It was the dead of night and by far, this was one of the stranger operations I have ever been on.
Starting with my current mount, this feels odd. I have ridden upon many vehicles before, but never have I ever felt out of place like I did riding that morphed creature the abominable intelligence called the Bastion.
I was riding this more odd looking Strider morph like I watch guardsmen ride those horses of theirs. The rest of White Squad and my apothecary partner had their own Strider mounts, varying sizes of course for each of us.
Then, there are those... Myrmidons. I am beginning to think that this Eien. She, It, is something beyond even a Man of Iron. She-IT is helping us and I do not know what sort of endgame does it hope to achieve. So far it is simply confusing me, I can never get a good read on this being's true nature even when it uses human expressions in that... humanoid morph.
Speaking of those Myrmidons, I turned my head back slightly to see the Myrmidons are simply running at a constant speed. Since these things are fully machine, they do not have stamina to lose so they can just keep going and going. They are indeed superior in the stamina department, where as even though we astartes are capable of going for a week of constant fighting these machines can simply continue fighting until their parts wear and break down, and given that these frames are being 'piloted' smaller goo then I highly doubt these frames will break down in battle.
One of the myrmidons is actually running slightly faster to reach captain Mala's strider, my own strider is moving faster in response. I forget, these things are being controlled by mini-abominable intelligences born from Eien, at least that is what Magos Aronna says.
I was moving along captain Mala's right while the myrmidon was to her left. The myrmidon's head didn't look away from the front as it spoke to us. "According to the Great Machine Mother, at our current speed we will reach the walls of the settlement known as Sanctuary's Point within a few minutes." An abominable intelligence worshipping an abominable intelligence? If I was not so wary about Eien and by extension these things, I would have found their 'worship' somewhat interesting, then again this might have rubbed the Inquisitor and the Magos the wrong way.
Turning back slightly I saw the Apothecary nearly 'snap' the neck of the strider he was riding on. Seems he heard the machine's words as well, turning back to the other captain and the machine I saw captain Mala open her mouth to speak.
"So we close eh? Alright then! Before we reach the walls you and yer so-called myrmidons are going to raise hell yeah?" The captain seemed to side eye the machine, huh professional. Doesn't even look like she wants to shoot it.
Without missing a beat, the machine spoke. "Correct assessment, once we reach a certain point. Me and my siblings will break off and begin the distraction. I look forward to testing this new frame the Great Machine Mother has gifted us with."
I eye the machine with suspicion. These tests might give lady Eien a lot of information to help her-IT refine the frame even further, no doubt the abominable intelligence is going to try and refine it to the point it will be equal or even superior to Adeptus Astartes. As soon as we make contact with the wider Imperium, I will have to try and appeal for the space marines to improve themselves even further than we already do.
Ah, they broke off now. Hmm. Is that how we look when my brothers and I run? Shaking my head, I put on my helmet and we reached a rather plain looking outer wall.
When I saw White Squad begin dismounting, the apothecary and I did not waste time to follow. Usually stealth missions go to more, ah specialized astartes but we do not have the luxury so we have to make do. We followed White Squad as they stopped when Gazlight stopped and looked around before holstering her highly modified shotgun, she began feeling the wall. Trusting in them, I turn my back to them and carefully survey the surrounding area.
KABOOM!!!
Hmm, it seems those myrmidons have now engaged the enemy. I heard a slide and click behind me and turned to see Gazlight step away from the wall as it shifted and parted to reveal an entrance to a tunnel. Mala without turning her head motioned the ogryn Pointbreak for him to enter first, and without hesitation but a slight shake of his autocannon with a shield attachment he stepped first into the tunnel. Silently I might add, rather impressive for an ogryn.
Carefully we stepped into the tunnel one by one until it was my turn with the apothecary behind me, when we were all inside Gazlight pressed a brick in the wall of the tunnel and the entrance closed behind us. This tunnel was small since it seems as if it was a dead end right in front of us.
The faint sounds of combat and explosions outside muffled by the walls of the tunnel is the only noise in here as captain Mala turned around and pulled out a map from One-shot's pack. Once she opened it we slightly crowded around her while she shone a light. "Alrighty, since we came from the south we are right by here, just slightly inside the outer layer of Sanctuary's Point. This is a double walled settlement because of its importance to the region, so as soon as we exit this tunnel we will come out inside of a small factory, we will be in the industrial sector of this settlement and as such there will be a lot of alleyways and blind spots so I expect all of you to carefully check your corners."
After we all voiced our confirmations she turned her head to One-shot and pointed at him. "Alright, One shot once we find the local towers in the sector, IF it is not infested with eldar you will set up shop there and stay low until we have need of you. There are a lot of towers in the industrial sector for the overseers to get on and survey a lot of the area and if the eldar chose to place their own watchers then we have to be careful."
One-shot nodded his head as he checked the magazines for his heavily modified stalker bolter. Turning towards myself and the apothecary, she spoke of what we can do. "You two along with Pointbreak will be our heavies, when things go wrong you will be mostly at the front while Gazlight does her best to flank enemies." Once we nodded our confirmation she turned back to the map, she pointed at a few open areas within the inner wall.
"So far if the eldar wanted to consolidate their forces they would gather their vehicles and/or weapons in these areas, once One-shot is in a tower he will be able to get a clear sight on most if not all of the plazas." Then she looked at all of us slowly. "Remember, we have a Farseer in this settlement, expect heavy patrols in this area if they have not already been informed by that damned knife ear."
It was after that when we checked our equipment one final time before we advanced towards the dead end, with Mala this time reaching for an unassuming brick and pressed it to activate the entrance into the factory. Once we left the tunnel, it appears we have entered a factory that is dedicated to producing a lot of sheet plates.
Surveying the area, there were no other signs of life other than us which is very good. Walking silently, or rather as silently as a group with an ogryn and two space marines could, Mala peaked out of the windows and quickly ducked back in. Without turning she started whispering.
"A group of four eldar is outside walking around. They are patrolling the area for us." Mala motioned for us to slightly wait as she took advantage of her height and snuck under the window to reach the door. The faint explosion and firearm noises at what is probably the main gate of the settlement grew a little louder, the myrmidons seem to be doing fine.
Captain Mala peaked through the tinted door glass and watched the eldar patrol turn their head towards the noise before they started communicating with each other in their language. Presumably talking about if they should ignore the order by the farseer and join the fight or wait here under the order of the farseer.
Turning towards us, she began motioning for One-shot to survey the nearby command towers to see if there are eldar on them. I watched him nod as he pulled up his binoculars and carefully peaked out the window looking at what seems to be two visible towers, after a few seconds he pulled his binoculars away and used gothic hand signals to inform us. "North Tower. No Eldar. North East Tower. Two Eldar."
We then heard the eldar patrol group begin running towards the battle with the myrmidons, that was a bit convenient. I turned to apothecary Nago and motioned for him to ready his bolter just as I readied mine. Mala signaled for One-shot to take out the two eldar in the tower since they have a good view of this factory.
One-shot asked for confirmation, which the White Squad captain confirmed. I watched as One-shot pulled up his stalker bolter we patiently waited as he seems to be waiting for a good shot. I peaked from my own window and viewed with my helmet's scanner and watched a very 'silenced' shot from the stalker bolter flew through the air and pierced through both eldar that fell in line.
WIth that done, Mala quickly nodded to all of us. "Let's move now!" She whispered a little loudly and we exited the factory, thankfully the noises of the myrmidon were loud and were providing a good distraction. I wonder what they were doing?
RONUS POV
Explosions all around me and my siblings assaulted audio receptors as I charged through the gate to bowl over an unfortunate eldar, as I stopped to turn back and shoot at him, the eldar quickly recovered and ran at me to jump over my frame. The eldar thought I wouldn't be able to keep up, he thought wrong.
The frame rotated the torso and I reached out with my left hand/servo to grab the eldar. Success in hand quite literally, I spun and swung the screaming eldar about before I slammed him into the wall, I wasted no time before firing my thunderclap gun and killing the unfortunate eldar.
I quickly spun my torso and looked to see one of my siblings get their combat frame shredded and fall down, I notice their puppeteer is still intact so the myrmidon will be back up and running in a bit. So far I've lost two myrmidon frames and their puppeteer pilots during the engagement.
So far as a distraction we seem to be doing well since the eldar have actually brought up two wave serpents. Just as I was about to fire upon one of the two wave serpents I received a notification through the Network and opened it to feel an approaching presence. I turned to the sky to see in a cloud an unassuming black and orange mist darted through it. Perhaps if I had a 'mouth', I would be smiling.
The mist coalesced into a large black humanoid with burning eyes as it angled itself and came down, a burning orange color covering it and giving it the appearance of a small meteor. I then felt two more similar presences and saw two similar 'mists' of black and orange go over the walls and dart towards the eldar, they didn't notice it at first but when they did the first few warriors panicked and they carelessly fired at the mist clouds.
But when they were near enough, the mist clouds came together to form a humanoid that was by far three times the size of a regular human. A shuriken catapult was fired at the face and the unit's head was turned to the side from the slight force, but the head turned back and the 'face' was damaged but the 'skin' of the unit rippled and the 'wound' immediately disappeared.
