Forward! Get in there before they recover! Archibald shouts. He and Lugga quickly advance toward the new entry point.
Felix follows right behind Lugga with her weapon practically tugging her frowards.
Rather than charging ahead directly, Ludicus pauses long enough to slot his prey sense googles into place, THEN he follows.
Kersin rushes into the unknown interior of the bunker, pistol and chainsword at the ready.
As he rushes in, Kersin tries to flog some valid knowledge about what to find inside the bunker from his combat-drunk brain. Though the bunker is definitely of a familiar design, he simply cannot dredge the information back out of his memory.
A hail of lasbolts come flying from the inside at those entering through the wide hole, but it is far from accurate and only Lugga takes a sunburn on his big toe, which he likely does not even notice.
Lynn's reflexive return fire on the source of the lightshow does not seem to hit.
It is hard to target someone only by the stroboscopic light. Maybe the gunner was left handed? Or in cover? Fact is the source keeps on shooting...
The inside is a dusty, dark mess, stroboscopically lighted up by lasbolts from two targets a couple steps apart and backpedaling from the new "entrance".
From the fleeting impressions of the light bolts, there is some kind of huge machinery in the middle of the room and a a lot of supply and ammo boxes scattered around the inside.
With the goggle in place you get a good sense of the inside.
It is roughly the shape of a cross, with locked doors in all corners.
The middle of the room is taken up by a large generator and snaking cables winding themselves up along solid looking plasteel pillars before vanishing in the ceiling.
Right before the huge machine is a small alter, nominally one of the Adeptus Mechanicus blessing the proper function of the generator but as your gaze wanders over it, your goggle's machine spirits wink out and only transmit white noise for a few seconds before coming back online.
You can also make out two enemies on their feet, shooting at the intruders while struggling to shake of the effects of the explosions. Both seem to have standard issue lasguns.
There is a makeshift gun nest close to the generator with a set-up heavy stubber, which is silent as of now, but you get two heat signatures (or one big one) from behind the cover.
Right next to the altar and on the ground is a ... thing.
Larger than a man, hunched and with eight pairs of legs and several more unevenly spread appendixes.
Again, your goggle's quit their duty after observing the thing for more than a fleeing glance, but it is enough to leave an instinctive body horror in you...
You recall that this kind of emplacement is used to house a single piece of heavy weapon emplacement surrounded by a thick protective layer of ferrocrete. The upper floor houses the weapon mounted on a traversing equipment allowing a 360° firing arc (albeit at slow rotation) and additional firing slids for the occupants. The lower floor is usually used to store ammo for the heavy weapon and house the crew for prolonged times, so it has basic sanitary installations, sleeping rooms and a small cooking place to warm up rations. The two floors are connected by a simple plasteel ladder, usually close to the center and a lockable trapdoor in the ceiling/floor.
Archibald knows Lugga's "But it's dark!" protest is coming before he even thinks to say it. Archibald's command heads it off.
Get in there, Lugga! Your squad needs you!
Lugga whimpers, a very odd sound indeed coming from him, and barrels his way into the interior. He chases down the ones attacking him and attempts to convince them of their error.
Lynn turns to the other shooters besides her
"Alrighy, time to follow. Make sure your guns are loaded then we go"
then ejects the single used shell and replaces it, then tightens the strap on Honey, cradling 'him' close and pulling out her las pistol
"SLOT YOUR GOGGLES, DAMN YOU!"
The Commissar realizes that while the "thing" is absolutely a problem, the immediate danger is the gunners nest.
Ideally, he would like to have just thrown a grenade, but the generator and all the ammunition would make that a very dangerous prospect.
Instead, Chainsword in hand, he makes for the gun nest, intending to stop it from coming online.
Despite hardly being trained in such things, the Commissar just barely manages to clear the barricade AND stick the landing.
Felix snaps her goggles in place as she raises her shotgun and...
Target priority...?
Both Archibald and Lugga flip their goggles into place as they move. All the better to murder heretics!
Felix fires at the only target on her side that she sees, the traitor backpeddling to the east.
