"No," Suzuki admitted, staring at his auspexes while ensconced in the Helm Mechanicum of Hebi. "Sir Ogami, you know them?"
"They must be enemies!" Ogami shouted as he urged Okami forward in large strides. "KILL THEM ALL!"
"Uh, shouldn't we at least confirm their identities first...?" Tanaka began, but it was too late. Okami was already under fire from the Grand Master in Dreadknight armor. A Venerable Dreadnought lumbered forward and took a potshot with his BS 2+ twin lascannons rerolling and one of the ruby beams lanced past Okami's ion shield, causing him to stagger. Under the sheer weight of fire from the Purgation squad hiding in a building like the cowardly heretic Space Marines they were (or so Ogami believed), Okami stumbled, its chassis smoking from the ensorcelled shots.
"Looks like we should shoot first and ask questions later," Kanda said, moving his Armiger Moirax into position. Chiba came up along his flank, covering his charge, but the two retainers/bondsmen were unable to get to Ogami in time.
The Grand Master in Dreadknight armor charged and cleaved the fumbling Okami, toppling the venerable machine over before Ogami could even fire a single shot.
"Ugh! Not again!" Ogami swore and slammed his fists against the console of his Throne Mechanicum. "Why do I always get blown up in the first round?!"
"Unlucky, I guess," Kanda suggested, only for his Armiger Moirax to find itself in trouble when the Grand Master in Dreadknight armor eagerly consolidated into him. He smacked the Dreadknight with his grav pulsars half-heartedly, not expecting to do anything...but for some reason the Grand Master stumbled and there was a loud shriek as the adamantium armor tore under the weight. Kanda's eyes bulged. "Whoa, I did not expect that to happen."
He then fell back, hurrying over to one of the Mechanicus idols that they were supposed to be protecting. A Strike squad was approaching there, so he had best do something...or so he hoped. Meanwhile, Suzuki urged Hebi forward to take out an Interceptor squad, his meltagun and thermal spear glowing before unleashing molten beams of fury that disintegrated several of the unfortunate Grey Knights.
"Tanaka!" Chiba yelled, even as he squeezed the trigger and pulverized five Strike squad Grey Knights with his graviton pulsars. "I'm leaving this weird walker thing to you!"
"I think it's called a Dreadknight, even though I'm not supposed to know what it's called because Grey Knights are supposed to be some top secret Chapter."
"Who the frak cares!? Just shoot the damned thing!"
"Sure...but you're an Armiger pilot...you shouldn't be ordering me around. Plus I have seniority." Tanaka rolled his eyes, but he complied, firing the volcano lance, siegebreaker cannons and shieldbreaker missile into the Grand Master in Dreadknight armor, who was triumphantly pursuing Kanda's Armiger Moirax. Having gained confidence after slaying a Questoris Knight, he was determined to add another engine kill to his tally...plus, he couldn't leave the Paladins exposed. They were trying to reach the Mechanicus idol in the center, but if he teleported away, he knew that all of Kazan's big and scary guns would go into them instead.
So he decided to tank the shots.
That was the worst mistake he made. The Dreadknight armor first crumpled under the explosion from the shieldbreaker missile, and then the volcano lance vaporized him. On the other side of the battlefield, the plasma decimator - nicknamed Cawl's Wrath because the Archmagos Belisarius Cawl was that sort of proud tech-priest - disintegrated the remaining Interceptors.
The Paladins continued their slow but inexorable advance, covering the Strike squad behind them. The Grey Knights proceeded to burn the Mechanicus idol while the Paladins attempted to hammer Kazan with mind sorcery. Tanaka gritted his teeth and prayed to the Emperor, and His Benediction allowed Kazan to ride out the mortal wounds that would otherwise damage his steed.
On the other side, the remaining Dreadknight continued to advance forward, bludgeoning Kanda's Armiger Moirax with psi-rounds. A Strike squad teleported into the fray, fresh from the teleportarium or whatever Strike Cruiser they came down from, and charged while simultaneously firing their storm bolters. Kanda's Armiger Moirax shuddered from the impacts, but his ion shield and armor held for the most part. The Venerable Dreadnought fired once more, the lascannons hammering into Chiba's Armiger Moirax and almost sending him toppling. Meanwhile the Purgation squad pummeled Hebi with their heavy psy weapons, causing Suzuki to reel.
"Stop that!" Suzuki whined.
"Well, they can't, otherwise we'll kill them," Tanaka pointed out. His volcano lance erupted and the Venerable Dreadnought vanished in a fireball.
"Yikes!" Kanda shouted as the Strike squad rammed into his Armiger Moirax. He fired instinctively and one of them fell, his armor crumpling and crushing the Grey Knight within, but the rest hammered him with their falchions. Fortunately, for some reason, they didn't do as much damage as he thought they would. "Huh, I expected them to destroy my Armiger."
"Thank the Emperor they didn't, I guess," Chiba said as he fired at the Strike squad Kanda retreated from. Three of them were crushed by the immense gravity waves from the Armiger Moirax's pair of grav pulsars, but otherwise he was unable to finish him off.
