His Boyz howled as they followed hot on the heels of his Dakkajet, their warbikes bleching a puff of black smoke.
"Wait! Not so fast!" Blitzog snapped. "We don't wanna get caught in ambush! Remember dees, Boyz! Brutal and kunnin'! Not brutal and stupid!"
"What ya mean, boss?" One of the warbikers asked, puzzled. Blitzog krumped him on the side of his head, almost sending the greenskin careening off his bike.
"I iz mean what I say! Kunnin'! Ya git! Ya so dumb zat yer don't get it?"
"Sorry, boss. But zat's why yer ze boss, boss."
Blitzog buried his face in his power klaw, only to wince when his metallic jaw clanked violently against the contraption.
"I've had 'nuff. Less talkin', more krumpin'. Let's wait for the tin humies to come to us, and we'll krump them real good! We don't wanna rush forward and get dakka-ed off the battlefield! Ya gitz see zat?"
He gestured toward the contra-immaterial nodal matrix thing that the skully xenos had assembled.
"I dunno what zat is, but it iz producing some funny field that turns off our kustom bubbles. We don't wanna go in there naked without our bubbles now, right, Boyz?"
"No, boss!"
"Slow and steady, ya gitz. Slow and steady. Ya too, ya speed freaks! All of ya! Listen to me!"
"Yes, boss!"
Blitzog's SpeedWaaagh! didn't consist of just him and his warbikers. There were all sorts of wartrikes, dakkajets, boosta-blastas, Snazzwagons, scrapjets, and even a single squigbuggy. Trailing the buggies was a single Trukk, packed to the brim with Boyz and another Warboss. Or sub-boss, since he was under the great Blitzog.
+That...doesn't look good.+ Skitarii Marshal Sigma 44-Kariya couldn't help but gulp in binharic when he caught sight of the approaching SpeedWaaagh!. The scouting Skitarii Rangers he had sent forward detected anomalies in the augurs, and it had resolved in the homicidal Orkoid xenos speeding toward them.
The probability of success for their mission to secure and analyze the Necron contra-immaterial nodal matrix that they had assembled in this area of the Nephilim Sector had just been cut by 63.28%. That wasn't good. 44-Kariya winced. He didn't anticipate that there would be an Ork presence on Kuroishi, of all places. Archmagos Theta-Rho had instructed Skitarii Hunter Cohort 428-Sigma to defend and secure the area so that he could conduct a more thorough analysis of the blackstone material used to assemble the xenos construct, but it appeared that the Orks had been drawn to this place by all the fighting and violence.
+I'll go ahead and buy as much time as I can,+ Delta Yari said, leading his Sydonian Dragoon squadron forward.
"I'll provide support," Sir Kanda said, his Cerastus Knight Lancer loping forward to meet the enemy. Squad Alpha-1 covered them with galvanic, arc and plasma fire, with a single sniper round whistling past a laughing Blitzog and simply taking out a Biker instead.
+Squads Alpha-1 and Beta-2, Protector Imperatives. Brace.+ 44-Kariya transmitted the order through the noosphere. Beside squad Alpha-1, Onager Dunecrawler Alpha-1 crawled forward, its neutron laser sizzling forward and catching a warbiker, disintegrating the bellowing greenskin in mid-flight.
However, that was all the shooting they could do before the Orks crashed into them at full speed. Having drawn the Skitarii and Knight Lancer out into the open, Blitzog demonstrated the full might of his kunnin' by flanking the fearsome Knight and instead smashing the Sydonian Dragoons. An accompanying Wartrike drilled into one of them, and the impact of the warbikes plus Blitzog's own buggy crushed the rightmost Sydonian Dragoon. Delta Yari did the best as he could, but even as he struck with his taser lance and electrocuted a couple of greenskins, his other surviving subordinate fell under the weight of choppas and power klaws. Blitzog laughed in delight as he caught the rider in his clacking klaws, squishing the cyborg into crumpled metal and red bloody mist.
"This iz fun!" He chortled.
