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Chapter 5: The Battle of Victory Bay

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Part 3

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Victory Bay

Kronus

This could have gone better, the Necron Lord decided. He was stuck in the epicenter of a small, localized and unpleasantly potent psychic storm. He had to brace himself, even slam his staff into the ground for a better purchase and channel as much energy as he could into stabilizing reality around him. The psychic phenomena tore apart the human command center behind him, which was emptied of anything but a bare-bones staff meant to help sell the illusion it was still a prime strategic target. Those humans were now either dead or running for their lives. The two machines that hid along with him in anticipation for the Aeldari assault weren't fast and agile enough to flee, they were too close to the epicenter to make it anyway. The so called dreadnought on the left took the brunt of the storm, it broke through its heavy plating with ease and tore the soul of its crippled pilot to shreds. The second machine was more fortunate. While it lost its left arm and the flamer attached to it, it managed to stumble into the reality enforced zone near the Necron before the storm turned it into a pile of useless scarp.

"That was a foolish thing to do..." The machine rumbled humbly. Smoke rose from its chassis even as rivulets of molten metal slid down deep gorges blasted into the armour.

At that moment, the Necron Lord really wished he could have voiced his agreement. The standard Necron units lacked working voice-casters, those in storage were little more than scrap and the data on building them was either gone or it would take days if not weeks to be recovered if at all possible. He lacked the know-how to put to good use a human vox-caster, though if things went well enough, he might get something working on that front in the future. Relying on that transformed human as a voice was less than ideal if the reactions of the other humans during the brief meetings between the two sides were anything to go by.

The Necron Lord checked the feedback from his deployed forces, and lamented the fact that he was still largely crippled, otherwise he wouldn't have been stuck tanking the Eldar attack. It was almost a frustrating things to experience.

At least the other parts of the battle were going better.

A pair of destroyers with infantry hanging off their backs emerged from the ground right behind an Aeldari raiding party. The Guardians and Aspect Warriors were too busy enjoying themselves slaughtering the human infantry support of an artillery position to pay attention and by the time they sensed the danger, half of them died due to overlapping Gauss blasts. The rest scattered and found themselves fighting for their lives as the humans rallied and charged them as well.

A Ranger squad perched on the top floor of a building took aim at their targets, yet before they could decapitate the leadership of a dug in infantry company, a pair of Wraiths detached from a transport flying above, crashed through the building and engaged them in close quarters combat.

Two units of line infantry whose reliability the Lord doubted found themselves engaging a large group of Fire Dragons advancing towards the human armoured reserve. That blocking force wasn't enough to stop the Aeldari by themselves, however the time it took the enemy to turn them all into molten slag was more than enough for human artillery to zero in on the Fire Dragoons and erase the whole grid with a massive sustained barrage.

Finally the psychic storm subdued and the Necron Lord wasted no time in teleporting away, relishing in the fact that the power transmission between the working reactors in his base and his form was one of the few things still working. He materialized behind the Farseer, who was already ducking and rolling to avoid his attack. The Necron merely sent a blast of Gauss energy her way to keep her honest, if that was at all possible, and slung his staff around, while channeling and discharging as much energy as he could through it. One of the screeching Banshees acting as honour guards managed to get away just in time, merely having her armour scorched. The second one, who was closer, was much less fortunate. She managed an impossible twist and turn, avoiding a proper strike from the staff, which merely grazed her foot. That and the corona of power surrounding it was more than enough to vaporize her armour, burn her whole leg to a charred ruin before the Gauss energy got to work flaying the rest of her.

One of the Aeldari phasing specialists popped up nearby and opened fire with his shuriken pistols. Those things were lethal to lightly armoured targets, like most of the Necron's new allies. Against the heavy plating protecting their Lord? Most shots glanced harmlessly away thanks to the energies running through and just above the necrodermis which greatly increased its already substantial durability. The Necron Lord waved a hand at the offending Warp Spider, the motion releasing a crescent of emerald energy. The Aeldari phased out only to appear behind the Necron. He managed a single burst before a human sniper hit him in the side, sending him spilling on the ground. The Warp Spider teleported away by reflex and his luck ran out. It appeared right in the path of the damaged dreadnought, who didn't even slow down and stomped on his chest, crushing it underfoot.

