Chapter 18
Escape and the Green Tide
"We've run into scorpions the size of battle-tanks, three men died of Eyerot last week, I've sweat enough to fill a lake, my boots got sucked into a sink-swamp and the trees are so thick in places, you can't squeeze between them. Emperor help me, I love this place! It's just like home!"
Captain Rock of the Catachan I 'Green Devils', on the Death World Varestus Prime
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Supreme Commander Yim starred from the bridge of his flagship, surveying the massive disk of rippling blue energy that was in front of him, he had heard from his fellows where this rip between galaxies led and his warrior's blood boiled with the promise of a fresh crusade. Already his entourage of vessels were moving through the gate, slipping through the blue light as if they were slipping through shadows.
He had to move quickly however, his scouts had reported that a large Alliance fleet was forming up just outside of the system, preparing to make an assault on his forces; they had to depart this galaxy before they arrived and close the worm hole before the infidels saw them.
He was no fool, he knew of the possibility that the Alliance could get here before they could exit the galaxy so he had set up several squadrons of cruisers and escorts to keep them at bay; they would be the last to leave.
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The modified Imperial Star Destroyer Mon Mothma dropped out of hyperspace within the clusters of warships ranging from the dagger-shaped Star Destroyers to sleek Mon Calamari Star Cruisers, swarms of smaller escort ships surrounded them from hammer-headed Tantive Corvettes to Dreadnought Cruisers, Assault Frigates and Victory-class Star Destroyers.
From the command deck of the Mon Mothma General Wedge Antilles watched as the vessels formed up around his Star Destroyer, this fleet, although impressive was just half of the main assault force, there was another force from the Imperial Remnant under the command of a recently reinstated Admiral Daala, waiting patiently at the other side of the system for the sign to attack.
Soundlessly he sat in his command chair and surveyed the battle-group one last time before turning to his aide "Make the jump, alert Admiral Daala's strike force!"
Wedge relaxed into his chair and watched the fascinating display of star lines streaking across the main view-screen as his flagship and the fleet under his command jumped to light-speed, next stop, Nal Hutta.
As his fleet exited hyperspace a few minutes later they came under attack from a squadron of six Matalok Cruisers, the 1.2km long cruisers were vaguely the same shape as a Mon Calamari Cruiser and no less deadly as they bombarded his newly arrived force at a distance with long range plasma projectors. Wings of dart shaped Corralskippers escaped from their hangers and zoomed through the airless void of space towards the fleet.
From the other side of the system blooms of explosions and tiny lines of turbolaser and plasma fire could be seen, Admiral Daala's own force had arrived and had meet a similar reception, the Yuuzhan Vong had expected them, Antilles would have expected no less from a veteran like Supreme Commander Yim.
Flashes of long emerald and crimson energy beams signalled that his capital ships were returning fire; wings of starfighters flew out of the hangers of every ship capable of holding them and swarmed to meet the smaller number of Corralskippers.
"Order Commodore Brask to take his squadron and flank them on the right" Wedge ordered briskly to his communicators, the Mon Mothma entered firing range and opened up with long range turbolasers, answering the challenge of the Mataloks.
From his side view-port Wedge saw Brask's Mon Calamari Star Cruiser, Steadfast, lead a small group of Dreadnought Cruisers and a streamlined, tower-less Defender Star Destroyer to the right, encircling the Yuuzhan Vong force, bombarding them with their weapons, one of the Mataloks screamed silently as it detonated in a bright flash.
From Nal Hutta Wedge saw a larger group of warships scramble into a battle line and approach the skirmish; it was then that the Alliance General saw the worm hole, a small circle of blue light, clearly visible in the darkness of space.
"I want a full scan on that anomaly" Wedge ordered.
"It's a worm hole sir" his scanning officer yelled from the crew decks a few moments later, another Matalok flashed out of existence under the fire of his taskforces guns.
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From the other end of the worm hole Supreme Commanders Carr, Hurkk, Shai and Orrai starred at the swarms of fireflies as they painted a picture of the battle unfolding at the other side of the gateway, the infidels had attacked from two separate areas, and the tactics told them that at least one of the commanding officers was the Corellian, Wedge Antilles.
