Krieg loathed that memory as it brought back thing's he wanted to forget, letting out a sigh he took another drag on his Iho-Stick before flicking it the burning nub out the window. Walking over to the long-broken portal to the outside window, Krieg blew a cloud of grey smoke into the still morning air. As the cloud dissipated Krieg had an excellent vantage point over the low-lying land below him, the hive-ganger's gaze wandered over the critical locations as he searched for any possible advantage if he was to encounter an ork mob. About one-hundred feet from the Hab-Block was the massive form of a Vox-Tower, no cover but it would be easy to climb to its top and gain a vantage point perfect for sniping or to try and use its built-in Vox-Amp to try and find some friendly forces in the area. Roughly half-a-kilometre from the tower are the burnt-out husks of a convoy of a dozen Centaur tanks, six of them towing a massive Earthshaker Cannon behind them and the others Krieg assumed to carry the crew and ammunition for the monstrous guns.
"Might be worth a look through" Krieg muttered as his gaze finally locked onto the pillar of smoke coming from the distant highway, more specifically the ambush site the pair had set up the night before. They had spent the better part of the night setting up their vantage point on top of a massive stone rock wall overlooking the road, pulling a full-size Lascannon up an eighty-foot cliff with an overhang was not one of his ideas but hey, at least the ambush went down without a hitch. The hive-ganger smiled as he remembered the high-pitched hum of the potent weapon before it fired a bright-red bolt of light dead into the face of the ork driving the Trukk at the front of the convoy even as another bolt hammered into the engine of the rear vehicle, turning it to slag in the process. Half-a-dozen shots later the entire convoy was a mess of molten slag and overcooked ork-flesh. This was bittersweet news however, as the pair had to jump to the closest object, a destroyed baneblade, which was at ground level, so they could avoid the strafing run of a trio of deffkopters.
Now he needed to get to that Vox-Tower, even if it did mean he had to wake up Krom.
In the Warp...
"...And that means that it is nigh impossible to get close to Golgotha let alone make planetfall" The wolf-helmed Chosen Champion said, the adamanitum scale-mail covering his power armour swishing behind him as he paced from one end of the room to the other. "Teleport assault?" The Terminator-Armoured form of Kol-Badur said, his face lit blood-red from the interior lights of his armour as he gestured at the holo-map in the middle of the room. "We would have to get well within the range of both the imperial and orkish fleets" The Chosen replied, striding over to the holo-map and pointing at two separate fleets, one orkish and the other imperial, on opposite sides of the planet, licking their wounds as they prepared to go another round. "I care little Sabtec" You warn the Chosen Champion, your hand coming to rest on the handle of your Accursed Crozius as you glare at him. "Apologies my lord but-" Sabtec was cut off as Kol-Badur interrupted, "We will find the Dream-Child my lord, or die in the attempt". You smile as you walk out of the room.
Golgotha...
"That was a complete waste of time" Krieg muttered whilst he ran a hand through his pale-white shoulder length hair as he walked up the embankment to the destroyed convoy of Centaur's. They had checked out the Vox-Tower only to find that it was home to a swarm of gretchin, was being the key word here as Krom lobbed a frag grenade into the room as Krieg held to door shut. One explosion later and with Krieg being sandwiched between the wall and the door that had been blown off of its hinges, they had entered the gore-splattered room only to find ruined Vox-Casters, cables and the liquefied remains of an orkish attack squig. Krieg could have easily dealt with the waste-of-time-and-a-frag-grenade had it not been for Krom's incessant bitching about it, "Move faster jerkwad" Krom growled, earning a cuff around the ear from Krieg's Flak-Armoured hand.
"Shut up already, we need to check out that convoy" Krieg said, his hand coming to rest on the hilt of his Power Sword as he hauled himself up the hill whilst his blood-red eyes flickered over each rock and indentation, his hive-ganger instincts coming to the fore. Krom, seeing Krieg about to 'hive-out', placed his hand on his shoulder, by doing so however Krieg spun on his heel with his eyes afire with barely-suppressed rage as his gauntleted hand lashed out, hammering into Krom's gut causing the sniper to drop to his knees as the wind was knocked out of him. A split-second later Krieg slammed his elbow into Krom's ribs, hearing an audible 'crack' as the sniper grunted before slugging the hive-ganger square in the face, knocking him out cold. Krom's hand grabbed a syringe of dark red/purple liquid from Krieg's bandolier before sitting up, placing a hand over the right side of his carapace armour, it had absorbed most of the impact from Krieg's vicious strike but because of its age had splintered and allowed Krieg to crack at least one of his ribs as Krom groaned in discomfort.
