Commoragh, Grid 188-990, 4 minutes after drop

The drop hadn't gone well for Gravus. The blast of the sonic emitters had caused most of the Drukhari Air Force to crash as the pilots were paralyzed. One of those skimmers slammed into his mech on the way down as probability dictated that it needed to happen at least once. A damaged communications relay and smashed IFF transmitter left a stranded Mantis mech half in what was once a very nice indoor garden

The Assistant Mech Pilot AMP gave a more thorough report of the situation. "Both the relay and the transmitter are completely unsalvageable and without them, our current location is still unknown"

"So we're fucked?"

The AI ran some calculations "Only a bit. Weapons are... mostly fine, but the left leg is showing some negligible input lag."

All in all the mech had gotten pretty lucky for being rammed by an airplane going full speed, but a lone mech with no access to the battlenet might as well put a target on itself for any bomber that needed to up its ego. Taking a glance up through the hole that the warmachine had punched through he saw the spires of the dark city and the captured stars that let only slivers of light peak into his crash site.

"So... what's the plan boss?" the AI inquired

The machine slowly came to life as Gravus commanded it first to orient itself to the pull of gravity and then to its feet. smashing through more of the now destroyed garden the warmachine came out onto the street.

Gravus had not seen combat nor had most of the personnel in active service, a few generations of men had gone by where none had to look upon dead bodies slumped across streets or smell burnt flesh while trying to eat cold tasteless rations. Any combat that had happened in his Milky Way had only been conducted in space for a long time now but those who fought up in the void between stars rarely saw the effects of their weaponry on lifeforms.

Simulations couldn't have prepared him to hear the noise of hanged Drukhari corpses banging off his hull nor had any exercise truly replicated what happened to a building after a skimmer had crashed into slave quarters. Trudging down the street Gravus turned down the ambient noise so he wouldn't notice the squelching of bodies getting stepped on by him.

"I... I think we keep moving forward for now"


The pilot's queasiness hadn't gone unnoticed by his AI companion who didn't really get the same reaction from all the death and destruction kept on trying to look for any signs for friends or foes, but from what it could deduce was that this district had been abandoned early on by the defenders as they didn't deem it important, but why hadn't the C.A. come in to assert force? Maybe they didn't consider it important either.

Two turned corners later and the duo had found their answer as down the road was devastation. Unlike the struck or damaged buildings that the warmachine had encountered just up the road was just nothing. Like god himself had taken a finger and cut a large riverbed of devastation, on the other end of this the road continued to infinity. The mech eventually got close enough for AMP to chirp out what had happened. "One of ships had crashed here".

As Gravus looked through cameras and sensors he confirmed the AI's deduction. There were bits and bobs of debris left behind by the crash but where was the ship? turning left showed where the trail had begun and turning right showed no ship. it couldn't have just disappeared so he followed its trail and coming upon some kind of boardwalk he saw that the ship had slipped from this elevation and had fallen onto the next floor? ground? ceiling maybe?

The mighty ship had gone bely up and AMP enhanced its image so the duo could examine the upside-down lettering. written in white across its starboard side was Liberty's Purpose, It was a cruiser or at least 3 quarters of one and surrounding it were fires. Too small to be caused by the crash, Gravus could see little figures milling about on hastily assembled parapets and towers.

"Life recognition puts them as human"

"Ours?"

"No way to tell, IFF transmitter is still down or they aren't transmitting anything" The encampment didn't look like C.A. and they wouldn't have let the ship remain in disrepair.

"Could it be the other humans?" He'd been given lots of detail on the slavery of the Dark City.

"That would be most likely, I would recommend we try to ignore them and find an entry to the ship so we can get in touch with the rest of the C.A." But as the plan was formed another variable came into the scene more movement down the roads leading to the ship, they were large and unwavering.