"Tell Yim to be quick" Shai ordered to the warriors at the other end of the chamber "We close the worm hole in ten minutes whether he's through or not!"
"Agreed" Hurkk said with a long hiss from ragged lips "Our campaign with the foolish infidel Tau is progressing as planned and we cannot afford an Alliance battle-group knocking at our front door!"
"Especially if it is the human Wedge Antilles leading the charge" Orrai replied with a snarl, still remembering the disastrous battle at Borleias, the battle was recorded as a victory but the human and his fleet made them pay for the planet in rivers of their own blood, killing several of their most veteran warriors including the then Warmasters father, Czulkang Lah.
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Admiral Daala sat in her command chair, her long molten copper hair falling in cascades down the back of her chair, with her right hand she pulled her long bangs away from her delicate features as her Star Destroyer, Bahamut, pounded the Matalok cruisers with its long ranged turbolaser batteries, all around her was at least twelve Imperial Star Destroyers adding their considerable firepower to that of their flagship, tearing the last Yuuzhan Vong cruiser apart.
With a smirk on her red lips she ordered her ships to advance further into the system, their long ranged weapons firing continuous streams of light at a large cluster of Vong vessels that were flying towards her, her smirk turned into a smile before raising her slender right hand, signalling the fighters to launch, hundreds of Tie fighters flew from the hangers including next generation Tie Defenders, Raptors and Interceptors, they soared through the vacuum of space and meet the Corralskippers head on, both fighter swarms tearing into each others ranks, small blooms of explosions signalled either missed salvoes or destroyed fighters.
"Order Captain Monroe to take three Star Destroyers of his choice and micro-jump to just outside of the planets gravity well, flank them and make them split their forces!" she ordered crisply.
At once Monroe's Star Destroyer, Judicator, and three others turned to the planet and micro-jumped, they reappeared just outside of Nal Hutta's gravity field, directly behind the Yuuzhan Vong flotilla approaching her force and opened fire destroying a rear 2km long heavy cruiser.
The Imperial Admiral managed a tight smile as the Yuuzhan Vong split their forces in half to engage Monroe's strike team, one down, and seven to go.
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Supreme Commander Yim watched as the last ship slipped through the worm hole before looking back at the battle, the Alliance fleets had broken through his hastily placed defences and were approaching the worm hole at full speed, scattering the last few surviving vessels in their wake.
He managed a smile before ordering his worldship through the worm hole, once he went through the rippling entrance closed leaving the Alliance behind, from the bridges of the Mon Mothma and the Bahamut,General Antilles and Admiral Daala both breathed silent curses of frustration at letting Yim escape again.
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As Supreme Commander Yim stalked through the ancient corridors of one of the oldest surviving worldships of the Yuuzhan Vong Empire he couldn't help but feel a sense of pride that he was walking down the corridors that many of his peoples greatest warriors had walked down several hundred years ago, before they left their home galaxy, before they lost their galaxy-spanning empire to an unknown source, before their journey through the void between galaxies for hundreds of years.
He stalked to the great double-doors and shoved the great, heavy structures open seeing the command chamber of the worldship, its dark red walls pulsing with the life force of this living moon, in the centre of the chamber were millions upon millions of fireflies, flying in perfect synchrony with each other showing the surrounding systems of this new haven.
"Ah Supreme Commander Yim" Carr said from the side of the fireflies display, smacking his clawed hand against his armoured chest in salute "Welcome"
"Thank you" Yim said as he duplicated the salute, several more thumbs showed that the other three Supreme Commander within the chamber were doing the same "Lets just get down to it, shall we?"
The other four nodded in agreement before bringing his attention to the almost artistic display, explaining to him the many enemies of this new galaxy and of their plans "A sound strategy Supreme Commanders" he said after being told of the situation.
Hurkk, the oldest warrior among them nodded "We have been attacking the Tau's western quadrant for weeks now through raids and piracy, determining their strengths and weaknesses on the field of battle; we are now planning a major strike on the Tau"
"But there are other threats in this sector" Yim said "What of these other empires; are there any chances they will act in the Tau's defence?"