Still, he had to help the drug addicted hive-ganger, weather he liked it or not as he stabbed the syringe into Krieg's neck as he pressed the plunger down, injecting him with the potent drug called Kalma. Kalma is used to calm the nerves of combat-drug addicts like Krieg, who was addicted to no less than three of the potent, and illegal, drugs. To Krom, it wasn't surprising that Krieg had gained the attention of the Adeptus Arbites, most notably the dreaded Judge Vorl, who had single-handedly stopped the hive-riots of '88 by blasting their leader in the face with his custom-made shotgun 'The Headsman' it didn't fire standard slugs or buckshot but full-sized plasma-flasks capable of blasting holes in the armour of a Baneblade, which it did later that year when the daughter of that poor basterd somehow managed to hijack the super-heavy tank and began to lay waste to the precinct courthouse, gunning down more than one-hundred Arbitrators before the Judge blasted the Baneblade's Demolisher Cannon, detonating the loaded round causing the entire tank to explode into a mile-high pillar of smoke. If that Ork Waagh didn't target Golgotha, then Krieg would be nought but a headless corpse in an unmarked grave.
Krom was snapped from his thoughts as Krieg groggily sat up, eyes unfocused and dull as the drugs washed over him. "It happened again didn't it?" The hive-ganger growled whilst he got to his feet, flexing his neck as he started climbing up the hill once more. "No shit Sherlock and I think you cracked one of my ribs" Krom answered, rubbing the cracked right-side of his carapace armour just as they crested the hill. The convoy of Centaur's still stood and almost immediately Krieg noticed something amiss, eyes scanning each one before he approached one of the artillery tractors and peeked into the crew compartment. "What in the name of the Emperor are you doing?" The sniper questioned as he pointed his scoped autogun at Krieg, who responded by placing a finger to his lips as he said "Shut the frak up idiot" Krieg hissed, before adding "This wasn't done by orks" The hive ganger growled before jumping off of the side of the Centaur, landing with a 'Thunk'.
"What the hell do you mean it wasn't orks?" Krom questioned, sending the hive-ganger a death glare in the process as he walked toward him. Krieg opened his mouth to respond but shut it as he grabbed the sniper and dove behind the nearest Centaur just before a hail of lead tore into the ground where they were standing mere seconds before. "Kill 'Em!" A voice yelled as las-beams and heavy-gauge bolt rounds hammered into the Centaur, causing Krieg and Krom to grab their own weapons to respond. "Wait for it" The hive-ganger said, his autopistol in his left hand and a grenade in the other as he waited for a fleeting moment.
In the span of that short period of time Krieg heard the distinctive metallic 'Chink' of a gun that fired its last shot, without hesitating he hurled the frag-grenade over the top of the Centaur before it detonated, the hail of lead stopping as screams filled the air. Krieg took this opportunity to peek around the corner to find out just who the hell was shooting at them.
"FASTER YOU DOGS" The Overseer yelled above the din of the manufactorum deck aboard the massive Chaos Ark Mechanicus ship, The Herald of Sin as it ploughed through the currents of the Warp. A slave screamed as his arms were shattered by the closing door of one of the massive blast furnaces, his arms turned to slag before he was silenced by the bark of the Overseer's pump-action shotgun as the amputator shell blew his skull apart in a cloud of red gore. The Overseer growled as he grabbed the slave bloody corpse in one hand, his shotgun falling to his side as his free hand opened the furnace door as a hail of sparks greeted him as his plas-steel plated greatcoat protected him from the deathly heat of the furnace before he hurled the ruined body into its molten heart. Slamming the cast-adamantium door shut he turned to the rest of the slaves, who were currently frozen from the shocking display of violence, which was before the Overseer roared "GET BACK TO WORK" slamming a nearby slave in the skull with the butt of his shotgun in the process.