Enhancing onto them showed skiffs of various sizes on a direct course to the ship. "I would recommend that we try to avoid them, I'm counting at least 6 weapon platforms that could seriously damage the unit" Gravus stared down at the specks of people, knowing AMP was right in being conservative with the multi-Billion dollar death machine. His mech wasn't that damaged but facing an armoured column alone on a heightened target like a warmachine would definitely get him killed, or worse. But he hadn't come all this way from another dimension, across the galaxy, on a giant tank with no treads just to run away from the people he was supposed to liberate. The weapons retrieved by the slaves noticed the oncoming column and with their opening shots his decision was made certain.

Jumping off the ledge the warmachine fell down to probable death a second time that day and with a colossal crash into the pavement he stopped both sides from shooting eachother as they took in the warmachine rising to its full height. A Drukhari shot a lance that splashed against its shields and the battle picked up again.

"Two skiffs on the right, Orient to 375" The pilot swung its beam onto the oncoming vessels. The first exploded while the second, knocked off course by the first's detonation spun through the air before crashing into a building behind the mech.

A platform turned his shields to the sickly yellow before a second continued the job and brought it to an orange. "Fuck off" The gatling arm spun to life and the drivers became more strengthened tungsten than flesh as their platforms fell to the ground.

"Another is coming right at us board! Orient 119!" ignoring the advice the pilot lifted the left leg a second before they could reach it, and as the warriors attempted to flee overboard as the foot came back down unto their craft.

A flyer attached to column went in for a strafing run, and its barrage turned the yellow shields to the dangerous orange, AMP targeted it with a volley of short range missiles. The pilot showed his prowess as his craft dodged and twirled around the proximity fused tubes this brought it so low it was practically between the buildings, but concentrating his defenses Gravus lurched the mech's upper body in a headbutt shoving the shields right into the Drukhari's attempt to gain some altitude.

This finally broke the shields of the mech and the for the second time the mech had survived an endurance contest with the drukhari vehicle roster. But this maneuver would leave the back of the warmachine to the last 4 weapon platforms, unshielded. Two coordinated their volley, their dual streaks of fire lighting up a portion of the street as they flew towards Gravus. The first hit the joint on the right leg that nearly buckled the mech to a knee, while the second managed to hit the missile battery fully rendering it inoperable.

Swinging around both guns of the engineering marvel created trails of destruction as they tracked their mobile targets. It caught only the first two offenders to its majesty before a third shot severed its leadspitter. The last remaining armament managed to split that platform into two.

The last of the Drukhari vehicles and the warmachine raced the rotation of their guns and the defender of the Dark City shot off the last attack to revenge its brethren. The beam just too late to prevent its demise destroyed its killer before the lance struck the core of Gravus's weapon.

The mech stood still as if the metal paused to feel the damage, the AI housing unit had taken a direct hit and Gravus couldn't feel his right arm anymore. As the machine started to lean to the left Gravus realized his arm and just a quarter of his torso was melting off of him, the AI that would've administered medicine was dead, the console that would've allowed Gravus to do it himself was literally just gone, and the arm that would've pushed the button shared the consoles predicament.

The mech slammed into a building on the way down causing its front to face the sky or it would've if there was one. Gravus didn't really want to die like this but he figured it could've been worse and so the young pilot closed his eyes and waited for death to take him.

And he waited... Oh hello nerves thank for making me die in horrible pain.


Down the street the First Free Army watched as the knight melted in whatever the Drukhari shot at him, it wasn't like anything they had seen before but nevertheless a few clambered around on the sinking wreck eventually wrenching some kind of hatch open and hauling out at least 4/5ths of a man. Throwing him down to an Ogryn the big man ran towards their camp.

The giant poked his head into the tent of the one chirurgion who had somehow found a tent "Excuse me! There's a man turnin to goop" confused and overworked his tent had been packed with all sorts of injuries in the last... he lost count of how long he'd been working plus its not like anyone had a watch.

Turning around and- "What the krak Pok! you should've run faster" The man who had been scooped from an expedition gone wrong made the ogryn put him down so he start... some kind of treatment. Under a seemingly improbably found tent next to one of the many skeletons of the void sailor, there was treated a small hero who had proven himself to be pilot