"The idea is laughable" Commander Orrai said "The neighbouring empires have been fighting each other for a long time, they very rarely make alliances and when they do they only last as long as the actual battle and usually break down violently afterwards"
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Meanwhile several systems away a massive force of Ork space-hulks were flying clumsily through space, their hulls were bulky and uneven, made of the scavenged remains of destroyed or abandoned ships, the exhausts of their engines billowing smoke and flame looking like they were leaving great scars across the fabric of space in their wake.
At the head of this ugly fleet of space-hulks Warboss Glorgan of the Evil Suns Clan watched through the oil stained window screen of the dark and damp bridge of his Kroozer at the strange colours of the warp as the area around his ships twisted, turned and bended from its great and terrible energy, his boyz were restless, too long had they gone without a proper fight, too long had they gone without a proper Waaagh!!!
The frail Eldar had kept them at bay for some time, creating civil war and infighting among his boyz, killing any of the chiefs who looked like they were gaining power within his clans, but not Glorgan, the frail witches failed to kill him and he made them pay for it, their heads hanging from his pointy sticks, dug into the metal ground of his bridge.
He was going to the Tau, they were always a challenge, he and his boyz would attack them and leave their worlds in ruins, building his name as the new great Warboss in this sector, challenging anyone who thought they could beat him and his boyz in a fight, he would add their heads to his pointy stick and finally he and his boyz would have the Waaagh they had dreamed of for yearz.
Well hidden in the shadows of the Ork warship a set of sparkling emerald green eyes scanned the green-skinned primitives and felt like convulsing in disgust, being among these primitive life forms made him very uneasy and his passion to kill every one of them for what they had done to his fellow Rangers was almost enough to make him arm his sniper rifle and begin firing.
But he kept his passions under control, if one of his race was driven by such emotions their life would be very short, he needed to find out where these primitives were going, he needed to get word back to his Craftworld, Biel-Tan and inform them that the Orks were on the move and whether or not the Swordwind should be unleashed.
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The warrior ran through the great doors of the worldships command chambers, skidding to a halt before the five surviving Supreme Commanders of his race, he fell to a knee and hit his free hand against his armoured chest in salute before holding out a communications Villip with his other. As Supreme Commander Carr took the living communicator he stroked it gently and it slowly opened, wisps of dark mist rising from within, slowly forming the scarred, tattooed features of a warrior.
"My lords" the misty image greeted, his voice so quiet that it sounded like a ragged whisper "There are multiple contacts outside of the system, from the engine outputs they appear to be poorly kept craft of metal, they appear to be primed to travel through our haven, time of arrival is roughly six hours!"
"Thank you Commander Skoore" Carr nodded before turning to his fellow Supreme Commanders "Gather the battle-groups, it looks like we're going to war early!"
His fellows nodded in agreement "Recall the nineteenth and fifth raiding fleets from their patrols, alert Battle-group Yun-Q'aah that they will taste blood!!!"
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Supreme Commander Orrai watched with pride as the defensive forces of Tricksters Blessing formed up flawlessly around the planet and the dozen orbiting worldships, over a thousand warships of different shapes and sizes gathered in several clusters, the Supreme Commander was at the front of this impressive defence force, on board his own flagship, the Cries of Death, a 8km long battleship known as a Kor Chokk which looked more like a space station than a warship, but looks can be deceptive, several domes connected by short, spinal walkways, hundreds of spines protruded from the Yorrik-Corral hull in small clusters, hundreds of plasma projectors and dozens of lava torpedo tubes were scattered across the Yorrik Corral armoured hull of this powerful and ancient warship.
The Dovin Bassal mines were in place and at full strength, projecting a gravity field the size of a small planet, these Orks were supposed to be blood-thirsty combatants and once his own warriors were told they were yelling bloodcurdling, ancient war-cries and shouted prayers of thanks to the God of War, Yun-Yammka.