On the other side, the Warboss and his accompanying Boyz piled out of the Trukk, which had skidded to a stop behind a ruin and was left empty. Hollering in joy, the Orks charged into squad Beta-2 and massacred them before the Skitarii Rangers could react, the power klaws and choppas making short work of even the augmented cybernetic plate that served as armor for the Mechanicus soldiers.
44-Kariya cursed in binharic. Beta-2's demise far exceeded even his most pessimistic calculations. He was hoping they could at least buy him several minutes worth of time, but the nullification field that the contra-immaterial node emitted was messing with their cybernetics and switching off their protective barriers.
The Onager Dunecrawler fired at a buggy with its neutron laser, but because it had been suppressed by another with its weird squig rounds that launched from behind a building, it missed its shots. Despite unloading volleys of hard slugs from the Onager Dunercrawler's pair of cognis heavy stubbers, the combined fire from the Skitarii Rangers' galvanic rifles, plasma caliver, arc rifle and transuranic arquebus, as well as shock bursts from the Knight's lance, were only able to whittle it down to a couple of Boyz, the Nob and the Warboss. Kanda was not having any of it, his Knight Lancer smashing aside a weathered statue to strike the survivors with his crackling lance and pulverized the Orks before they could so much as roar, "Waaaagh!"
Blitzog was too busily fighting Delta Yari to notice that his Boyz had just gone down. The tin-man atop the skinny walker was more resilient than he had thought. Delta Yari parried and blocked blows from the choppa and retaliated, the esoteric energies of his taser lance bursting another couple of warbikers apart. With a roar, Blitzog hacked, forcing Delta Yari to retreat. The wartrike swerved about and drilled into the rear of the Ironstrider engine, causing the Sydonian Dragoon to teeter, but Delta Yari fought on bravely, refusing to go down until Blitzog finally finished him off.
"Are yer serious?!" The Big Mek to be exclaimed when he saw that only a single warbiker was left in his once proud squad after he crushed the tin-man in his power klaw. "Where did ze rest go?!"
"Dey got krumped real good by zat electric lance thingy, boss," the sole survivor replied. Blitzog groaned and smacked his forehead with his power klaw, only to regret it with a geyser of green blood spurted out. Ignoring the stinging pain, he shook his head, disgruntled.
"Idiots."
Now it was Kanda's turn to be surprised by the weird ammunition the Orks hurled at his Knight, but even so, he was able to inflict damage on a buggy that had zoomed forward. Another couple of trikes and scrapjets had emerged from Blitzog's reserves to hammer his Knight with rokkits, but they barely left smudges on the adamantine armor despite exploding spectacularly upon the lean frame. Instead, he focused on returning to the center to protect Theta-Rho's survey.
That left the Onager Dunecrawler to eliminate the buggy that was bearing dangerously close on Skitarii Ranger squad Alpha-1, but its neutron laser merely grazed it, dealing no damage to it at all. Meanwhile, the Orks continued to bombard the Skitarii Rangers' dug-in position with all sorts of exotic ordnance and hard shells, but the emanatus force field emanated by Dunecrawler Alpha-1 protected them. Only one Mechanicus soldier went down despite the fierce onslaught from the wildly firing Orks.
"If the shootas ain't workin', then krump them up close, ya gitz! Do I 'ave to do everything myself?!" Blitzog cried, turning his buggy away from the wreck that used to be Delta Yari's steed and accelerating toward the squad. His loyal warbiker followed, chuckling as he waved his power klaw.
"Ya got me, boss!"
Blitzog rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything. Instead, he barreled toward Sigma 44-Kariya, having spotted the Skitarii Marshal directing his men. Even so, the Rangers of squad Alpha-1 literally threw their bodies on the line to shield their commander, butchered by the incensed warboss. When the dust was clear, there were only three Mechanicus soldiers left.
Skitarii Alpha Alpha-1 jabbed the Warbiker with his arc maul, causing the greenskin to yelp and flinch. Before he could counter, 44-Kariya took his head off with a sweep of his control stave, leaving Blitzog on his lonesome.