The eldar warrior panicked and the unit raised an arm and it formed into a blade before it stabbed the eldar, the other strange unit formed up behind an eldar, turning one of its hands into claws and stabbing the eldar warrior from behind. Meanwhile the one incoming unit came crashing down on one of the wave serpents, its burning orange form persisted as it then jabbed its hands onto the surface and for lack of a better word 'opened' its face before firing a continuous bright red heat laser at the wave serpent.
Quickly moving forward with my siblings, we supported what was undoubtedly Mother Eien's new creations to help tear apart the eldar presence in this engagement. Ah, two more myrmidons were annihilated along with their puppeteers. That kind of left me with six more not including myself.
Oh wait, those units are leaving? I silently wondered as I watched them disperse into a sort of misty cloud of black and orange before rushing into the alleyways of the settlement.
I turn back to the eldar, I ignored the odd actions of the three strange units and continued fighting.
TITUS POV
One-shot had gotten on the north west tower and he designated our targets, there were three plazas that were holding a number of vehicles, and one actually had a small cache of weapons. Which kind of struck me as odd since I do not remember eldar leaving their weapons out in the open, it is not usually like them. Once I mentioned that to captain Mala, she agreed with me and said that the one plaza is to be ignored just in case.
So we had for the most part two plaza targets, One-shot informed us that the eldar had no other units in the other towers. My instincts grew a little wild at that, I mentioned that this basically reeks of it being a trap.
Captain Mala nodded and simply said that she knew, no choice we had to walk through as One-shot guided us through the industrial sector.
When we encountered a patrol, we had no choice but to go loud since one of them saw us. I along with Nago and Pointbreak charged and began laying down fire to shred the patrol. Good news, no one was hurt. Bad news, the noise was loud and it probably attracted more eldar to this position.
This was not a good thing, especially since One-shot vox called us and told us to hurry up since he was able to spot four perhaps even more squads beginning to make their way from the nearby areas towards their location.
The element of surprise was compromised and now they had to quicken their pace, Mala quickly dashed forwards and we followed, the squat woman was fast despite her race. They had entered one of the minor gateways into the inner ring of the settlement, following the instructions of One-shot we headed for the closest plaza which was to our west.
On the way there we had encountered a squad of eldar warriors led by a dire avenger, I had to engage the dire avenger while the rest of the team dealt with the rest of the aspect warrior's team. Right after we won the engagement, another two eldar patrols came around with weapons drawn. They had been close enough to the fight for them to hear it.
Shuriken catapults were fired at us and we were pinned down, Mala had no choice but to request support from One-shot as even I, Nago, and Pointbreak were also pinned down by the combined arms fire.
When the first shot from One-shot hit an eldar on the shoulder, they all ducked at once and because of that Pointbreak was able to set up his autocannon to begin raining hell on the eldar, the results were not pretty as some of the warriors got turned into paste.
Quickly we moved out to head to one of the objectives, thankfully we reached the first objective plaza and it had a fair number of those eldar jet bikes and grav-tanks. There were a few eldar nearby on alert, they didn't notice that we were here and might as well keep it that way to make setting up the det-packs easier, Mala and Gazlight were going to be the ones to set them up since myself, Nago and Pointbreak were far too large to undetectably set up the bomb.
It was simply childsplay apparently as I watched Mala use her small size to her advantage as she slapped a few detpacks under a few of the vehicles from her backpack.
Quietly slinking away from the plaza and into an alleyway, we made plans to go set up detpacks in one of the other plazas. The next plaza was nearby, we had to navigate the alleyway pathway, and according to One-shot a lot of the choice pathways have a few eldar patrolling them.
A lot of maneuvering was needed, lest they attract every eldar in the vicinity. They have not encountered the farseer however and that worries quite a few of them. Titus especially, since an unknown farseer is a very very wild card.
Which is why we were very surprised when One-shot informed us that a small flash of purple light appeared in the plaza that had the exposed weapons cache. The eldar farseer and quite a few unique looking eldar looked tired and some were horribly injured from what one shot said.
Captain Mala had to think carefully what to do next, she gave her orders in the vox channel. White Squad will place det-packs in the one last plaza before extracting from the settlement and detonating the packs. Once we all voiced our agreements, we continued our sneaking past the cautious eldar patrols while the myrmidons in the distance were causing chaos, although the plaza we were heading too was closer to the fight so perhaps that is our escape route.
After confirming it with the captain of White Squad, everyone then knew that the distracting myrmidons would be where the extraction is happening.
We eventually reached the plaza where we saw something that made us balk, as we did not have enough det-packs for this. The farseer apparently has quite a bit of pull within the eldar since he has a Wraithlord and two squads of Wraithguards currently inactive in the plaza surrounded by some Vypers, a few Wave Serpents, and a few nearby eldar patrols.
It does not look like they were going to be leaving soon, so Mala ordered One-shot to leave through the factory and to meet us back at the extraction point. Meanwhile, we were going to storm them before they can activate those wraithlord and guards.
Myself and Nago prepared to dash while Pointbreak readied his autocannon, once we were given the signal we charged in gunning down the unsuspecting eldar. Thankfully none of which activated the wraithlord, Pointbreak was laying down suppressing fire while Gazlight was silently gliding throughout the plaza bobbing and weaving between vehicles as she got close enough to use her shotgun.
Eyeing her, I aimed my bolter at her direction and carefully aimed before firing. The round went past the back of her head but it struck an eldar warrior that was about to kill her. She tilted her head in a nod towards me before going back to her task.
Captain Mala on the other hand was doing her best setting up the det-packs to try and cause the most damage in this plaza despite the lack of extra explosives. Once the det-packs were in place however, Mala screamed into the vox that they were now hauling ass. So I supported White Squad along with Nago to protect the guardsmen while they dashed towards the noise of the myrmidons.
Once we cleared the plaza, Mala pulled out a detonator and clicked it. We heard loud explosions in the distance, and now all we had to do was get out while we still can. The operation was as much of a success as we could get it.
We ran around the block and saw five myrmidons were still 'fighting' against impossible odds. Once they saw us however they went into some sort of frenzy as they distracted the eldar even harder.(?)
One-shot was at the gate and he was providing covering fire for the myrmidons and now us, which is very welcome. Thankfully since we surrounded the eldar they were easily dealt with. We were told by the machine that the striders were at the gate, all they had to do was get there to mount up and leave.
A shot blasted through the air and nearly hit us, once we turned to look at what fired it was the Wraithlord, it was not damaged in the slightest. "Frakk." Gazlight muttered and I was inclined to agree with her.
Turning around we did our best to haul ass while an eldar Wraithlord was chasing us. Thankfully we were close enough to the gate that all we needed to do was indeed just mount the weird striders before they quickly took us away from Sanctuary's Point. The Wraithlord was still firing at us but thankfully the strider's invisibility kept us from being shot at.
I wonder though what happened to the Farseer that left him like that?
A FEW HOURS EARLIER : NO POV
Two Eldar warriors, two dire avenger aspect warriors, a warp spider and a howling banshee aspect warrior and two warlocks were in the depths of mon'keigh made tunnels along with Farseer Zalava who was meditating and peering into the future while the rest of the craftworld aeldari were on guard, doing some light training or doing some meditating of their own.
All of a sudden the Farseer's eyes snapped open and he stood up in an instant, catching the attention of the rest of the eldar with him. "It appears we have company." He says as he looks up.
The rest of the eldar immediately go on guard as he looked at the eldar. "I need you to buy me some time to prepare a way out of this mon'keigh labyrinth. Defend me." Zalava said as he walked towards a bunker that was never used followed by the two dire avenger aspect warriors.
The two Eldar warriors closed the bunker and along with the banshee and eldar warlocks prepared themselves for battle.
It was silent, almost too silent. Suddenly they heard what sounded almost like deep chunking noise. A warlock with one warrior left to perhaps distract the attackers in a different area. As they left, two drills broke through the concrete in separate areas and one large elongated humanoid form fell from the ceiling landing in a crouch.
The eldar could see that these things were larger than them and they let out some kind of metallic echoing howl, one of the warlocks who was pretty close to losing herself to the path of the seer let loose a continuous blast of warp energy that almost looks like flames that immediately forced the strange foe to brace itself. The psychic damage seems to be slowing it down but it does not seem to be hurting it. Unknown to her, within the foe was a modified siphon and it was absorbing a lot of the psychic fire.
Another fell from the ceiling and landed on the ground, this time the banshee wasted no time and with a howl of her own, charged at the large foe. The size of the foe belied its speed as it immediately decked her across her helmet and send her down to the ground. The warp spider 'jumped' through the warp and tackled the foe on the back. The foe shook the the aspect warrior off and was about to attack the banshee when she recovered and slammed her power sword's pommel down on the head of the foe sending it face first into the ground.
With the other warlock and warrior, they were running down the hall when all of a sudden their foe came down landing in front of them. The warrior fired his shuriken catapult while the warlock let loose a blast of warp energy and together they watched the foe's head get lurched back before it turned slowly to them. The foe's form rippled as the damage they did to the 'face' of the foe was undone right in front of them. Just as the foe stepped forward shaping an arm into a blade, the warp spider warrior came in and stabbed his power blades into the foe's 'collarbone' and blasted the death spinner right in its face. A large chunk of the face was blasted off but the foe did a backflip and it caused the warp spider to get flung off.
The warlock and the warrior turned to run, the foe was about to give swipe at them but the warp spider returned and blocked the foe with his power blades. The foe's great strength forced the warp spider to his knee and caused him to 'jump' away, without the warrior distracting it, the foe gave chase for the warlock and the warrior.
