifts to the legion. The rams had crashed into the ship directly above the very visible and still holding atmospheric shield of the embarkation deck. Its own armored doors having been pulled back for our vessels and never resealed for when it appeared to be our most likely point on board, until the Orks attacked that section of the ship.
At this very moment our elites could have been up to their necks in Greenskins, fighting their way most likely down to the hangar.
Trying to clear it for us.
Master Bruis hailed us again, urgency and ire slight but clear in his tone, "Commander…"
I voxed out to the whole Vanguard before the Diaconus could start another lecture,
"All ships, make for the hangar. Follow that mad bastard."
One need not be a psyker to predict the future. Logic had told me all I needed to know to make my own prophecy. One that was coming true in the hangar as my Stormbird came aboard.
Madness, it was shear madness…
Small pockets of crew drawn from hiding, nowhere near the thousands that had once been in the hangar, were firing what small arms they could into the rear of the Ork horde. The mass of trespassing Xeno's had turned from their rampage, probably thinking themselves the luckiest creatures in the universe at this moment. As seventy gleaming terminators blew out the ceiling and jumped down into their midst.
Black powerfists vaporized the first creatures they struck. Bolters and plasma blasters ripped ragged holes in the green ranks before the blades swept out and the slaying truly began.
Crude axes and cruder slug weapons hammered against the thick plate armor. Another Ork battle cry boomed out like artillery fire, even shaking our armored view screen. But the XIth legion warriors stood tall, resolute and in-dominatable. Longswords flashed, hacking off limbs and heads. Paragon blades, hybrids of spear but mostly sword with long stave grips cleaved up and down cutting the beasts in half.
This spectacle of violence I watched as my craft floated into the hangar. The pilot lit the maneuvering thrusters to keep us aloft as the copilot spun up the mega bolter on our nose.
Two other craft at our back let loose with us into the green tide. Carving trenches of fire and shredded meat in their ranks. Careful to avoid the Terminators, though firing much closer than we would have had they not their tactical dreadnought armor.
From the depths of the ship, a new force of Greenskins howled and raced towards the melee. The cream of the Xeno's crop. Nobs, both armored and not eager to put their power claws and hammers to use and get their share of the glory,
And Medrad Naylor moved to oblige them.
He towered over their lead runners, the fearsome kanabo club swept up. Smashing through six skulls at his shoulder height with ease as he swung right to left. The terminator then lowered his shoulder and met the charge of a scrap clad brute head on. His weight and momentum knocking the creature flat on its back leaving it helpless for the weapon which swung back up and then down.
Smashing its chest and vital organs to bloody smithereens. Another Nob came forward at a run seeking the challenge of the biggest foe. The terminator stepped inside of the creature's wide swing. Threw his right shoulder into its gut and hoisted the wriggling Ork up into the air. Naylor quickly swung the metal studded head of the club into his left hand, then made his body an anvil hammering the club down on the Greenskin's back. Snapping its spine in two with a laugh.
"Open the assault ramp and take us down," I commanded the thralls, then voxed to my chalk of warriors as I turned to the cockpit's exit,
"Once more unto the breach brothers!" Heads at the back ranks turned to track me. Then the boots and bodies to which they were attached stepped after me as I passed them, moving to follow the ones who had already leapt from the Stormbird,
"Kill them all!"
Line soldiers ran and fired, the Orks were so close they couldn't possibly miss. I heard the distinct roars of jump packs sending assault marines up to come crashing down like meteors or straight into the Xenos like battering rams.
The heavy clunk of our craft touching down timed perfectly with my armored boots landing back on the deck. A feeling that had always brought a sense of closure and safety to me before. Returning to the embrace of our mighty vessel. But not now.
The clash and clamor of battle, the reeking odors of spilt blood from rupture bodies tinged with the metallic tang of gun smoke had invaded our home.
And blood called out for blood.
I saw them, what were once our thralls. Butchered where they had tried to turn and fight the Orks they had no chance of beating. Weapons too big for their mortal hands were broken alongside their bodies on the red stained deck.
Most Legionnaires felt this way, even myself. Accepting thralls were not important, easily replaced menials omnipresent through the Legion. Praetor Vaurion had tried to teach otherwise, that our servants may not have been the Emperor's chosen. But these failed initiates, distant blood to the first Astartes, lesser sons of indebted noble families and refugees rescued from where the Dawn Stalkers had roamed. Whatever they were or used to be, the thralls were a part of our Legion.