"For the Emperor!" The crippled human cackled like a maniac as he ran straight at the Farseer.


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Taldeer drew her own sword and in one smooth motion pointed it at the charging machine channeling sorcerous energies through it. The moment its needle-sharp point came to a level with the small vision-slit on the machine, she would unleash the energy and properly scrap it this time. She was a heartbeat from doing it, when a group of freshly awoken Immortals appeared between her and her target. Taldeer unleashed her attack anyway, even as she dove away to avoid the onslaught she knew it was coming. Her attack struck one of the Yungir soldiers in the shoulder, the Warp energies proving just potent enough to sever the joint before a burst of emerald cracked over the machine and dissipated the rest.

That Immortal let go of his heavy weapon and retrieved a carbine from an attachment on his back. The five others wasted no time in blasting at the Farseer with their Tesla Cannons. Taldeer threw a psychic shield between her lithe form and the attackers, created a few illusions to help her better evade their attention and dashed towards the closest building. She was confident that she could take on the Necron Lord by herself, or could dispatch those walking horrors. Fighting them all together? She would need to cull down some of the humans around, rally her warriors and then decisively end this nonsense!

The damned Necron had other ideas. He brute forced his way through her illusions and jumped to engage her in close combat, while his reinforcements marched their way. Taldeer danced around the monster, pitted her mastery over the Great Ocean against the Yungir terrible technology, yet she simply couldn't get the upper hand. Every time she saw an opening and was about to take advantage of it utilizing her superior mobility, the Immortals fired at her, forcing her to evade.

Sadly, the engagement wasn't going much better for her warriors. Oh, they were spilling rivers of Mon-Keigh blood, Taldeer could both see it and sense it, dozens of the parasites died all around her with each passing second, yet more and more of the monkeys poured in from the surrounding areas. Worse, good Eldar warriors were falling as well, brought low by the crude implements wielded by the Mon-Keigh.

As if that wasn't bad enough, there was something wrong nearby that made her skin crawl worse than the few unfortunate encounters she had with the Neverborn!


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Part 4

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Victory Bay

Kronus

Sergeant Forkas followed the Angel of Death to his best ability, determined not to face the Xeno alone. He wasn't going to say it aloud no matter what, but having a large, very dangerous target beside him sounded like a good way to divert the enemy's attention and keep breathing for longer, perhaps long enough so the Imperial forces could put down the aliens for good!

Following the Astartes was easier said than done. The giant of a man tore through walls, shattered the floor to make a path, a few times blasted through the ceiling with his bolter before jumping up in an impossible feat of strength and agility given the apparent bulk and height of his armour. He left a trail of bloody and dying Eldar in his way too and Gabriel was more than happy to ensure that the Xeno were dead for good.

All good things had to come to an end. Without any warning, the Astartes sprinter forward, ran through a wall after weakening it with a burst of bolter fire and before the debris had finished falling, he crossed the room beyond and jumped through the shattered ruing of a shot up window. Forkas cursed and ran after the overgrown maniac before some sneaky alien decided he would make for a good target to pick up.

The Space Marine landed between a pair of those screaming bitches and engaged them with bolter and knife that was a full sized sword for a normal human. The avenue outside was a scene of utter carnage with Imperial soldiers and those metal Xenos fighting the Eldar, there was fire and blood everywhere, and the screaming of the dying… Gabriel shuddered but didn't let his fear and revulsion slow him down. He aimed and opened fire at the Banshees, counting that any stray shots won't do more than inconvenience the Angel of Death.

A sleek alien fighter roared overhead, chased by Imperial Interceptors that struggled to keep up with it. A crack of blinding lighting and buffering wave of displaced air heralded the arrival of enemy reinforcements. More Eldar craft streaked through the sky, this time pursued both by Imperial and Necron machines – there was no mistaking those crescent shaped monsters for anything else.

Of more immediate concern was the reinforcements the Eldar brought to bear. Suddenly the Emperor damned bloody battle turned into pure slaughter for everyone involved. The fresh Eldar threw themselves in the fight with a relish, preventing their friends form being properly overran and trampled under the boots and threads of the Guard. Fortunately, the Imperial reserves were nearby as well and a whole PDF infantry regiment threw itself into the fray pouring countless bodies into the slaughter. The streets ran red with human and alien blood, Forkas saw whole squads die under the guns and blades of the Eldar, some shot, other cut and torn apart, burned, melted and blown up. Then there was the abominable heretical sorcery the Xeno wielded doing terrible things to behold to those it struck.