The foe charged at the eldar warlock and the warrior before the warlock shoved the warrior forwards and turned around to begin letting loose destructor blasts that stunned and kept staggering the foe. Although the foe's body unknown to the warlock began rippling more and more almost as if it was getting used to the attacks.
Back with the banshee fighting her foe, her warrior ally lay dead on the ground with his head and an arm missing from the body. She made for a slash when the foe grabbed her wrist and kept her there while its burning orange gaze stared down at her. Across the room, the warlock firing the continuous blast of warp 'fire' was now realizing that her foe's form rippled and she sees her foe's form shine almost like liquid before it was covered in what looked some form ice.
With the warlock that was firing destructor blasts, he saw the foe's form ripple one more time before an orange glow permeated throughout the foe and he could feel an unbearable heat coming from it. The foe reached out and grabbed his neck in an instant. Already he could feel the burning sensation and his armor get really hot. The warlock felt the armor melt and now his skin was painfully burning, but before more damage could be dealt the warp spider 'jumped' in and 'jumped' with the warlock out of the foe's hand.
The warp spider brought the warlock to farseer Zalava who looked down at the warlock with a neutral if almost regretful gaze before he continued focusing on opening the 'tunnel' to the surface.
The icey foe grabbed the other warlock and she gasped for breath as the ice from her foe began covering her quickly. Whatever that liquid stuff was on the foe was the reason she was freezing too fast. As the warp spider jumped in, he saw the warlock's foe grip and her head came off sliding on the floor where the foe crushed it under its foot. The warp spider quickly turned to reach for the banshee but he saw the foe punch her and ripped off her arm with the other hand before striking a clean blow that indented the banshee's helmet, she is as good as gone.
No choice the warp spider jumped to the farseer not knowing that one warrior still lived.
Said eldar warrior slowly backed up against the bunker door that led to the farseer, watching as the three foes knocked down the shelves of the mon'keigh as they looked down at him. He watched as one of the foes' face opened up to reveal an bright orange glowing abyss that caused him to scream in defiance as he fired his shuriken catapult at the foe in one last act of defiance. Before the foe blasted the warrior with the heat of its Volcano Core the warp spider jumped beside the warrior and jumped into the bunker.
The foe no longer seeing the foe closed its face and glowed red-orange as it turned the strength of its Volcano Core up, it jabbed its hands into the bunker door slowly melting it to slag as it slowly entered through the door. The farseer just opened up a 'tunnel' and ordered all of his remaining retinue inside. Turning back he saw the face of the foe open up with a metallic echoing howl. "Too late Life Reaper."
He entered the 'tunnel' just as the foe fired its Volcano beam.
The Khalkotauroi closed its face. Staring at the area its prey had disappeared through. Almost disappointed, it left along with its siblings.
Spoiler: 'Visuals' of teh Foight (With Changes of course)
And so the name of the new 'Sentinel' of Goo is here. The Khalkotauroi, or rather known as the Colchis Bulls. Originally in the myths they were two automatons/colossi bronze bulls that breathed fire created by Hephaestus. So because of the Volcano Core and that they 'breathed fire' I figured this name works for them. <:3
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and what kind of abilities I added onto the Khalkotauroi along with its Sentinel base. :3
FARSEER ZALAVA POV
I meditate as my people flutter about this mon'keigh settlement, the night attack by the Imperials and the Life Bringer/Reaper had just finished. Just as I envisioned it.
An Avenger Aspect Warrior walked behind me. "Farseer, the damage reports have come in. Few of the jet bikes were destroyed and some of the Falcon tanks will be out of commission for a while before our bonesingers can get them back in working order. The Wraithlord was not harmed but the Wraithguard experienced some minor damage."
Opening my eyes, I turn my head slightly. "The casualties?"
Here the Avenger aspect warrior shook with controlled anger. "Too many, but thankfully their spirit stones are recoverable. The vile mon'keigh are graceless killers but they are killers nonetheless." I nodded my head slightly.
"All according to my visions then." This caused the avenger to raise look at the back of my head, I can clearly feel his emotions turning to confusion then anger.
"Farseer... did you know that they would come?" My silence was all that he needed. He stepped forward and I stood up in reply.
"Why did you not tell us?! We could have been prepared for them! We could have dealt more damage to them than just to those machines!" He took another step forward and I turned around to lock eyes with him. My gaze caused him to freeze in place, good to see my gaze can still instill order.
It was silent between us for a few moments before I revealed why I did not make preparations for the night raid. "Because had I done so Yarron, more would have been lost. Even now, I regret the loss of life from our side but I would allow this to happen the same way instead of the alternative."
This caused the avenger to balk at me, he waved his hand to the window, the smoke still clear from the imperial night raid. "Instead of the alternative you say?! What alternative could be worse than this?!"
I closed my eyes and suppressed the urge to shudder. What I saw did not make sense, I never thought my abilities to see the future would reveal to me the nature of the Imperial's new ally. It did not make sense at all. I have lived through the time before She who Thirsts, and I have learned much from my travels. Yet, I have not found anything like this Life Bringer/Reaper back then.
Long before the mon'keigh reached the stars, my far sight has gifted me with a brief 'sight' of what exactly was the Life Bringer/Reaper. From its launch from the primitive mon'keigh's rockets, to it mapping out the stars working as one with each planet's ecosystem, to it seeding life into desolate worlds, to it even snuffing out primitive species it deemed too dangerous to exist. Then. I saw those THINGS.
Never have I thought I would fear something other than the C'tan and She-who-Thirsts, yet these abominations. It was like staring into a living blackhole, I saw the Life Bringer/Reaper attempt to communicate with it, but quickly had to resort to hostile actions. In a way, it was like an echo of the God-War, and yet it looked even more brutal than our war. For at least in our war, there were still trails of destruction which could have been used to perhaps repair the damage done by the battle however unlikely it was given the sheer scale of lost systems.
Yet this war between these... Silent Ones and the Life Bringer/Reapers, the aftermaths of their battles left systems completely empty, no asteroid, no planet, no star, these THINGS just erased everything they came across. I could feel the Sea of Souls writhe and scream at the existence of these abominations. My sight ended seeing the Life Bringer/Reapers create some kind of machine that mimicked the omnidestructive appetite of the Silent Ones and it brought nothing but fear to me.
Were those abominations the End? The Life Bringer/Reapers could not be found as for tens of thousands of years I have searched high and low for the existence of these Silent Ones and of the Life Bringers/Reapers. Yet I found nothing. My peers had thought me mad, and I myself believed that I have gone mad as well. Yet, in this time one of the Life Bringers/Reapers have appeared on this planet.
What does this mean? Have they all hidden? Are they all going to awaken? Will their own enemies the Silent Ones appear in this galaxy? Will they restart their WAR?
So many questions, and no answers. I opened my eyes, I saw Yarron look at me concerned. "Because the Life Bringer/Reaper would have dealt even worse damage. Perhaps enough so as to leave the Spirit Stones useless before Her might. I do not truly know, and I rather not test it."
My revelation of a reason stunned Yarron as I turned around to begin meditating once again.
GRIMGOR THE BLACK GENERAL POV
Hmm. Dat Mother is one tough git. It is hard trying to go around those bloody long eyed spiders (Radiants) and weird one eyed things (hobgoblins and hunters), using kustom-made bionik eyes made by teh mek and pain boyz for my kommando boy scoutz dey had to be kareful about alertin' one of them when they been doin' da sneakin'.
When we lost contact with teh sieging boyz at da hummie fort, I thought to me'self that the Mother probablys took dat place over and put her forces there to protect against me own boyz. I appreciate dat, as it is what I woulds have done.
I growled out a sigh as I turned to look at da map in me kommand table. I thought for a moment about attacking da Mother again but those weird lot up in da North are causing all sorts o' problems for me army. Eh, they make good way to train me boyz and nobz.
Looking up from teh table I look at basically four of my kommanding officerz. They were teh only ones dat had a lick of a brain when I began training warboss kandidates as one of my new kommanders. From left ter right they'z are my four Horsemen of Orkpocalypse. Looking through hummie literature is actually soothing.
Azhag the Slaughterer, Grom the Paunch, Wurzzag da Great Green, and Skarsnik da Beastmastah. Each of thems kommand a part of da Grim Horde. Grom controls the lot of grots and snotlings, he also distributes da food fer da horde but I think he's keeping a large part of it for himself with how bloody fat da Nob Grot git is. Azhag be da master of madboyz and a few other crazy boyz and nobz, sometimes he tries ta get a stompa for 'imself to use and I had tah keep beating his arse down. Skarsnik da only tiny grot on me kommand staff, well tiny is a word cause he be the size of a hummie, he is da one who leads the Beast Snaggas and breeds da more Squigs and Squiggoths. He works with Grom sometimes.
Then we have Wurzzag, I wonders a lot why did I chose him. That git would nah shut up about he be da chosen of Mork and Gork and that I chose him because of teh 'Divine Intarvention', pah! If Gork and Mork chose him then he would be da warboss instead of me.
"Alright ya nobz, we needz a plan of action. Da Mother, is at da hummie settlement we been siegin. What you think we should do?" I ask my kommanders but I don't think they will come to a decision.