And I saw here, they were the only ones who died with their faces to the foe.
I vaulted over a fuel pipe and crashed into a Green skin before his ax could fall. My knees denting its scrap armor and throwing it back against a maintenance scaffold. The creature's bark of frustration turned into bubbling gurgles as it collapsed to die a slow death from my claws piercing its chest.
Even before my bladed fingers exited from the fatal wounds more were upon me. I shrugged off a cleaver blow on my left shoulder, turned and quickly cut the Ork's hands off. Another marine stepped forward, put a bolt pistol to the Xeno's head and pulled the trigger. Painting the end of another violent scene.
Roaring battle cries sounded behind me. I caught and cut another axe in half when I turned. Like I was swimming through water I began to claw my way through the creatures behind the one who spent a fatal second to long staring in disbelief at the broken handle.
I pulled what remained of the Nob's corpse from the data station. A free standing console at the mouth of one aisle in the hangar. The dead carcass crashed back with a meaty thud and I pointed my left index finger and the blade adorning it to the first warrior I found at my side,
"Status report, now!" I commanded,
He slung his bolter on his hip and proceeded to try and coerce some form of useful information out of the terminal while I set to guarding him.
Four squads arrayed themselves in a square around us, rallying to the standard Sergeant Ryder soon brought to our position. A few more splashes of blood and a couple new bolt holes through that once pristine piece of cloth. All aiming their bolters and looking for threats from every direction even as it seemed the fighting was starting to make its way to the deeper parts of the ship. A new battle line forming to keep the green tide at bay. Anchored on the blood spattered terminators triumphant over their foes, firing their weapons at any Xeno they saw.
The last of the Stormbirds came in shooting, seeking a place to land and disgorge their Astartes. Their engines burying the clash of combat. And one last great lumbering Nob stumbled its way towards our square and the other Orks dead at our feet.
But the brothers held their fire this time. The beast was as good as dead with Master Bruis climbing up its back ready to smash his power maul down into its skull while his last acolyte guided its unbalanced bulk with his power sword up to the hilt in its right side like a longship's steering oar.
More droplets splattered over our armor when Master Bruis brought his maul down. Falling with the beast but nimbly rolling to his feet soon after.
Sensing a pause I looked to the warrior manning the data station. Master Bruis approached. And the sound of a roaring jetpack heralded Captain Arminger landing off to my left.
The warrior at the console looked to me,
"Damage?" I inquired,
He looked back, "Starboard's a ruin, guns are silent. Orks are coming across the ship… But mostly headed for the bridge… Some to engineering."
Master Bruis looked to me, "Well, orders Skius?"
Before I could give any, Captain Arminger pulled me back with his shield hand. Stepping forward as if I didn't even exist, "We send everyone out to the starboard side. Clear the Orks and turn this boarding…"
"John!" I yelled and pushed him back to face me, "Mind your place,"
"No brother," He returned, no camaraderie in his voice, "The Vanguard was disbanded when Lord Vaurion called his echelon to him. This is the,"
But before the assault captain could explain what his hunger for glory told him we should do Master Bruis cuffed him over the head,
"Vain fool," The Diaconus reprimanded, "Vaurion summoned the Vanguard. The Vanguard is led by Commander Centermerius and you would do well to remember that."
Bruis turned his black helm to me, gave a short nod of respect and swept his left hand and plasma pistol indicating the console. A move conducted as if there were no distant alien cries and weapons fire still ringing against our helmets. I shoved past my glaring second, putting a bit more force than necessary behind my shoulder.
I scanned the tactical map of the ship one more time, "Our orders are to secure the ship. Master Bruis, take the terminator wing and two companies to the bridge. Captain Arminger, take the rest of the Vanguard to the spinal marshalling corridor. The Xenos have half our ship, don't let them take the second half."
Arminger interjected, "Fat lot of good that is going to do us if the Orks pull their heads out of their arse-holes and just bomb the Rays to death with that ship on our hull like I'd be doing."
I ignored his tone and his attempts to be difficult, "We shall deal with that in due time Captain."
As I stepped back I clicked open the vox to my handpicked squads, ten of them that had made it through the chaos we left on the ground, "We're going to the Engineerium…"
It was a treacherous task, crossing this vessel that to walk the length of would have taken a day under the best of circumstances. Orks were encountered and gunned down just as quickly as they appeared. Sometimes, the beasts were still dangerous. Several of us left these encounters with new battle wounds of bolt and blade. Others did not leave at all. One brother opened another hatch and had his head blown off by a lucky rocket before we hurled grenades in.