Gabriel kept firing pausing only to reload or throw the odd grenade into the fray. He had to displace twice when Eldar marked his position, yet they were distracted by his fellow Guardsmen and women, giving him barely enough time to get out of his position before a plasma grenade turned one into inferno and a the second became so much kindling thanks to rapid fire projectile weaponry. The Sergeant didn't survive intact – his thick carapace armour turned away glancing hits, cracking in the process, and in two cases it barely held shots that passed through walls to touch him, he even felt a rib shatter, or perhaps that was the armour plate? It hurt like hell anyway, it was getting harder to breath but at least he wasn't coughing blood and that was something, right?

Many humans and xeno alike below were less fortunate. The abattoir there was complete. Lasguns, multi lasers, melta, plasma, bolters, even the threads of Chimeras and a tank platoon that just arrived to provide close support to the bloody infantry… Nothing should have been able to stand against such a display of human might, yet the Eldar refused to break, they threw themselves with suicidal abadon at the Guard determined to slaughter as many humans as they possibly could before superior numbers and firepower buried them, sometimes literally!

Gabriel knew war, he had faced both Orks and Tau before, but this, this was something else! Why didn't the knife-eared freaks break and run!? That way at least a few of them might make it out and any of his buddies still alive in this slaughterhouse might yet survive! Forkas kept shooting and without thinking began screaming his hatred at the Xeno who kept killing everyone in sight.


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I don't know how long it took me to get back my faculties, but it couldn't have been that long, because the fighting was still going on around us and we were still alive. On the bright side, now there are more and more Guardsmen streaming into the avenue, and they brought armoured support – Sentinels that stood as far away from the Eldar and shot at them with heavy stubbers, multi-lasers and lans-cannons, Chimeras with similar armament as well, which were sturdy enough to provide some cover from certain Eldar weapons.

Another positive was that the freak that tried to shoot me in the back was now well and truly dead – there was an Astartes towering above his body, and the Space Marine's foot had smashed through the Eldar's skull, with the boot still in place, caked in blood and brains, while its owner kept shooting downrange.

"Inquisitor, are you all right?!" A deep voice boomed loud enough to hear over the roar of the battle.

"I"ll live!" I shouted back and tried to get up. My brain immediately protested and it didn't help that I had gained a limpet – the little girl now clung to my side, empty eyes staring at nothing in particular and refused to let go. Either she was surprisingly strong or I was more messed up than I thought I was, because when I tried, I miserably failed to pry her away without hurting her.

It took a Guardsman who had his right arm hanging limply helping me get up, girl attached to my side and all.

"What's the situation?!" I demanded from no one in particular.

"The bastards are dying hard, Inquisitor!" A young Commissar, hell the boy looked younger than me, thundered form nearby. When I saw him, he was busy dragging back a screaming Guardsman who had his guts shout to hell. "Commissar Charles Weber at your service, sir!" He flourished his bloody chainsword in my direction, shoved the wounded bastard at a Medicae and drew his bolt pistol. "Orders? Do we continue charging the bastards and trying our best to stick them with the pointy end or do you have something fancy in mind?"

"She's a blank!" I shouted back. "We can use her to shut down any xeno sorcery by bringing her close to the bloody bastards, we just need to keep her in one piece!"

"Ah, so we would only worry about being shot and cut open." The Commissar nodded happily. "I can work with that! Jones, push the Chimeras ahead and get me two squads of your biggest, toughest bastards to act as bodyguards!"

"And someone help me put her down without breaking her fingers!" I added.

"You intend to lead from the front like you did against that Ork?!" Weber exclaimed, excitement coloring his voice. "That was awesome, you're truly a credit to the Inquisition and Humanity as a whole, Sir! We'll be right beside you, won't we boys and girls?!"

The nearby troops cheered gleefully, though not a single one of them capable of fighting even slowed down firing at any and all Eldar in sight.

What the hell did I just volunteer for?!