"Hah! Don't think ya 'ave won. Dis iz ze way I like it!" Blitzog crowed, confident that he could crush the tin man commander with his brute strength and trusty power klaw.
He didn't reckon Kanda. The Cerastus Knight Lancer slammed into Blitzog with near apocalyptic force, driving his shock lance into the backpack generator and shorting it out. Blitzog shrieked as he was flung across the battlefield, flailing wildly as his green skin turned black. Like a rocket spiraling out of control, he was sent on a corkscrew trajectory away from the contra-immaterial node. The explosion of his backpack generator hurled him further away, and like a pyrotechnics display, he disappeared into the distance.
"I'll be back!!!" He yelled, vowing vengeance. And perhaps, the next time he showed up, he would be using a new, shiny plastic miniature, along with improved and upgraded rules from an updated codex.
The Onager Dunecrawler was buckling under the sheer weight of fire, and its emanatus forcefield failed, taking a few rokkits to its frame and causing it to shudder. It fired in retaliation, and this time, its neutron laser finally wrecked the elusive buggy. Unfortunately, the scrapjets and other tellyporta buggies continued to pummel it with rokkits until it was a hulking wreck.
+That can't be good,+ 44-Kariya realized, especially when the emanatus forcefield once generated by the venerable walker went down, exposing the surviving Skitarii infantry to the elements. And shells of the surviving buggies. There were still so many of them...at least half a dozen, perhaps more. Despite Blitzog's early demise, the SpeedWaaagh! showed no sign of abating. Instead, the drivers' bloodlust had increased, each of them eager for glory now that the boss was no longer in command.
A buggy sped by, its flamers spewing burning promethium across the bunker where 44-Kariya and his surviving squad had hunkered down. The torrent of fire bathed the infantry and incinerated them, leaving them twitching amidst blackened cybernetics.
+Ouch,+ 44-Kariya moaned as he lay on his back. +I hate the smell of promethium in the morning.+
"Uh...what now?" Kanda asked somberly when it dawned upon him that he was the only one left. While the Orks couldn't damage his Knight suit, there were far too many of them for him to hunt down and destroy. They were laughing as they sped around him in circles, and while his Knight armor was faster and could catch up, they had wisely spread out so as not to present to him a single target.
The greenskins were smarter than he thought, and so numerous.
+Prioritize my protection,+ Archmagos Theta-Rho ordered from the center of the battlefield. The Tech-priest Dominus had been concealing himself within the contra-immatterial node to study it this entire time. +Do not allow the xenos to achieve proximity to my current locale.+
"Understood," Kanda replied uneasily. He ignored the hooting and jeering Orks and turned his back on them, his Cerastus Knight Lancer loping back toward the blackstone node. The squigbuggy tossed several expletives and accompanying explosives in his direction, but they fell short. Kanda did not fall for their provocations. The mission was everything, and Theta-Rho was so close to finishing his initial study of the xenos technology.
The Necrons were the greater threat. For now.
"Hey, gitz! Over here!" One of the buggy drivers yelled, waving toward the horizon. "I see more juicy targets! Dey iz our size too! Smaller and easier to krump! Shiner too! Let's krump 'em! Waaagh!"
Apparently, he had spotted a phalanx of Necrons that had just been dispatched by an Overlord to disrupt Theta-Rho's research. The Orks, bored because they couldn't do frak all to the Knight armor, aside from running around in circles, perked up at the prospect of a fairer fight. Besides, the tin skull-things were fun. They could heal and get up after being krumped, which meant the Boyz could krump them again and again.
And more krumpin' was always a good thing!
"Waaagh!"
"More tin men!"
"I wantz me some shinies!"
Kanda watched incredulously as the SpeedWaagh! departed the scene, the hollering Orks headed straight for another fight. He shook his head and glanced back to check on Theta-Rho's progress.
"You done, Archmagos?"
+Almost.+ The Tech-priest had been oblivious to the whims of the Orks. +Just another 72.98 seconds.+
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that." Kanda sighed, half in exasperation and half in relief. "I think you have all the time in the world now. Our...uh, green friends have just achieved all of their agendas."
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