Lights flickered over our heads, occasional tremors shook the battle barge and made us stumble. We even vaulted in great leaps through one larger corridor where gravity had failed entirely. But we made good time, and soon found ourselves at one of the side entrances to the beating heart of the Rays.
I had never seen these great doors sealed before, though I imagined it was a good thing they were so. Blackened splashes of soot and carbon were prominent along with the deep gouges that could only have been from powerklaws. Evidence of multiple failed entrance attempts by the invading Xenos.
On several open vox channels I called out for anyone in the massive open bay that lay on the other side of this monolithic door, "Engineering this is Commander Centermerius, I am outside and have reinforcements… Engineering respond… Any imperial personnel, this is,"
As I spoke a frightened voice squeaked in low gothic over the vox, a whisper that I could barely make out the words of,
"Commander? Is that you?"
Narrowing in on this frequency I spoke again, trying to put bracing iron in my words, "Identify yourself."
"Enginseer designate three, three, one, seventeen, milord. I mean… This is Egli Commander."
Surprised, I plied the adept with questions, "Where is the Magos Dominant, Enginseer?"
"He was communing with the Brimming Rays and the machine spirit lashed out," Egli explained,
"Is he dead?"
"As good as…" Egli said, his words in a haunted tone. I knew what the adept meant.
"Open the blast door, section four beta Adept," I commanded the Martian.
"I'll try Commander… Wait a minute,"
Egli's last words were not a request for patience. They were a declaration of his own startled confusion. The vox clicked again for half of a panicked sentence,
"Oh! Shi-"
Immediately as the line fell silent the floor rumbled like an earthquake hit. Engineering had been breached.
"Egli respond!" I demanded,
No answer came.
"Damn and damn again," I cursed. Raising my right claw I signed for my chosen, "Bring a melta bomb."
A bronze clad sergeant moved to the door carrying the requested device. Yet a realization struck me.
"Use two Sergeant," I commanded,
He looked back the only sign of his confusion a slight twist to his head, "Sir?"
"It's a 'blast' door."
This time I was first into the breach. Throwing my bulk into the open, propelled by my arms and claws to the side of the instant doorway made. My wrist bolter came up scanning for targets in the cavernous machine bay.
If the ship had organs I would have been standing in its heart.
The great muscle's equivalent that was the Warp reactor pumping the life blood of energy through the ship lay to my right many, many meters distant. Great rows of turbines beneath the catwalk I found myself on, shrouded in exhaust steam churned and endlessly fed the power core. The walls I remembered were covered in pipes and conduits, but I could not see them in the distance. Intermittent data stations dotted the gantries, mostly next to access tunnels that led deeper into the bowels of the Battle Barge.
To my left was what I sought, a nexus of the black metal walkways before the master control station. Twenty by twenty paces of interfaces and controls circled around the machine spirit of the Brimming Rays.
Several red robed Mechanicum adepts had taken cover behind these consoles. More hoping to remain unseen than taking the chance the screens would block a projectile.
Of which many were flying over their heads. The Orks were several meters closer to the vulnerable Martians and had already gunned down the few Skitarii guards left to watch them. I broke into a sprint and my chosen followed suit.
I fired as my feet pounded against the grating, and the Orks shifted their focus to the more interesting targets. The chests of the first stood no chance against the mass reactive shells carefully sent at center mass by the Dawn Stalker's squad standing still by our entrance. More fell as quick snapshots managed to land.
But the Orks returned fire. I lowered my head out of instinct as I ran, still taking several hits. Especially as we drew closer to each other.
One of which penetrated my armor.
I grunted and lowered my right claw to my now bleeding side. Stray droplets of red leaked from the low wound beneath my palm. It didn't hurt at first, feeling only as if I had taken a punch to the guts. Cold soon ran through my system, as my body reacted to the damage.
On a wave of adrenaline I roared a challenge and swung high right at the Ork which had beat me to the nexus. The Xeno raised a burly arm and blocked my slashing strike forearm to forearm. But I stabbed my left claw down into a thigh and spun myself clockwise.
My right claws slid into the Greenskin's back like butter and with another mighty yell I flipped it back over my head and hurled it down into the turbines.