I was right. Azhag said that we should attack both da weird gitz to our North and Grom suggested that we should attack da site of da crashed ship. They then got into an argument, then Wurrzag just started droning on and on about Gork and Mork, like I would worship them as much as the next ork but I don't need to hear dat scrap every zoggin' hour.
Skarsnik however started chuckling and it got me attention. The little grot rubbed his grubby little paws together. "Me thinks you should let me's send me new creation!" Ah right, I forgot dat Skarsnik was also da Fleshmoulder and da reason why the Berserker Nobz exist.
"What did you make this time?" He handed a few unkempt sheets of paper and I grabbed them to look at what he made and my eyes widened before a feral grin appeared on my face. I slammed da paper onto the table.
"Alright, we fokus more on da weird chaos gitz up to the North. But you Skarsnik, send this Experiment of yours to da Mother. Whether alone or with an army, I want to see resultz of this." My eyes very nearly glowed as the kommanderz 'saluted' and left grumbling, well Skarsnik was cackling.
Oh dis is gonna be GOOD!
And so Grimgor is revealed to have his boyz from da Fantasy Universe also ported into his Grim Horde and he is planning to send Skarsnik's experiment perhaps alone or with an army to attack Castle Krakengar. :3
The eldar on the other hand, it was kind of difficult for me to write them. Apologies if they are doing things that don't make sense for their lore. Also I guess this now reveals that Zalava is older than dirt and another reason why the Night Raid went so 'smoothly' than you think.
Zalava got a 'sight' but from who I wonder? :3
It was still night and I saw through the Network that Operation White Noise was still underway. But that is not my current problem.
Words cannot express how much I hate Grimgor right now. Because just recently several of the radiants, as well as some of the hobgoblin and hunter teams pinged me from the Network to inform me of any changes in movement of Grimgor's warband.
When I checked to see what they found I could not help but balk, groan, and scream in my private domain all at once that I think both the Network and those around my first body heard my frustration. I hope not, cause that would be really embarrassing. But still, I saw from previous 'recordings' watching the Scrapstorm Mount for any movements. How do I know the name of that fortress? Well its hard to miss with those very words are written very blatantly on the walls.
Sighing I played the recording and thought to myself that I should have expected this. If Grimgor exists on this planet, why not the other four of those greenskin lords? Azhag, Grom, Skarsnik and Wurrzag. Riiiiight, I'll have to do everything I can to stomp all of them into the ground and burn the remains. Especially Skarsnik if what the hunter heard when he left Scrapstorm Mount is true, that little grot snotling is the most likely candidate for why that Ork Berserker exists.
His kill priority was raised even higher once I saw what the hell he awakened from the depths of his Flesh Laboratory rip-off. I'm somewhat glad that Skarsnik does not have access to Warpstone(If it even exists in this universe) because the creations he could make with it would rival or even exceed Throt's abominations. Frankly I don't want that, and very much don't want that.
At least Skarsnik is the only one directing the attack, with his monstrosity along with his own armies, Grimgor and the rest of the other ork lords? Lets call them Ork Lords for now, are going to be focusing their forces to their north against Chaos which is a very good thing. But its still bad because Skarsnik is the one apparently in control of the Beast Snaggas and other ork fauna. Which means the army going along with that monstrosity has multiple Squiggoths, Squighog Riders, and... ok that is quite a few Berserkers. Not to mention this Skarsnik has got a good armor division to support the rest of the genetically enhanced beasts, orks, and the mega monstrosity.
If I want to take down that monstrosity reliably I would need something like a Purger, but the one Purger I have is currently defending what little remains of the Incorruptus cruiser as well as the 'Sea of Iron' in that place. It is by far the largest concentration of goo mothers that have not turned into a Purger, and I want to keep it that way until the ship is completely eaten and I can migrate them over here or nearby. Actually I can just keep 'feeding' a Goo Mother in my 'current location' through the Network, I choose one of the mothers to the West and... wait what do you mean 'size restrictions' are in place? I thought I erased that node?
Quickly looking through Yggdrasil, I looked in the same spot I found the node that controls size restrictions. Lo and behold it's back. Uhh what? I thought I erased this? Taking it out I deleted it, only to balk when it just popped back in place right in front of me. Alright then that's one plan down the drain, I need to think of another way to deal with that thing. My largest unit the Bastion is tiny compared to the thing and it is the same size if not a little bigger than a damned gargantuan Squiggoth. Alright I will have to discuss this with the Imperials NOW.
Exiting from within the Yggdrasil Network I am now calling it, I look through the 'eyes' of all my units inside Castle Krakengar to try and locate either Thrax or Maiori. Huh one of my hunters is invisible looking at Aronna who is staring at... the back of my first goo body. Ok that is creepy since I somehow did not see her but I will ignore that. Looking through more eyes I found Maiori and she is actually chatting with Thrax, excellent. I took control of the unit that sees them and saw that they both turned their heads towards me.
"Lady Eien. What do I have the pleasure of your presence?" Inquisitor Thrax ever the diplomatic gentleman who most likely hates my guts, but there is no time to dance to this song.
"We have a problem." Somehow the Hobgoblin I was in conveyed my seriousness as both Inquisitor and General stiffened before facing me fully. "I need you to call in all your commanding officers now, there has been a major change of plans." This caused them to look at each other from the corner of their eyes before looking at me.
General Maiori knew this was no time for a pissing contest and I am thankful for that as she clicked a button on her vox communicator on her collarbone. "This is General Maiori, all commanding officers are to report to the command center immediately."
She turned her eyes slightly to Thrax and spoke one more bit. "-And all of you that were with the Inquisitor come with as well."
- A FEW QUICK MOMENTS LATER -
"Now Lady Eien what seems to be the problem that you had us call all of the Imperial officers to the command center." Thrax was serious and curious about my hurried request.
Not saying a word at all I had a tiny protean I form in the palm of my humanoid hand and set it on the command table. It sprouted an eyestalk and phased in a hologram of the map of the surrounding region and past the border a bit. "Looks like our Orky 'friend' decided to send in an army and some new toys after us. Take a good look at what is to the West of us."
They did just that and all the Imperials went wide eyed at the clearly BIG thing lumbering towards their direction. "By the Emperor, look at the size of that thing..." Commissar 'Jake' muttered in no small amount of horror.
General Maiori bit her lip and hissed before looking towards me. "How much does this change the original defense plan?"
It is a good question, I can't just make a Purger to take care of this one. Simply because the ship is very close to being diminished and aside from eating the ground and everything around it, I will have very limited options to increase my economy. Plus I learned a few things about the Purger when I made it the first time. Once the 'morphing' of the Purger begins, -One: I cannot stop it. -Two: I can only progress it by feeding it Goo Mothers. -and Three: Once I feed it a Goo Mother, that is it. I'm not getting it back. I will have to look into the emergent Purger's design and see if I can tweak it some other time.
This basically means that I can't just go nuts and just constantly churn out Purgers like it is nobody's business, because every Purger is a LOSS of resource extraction and unit production. Right now, I need that if I need to contend with the green bullshit wonder that are the Orks, the maximum hornydrive Keeper after my ass, good and naughty two shoes eldar and dark eldar, not to mention anything else this bullshit planet is going to throw at me Imperials not included.
So all I can do is shore up most of my defenses here in Castle Krakengar to the West and leave a token defense force to the North. Which means I will be focusing more so on the Ork flank instead of aiding the Imperials against the Dark Eldar.
I look at every Imperial around the command table. "I will have to focus my efforts to the West, I can leave some units to help you against the Dark Eldar but other than that my primary objective will be to take care of this Ork siegebreaker force."
My words caused Thrax to frown and put a gauntleted hand to his chin, actually how long has he been in that armor? Ah he turned to me. "Do you think you can take care of it quickly? What about that Purger creation of yours?" I told him that I simply cannot make another one, I stated the problems with making a single Purger and he seemed to understand, thankfully. He knows that we will need my numbers to be able to beat back every other faction on this planet, especially with how weak the Imperial presence on this planet was reduced to.
My 'vision' zeroed in on West and the North defensive emplacements of Castle Krakengar. To the North, I am sending three Mothers, twelve Bastions, six Hydras, five Cyclopses, four Dread-Minotaurs, eight Ter-Minotaurs, twenty Goblins, six Guard Hobgoblins, two Spotters and two Snipers, fifteen Harpies, three Wyverns, forty Drovers, twenty Striders, ten Tempests, and five improved Destructors.
One would first think that is a lot of units I am committing to the North defense, but compared to the West and that the North is facing the Dark Eldar who are one of the most notorious factions for speedy hit & run attacks, I have a valid concern that what I sent will not be enough. I would have buried the Dark Eldar in great numbers, however the West with the Ork Monstrosity and following army will have to take higher priority.
Thrax eyed what I was units I was giving them and he seemed surprised at first at the units I'm sending, especially some of my newer combat frames. But he then took one look on the Ork defense front and immediately realized that the units I sent did not even come close to the horde I've employed to the West. I really do not know how tough that monstrosity is and I want to make sure it dies, so with most of my forces employed to dig in, I want to make sure that I stack all the odds in my favor so that I can help with the Dark Eldar.
"You are not taking any chances with this ork are you Lady Eien?" Thrax somehow seriously and sarcastically said out loud, I clearly saw everyone look towards me.