4 DOS, 3 hits
Then not bother to confirm the kill she rushes around Lugga to follow the Commissar, slotting her goggles as she goes and immediately regrets it. Emperor damn it all what is that thing?
The squad storms the prefab with a speed and ferocity that catches the enemy flat-footed.
Two traitors die within the first few seconds, one with a smashed in chest gurgles out his last few blood-foamy breaths in the wake of Lugga's hammer, the other blasted to red chunks by a trio of shotgun blasts at point blank range - to the great enjoyment of Felix' gun.
The Commissar meanwhile clears the gun nest with a jump that oh-so-barely is high enough and lands in the middle of two traitors in the process of getting back to their senses and get the heavy stubber operational.
Faced with a breathing and very angry Commissar, both decide to instead ready their short combat blades.
Kersin leads three of the tankers through the opening next, with Lynn and two more following another dozen meters behind, catching up quickly.
The "thing" on the ground rises with a horrific screeching sound which seems to be equal parts mechanic and insectoid.
It turns out, that it has to be some kind of command, as the sound coming from the generator in the middle of the room suddenly rises in pitch and volume - and a bright electric discharge briefly links it and the "thing".
The discharge leaves you goggle's machine spirits reeling and static washes over your lenses for a moment.
Residual warmth inside the bunker has spiked by at least three levels, causing the picture to glow with a distant orange where there was blue-grey before.
[spoiler=People Looking at "the thing"]
The thing is now enveloped by a bubble of energy that makes your goggle's blink out and it is even visible with the bare eyes: a dark violet bubble encasing something straight out of one's nightmare.
As if someone decided to cross a snake, a spider and a scorpion and then servitorized the result for good measure.
Eight legs ending in metallic clamps, one pair of pincer's, a multidude of red-glarring bionic eyes atop a round metal-cased head, a scorpions tail coming out of a bulky spider's abdomen ending in a lethal looking chain spike and sprouting several tentacle-like mechadendrites with all kinds of nasty-looking whirring and clicking tools at the ends.
[/spoiler]
The Commissar, having landed and now facing two foes, opens his mouth to command Felix to shoot one of the heretics down before they have a chance to join combat properly.
However, instead of the rich baritone of the former master at arms, only a small squawk emerges, not loud enough to even be heard by the commissar himself over the din of combat.
Embarrassed, but thankfully hidden fro anyone decides to heed the words of his erstwhile drill instructor.
"The emperor smiles on those that make their own luck in life."
Archibald moves to the right to avoid grouping up and removes his goggles in the process. They're useless against the THING> He fires at the monster. Whatever abomination that was, it was best to kill it quickly.
Lugga has trouble removing his hammer from the shattered remnants of his target's ribcage for a moment after his kill.
He then spots the spider. Spiders are bad. So very sneaky bad! He rushes the monster and swings.
Preferring to attack anything other than warp madness Felix rushes to aid the Comissar and shoots the traitor not currently occupied with a chainsword to the skull.
2 DOS, 3 hits
Lynn is still outside and blissfully unaware about what is happening inside and so keeps running towards the entrace
R, Pen: 4, Toxic(20, 3)
The chosen target of Marleno shortly seems able to parry the lethal blow with his blade, but then the blade is ripped from his grip by the fast-whirring chainsword of the Commissar and death follows quickly but messily.
Turning around to face the other would-be-heavy-gunner, Marleno is in time to witness the utter annihilation of the traitor by another burst of point-blank shotgun fire from Felix.
Towards the middle of the room, the serviderpion is first hit by a shrieking bullet from the Lt. pistol, which is absorbed by the flickering bubble of energy surrounding it like a raindrop falling into the roaring sea.
Lugga's much more primordial attack crashes against the very same bubble ...
... and breaks it!
A shrill, ear-and-brain-tormenting shriek follows, which somehow contains understandable words within.
"imPRoBablE acTioN DetECted!
COUntErmEaSUre: erADiCatiOn of BioloGIC inTrUDerS!"
The whicked looking tail of the thing stabs at Lobba while a scuddle of mechadendrites rise high into the air, nearly to the top of the ceiling and send a white-hot burning blast of promethium at the closely packed group of trooper around Sergeant Walkover entering the bunker.