His forces waited patiently for three hours until the Orks passed by the system, the Dovin Bassals activated instantly throwing the smoking wrecked vessels of the green-skins unceremoniously back to real space, at once his vessels surged forward, spewing out steady streams of Corralskipper fighters and firing brilliant salvoes of plasma, The Cries of Death showed off its arsenal by dispensing powerful plasma streams from its several hundred plasma projectors, clusters of lava torpedoes were fired from several dozen weapon tubes at the front and sides of the great battleship streaking across the space between the two fleets.
The cobbled together abominations that the Orks used for travel were a truly repulsive sight, making the Supreme Commander snarl in disgust, the Alliance may have used similar abominations to travel the stars but at least they were presentable, impressive vessels. As the fire fight continued Orrai saw that these ships, while lacking finesse were quite the durable vessels, taking the impressive bombardments of his ships. But even the most durable vessel can take only so much and several smaller Ork wrecks succumbed to the continuous bombardment, cracking open and spilling the green-skins within out into space.
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Warboss Glorgan roared in anger and grabbing a nearby Ork with his metal clawed hand smashed him against the wall of the bridge, using the unfortunate warrior as a bat to work of his frustrations, by the time he was finished the Ork slumped to the decking, every bone in its muscled form crushed.
Who were these things attacking his boyz, humies, Eldar, Tau Bluies. As he crashed his armoured fist into a console, leaving a massive fist print in the metal the rugged form of his Kroozer turned to confront his attackers, sleek ships, hundreds of them surrounding one world and a number of smaller moons, they weren't there the last time he had crossed this system, but that was a long time ago.
"Alright boyz" he shouted into the mic a little too loudly "Its time for fightin" within the confines of his ship he heard the battle-cries of thousands of his boyz, the dim thuds of metal on metal as they hit their blunt blades of the corridor walls.
The Ork ships began crashing forward; firing their big, hastily put together guns in a ragged yet impressive display of firepower against the strange, sleek ships that were arrayed against them.
From the shadows the Eldar ranger moved stealthily through the dank confines of the Orkish cruiser, using his chameleon cloak to keep him hidden from the primitive, worked up Ork warriors, his small ship was hanging from the uneven hull of this unstable vessel and the sooner he got off this wretched wreck the better.
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His warriors were restless, even from the bridge he heard the collective, unanimous thuds of amphistaff's hitting of the living floor in a steady beat, his brethren were ready to fight, they craved to fight, it was like an addiction that ran through every true warriors blood driving them on and on and making them some of the deadliest creatures on a battle field.
The small Ork fleet was slowly moving closer and closer but their inferior numbers were showing, one by one these repulsive vessels were succumbing to the Yuuzhan Vongs brilliant assault but it wasn't completely one sided, several small Yuuzhan Vong escorts detonated under the Orks weapons and an Uro-ik v'alh battleship took several hits in vital areas, drifting out of the Vong formations and detonating a few moments later.
In the space around the Yuuzhan Vong battle-group swarms of Corralskippers dueled with the large, cumbersome, ugly gunships and fighters of these Ork beasts and winning, using their superior speed and numbers to dismantle the more powerful ships.
"The warriors may launch" the Supreme Commander ordered.
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Thousands of small living ships rushed out of the openings of the Yuuzhan Vong, rushing forward with incredible speed and slamming into the hulls of the already shredded warships started to drill their way through, once through they opened up and droves of warriors poured out into the surviving warships, in response the entire compliment of Orks ran to the insertion points.
As the first wave of Yuuzhan Vong warriors swarmed into the main cruiser they saw massive creatures twice the size of an average human and much bulkier, their green skin was leathery in appearance with massive muscles bulging with scars and mechanical implants where limps once were, they roared childish battle cries and waved blunt swords, knives and very grubby guns.
The two massive clusters of warriors clashed, amphistaff's and blunt blades were severing limps and leaving great wounds, warrior Drel spun his amphistaff over his head, his dark eyes alive with primal rage, he drove his living weapon into the massive skull of one of the green-skinned Orks, the wait was worth it.
The warriors of the Yuuzhan Vong and the Ork creatures were well mixed in now, slicing, hacking and cutting each other to shreds. Both sides were not backing down and the dead were starting to pile up in the corridors. Several Ork warriors rounded a corner in front of Drel's squad, massive metal machines latched to their backs and huge, grimy guns held in their hands, the lead Ork smiled showing jagged teeth and unleashed a near deafening salvo of weapons fire.