Before the beast even struck below I had caught a long bladed cleaver swung for my stomach between my hands. The Orks were upon us. Once again the noise of melee devoured the ambience. Chainblades, screaming Xenos, harsh cracks and wet thuds of metal hitting armor and then flesh. Ever familiar, even when heard a thousand different ways a thousand different times.
"Egli!" I called out as I gutted the Ork. Scanning the control center for the adept.
The first thing I saw however was the Magos Dominant. The machine cult elder, a true cyborg with multiple mechanical additions to his base form was wired to and slumped at the base of a dome slightly risen from the floor. His red hood had fallen from his metal scalp, eyes wide at nothing while he panted on the ground. His mouth almost dislocated from screaming at the trauma which was the last thing he would ever experience.
To the right of this living corpse another red hood rose up like a rodent from a hole. And was immediately bisected by an Ork chopper from the other side of the console the adept attempted to hide behind.
I cursed, out loud this time even as I slashed out another throat. A Marine dove across the entire control station from one end to the other to tackle this murderous Greenskin away from the survivors.
Another Adept rose from his hiding spot, his rebreathing mask down across his chest. His brown hair inundated with sweat held back by his headband. Egli called back to me,
Shouting a warning,
"Behind you Commander!"
As he was sounding the first syllables of my temporary rank the little net hit my left shoulder. A small thing, not enough to even entangle a scout marine. Tendrils of smooth wire magnetized to my armor, and formed the bridge through which thousands of volts of electricity poured into me.
I froze as my muscles convulsed, unable to give sound to the pain in my limb. Yet when I regained some modicum of control over my body I was already rolling across the deck. Now several meters away.
The cord that bound me to my assailant I shredded as I came up on the tip of my feet, left hand firmly on the floor right splayed back for balance.
What remained of the surprisingly high tech device quickly returned to a port in the forearm bracer of the Ork Mek that had shot it.
It was an obese creature, a large green gut spilling from beneath its breast plate as it stood a head taller than most of the other Xenos. Burly long limbs however hinted at strength waiting to be unleashed. Yellow paned goggles covered its eyes, and a grin full of crooked cracking teeth split its face above a massive jaw.
Smoke rolled from the miniature power plant latched to its back. In its right hand before the gauntlet the creature hefted a truly massive scrap axe with the single grip. The left hand poised to draw from a selection of tools arrayed in a leather satchel.
But what stuck out to me the most, was the odd out of place shape that sat upon its left shoulder. It almost seemed to be made flat planes of black glass etched with many hexagonal patterns. With several thin jointed legs coming out and down into the alien's hide. As if the creature had decided to place an oddly geometric spider upon itself. Looking closer I saw blue veins spreading out in all directions on the Orks skin beneath this thing.
I would examine it further after I slew this beast.
Springing off my feet I charged, aiming to ram my claws into his blubbery guts. The Mek ripped its left hand back then forth pulling on a cord strung to its back. The barrel of a scavenged volkite blaster sprung up over its left shoulder on a servo arm. Blasting a thermal ray straight into my chest.
It knocked the breath from my lungs but I didn't even break stride. It swung the axe aiming to cut me in two, but I was already past the chopping blade.
I stopped the shaft in my left palm, then reached for crushed and tore the blaster free with my right in a fountain of sparks. I threw a boot into its armored stomach trying to push the creature back. It snarled and in response gripped onto my right arm and the bolter attached to it.
Letting go of the axe I raked my left claws across the lightly armored bend of that limb. The snarl turned into a hiss of pain that ended as I threw my whole weight behind my shoulder ramming into the Ork. The Mek only tightened its hold, pulling my wrist bolter right off its mounts. Throwing the weapon down amongst the turbines,
An action I had no time to be irked for.
Using our combined momentum the Mek pushed me away as we turned like two partners in a dance. Then the beast raised its axe back and swung down, its smile biting through my left shoulder pauldron. Drawing a line of fire where it cut my skin beneath.
I roared and swung up, knocking the blade out of this new wound and away. The Mek pulled back for another swing, when its arms were back behind it's seemingly too large head with no chance to block I leapt and rammed all ten claws home into its stomach.
Only for the greenskin to wrap its arms around me, axe handle in both hands gripped tight and crushing me against its breast plate. Stress creaking through my bronze painted ceramite. I shouted out feeling my bones grind together even as my claws dug deeper into the Ork's bulk and I strained to break free of this hold.