All of them are enveloped by the flames and shrill shrieks of pain fill the bunker within seconds at the same time as the sickening sound of metal piercing tough Ogryn hide signifies the success of the attack against Igor.
15R, Pen:4
Toxic (20, 3) => Toughness -20 or suffer 3 Damage per turn
Since you have unnatural toughness, you can retry that check every round
Of the living torches, one runs straight ahead, screaming like a madman until he hits the generator rebounds and falls hard to the bunker floor.
Two run out of the bunker and into the trench system in headless pain and panic.
Only the sergeant drops to the ground and roll around wildly and actually manages to extinguish the flames eating at his flesh!
That's 3 points of straight damage (no soak).
And you're prone just outside the bunker door now.
The third group around Lynn is close to the "entrance" when the burst of flames washes over and scatters the second group: a scene no one can easily forget.
Lynn will feel the steps of Martha and Plip beside her slow and hesitate faced with such horrible danger and the feeling that it could have been them, if they had taken position with the forward group instead of hanging back with the sniper...
Lugga rages against the machine and brings his hammer down again!
Archibald steadies his grip and unloads as many rounds into the monster as he can.
Lynn has a rather straightforward problem solving skills. Murder things. Sadly that does not include helping burning comrades(at least as long as there is something to murder) and so she screams at the others:
"If you're afraid of that thing then f*+#ing murder it to death already! Kill before they kill you! Honey has been showing you all this time!"
And despite invoking her beloved Honey's name to the others she crouches down next to the ragged entrance hole, using it as partial cover and brace and fires with her las pistol.
The shot goes wide despite how big and close the thing is. Lynn growls and scolds herself for it - her las pistol is not Honey after all. Lasers don't have bullet drop OR spin off center, adjusting for them does not aid the shot...
With the immediate enemies neutralized, the Commissar found himself in a slightly uncertain situation.
Shooting into melee would be dangerous, especially for someone as poor a shot as him.
Going into melee didn't seem like a particularly sane option either.
But maybe...
"Trooper Tark, over here. You may not be trained using a heavy stubber, but that generator is an immobile target.
Let us take it out, I shall load you."
Before following the order Felix dips into her special stock of ammo yanking off the goggles as she does so. There was no point in them if she couldn't even see the target. She loads armor destroying slugs into the pumpgun as she fires at the large target.
Let me chip some armor of that first, sir
If Felix thinks it's a good idea she'll move to the subber to rebrace it towards the target. Otherwise she'll move towards it and go Might not be a good idea, sir
Kersin slaps out the last few smoldering patches, muttering angrily with each impact, "Hideous. Emperor. Damned. Abomination." Still smoking slightly as he rises to his feet, Kersin stares in dismay at the smoldering and writhing remains of the Guardsmen around him before deciding that the pragmatism of the Imperial Guard will serve them better this day than attempting triage on (most likely) dead men. Turning back to the monstrosity, Kersin levels his bolt pistol and sends two mass-reactive shells streaking in towards the bug-machine-evil, "Purge the unclean. Kill the heretic."
Target sequence: Igor, Archi, Felix, Marleno, Kersin, Lynn, burning NPC
E, Pen:3
E, Pen:3
E, Pen:3
E, Pen:3
E, Pen:3
E, Pen:3
E, Pen:3
The thing raises a chitinous claw in an attempt to stop Lugga's furious attack but obviously misjudges the speed of an Ogryn fully in the grip of its species fury and the strike connects - and once again passes through the shimmering energy bubble and crashes against the armoured hull made of an amalgamation of chitin and metal plating with a resounding crash.
The huge creature shudders under the powerful strike but seems far from finished.
Archibalds sends another shell into the big target but once again, the shell is sucked up by the energy bubble as are the first shots of both Felix and the rare-done Sergeant - throwing the entire scene back into deep darkness yet again.
Then, the bubble pops with a snap akin to brief thunder and the last shots hit home!
Felix' last slug hits the thing like a sledgehammer and leaves a gaping hole in the vast abdomen, close to Kersin's bolt shell exploding against the thick armor plating.