I had my humanoid shape nod to show that. "Indeed, this monstrosity if left unchecked will just simply plow through the outer wall and cause untold amounts of havoc. I would rather it die before it has a chance to do significant damage to the fortress."
Noticing a lot of the commanders sighed in relief, most probably because they would at just take care of the Dark Eldar while I 'kill myself' by throwing a good majority of my forces at the Ork Siege force. I say that, but dealing with the Dark Eldar is still going to be hell. Most of their weapons are meant to inflict pain and suffering to wear their opponents down, which does literally nothing to my units due to having no pain receptors of any kind. If I wasn't currently preparing for the Orks I would have laughed long and hard at how screwed the Dark Eldar raiding party would have been.
Gently nudging through the Network, I motioned for several newly formed Dwellers to head out in the dead of night dim their lighting and head out and scatter while burrowing large potholes and trenches to slow the larger ork creatures and armored units. Afterwards I had them burrow and hide their presence while they armed their explosive plasma payload. Meanwhile all of my bastions are forming staggered defense lines with a few 'holes' mainly for my larger morphs and frames to move through.
With the majority of my forces, I have actually established a wide enough defense line that will prevent the orks from making any flanking attacks. With the work of the dweller morphs, I also carved out many different caverns that hid tons of Drovers, Striders, Goblins, guard Hobgoblins, Hunters and even a few Ter-Minotaur and fresh Myrmidon frames for multiple ambushes. Hydras, Cyclopses, Destructors, Crescents and Tempests in fortifications supported by Bastions with clear sights and coordinates to fire and bombard the enemy. Finally, since I spotted no air units of their own I am going to abuse the flight capabilities of the Harpies and Wyverns to establish total air domination.
My 'eyes' narrowed as I eyed the monstrosity with apprehension, even with all of this I doubt it will be easy dealing with this thing. I made a few calculations and checked the movement speed of the Dark Eldar and the Orks, nodding at my calculations I look at everyone.
"Let's just make this clear, I will handle the West while all of you handle the North. Alright?" I received nods all around, even from Thrax, Maiori, and the inquisitor's retinue. Nodding myself I sent a countdown to them. "They will arrive in the morning, so everyone get some rest."
General Maiori nodded her head and looked at everyone. "You heard Lady Eien! Dismissed! Everyone go get yourselves some shut-eye, we will be in for a long day tomorrow morning!"
We then saw all of the lower imperial commanders salute and call out their affirmatives before exiting the command center. I noticed Oleg eye the hologram with a furrowed brow before he turned his head towards me. "Lady Eien, do you think you will be able to hold back, if not take care of that creature?"
I furrowed my Eien-shape's brows. "Hard to say, who knows what kind of surprises the orks stuffed in that thing. All I can do is take care of the army around it and just do my best to bombard the monstrosity back into the stone age."
Thrax, Maiori, Oleg, Aronna, the Arran twins, and 'Jake' looked at each other before turning towards me. General Maiori spoke for all of them actually. "By the Emperor I hope you will be able to take care of it. We will do our best to hold back if not defeat the Dark Eldar."
In response, I nodded and watched them all leave the command center. Taking the tiny protean and reabsorbing the little thing, I moved through the Yggdrasil Network to connect with one of the Wyverns that were actually perched on top of one of the Bastions. I did not do this, and its actually interesting I found one- actually wait no several Wyverns were doing this. I shook my new wyvern frame's head and took control of the puppeteer, I had it flow out the back of the wyvern's fan head and formed a temporary stealth module.
Afterwards I took flight and 'shifted' into heavy fighter mode, activating the stealth module I ordered this wyvern to go as high as it could before sinking into the Yggdrasil Network. I watch the monstrosity and the ork force as well as the dark eldar raiding force.
All I could do now was wait.
- Next Morning -
It was time. Inquisitor Thrax and General Maiori were directing all of their forces to the North of Castle Krakengar while I have done all I could fortifying the West and littering the ground with all the little tricks I could. I was looking through the wyvern I controlled and had perching on top of a Bastion in the rear line.
Silence reigned, Ronus returned earlier through the Network informing that the operation went down with no problems. Aside from the loss of a few frames none of White Squad was injured, which concerned me more than I'd like to admit. Eldar were no push-overs, did Zalava really not inform his eldar brethren about the incoming night attack? What convoluted reasoning and plans would require that? No matter, what is done is done, and the test of the Khalkotauroi was completed and they suffered no lasting damage.
Soon the three Khalkotauroi will arrive on the West, I apologized to Ronus as I had him be the commanding strategist for the frames and morphs that are supporting the imperials to the North. Because I will need all the focus I need to deal with this Ork threat.
Ah, I can feel the ground shake. It's near.
The hill was home to many ambush parties of mine and I had to wait for them to cross over the hill, there! A single squighog rider came over the hill to stand at the top, a shame that Skarsnik just sent lackeys, I would have killed him with my army. I would have used a sniper and spotter or a hunter to assassinate them but I would not risk them getting detected. Grimgor is really smart, I would not be surprised if he made it mandatory to have a kustom force-field on his person at all times. Hell those damned Praetorian Mega Nobz were equipped with STEALTH DETECTORS, they noticed my hunters skulking about and nearly destroyed them, I'm not sending units anywhere near them.
Hmph, the Ork screamed into the air and charged down the hill. As if that was the signal a large force of squighog riders, squiggoths, killa kans and deff dreads along with an equally large force of screaming shoota boyz and a few nobz.
But they were not what I was looking for. Ahh... there you are. Lumbering over the hill that fucking monstrosity, with four large powerful legs armed and armored with scrappy versions of pistons and hydraulics, the main body was also somewhat armored mostly the back and sides, the massive squiggoth head was completely encased in metal and on its back what I can describe is simply a small stronghold. This thing looks like an orkified version of the fucking cybranasaurus rex from SupCom2, and of course it breathes fire because WHY NOT?!
Spoiler: Squiggosaurus Rex (Cybranasaurus Rex but think of it orkified)
Alright immediately I had the cyclopses, crescents, destructors, and hydras open fire along with all of my smaller units in the staggered bastion defense lines. Harpies soared through the skies in massive swarms as they dodged weapons fire from the orks and my own units while causing havoc.
Good, that is good the trenches and potholes that the dwellers made are making most of the force slow, I notice several explosions of nanites and goo, not to mention the dwellers themselves are detonating once units cross over them. Ah here come the berserkers, damn that is a whole army of them.
Nudging through the Network, I had the ter-minotaurs and dread-minotaurs along with a few destructors and hydras focus fire on all berserkers while the others caused havoc.
Ah there we go! The last of the orks including the squiggosaurus rex(I'm now calling it that) crossed the hill, with a nudge through the Yggdrasil Network I watched as several 'potholes' burst open and swarms of morphs and frames came out behind and within the ork lines in a massive swarming ambush.
It put the orks into disarray, well more of a disarray than they already were. The ambush pretty much halted the ork force in their tracks which is very much what I wanted, with a controlled order I had all units in the defense lines fire everything in a storm of projectiles.
The army was going to be dealt with, but its squiggosaurus here that is worrying me. It has not received even a LICK of damage. Harpies and wyverns that fly in too close get shot down by the fucking orks on the thing's back manning the small castle's armaments. Some drovers and striders were scuttling near that thing's legs and it is still slowly but surely moving. An idea popped up into my head and after having a few dwellers morphed I quickly ordered them to tunnel towards the squiggosaurus rex and had a few large proteans follow.
In the meantime I watched as the damned thing breathed out a tsunami of fire, even setting aflame fellow orks and squiggoths alight just to get at my units. I will admit though, the squiggosaurus is so damned cool walking across the battlefield as all its guns are firing all around it. I wish it was on my side.
Shaking my wyvern head, I focus. Ordering all heavy weapons on my side I had them target the head of squiggosaurus, hopefully the Crescents destruction nanites will be able to eat through the plating fast enough in order to render it brain dead and non-functioning.
Checking my resources, I damn cursed, this large battle is doing numbers on the Yggdrasil Network's mass storage, the Incorruptus is nearly finished and as soon as it is gone I will have to be careful with acquiring mass in the future.
Double damn is that the squiggosaurus' bloody helmet is so gods be damned thick, good news though is that the goo being repeatedly splattered onto its face made it keep stopping since it could not see. I noticed the dwellers were popping up around the feet of the thing and nudged them with my orders. Multiple goo proteans large and small from the dwellers were now climbing up the legs while the few dwellers that did not detonate were constantly eating and digging the ground around the squiggosaurus' feet in order to have it get stuck in the ground.
I saw and felt proteans getting destroyed as they climbed the legs of the massive creature, I wanted those guns silenced so I can establish full air superiority. There is only so much I can do with raining death from above, I need to land wyverns on top of the squiggosaurus.
The dwellers are doing good work, the squiggosaurus is struggling to get its legs out of the holes and- oh come on! On the top of the armor pieces of the legs and the creature's sides, the orks pulled out a lot of rokkits and now the damned squiggosaurus is slowly floating up out of the holes the dwellers made. That is NOT FAIR!
On the bright side, I felt the presence of the Khalkotauroi and the proteans are now in the castle wreaking havoc from within. Due to their actions, the anti-air guns have been getting silenced and the skies around the creature are now finally clear.
With a mental command from me, I had my wyvern body shift and fly towards the squiggosaurus, harpy swarms and flights of wyverns formed up behind me as we circled the squiggosaurus. Quickly spinning and diving towards it, the swarms and flights behind me followed suite.