And then it spoke,
Broken gothic words as I knew the Xenos were sometimes capable of, I had heard them often enough. But I was shocked this thing had chosen now of all times to dialogue. Especially in such a manner that came out of its smiling mouth along with the spit now coating my visor.
"Tha's stabby bitz nota wha hurtzin mes ta moszt sirrah. Tis tha fac that'cha nut evunz gets me tha grazy o a parlay ya diddy not sirrah!"
The beast tightened its grip and I felt the tips of my boots leave the ground.
"Weez'a tryin agains me tinks." The Mek spoke again with a lopsided smile, "Ello' tere sirrah. Oim delightad ta beh maken yor acqwaintanz."
Its guttural voice attempting to be pleasant only stirred the wounded embers in the pit of my chest. How dare this creature attempt to be civil, after all the death and destruction it and its kind had visited upon us...
My chosen were locked in a dozen separate duels, they couldn't help me. I strained with all my might attempting to break free. Pushing its arms like tree trunks back away, centimeter by painful centimeter
I did not consider the action wise in hindsight, I needed to save my strength but I found the voice challenge at the Xeno mechanic.
"Foul beast! You will not… Defile this ship!"
"Defylon?"The Mek asked, a confused look coming across its ugly face, "Oim hurtz oi zis sirrah! I'za guard e barg wit me loif if yah just'a givz er ta meh. No no no. Oim a take verrryyy guud care o'er." I shuddered at the obscene pleasure it put into those cords of sound, "Makon sure shes getzin propa Orkied up…"
The Ork perked up a bit, tilting its head to the side and throwing an even bigger smile as a thought hit its tiny brain, "…Oi moight evun ask yunz ta join me crew. Ain't neva ad a humie in tha band befar. Whatcha say Cap'n? Weza sayl outs a dis buggerin storm tagetha."
"I… Would… Rather…"
I took my chance.
Twisting my claws ever so slightly to the right. They slid down and out of the rubbery flesh along with a torrent of blood and peeking entrails. And as my weapon was freed so was I, slipping out of the Ork's brutal embrace.
Before he could react I spun up from my nearly prone position and ripped his stomach clean open with a wide slash. The Ork howled in pain, crashing down on its bent right leg. Trying to support it's weaken bulk with the great axe planted head first.
I rose to my full height, properly eye to eye with this creature now. As down on its knee it did not look so tall. I made to teach it a lesson before sending it to oblivion. If it moved a muscle I would end it. Raising my left index finger I drew my own smile on its face, splitting open its right cheek from its ear to the mouth.
"You will never have this vessel. Not as long as,"
Everything happened so fast,
I knew I could have rammed either of my old captain's weapons into the Mek's chest and ripped out its heart in an eye blink, had I seen this trick coming.
The Ork opened its mouth ever so slightly. And a thin stream of black smoke hissed through yellow teeth and impacted on my red staring visor. That would not have fazed me in the slightest, were it not for whatever was laced in this attack that made my HUD go haywire. Filling the screen with static causing an involuntary flinch to freeze my body for the briefest of moments and making me blind to the axe punch that sent me thudding backwards.
The quick pulse of adrenaline faded from my veins with the interference. And I looked up from my splayed position on my back and saw the beast stand as if unharmed.
"Regretably yah maken me come ta dis sirrah," The Mek said, "Izza porfact gent I waz. A reasonabal Ork oi am."
I growled beneath my breath, "How..." Before catching myself and focusing my efforts on returning to the fight.
But the Greenskin heard me,
"O dis?" It asked pointing at its ruptured guts with its left hand, "Oi biddy thee lookee o'ere' sirrah."
I came to a crouch, holding back my charge when a peculiar sound reached my ears. I could only describe it as a loud zipper, drawn fast and hard up its course.
The Ork shuddered,
The strange thing on its shoulder began to move.
Thin spindly limbs tunneling down into the Ork's flesh. Defying common sense with their new length. I pondered if I there was storage unseen in the curious device, or if the legs were being further grown right before my eyes.
Grown for a purpose that made my skin crawl.
Multiple legs appeared from the top of the wound and raced to cross it like a rope bridge over a canyon. And when they found purchase on the other side, the legs began to reel in like a fishing rod.
Pulling the Ork's death wound closed.