Thick, viscose fluid of uncertain color oozes out and the thing is screeching its horrible scream.
"DessZZssISt, meeATbaGS!!!
ErRRRonEOuSZ equAtIOnSZ -
mUSZt reDuCZe NUMBER oF vARiAbleSZZ.
aND thEre ShAll bE lIGhT!"
As one, several rows of strong lumen globs engage along the entire ceiling, throwing everything into stark light.
Those of you still wearing their goggle's are momentarily blinded.
The full grotesqueness of the creature becomes clear only now in the light from the globes and with the energy bubble gone.
Its swollen abdomen is covered in scripture that makes your hairs stand on edge and your teeth hurt just by looking at it, including the unmistakable eight-pointed star of chaos with a perverted variation of the Machine Cult's emblem embedded in its center.
With a series of omnious clicking sounds, the flurry of fleshy mechadendrites unfold, targeting lenses engage red aiming lasers dance around the room and lock onto the entire squad ...
... before a furious crackling of lasfire make the emplacement tremble.
@Igor: you are hit sqaure in the barrel-chest by a white-hot lasbeam.
@Archi: you are hit in the lower stomach by a white-hot lasbeam.
@Felix: the barricade right in front of you is hit by a lasbeam but holds - barely. You can actually see a bit of molten metal flow down the ammo crate before cooling.
@Commissar: the barricade to your feet is hit but the white-hot lasbeam sears through and hits your boot. It has spent most of its energy against the barricade though, so the impact is barely noticeable.
@Kersin: you are hit by a white-hot lasbeam in the left leg.
@Lynn: the inside of the ragged hole you are using for cover is hit close to your feet with tremendous force and a hole is blasted through the weakened ferrocrete. A sharp fragment hits you just above the end of the boot shaft and draws a small bit of blood and will leave a huge bruise that will annoy you for days.
Another lasbeam is cutting out the screams of the burning trooper by removing his leg at the hip.
It does not look good for the squad.
Can you really deal with this incredible monster?
Doubt wells up in your consciousness quickly followed by fear...
You lack training in the heavier wargear, but with your skill, a proper bracing, short distance and such a big target it should be alright if you go with short, controlled bursts.
You probably need the Commissars help to heft the thing in place though.
Agh! Emperor dammit!
Dazzled and blinded, the Commissar quickly crouches low removing his goggles and keeping in cover until his sights return.
Sir, help me brace it and I'll fire...
"I'm blinded, guide my hands trooper!"
Archibald's eyes burn and he cries out as he rips off his goggles and goes to a knee. Then pain explodes across his stomach and he yelps again, almost falling over!
Lugga roars in pain and fury. His armor and hide absorb most of the las, but the light stabs into his eyes! Unfortunately for the machine thing, being blind is not something Ogryn in the middle of a frenzy care overmuch about. Lugga just swings in the same spot as before as hard as he can!
As he's swinging, Lugga's eyes seem to focus and come back to normal as his hammer arcs high overhead, just in time to adjust his swing!
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The sight of the gaping hole her slug punched into the monstrosity gives Felix just enough confidence to continue operating as normal.
She drops the pumpgun, making sure to remember where it lands, breathing an odd sigh of relief as it goes out of her grip. She guides the Commissars hands onto the bottom and top of the back of the stubber.
That's the back Sir, I'm picking the front up now, follow my lead, towards me, hup,hup,hup... and down.
The gun now points at the generator but has enough range to shift to target the abomination if needed.
Lynn stares at her aching foot and growls "Now you've done it! Honey time!"
And swaps out the las pistol for honey
Kersin has seen so many other Guardsment die in his lifetime, the losses they have suffered so far do not seem to faze the Sergeant and his bolt pistol never wavers from its target. Until a searing-bright las-beam scorches its way past his armor and burns into his left leg. The afflicted limb buckles and Kersin is once more knocked to the floor with a bitten-off cry of agony.
Though the losses do not touch his resolve, Kersin knows that newer Guardsmen can be badly shaken by the deaths of their comrades and his pain-laced voice comes through clenched teeth to rally their spirits, "What a time to be alive! We have torn down countless enemies of the Imperium, and this one will be no better! For the Emperor!"