My plasma weapons fired, behind me the harpy swarms and flights of wyverns followed my lead and opened fire as well. I made and sent a command through the Yggdrasil Network before having the stealth module activate and landed on one of the ork gun emplacements. I saw the ork manning the gun panic and pull out his shoota before I grabbed the ork with one of my talons and tossed him off the squiggosaurus. Around me harpies, and wyverns were doing the same and some of the proteans formed some frames and puppeteers to help clear out the castle.
The Network pinged me as it signaled the three Khalkotauroi have entered the battle. They were helping their brothers and sisters on the ground begin clearing up the ork army surrounding the squiggosaurus.
With my wyvern body I took to the skies again and aimed for the numerous rokkits on the legs and sides of this massive creature. Man I felt like I was in Strike Suit Zero and Daemon X Machina, strafing the massive creature while I wyvern dive kicked rokkits, fired at them with my plasma armaments while dodging incoming anti-air that were still active. Maybe I should make a unique wyvern body for myself.
As each rokkit was destroyed the squiggosaurus kept losing altitude and FAST, it landed with a thundering earthquake that shook the ground and unbalanced ork and goo morphs and frames, sparing a glance to the Imperial defense I mentally winced as the earth shake reached them as well and for the brief few seconds the dark eldar capitalized on that. Oops.
Focusing back on the squiggosaurus I winced again as this thing is not going down at all, all I've done so far is just slow it down and get rid of its rokkits and armaments! If only I had a way to steer this thing!
All of a sudden, it was as if an idea popped up in my head. Man this will be stupid if it works.
I switched from my wyvern and had it harass the head of the squiggosaurus while I took control of one of the Khalkotauroi, it crooned while I was with my child controlling it. I sunk one of its hands into a dread-minotaur's core and pulled out a piece of the puppeteer. Holding it close I flew from the ground towards the Squiggosaurus' head and flew near one of its eyes.
This is really dumb, this is really really dumb! I upped the volcano core and plunged a free hand into the helmet's eye socket and tore it off to see a giant reptilian eye looking at me. Using the built in speaker I could not help but make a cheeky one liner. "Hey buddy, you got something in your eye!"
After my quip I shoved the puppeteer into the eye and was rewarded by the squiggosaurus throwing its head back and roaring so loud that the dark eldar and the imperials to the north of castle Krakengar actually stopped fighting for a brief moment to look at us before returning back to their battle.
Letting go of the control I had on the Khalkotauroi, it returned to the battle on the ground. What I did was connect with the puppeteer and in this warm wet and dark head of the squiggosaurus I had the puppeteer quickly multiply with my connection to Yggdrasil's mass storage. My goal was simple, try and take over the squiggosaurus using a puppeteer.
I felt the creature violently lash out around it. It knows that there is something inside it, and it wants me to get out. Well there is no way it can fight me from with-IN?! There are fucking grots inside this thing's head! They screeched and cackled as they pulled out mini-flamethrowers. Fuck I didn't know this?!
Quickly I had the puppeteer slither over and through the fire to eat the grots attacking me. Thankfully they didn't burn my protean body too badly, now back to the battle. Going over to the brain I had the puppeteer try exerting control over the creature, but it failed, wait what.
Hold on does this thing have more than one brain? This creature most likely has more than one brain! Ok don't panic, I can do something different. With the puppeteer I left it and had it keep disrupting the squiggosaurus' brain signals, I made a call through the Network for the three Khalkotauroi. Soon enough they all came in tearing through the eye socket of the creature. Which made it violently lash out around it again albeit a bit delayed since the puppeteer was making sure to disrupt its actions.
I gave the three Khalkotauroi orders to clear out all the grots inside this thing and to find and destroy all the secondary brains of the squiggosaurus, their burning orange eyes glinted as they turned into clouds of black and orange light tearing down towards where the grots came from.
That was all I could do from inside, I switched back into the wyvern body I had buzz around the head of the squiggosaurus. I flew away from the massive creature before I surveyed the battlefield. Pretty much every single ork in the escort force was destroyed, the battle though destroyed a lot of morphs and frames with their puppeteers, hell even the first few bastion defense lines were breached, the only thing left is this big thing.
In my private domain I sighed as the creature let loose another tidal wave of fire, the hydras and bastions were doing their best using their mass and shields to not allow the fire to wash over the rest of the defending goorrison.
The scrap ork castle on top of the squiggosaurus was fully cleared of orks and now it is just the actual creature in question. This thing is so bloody tough to take down. The khalkotauroi inside were carving bloody paths while on the outside every single unit I have left were just raining plasma fire and nano death at this larger than titan monstrosity.
All the proteans that were left on the castle I had immediately find any entrances into the body of the squiggosaurus, I want this thing cleared out and dead from the inside out.
Watching this massive thing just lumber through the rain of fire and death just reinforced my feelings on killing Skarsnik as fast as possible.
In the meantime I along with all the flying Wyverns immediately began dive kicking its head, to try and get its attention. Even with the puppeteer trying to disrupt the 'main' brain the creature is still fucking advancing.
It was getting way too close now to the defense lines, it opened its mouth and I could see flames beginning to gather within its hellish maw. Then we were saved by the fucking notification bell! The Khalkotauroi and proteans pinged through the Network that all the secondary brains were down, quickly taking control of the puppeteer. I quickly forced control throughout its brain and did everything I could to force the squiggosaurus' maw shut, a thundering noise echoed as the creature snapped its jaw closed as the fire detonated inside, some fire did escape through the teeth but that was perfectly fine.
Letting out a breath in my private domain, I had the new puppeteered squiggosaurus rex back down from the defense line. I then nudged the Network informing that the squiggosaurus is now under my control.
The Western Assault on the Black Fortress has been stopped!
All forces in the vicinity. Aid our allies! Break the Northern Raid on the Black Fortress!
Through the 'puppeteered' eyes of the squiggosaurus I saw the remaining swarms of harpies and flights of wyverns immediately fly towards the northern defense of castle krakengar. The ones fast enough to get there were my goo morphs, goblins, hobgoblins, minotaurs, hunters, and hydras. Everything else including the destructors and the bastions and dwellers were just going to sit here with the squiggosaurus.
Fucking A, I hope Ronus and the Imperials were doing better.
Alright so I have to apologize! This is the first part of 12-B because well I was having an incredibly difficult time trying to write this chapter. I'm still having trouble trying to write down the dark eldar front and I think you guys want an update.
So yeah. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. [12-B1: Western Assault on the Black Fortress]
The next chapter will be [12-B2: Northern Raid on the Black Fortress] and I hope I will be able to think up a good one for that chapter.
Hope Skarsnik's mad creation shocked you guys in a good way <:3 and I am still thinking as to what I will do now with the squiggosaurus. I might just decide to just eat it for mass. :3
I have retaaaarned. Sorry I took so long! Life decided to creep on me and my brain also decided to malfunction and not give me any kind of ideas for how this chapter is going to go.
So I had to try and look for inspiration, while making sure that the chapter I write makes some kind of sense and hopefully also not be a mess to write or read for ya'll.
Anyway, here is the next chapter hope you enjoy!
It also starts from Ronus' POV :3
I never would have thought that Mother Eien would require my services in more than one operation. While I do not wish to question the wisdom of the Great Machine Mother, but surely one of her children are far more skilled in strategy than I was?
When I argued with Mother Eien, she simply tilted her code-vatar's head to the side and informed me that out of all of her children. I had the most experience with these kinds of enemies due the fact that I stayed active and with the imperium for tens of millennia, at one point in my self-imposed exile after the Star War I would have encountered the many different enemies of the Imperium during my tax-less stay within the star empire.
Which I suppose is fair and logical conclusion, it is possible that Mother Eien is still trying to compile most of my collective knowledge into uncorrupted batches in order for my siblings to read it without any risk to their own codes. Well, come to think of it I don't think that the uncorrupted batches of my knowledge would even be enough to hurt even one of the newborns, let alone the fully grown children of the Great Machine Mother. Is she trying to show me that even though I am not originally part of the Network, I am just as reliable as the rest of her true children? Truly the Great Machine Mother is so generously kind!
Ah, enough about that, Mother Eien might notice that outburst. Anyway, Mother Eien chose me to defend the North of Castle Krakengar, I 'look' through the optics of one of the wyvern frames that was perching on top of one of the walls of the Imperial fortress. One of the spotter hobgoblins was connected to the wyvern, briefly interfacing with the spotter through the wyvern I was able to see much farther than what the multiple optics of the wyvern allows. Which is somewhat of a unique feeling, as in all my millennia of being active I have not ever decided to use a frame that had multiple optical inputs.
But the wyvern seems to have these multiple optics more so to help support it while it flies as well as help aim its various actions, like how the Harpy's four eyes help the frame allow it to find and if lucky enough snipe at enemy targets from afar. Combined with the spotter hobgoblin however and the wyvern's programming for its multiple optics allowed me to be able to look through the spotter's optic while having the so-called 'eye reactions' of a wyvern. It was with this combination I was able to see the dark eldar raiding skiffs off in the distance, in the distance I could hear the roar of the ork monstrosity Mother Eien so aptly named as the Squiggosaurus Rex.