The beast chuckled and tilted its head to let me see the wound on its face. The same phenomenon happened to this cut as well. Legs quickly crossed and close the extension of its mouth leaving not but a blue line to mark that it had ever existed.
"Me proide n'joy tis'e ere sirrah! Oi pick'd er upa tin a bitty plaze no,"
Egli didn't let the beast finish explaining,
From the shadows unseen the young Enginseer had approached when the Ork had revealed its little trick. Fighting through his overwhelming fear to come to my aid.
Now bearing the cog headed power ax he had taken up when the Magos Dominus no longer had need for it,
Egli swung with all his might, the Ork paused and glanced backwards to see what had loosed all the air in its lungs for a shout of exertion. Bringing the blade down over the Ork's left shoulder,
Cleaving into the alien device perched upon its flesh.
Feedback from the damage coursed through the Xeno's body, making him writhe and scream in pain. Falling down on to its knees and dropping the giant scrap ax to the floor plating with a loud clatter as the strange machines arms twisted deeper and deeper.
"Oooooohhhh," The Greenskin hissed looking back over its shoulder again at Egli, "Tha's a foine choppa yah gotz dere… Runt,"
Egli twisted his grip on the weapon, "Let me show you its features!"
Blue electric bolts, plainly visible erupted from the Mechanicum ax. Following the little mechandrites down to the closed wound. Burning every centimeter they went inside of the Ork. The beast moaned and howled trying to reach back for the Enginseer.
Like pulling root vegetables from a field, Egli began to lever the Xeno device out of the Ork. The deep sutures coming back out from whence they came covered in blood. The beast howled again, and this time when it cast its right arm back it took hold of the power ax's handle.
Egli let the creature take it. He knew he wouldn't match its strength.
And now I had an opening.
The Ork's head snapped back to me as I roared and charged back. It threw away the Dominus's ax then raised its right arm to fire something else at me.
Whatever it was flew past in a blur of smoke and sparks.
The Mek had missed.
And my left claw rammed into its right shoulder. Pinning the grasping limb in place.
Allowing me to seize the extended bundle of cable legs coming from its body and grip tight. Tearing almost half a bloody meter free now as I turned,
Using all my might to throw the Ork up over my head and slam it down to the ground. Tearing another five lines deep across its armored chest letting more precious life blood fall to the deck. More of the tendrils came out, enough to reopen the Mek's belly wound until they snapped off under the strain. I dropped the device and casually crushed it beneath my left boot heel.
I paused to catch my breath, Egli came to my left. Eyes scanning my bronze form up and down checking for any serious damage.
And joining me in watching the Xeno bleed to death.
The Ork moaned and squirmed clutching at its fatal wounds with ichor running through its fingers. Until its pitiful death cries gave way to final words.
"Ohhhh… Tis bettaa… To'a…" It put the last of its strength into one last cry, "WAAAGHED! N losty thanta neva…"
Its little speech ended in a wet gurgle as the life faded away. So I raised my head to take in the situation.
My chosen had pushed the Orks back to the breaches. The beasts abroad in the ship having lost interest in the room when the Mek fell and stopped coming in to look for a more interesting fight. Now the Dawn Stalkers stood guard at the doors they couldn't reseal.
Egli sprinted back to the control ring. Two other surviving tech priests stood up from beneath their consoles and began attacking the terminals with the speed of their fingers.
As I began to walk towards the Martians the ship violently shuddered. Distant crashing booms filled the halls and I nearly fell to the floor again. My arms spinning wildly in a quest for balance.
The enginseer hitched his face mask up, binary screeches began flowing between himself and his cohorts. I stood before Egli, the adept nearly at eye level with me now on his raised platform.
"Seer, what was that?" I demanded,
He looked across the glowing green screens but did not respond, one of the others at his back looked over and let out a long string of binary.
I raised my voice, "Can you contact the bridge? Egli what is going on?"
He looked into my visor, switching to gothic, "The Ork ship has dislodged. It's reversing course."
"Preparing for another ram?" I asked,
"Logical," Egli said,
"Can you contact the bridge?" I asked again,
The Adept shook his head, "No. No one is responding with anything but gunfire."
"What can we do?"
Egli interlocked his fingers underneath his chin wracking his brains.
I let out a breath in disgust at his inaction, raising my right claw up in a broad stroke as I threw out the first plan to come to mind, "Engines? Can we go evasive?"