The slave fell back with a gurgled cry, his skull shattered from the force of the impact as the Overseer lazily walked toward his previous post. The mag-locked door behind him slid open, revealing a pair of Terminator-Armoured Chaos Space Marine's as they walked toward the Overseer, who bowed before the towering warrior's in respect. "Rise Enforcer Hakon" Said the closest Terminator, the one with a Power Mace dangling from a thick chain attached to the thick adamantium belt on his waist. Almost immediately Hakon stood to his full height, at 6 foot 7 he towered over most mortal men but even he was dwarfed by the monstrous forms of the Chaos Space Marine's. "My lord, what is it that you require from me" Hakon said, his eyes cast down to the floor as he was unwilling to stare at the towering apex's of chaos. "You are required to report to hanger J-8 so that you can assist us in the strikeforce" The second Terminator replied, the one with the Power Talons and the Combi-Bolter along with a helmet shaped crafted in the likeness of a snarling bestial visage.
"Immediately my lord" Hakon answered, bowing his head as he strode around the pair as he stepped into the red-lit glow of the elevator as he shouldered his shotgun. "Marduk" Kol Badur questioned, the Dark Apostle turning toward the Terminator Champion as he said "Need something". "Take care of the slaves" Marduk replied turning and walking into the elevator as its meter-thick adamantium door's slid shut, trapping the slaves in with Kol Badur who said to himself "With pleasure" as he levelled his Combi-Bolter at the crowd of slaves and pulled the trigger.
Honestly Krieg could not be in a tougher place right now, not that he was complaining of course. The bark of an Autogun filled the air as Krom claimed the life of another Mutant, leaving half-a-dozen alive whilst the twisted thing falling in a pile of its own guts as half of its head was blown off. Not to be outdone, Krieg drew Skyhunter with his left hand and promptly blasting another one trying to sneak up behind him in the gut, superheated plasma turning its insides to ash as it fell in a screaming heap. Drawing his Power Sword in his right, Krieg spun around the dead corpse and sprinted toward the mutant gun-line with his Plasma Pistol barking, one of the shots getting lucky and hitting one in the face as the rest of the mutants drew a bead on the hive-ganger.
A bullet slammed into Krieg's shoulder, earning a snarl from Krieg as the bullets momentum threw off the hive-ganger's aim causing the plasma-bolt to go wide and slam into a ruined piece of an Earthshaker's gun-shield. Another dozen shot hammered into Krieg's flak armour but failed to penetrate as he continued his unstoppable advance. The mutant's had set up a fairly decent ambush site had it not been for the fact that they had forgotten to get rid of the corpse's covered in auto-rounds and that orks don't use 8.73MM dum-dum rounds.
The bark of Krom's scoped autogun filled the air as another one of the mutants fell, pitched backwards as a dum-dum round punched through its throat and out the other side. Now there were just two of them left, one skinny and standing around as tall as a teenager wearing an aging suit of mesh-armour and carrying a heavy-calibre handcannon, the other standing a full two heads over Krieg and looked to have the strength of an ork nob seeing as it carried a heavy stubber with a single meaty arm and a blood-stained chainsword in the other.
The big mutant's heavy stubber chattered as it hurled a wall of lead at the hive-ganger, missing him completely as Krieg sidestepped and fired a plasma-bolt in return, causing the heavy stubber to fly apart in a spray of melted metal. The big mutant threw the broken heavy weapon to the side as he held the chainsword in a two-handed grip as it's unoiled blade screamed into life as Krieg vaulted the barricade and cleaved the big mutants head from its neck before hitting the ground with a 'Thump'.
The skinny mutant levelled its handcannon at the hive-gangers unprotected back before its arm was severed in a spray of gore as Krom severed the thing's arm with a single bullet, making the mutant scream in complete agony as it clutched the bleeding stump. Rising to his full height Krieg calmly dusted himself off as he sheathed his power sword and placed his plasma pistol back into its holster as he drew his autopistol and walked over to the fallen form of the mutant as he drew back the pistol's slide, letting it move back into place with a chink.
"Now where were we little whelp" The hive-ganger said with a glint in his eye as he strode toward the last mutant with a smile on his face.