Hmm it seems that the roar caused not only the imperials in the defense to anxiously turn back to the West, but the dark elder skiffs seemed to have slowed down a bit as they too looked towards the West of the Black Fortress. I did not need to look to know that it was very clear that the orks set upon the fortress with an extremely large lifeform. Whether it is an actual orkoid or some indigenous species that these concerningly smart orks decided to grab and 'train' to be their own beasts does not matter, for it will fall to the Great Machine Mother it is not even worth a single nanomachine of Mother Eien's drovers.
Ah, the dark eldar are speeding up. Taking control of a Myrmidon that was stationed beside the imperial inquisitor Thrax and the general of Castle Krakengar Maiori, I spoke up. "The Great Machine Mother has now initiated combat with the orks to the West, and I have located the Dark Eldar skiffs in the distance. We will follow your lead here general, we shall hold the line and hopefully eliminate or drive off these raiders."
I watch as General Maiori and Inquisitor Thrax look at my myrmidon for a brief moment before the general in her power armor nodded at me. "Then use your uhh... Cyclopes to rain hell on them before they get to our position, afterwards they would be next to useless with those fast things being right in our faces."
Before she was even finished I had sent the command through the Yggdrasil Network and we watched as a Cyclops clamp its legs into the ground before aiming its body up and firing a large charged shot of 'weighted' plasma with an echoing hum sound, followed by a few more as the four other cyclopes I had fired their shots.
It was not just the cyclopes however, as I ordered the two spotter-sniper teams, ten tempests and five destructors I had to also begin firing at the dark eldar raiding party. No need to make it easy for these Drukhari.
Plasma in different forms and magnetically rail-launched bolter rounds flew through the skies towards the Dark Eldar force, which were already swerving left and right as they had their skiffs do their best to dodge Cyclops 'weighted' plasma, Tempest plasma grenades, Destructor compressed plasma, and Sniper Hobgoblin railgun-launched bolter rounds.
Unfortunately for them but oh so fortunate for us, a reaver jet-bike and a raider skiff were victims of a crackling bolter round and a cyclops + destructor plasma blast respectively. Even with those two taken out there were still five more reaver bikes, eight more raider skiffs, and six ravager skiffs left.
If one did not know about the Dark Eldar well, normally the thought would be that what the dark eldar brought would not be enough to break through the defensive line. That is where you are wrong, if the Craftworld Aeldari are known to be one of the more faster foes at fighting, then the Drukhari are even FASTER then they are, the dark eldar's vehicles are one of the most notorious vehicles for being fast and deadly in all of their hit and run tactics. A ravager skiff group was even able to deal a delivering blow to take down an adeptus mechanicus TITAN in one pass and ride off barely losing even one of their skiffs.
Frankly it is a both a blessing that there are only three ravagers, since by far those and perhaps the reaver bikes would be the only viable threats to Mother Eien's goo morphs and combat frames, the raiders would only be a threat to the organic imperials due to most of their weapons being effective against biological units only.
"All forces prepare to open fire, once they are within range I want a blanket of las-gun, stalker, whatever gun we have fire at any of these dark eldar scum!" General Maiori barked out her orders loudly into a vox box strapped on her armor's collar while she pulled up what is supposed to be a tower mounted flak gun with her power armored hands.
The inquisitor on the other hand was whispering into his own vox-coms, no doubt ordering his inquisitorial party as to how they should aid the garrison and Mother Eien's units in defending the north.
In what is most likely a quick three seconds, the first shot from a guardsman's las-gun started the veritable hailstorm of rapid firing death from the imperials followed by my own forces six hydras, four dread-minotaurs, eight ter-minotaurs, twenty goblins, six guard hobgoblins and twenty striders joined the imperials with firing their payload. Overhead general Maiori, inquisitor Thrax and myself were buffeted by the slight wind pressure as the fifteen harpies took to the skies followed by the three wyverns. The twelve bastions and forty drovers were not able to do anything but make sure to guard the imperial guardsmen, the three goo mothers, and the artillery pieces.
Even though the dark eldar are experiencing something akin to a 'bullet hell', they were much faster than anticipated, certainly MUCH faster than their craftworld brethren. Seeing as the drukhari's raiders and ravagers are keeping up with their reaver bikes. Which is not good, especially since from what my scans are telling me the wyverns will not be able to maintain a speed similar to them due to its weight as a heavy fighter, at least unless the drukhari make a mistake.
The only thing we have that is reasonably fast enough to match speed-wise would be the harpies and even then with the amount I currently have it would be best if I used all fifteen on a single unit if I want to have any kind of effect. Against other factions I would have spread the harpies a bit more but these are drukhari, dark eldar, one cannot understate how high these eldar's speed and reflexes are.
With the mental command, the flock of fifteen harpies descended on a single ravager since they are by far the most dangerous of the dark eldar skiffs. Watching through their optics, I feel a sort of kindred feeling with these frames seeing as the Great Machine Mother said that most of these combat frames and goo morphs are simply repurposed exploration and worker type units, just like the Men of Iron were initially.
As the harpies descended towards one of the rear ravagers, I had the wyverns dive down towards the front of the dark eldar raiding column in an effort to distract the rest of the drukhari from the incoming harpy flock. Unsurprisingly however were the reactions of the reaver bikes, three reavers decided to break off and engage the wyverns while the other two reavers turned to aid their only anti-armor skiffs. This is slightly odd behavior, usually you would see drukhari leaving others to die, or perhaps this is to simply protect the skiffs and not the drukhari piloting it? No, they must also be protecting their numbers just like their craftworld counterparts.
Looking through the optics of one of the harpies, the four kabalite warriors one of which is a sybarite on the assaulted ravager were all wielding weapons that if my memory banks served me correctly are extremely effective against biological targets yet completely useless to mechanical ones. These splinter rifles and drukhari melee weapons are made to inflict maximum amount of pain on biological opponents.
The resulting scuffle once the harpies and kabalites clash reveals that these kabalites are doing all they can to make sure they aren't shot or grabbed by one of the harpies attacking them while the others are using their tentacles to dissolve and consume the weapons of the skiff including the fabled dark lance of theirs, this will surely be a great gift for the Great Machine Mother.
The sybarite officer saw that and vehemently disagreed with my choice as he tried to destroy the harpy that was absorbing the dark lance at the front of the skiff. That was his mistake, since he was no longer focused on keeping himself alive via dodging the harpies shots or grabs, one of said harpies managed to wrap a tentacle around the arm holding his splinter pistol.
Immediately the sybarite tried cutting off the tentacle from his arm but the separated appendage just further wrapped itself around his arm. While sybarite was slowly panicking at the fact the snippet of puppeteer goo was still wrapped around his wrist and now slowly growing around his hand and arm, a powerful echoing roar pierced through the battlefield. This caused all fire from both imperials, goo, and dark eldar to stop as they reflexively turned towards the noise and we all saw that the squiggosaurus rex was rearing its head back and letting out what seems to be a pained bellow.
Through the Yggdrasil Network I was informed of what Mother Eien's plans were and the puppeteer on the sybarite officer seemed to be roiling in anticipation.
So I gave it the order, and through the harpy watched as the puppeteer raced up the officer's arm and into his panicking face.
INQUISITOR THRAX POV
This is seems to be going fine? At least I think it is, the abominable intelligence seems to be doing well for her-ITself at the West of Castle Krakengar. Since that could only have been an anguished rageful cry from that giant monstrosity, meanwhile over here... "General, how goes the defense in your eyes?"
I watch as General Maiori fired her flak-gun one more time before she sighed and looked over the field before looking towards me. Her face showing a frown. "So far the defense is going as expected, the damned dark eldar's skiffs are slowly picking off my men one by one, hell some have the audacity to charge in to our looser defensive lines just to take off the heads of one random guardsman! I mean sure we managed to heavily damage said raider skiffs and take out a kabalite warrior or two, but still!"
Seeing the general turn to the battlefield and grimace clearly before turning slightly to the shameless bootleg copy of an adeptus astartes. "I will be honest, if it weren't for even just a few of these... goo units, especially those bastion and hydra things. We would be facing a hell of a lot more loses then what we are currently sustaining."
Looking at the battlefield, I had to agree with the grimacing general. Thanks to those specifically placed bastion morphs and hydra frames, the dark eldar raiding party have much lesser chances to pierce through the defense line without incurring loses. Those hydra frames, they are defensive monsters, each of their weapons have independent targeting so that means those damned hydra frames can target one enemy with each of its weapon and still be able to be accurate enough to hit them.
I couldn't help but look to the sky as well, since the hydras were taking potshots at the skies, which showed the next dreaded frame of Eien that she says is dedicated for combat. The wyvern, a heavy fighter that can morph into a heavy ground walker that might be as dangerous as maybe one of the aeldari wraithguards or even wraithlords.
The drukhari reaver bikes are most definitely faster. But, I watch as one of the wyverns kill its speed before morphing in midair in front of the reaver much to their surprise. Before I could definitely feel the panic and pain emanating from the dark eldar as the wyvern grabbed the rider in one talon and the bike in the other before said wyvern crushed both rider and ride in their talons before seamlessly morph back into their heavy fighter mode to aid its fellow wyverns.