"Perhaps," Egli said, "We can deploy most functions of the ship from here. But… If the Orks detect activity they will ram us immediately. Or blast us into oblivion."
"How far away are they now?"
He looked down, "Breaking twenty kilometers."
"Do we have weapons?"
"…Only one lance cannon on the starboard side is still operational. We can only fire it once remotely without a crew to perform the sustaining and readying rites on the gun itself… Forward torpedoes are loaded but if we start to move into firing position…"
I growled, "Then what can we do aside from die adept?"
"…Plasma Lance."
"What?" I asked in serious question. I knew what the two words meant on their own, but had only heard them combined in whispers.
The other two techpriests looked over to Egli and after a pause a new storm of binary screeches filed the air. Egli turned to them raising and throwing his right fist down trying to emphasis a point I could not understand.
This discourse and argument carried on for nearly a minute. Until I spoke and intervened,
"Such a weapon. That's impossible"
"Theoretical there's a difference," Egli said,
"Regardless we have no such technology on this ship."
"We have one shot, a plasma lance could cripple and blind the Orks long enough…"
My voice rose again, "We have no such weapon."
"But we have the means to improvise."
Curious now I asked, "How so?"
One of the other techpriests shouted out, "My lord do not listen to him! Egli's plan is madness! Trust…"
Egli turned and snapped, "You know it can work! And you know that…"
"What is your plan…?" I growled silencing them all, I needed answers not argument, "Explain, Adept…"
The Enginseer took a deep breath, "We can fire the starboard lance one last time. As it charges, we overload the power reactor beneath. The plasma floods out and laces the energy stored with,"
"Hold," I commanded raising up my right hand, "Overload a reactor?"
"A small one, yes" Egli said,
"Overload… As in, detonate?"
"Yes," the Martian said, annoyance in his tone and the nod of his head.
"On our own ship?"
"Where else Commander?"
My blood rose up and my hidden features warped into a scowl. Egli continued, "There are only Orks around this deck. No Astartes. And no time left Commander."
"You are missing my point Adept,"
"Do you have a better idea!?"
"I am having a hard time thinking of one worse!"
"Worse than just waiting for the Orks to kill us?"
…Perhaps not.
I clenched my hands together. My hearts beating like they were set to burst from my chest.
"…You there," I said looking to the other techpriests,
The one who had objected in gothic straightened up, "My lord, trust the armor around us and…"
"Contact the bridge one more time," I commanded,
The Martian blinked twice then moved to open up a video link on his console. He stared at it for a moment then looked back to me, "No response."
"Then you will make sure that Egli does not tear the ship in half."
He recoiled back, visibly shook, "What? No! You ignorant fool. It will kill,"
I slammed my curled left fist down on the back of the console before me. The clap of ceramite on metal silenced the Adept.
"Do it…" I rumbled low and lethally dangerous with my words.
The Martian looked between Egli and his other fellow one more time, "No I will not, I will not be party to this Heresy!"
The outraged techpriest began to storm off abandoning his control station and his duty. Neither of the others made a move to stop him.
So as he passed close to my left out of the ring of controls I stabbed him through the chest with the four claws on my left. The blades sliding over his collar bone and into his vital organs
His voice modulator crackled in pain and surprise with still red Human blood leaking out from his cyborg body. Trembling hands tried to grasp the mono-edged claws before I pulled back and threw the soon to be dead carcass face first to the deck.
Egli and the other stared in stunned silence at the betrayal and resolution that had occurred so quickly. I spoke again to focus them back on the task at hand.
At the same time, I brought my palms in the center of the heavy gauntlets up to the sides of my head. Disengaging the battered helmet with a hiss of escaping air. Letting me breath in the fresher air that was still laced with the sewer like smell of slaughter. My glistening black hair almost glued to my scalp in sweat. I locked my green eyes on Egli's own
"Victory by any means necessary," Came my first whisper,
"Time is of the essence Adepts…" I reminded them as I put my plumed helm of the back of the console in front of me, "Though if you destroy the ship. I will kill you before the explosion ends us all."
"…Noted Commander, such an outcome's probability is however only… Well. Still better than the Orks leaving us in peace," Egli said, then turned to his compatriot, "Shall we?"
"The Orks are now breaching one hundred kilometers away," The still shocked Adept said after a nod, "I shall begin the feedback surge,"
"No," Egli countered, "I shall manage the over load. Plot the firing sequence. Sync for fifteen seconds. Ready?"