"I love da sound of mi shoota" he screamed with joy, his form skidding backward slightly from the power he was letting loose "Don't you!!!"
Several Yuuzhan Vong warriors fell under the firepower of these new arrivals, gapping holes in the unprotected areas of their armour, with a snarl of repulsion at the abominable metallic weapons the few surviving warriors dived for cover and grabbed handfuls of razor bugs, they screamed a war cry and threw the deadly barrage of living projectiles at the laughing Orks.
The laughs of half of them were cut short as the razor bugs smacked into them, slicing right through their muscled forms and spurting fountains of green blood all over the already blood stained, body riddled floor. The corridors echoed with the bloodthirsty laughs and war cries of both the Yuuzhan Vong and the Orks.
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Warboss Glorgan stood like an impenetrable wall within his bridge, a small force of large Nobs and other Ork warriors around him. The massive blast door at the other side of the wide bridge exploded inward, spewing shrapnel across the deck, from the smoke came a single warrior, his grey skin covered in festering scars and swirling black tattoos, encased in spiked armour and casually holding its long weapon in its hand.
He looked at Glorgan and smiled, showing lacerated lips and needle sharp teeth, he raised his weapon over his head and screamed a war cry in a language that he didn't know before charging, other larger warriors, similarly scarred and tattooed warriors followed him through the smoke.
Smiling the Warboss screamed a war cry and charged, his boyz in tow and meet the warriors in the centre of the bridge, cutting and hacking at each other with their weapons, the few consoles that weren't already fried were torn to pieces under the weapons fire and melee weapons of both sides.
The Warboss swung his clawed arm and stabbed through one of the warriors, skewering him and lifting the creature of the ground, threw him across the chamber with a sickening thud as he crashed into the far wall.
The lead warrior charged the great Warboss and sunk his amphistaff into the armoured gun of Glorgan, the weapon exploded taking the Orks arm with it and the Warboss screamed in anger, swinging his last good arm at the warrior who maimed him but failed to hit a target.
The Ork leader scanned the battlefield, grabbing one of the alien warriors as he ran by and cut him in half with his claw. A volley of projectiles hit him from behind and dug into his back, the Warboss screeched and swung around to face the heavily scarred warrior who looked at him sneering before charging, the staff spinning over his head so fast it almost looked like a disc.
As the big Ork swung for him the warrior ducked and drove the amphistaff through its abdomen, spewing green blood, the green-skinned monster looked down at him with blood shot eyes before driving down his claw, the warrior dived out of the way of the crushing blow and swung the bladed half of his weapon, slicing through the metal armour and spurting out more green blood and metal. The Warboss convulsed and tried one last time to take the warrior with him to death but the smaller creature was too fast and jumped out of the way, throwing more projectiles into the Warbosses face, shredding through the metal jaw and upper face, killing him.
The warrior of the Yuuzhan Vong stood over the lead Orks carcass, his amphistaff held casually with his right hand, swinging slightly forward and backward. He was no normal warrior, he was a Slayer, a warrior genetically changed by the shapers to be stronger, sharper and faster than any other warrior in the vast armies of the Yuuzhan Vong, trained and shaped by the best to fight the greatest rivals to the veteran warriors, including the Jedi Knights.
These Orks had fought well, for infidels and bloodthirsty savages they had been worthy challenges for the Yuuzhan Vong warrior castes and deep in his soul the Slayer hoped he would have the honour of challenging these creatures again.
Outside of the ship, hovering silently at the edge of the system, a small Eldar craft floated, within its confines was the ranger, the outcast was watching the battle with interest, he had escaped the crude Ork construction with his hidden scouting craft and watched as these strange aliens tore the Ork forces apart, he had to contact his Craftworld, the Farseers and the members of the Council of the Young King had to be informed of this new possible threat.
What do you think? if I got the Ork ships wrong let me know. The Yuuzhan Vong have escaped from the Alliance and just won a victory against a major power in the galaxy, but what will happen when the Eldar know of their existence? Reviews Please!!!