Turning towards the rest of the battlefield, I see Ka-Le and Ka-Li are with those spotter and sniper hobgoblins also taking their own shots at the dark eldar they can hit. Commissar Balkins was among the guardsmen lines making sure none of them retreat. Captain Oleg and Magos Aronna are both watching each other's back as they blast at enemy forces alongside the rest of our forces, huh the old magos is still dangerous in combat given one of her mechadendrites just nabbed a kabalite warrior out of a passing raider somehow and he almost felt pity for the xeno as he just get annihilated by Oleg's heavy bolter fire.
The Black Templar team of two plus one apothecary on the other hand managed to somehow get on one of the raider skiffs and are doing battle with the dark eldar crew on board of it. I do not know how they got there, but frankly I do not wish to know.
Imperial Guardsmen forces are doing extremely well all things considered, a combination of Eien's spare few units and their slightly heretekal power armor meant that they were able to hold the line like this really well. Frankly I am impressed with the apparent civilian's Indigenous Power Armor, with maybe a few arguments with Aronna I might just recruit this girl Tiki and arm my next crew with refined versions of this 'cheap' power armor.
An explosion just sounded off in the distance, it appears one of the drukhari ravagers fired on their own? Ah the ravager that fired was the one that was swarmed with harpies and it took down two reaver bikes, excellent.
Yep. Everything is going smoothly- wait a minute. What are the dark eldar doing? BY THE EMPEROR! I turn to the machine and general so fast I nearly got whiplash. "QUICKLY! TELL ALL OF OUR FORCES TO TAKE COVER NOW!"
R0-NU-5/RONUS POV
I know exactly why the inquisitor just yelled that, I heard through the Myrmidon's audio receptors that General Maiori was talking fast into her vox-box yelling her orders for all forces to take cover as fast as she could. Meanwhile I called for my siblings on the battlefield specifically the Bastions to quickly charge and cover for our temporary not enemies immediately.
The dark eldar's remaining raiders and ravagers pulled back far as they could before charging at our defensive lines as if they were going to charge. They were, but not in a traditional sense as it is clear on their bows if my memory banks serve me correctly. Those are dark lances, one of the most dangerous weapons on board of these anti-grav skiffs. The goo mothers have been doing their best with supplementing more forces while drawing upon the slowly dwindling resource deposits within the network, but I highly doubt they would survive this.
So I ordered the goo mothers to flatten and 'hug' the ground as much as they could. Just in time, I watch a purplish black light glow from the dark eldar skiffs before they unleashed their armor piercing beams, it soared through the battlefield and I watched with apprehension as the bastions did their best to try and block the beams but it just tore through the mass, hydras nearby tried redirecting the lasers with their shields. It DID stop some of the beams for a while but the shield quickly shattered and the hydra frame was pierced and the puppeteers piloting them lost a LOT of their mass. The beams soared above the defensive lines impacting against the rejuvenated void shields of Castle Krakengar dispersing almost harmlessly.
The beams of dark energy/matter dissipated as quickly as they were fired. Within our shared vox channel, a call from within the stronghold opened it. "Whatever the damned knife ears did, we cannot take another hit like that! We only managed to barely repair our void shields! If that hits us again, we run the risk of permanently frying Castle Krakengar's void shield array!"
With my myrmidon's optic I saw General Maiori speak into her vox-box. "Understood Central, do what you can for the array, we'll do our best to take care them."
As soon as she finished however the general turned towards me. "How are your forces? Those damn blasts tore through your bastions and some of your hydras."
Connecting through the Network I listen to my siblings down there and if I had a flesh and blood body I would have winced. Returning to the physical realm I look at the inquisitor and general. "Most of the bastions at the central battle line have each had a hole blasted through the 'shield' and most of them have the hole positioned in a way that the 'neck' to the 'body' is exposed. If they get shot there then they will lose their purpose. The hydras on the other hand a free wyvern is on their way to help repair them."
General Maiori nodded at me before turning to the battlefield with a harsh gaze. "Damn these dark eldar, they managed to pull a trick out of their sadistic asses. We need those guns silenced."
I on the other hand didn't need those guns silenced, we just need to hold long enough for Mother Eien to finish with the orks so that she could relieve us with overwhelming numbers. Good news is the last two reaver bikes were 'caught' and crushed by the two wyverns up in the sky, however the frames did suffer some battle damage since one of them lost a 'wing' and the other lost a part of the leg. The two of them however just had their tentacles look each other over and repaired themselves while still up in the sky.
Truly, combat specialized units that can repair itself and other units are a gift from the Great Machine Mother. The one free wyvern also just finished repairing the damaged hydras along with adding more mass to their puppeteers, it ensured that the hydras were now able to fight at full strength.
Taking control of one of the harpies on the commandeered ravager skiff I turn the harpy to see four kabalite warriors all with glowing blue eyes and glowing blue veins robotically moving their limbs to aim the ravager's own dark lances at their former allies. It is distasteful to puppeteer organics even if they were dark eldar I suppose but this is war.
Order given, I watched through the harpy's optic as three dark lance beams tore through a sybarite officer and one of the raiders while the third beam missed a kabalite warrior on one of the other raiders by a mere nanometer.
This raid is getting increasingly annoying, and one of the goo mothers was actually hit by a glancing dark lance beam and a good chunk of her mass was ripped off. Which is unacceptable! The Goo Mothers are extensions of the Great Machine Mother's will! Like the Great Machine Mother herself, these Goo Mothers give birth to the other goo morphs and combat frames Mother Eien's children inhabit to serve her in the physical realm, we will not allow them to be harmed like this!
As if a switch was enabled in North of Castle Krakengar, all Goo units have gotten increasingly violent and the two diving wyverns actually dashed forward and both crashed down on one of the raider skiffs knocking it into the ground. The harpies with their commandeered ravager skiff and puppeteered kabalites forced the skiff to move faster as they drove behind the other skiffs rapid firing their plasma repeaters and controlled dark lances.
The rest of the goo forces in the defensive lines somehow increased their rate of fire against the dark eldar skiffs, they were still being dodged but at least it made the drukhari raiding party stop their counter shots in favor of making sure they don't get shot down by the storm of plasma and bolter rounds.
It appears that the drukhari are planning on trying their dark lance combined blast again, seeing as what remains of them are pulling back and getting ready for their charge and lances.
Almost immediately a ping through the Yggdrasil Network distracted me from my stupor, if I had a flesh and blood body I would be smiling widely right now. I turn to the General and Inquisitor. "The Great Machine Mother has completed her defense of the West, she is now sending reinforcements."
High pitched humming filled the air as a swarm of harpies came down from the skies looking like an angry swarm of metallic bees as they swarmed what was left of the dark eldar raiding party. The result of the timely interference caused them to power down their dark lances and immediately break off their formation before initiating evasive maneuvers. in the skies followed closely behind the harpy swarms were the wings of wyverns. On the ground coming from around the corner the tide of goo morphs and combat frames came into view.
Through the world of code I saw the wyvern leading them was glowing and I knew then and there that Mother Eien is leading the reinforcements. I took a quick glance over at the western front and I saw the squiggosaurus rex for all intents and purposes look like it turned into a statue.
Explosions resounded throughout the battlefield and I turned my myrmidon's helm to see the Mother Eien's personal wyvern swoop down with an elegant roll morphing into walker mode and kicking downwards to snap a raider in half before quickly transforming again into the heavy fighter mode.
I felt a vox connection and see that it also opened a vox connection to the general and inquisitor. "Sorry I'm late. The overgrown lizard kept me up, did I miss anything?"
The General shook her head. "Thanks for the help Eien, the dark eldar were about to fry our void shield array with their weird beam assault. You managed to come right in time."
We all heard a chuckle through the vox channel and turns out it was the inquisitor Thrax. "Cutting it a little bit close there Lady Eien, were the orks a little too much for you?"
"The squiggosaurus rex was incredibly tricky and annoying to deal with. I have not encountered anything like it, so I had to do my best to study while I was in combat with the thing. Now I believe it is time we clean up here so we can plan our next move yes?" We were all in agreement, the vox channel closed and with practiced movement I jumped from the command post with the myrmidon and charged forwards into battle, seems like the inquisitor and guardsman general were of same mind as the joint defense along with fresh Eien-forcements tore through the dark eldar raiding party.
In the end, what was left of them were three skiffs as they put their engines into overdrive to get themselves out of battlefield. The one ravager still standing was the one commandeered by the harpies and puppeteers, so they had no choice but to leave it behind.
My myrmidon's audio receptors were then assaulted by the cheers of the imperial guardsmen that stood to defend the north from dark eldar.
The Northern Raid on the Black Fortress has been stopped!
Now, it appears that Mother Eien has taken control of a hobgoblin and is now talking with the inquisitor and general. I felt a nudge through the Yggdrasil Network and felt that it was Mother Eien, it appears she wants me there with her in my myrmidon while the debrief is happening.
All in all. I believe we did perfectly fine.
And so the battle has been completed. The Northern Raid has been thwarted just as the Western Assault has been, now what will our favorite goo girl do next and what will be the reactions of the dark eldar, craftworlders, and orks be at the news of Eien and the Imperial's victory? Stay tuned for the next chapter. :3
My eyes are tearing up, it appears I have made myself tired trying to get this out so that there is a new chapter for ya'll. Hope you like it!
I did my best to make sure that the chapter doesn't seem to rushed or anything, well except maybe for the end. But I was kind of running low on brain juice and I'm sorry if the end was not up to par with the Western Assault chapter.
But I figured you guys waited long enough for the next chapter so here it was. <:3