"Ready."
"Mark."
Egli pressed another string of commands. The great engine began to hum with growing power. Vents belched hot air and used coolant far below us. Both adepts had their eyes glued to their readouts.
"Lance is ready," The distant one confirmed.
Egli spoke as he worked, with none of the playfulness he used for me deep in the alien power plant, "Begin firing sequence. Power levels critical. Safeties have been… Disengaged. Detonation in five, four, three."
"Target locked. Energy saturated."
"Two."
"Firing Lance!"
"One! Mark!"
I shut my eyes,
Bracing myself for death.
A death which did not come.
The ship trembled again. Like some star borne giant out of myth struck the side with his club. Warning klaxons blared in the distance. Trying to alert the crew of fires, explosions, hull breaches and destroyed weapons. I could only imagine what the end results of our desperate plan could look like.
But we endured, the ship was yet in one piece.
Now to see about our enemy.
Egli called out, rather weakly I noted. He was even more surprised than I was, "Bulkheads… Bulkheads are sealed. Fires are being vented… Damage is, contained."
He unhitched one side of his face mask, letting me see the dim smile on his mouth, "Could have been worse. Hmph. It's almost like we planned this…"
"The Orks Egli," I reminded him,
He switched to the sensor arrays, "Direct hit. Plasma is spreading."
The other interjected, "They haven't opened fire yet. Armor values should be negligible."
"Then turn this beast around," I ordered, "Ready torpedoes."
He nodded and complied, I made a note in my mind to learn his name, "Preparing emergency thrusters."
Egli stated, "Firing solution ready."
He pressed another button, waking the ship wide communications,
"All hands!" His gothic words filled every inch of the distant corridors, "Brace for maneuvering! I repeat! Brace, brace, brace!"
I gripped tight to the console, pressing my bloody left hand down on my helmet to keep it in place. Bending my knees in anticipation.
The noise of the great engines igniting actually sounded worse than the overloading power core. Stressed metal groaning underneath thousands of tons of G-Forces as attempted to tear the Rays apart at the seams as we swung the bow of our barge and the Stormbird sized tubes within to face their target. These forces pulled at everything on board threatening to make me stumble and fall. An event lasting longer in my mind than I'm sure it was in real time.
The two Mechanicum adepts began to chant as they worked and stood firm. Practiced verses and phrases recited now out of second nature. Allowed for sermons to invoke their god of metal and cogworks. Something in private I had still yet to come to terms with
Egli started, his compatriot soon joined, "See the Omnissiah and know he is truth."
"Learn from the Omnissiah and know he is supreme."
"Honor the Omnissiah for he is perfection made manifest."
We snapped back the way we came once the ship halted itself.
"In position," Egli's companion marked,
The Enginseer cleared his throat, "Tubes one, two, three, five, six, and eight firing!"
First there was the blast of rocket engines. A massive explosion of liquid fuel sending the most powerful weapons on board the Brimming Rays out to its target. Reverberating through the hull for several seconds making the warship ring with energy until silence fell.
"Impact?" I questioned the two men.
Egli counted, "Two, one…"
He clapped his hands once then raised them up in fists shouting in triumph, "Yes! Take that you green ugly bastards!"
More sedately the other stated, "Target destroyed Commander."
I let out a sigh of relief, resisting the urge to run a hand back over my bare head which probably would have resulted in me scalping myself.
"Fine work… Brothers," I told the two. Egli looked quite beside himself in satisfaction.
His comrade realized they still had a job to do.
My mood shifted into startled alert at his next words, "Last contact moving to run."
"Contact?" I questioned,
"Yes my lord. Escort class. Rang two hundred kilometers moving off bearing eight…"
He froze focusing the ships asupex on something.
"New contact," He said, "Profile unknown. Scanning…"
Egli took a glance, "That's a legion vessel. Frigate class. He's headed right for the, oh. Damn."
"What?" I demanded, my contempt at relying on second hand information knew no bounds.
But a chill ran down my spine when I realized there could only be one ship of that kind in this system now, "Is it the First Curse?"
Egli ignored me and continued, "He's collided head on with the Orks. Both contacts lost. Wait… New contact. Thunderhawk on approach. Their transmitting…"
His voice grew needlessly joyous, "It's a Legion identification code! Yes, confirmed. It's the fifteenth!"
A tone that died immediately when he saw the look on my face,
"Commander?"
"Target that craft."