"Yeah," Tanaka agreed, breaking the Dreadknight with his siegebreaker cannons. The Dreadknight survived the bombardment, listing from the devastating damage, but the Techmarine rushed forward to repair him. Not only that, when he turned around and smote Kanda's mortally wounded Armiger, his divine psychic powers were able to restore more components for the Dreadknight. Tanaka decided to leave the dude for now and focus on the Paladins who were running right up to his face.
First, he unleashed his meltaguns on them, but they tanked the shots surprisingly well, their armor of contempt and armor of resilience combining to make them incredibly infuriating to kill. Worse, they somehow had Transhuman Physiology popped off, making them even harder to kill. Fortunately, his plasma decimator tore through them, along with a shieldbreaker missile that did 3 damage (which he had to spend a Command Point to reroll when he rolled a 2). Fortunately, the Paladins used up their luck with the 2 twin meltaguns and 3 of them were vaporized by Cawl's Wrath. Phew.
Suzuki didn't have much luck, unfortunately. Despite firing his meltagun and thermal spear at them, they tanked the molten beams like bosses. Frustrated, Suzuki charged Hebi into them and slashed with his reaper-chain cleaver. Once again, Armor of Contempt combined with Armor of Resilience allowed the last Paladin to survive the blows, and he tore a hole in Hebi.
"Ow!" Suzuki complained, righting Hebi and trying to pull back.
To everyone's surprise, the last remaining Paladin decided to bail. Either his nerve failed him or his sense of preservation overrode his sense of duty, but the Paladin turned and fled the battlefield, much to Suzuki and Tanaka's astonishment.
"...what was that about?" Tanaka asked, bewildered.
"Beats me." Suzuki shrugged.
On the other end, the Dreadknight rushed Kanda's Armiger Moirax and wrecked him in combat. Kanda cursed and ejected, but even as his Throne Mechanicum surged free, his Armiger exploded and engulfed the Dreadknight and sole surviving member of the strike squad. So ferocious was the explosion that the Dreadknight fell back, slightly charred and the Grey Knight infantry was boiled alive in his armor, his corpse falling over before he could complete the burning of the Mechanicus idol that he had started.
"Aha!" Kanda whooped even as he parachuted down from the heavens. He punched the air. "Take that, you traitorous scum!"
Obviously the Grey Knights were not traitors, but they were assigned to purge the Knights of House Yato because...uh, they saw things that they weren't supposed to see. The Daemons from the warp that were summoned by the Thousand Sons in that last ritual, to be specific. Apparently, the Inquisition had thought it too dangerous for the survivors to remain after having been exposed to such dangerous energies and corruptive entities.
But none of the Knights of House Yato knew that. So...yeah.
"Argh!" Suzuki shrieked when the Purgation squad smote his Hebi with psychic powers. Despite a valiant effort to remain alive, the Armiger Warglaive toppled over. Suzuki smashed his fist into a console, cursing angrily. "Not again!"
"At least you survived longer than Sir Ogami," Tanaka remarked.
"That's not much of a comfort, considering Hebi is wrecked again! How come you get the Dominus Knight!?"
"Because I'm the main character. I hope Kazan survives this time too."
Unfortunately, Tanaka found himself under fire by the Purgation squad and last remaining Strike squad. The psi-rounds smashed into him. The Strike squad then charged and hammered him with their Nemesis weapons, scything through the adamantium armor of Kazan and almost taking the massive Knight down.
"Yikes!"
Tanaka tried to stomp them...and failed. With Kazan heavily damaged, he was unable to hit any of the agilely ducking Strike squad Knights. Uh oh.
He then backed off and fired into them again. This time, he managed to take out 3 of the Strike squads with meltaguns, while his plasma decimator annihilated four Purgation squad members. The siegebreaker cannons boomed and the Dreadknight on the other side of the battlefield vanished in a brilliant conflagration. Chiba aimed his grav pulsars at the Techmarine, but missed.
"Whoops...I tried."
"Try harder!" Tanaka snapped, charging the surviving Grey Knights. Fortunately, thanks to Machine Spirit Resurgent, he was able to land a few stomps this time...and the two Strike Squad dudes were pasted into bloody pancakes. The sole survivor of the Purgation squad took one look at the battlefield and decided to nope out of there, realizing that he was going to get killed if he continued to stick around.
That left the hero Techmarine, who bravely advanced and bathed the damaged Armiger Moirax with a flamer.
"Oh no!" Chiba cried as his Armiger Moirax went down, its armor buckling under the psychic prowess from the Techmarine. The Techmarine stood atop the smaller Knight, raising his axe in triumph.
Then he vanished when Kazan's volcano lance erupted and erased him from existence.
"Well...at least Kazan survived and we successfully protected the Mechanicus shrine," Tanaka remarked, looking around in dismay. "Huh, seems like I'm the sole survivor...again."
No comments:
Post a Comment