Perhaps it is the obvious pain in his voice, perhaps it is the cacophany drowning out his words, but Kersin can see that he has had little effect on the morale of the squad. If you cannot lead with words, lead by example. Rising to his feet once more, leaning against the wall of the bunker to steady himself, Kersin levels his bolt pistol once more and sends two shells into the creature.
Lynn stares at the aching tip of her foot and suddenly the world, usually enveloped by her glee to murder someone with Honey, snaps back into place. The screams of her burning squad mates and the death all around her start seeping into her consciousness. Her eyes widen and her breathing becomes a little hysterical.
She turns away from the hole, her back to the buildings wall and swaps the las pstol for Honey, then burries her head while craddling Honey, trying to find her resolve again
*DakDakDakDakDakDak*
The quick burst from the heavy stubber fills the single-room prefab with its signature roar (which is drowning out even the resounding boom of Kersins Bolter and Lugga's hammer) and slugs crash like hail against the side of the generatorum installed in the middle of the room.
Most shells bounce of the thick plating but one pierces and causes a long but incredibly thin spike of white-hot plasma to shoot outwards, clipping both: the squads Ogryn and the creepy thing and singes Archibald's fancy hat despite missing his head. Where the spike of less than pinky-finger size touches armor plates they melt. Where it touches chitin, it blackens, brittles and break. Where it touches flesh, it bubbles and runs liquid.
E, Pen: 6, Destructive (2) to the right Arm
The thing screams incoherently at first but soon it's rage gets (slightly) more modulated and thus understandable.
!!!ScREEEeeeeEee33eeeEeEEEEeeEEEEEcHHHHH!!!
HoW DARe yOU hURT yOUR BEttERs?!
YouR bIOloGic COMponENtS wiLL NOT bE rEuSeD.
I wILl WAStE yOU!!!
The swirling aiming lasers, who where still trying to keep up with the movements of everyone in the room, leave their targets and coalesce.
Until ALL of them are placed at the same very same spot:
Right between the eyes of Felix Tark.
Lugga instinctively steps away from the jet of plasma and sees the lasers all swing toward Tark. He roars in a clear mix of pain and fury and hits the machine again, trying to keep it's focus where it belongs.
But the searing pain throws off his swing!
Archibald goes to a knee to avoid the jet of plasma. He fires his last round at the monster.
but he misses as well!
"The only betters we recognize is the emperor of mankind and the high lords of Terra.
You are a filthy heretic, and we do not fear you, we will END you!"
Felix panicks as the crazed machine monster swings all of its firepower at her. She shifts the stubber slightly to aim right at it and fires!
Not the best shot but she had better things to do as she lets the weapon go and dives straight for cover, going completely prone.
"Sniper Edward! Kindly remove whatever passes as this "things" misbegotten head!"
Having motivated the troopers, helped stabilize the stubber, and called out a command the Commissar then also dodges low behind the barricades.
Lynn gulped. The red one wanted her to do stuff. And not just any stuff - her favorite murder stuff! But going near that thing... Well no technically only her Bullets would go near it! Score!
She kisses Honeys barrel and turns to aim through the hole once more - sighting on the... thing.
"Ah.. Aye Sir!"
Kersin takes a moment to roll over behind the wreckage of the doorway to the bunker, taking cover behind some of the rubble. So protected, he aims his bolt pistol quite carefully at the abomination.
Cover: AP 10
E, Pen: 3 vs AP10, remaining: 5
E, Pen: 3 vs AP9, remaining: 5
E, Pen: 3 vs AP8, remaining: 3
E, Pen: 3 vs AP7, remaining: 10
E, Pen: 3 vs AP6, remaining: 15
E, Pen: 3 vs AP5, remaining: 12
Before your very eyes, the thing is transforming as mechadendrites snap together and merge with the front pincers, who in turn convulse, crack and reveal integrated circuits and barrels of a singles massive weapon system bearing a remote semblance to a multilaser you only know from mounted atop a Chimera APC.
With wide eyes, Felix shoots the transforming monstrosity, drawing some blood (or whatever passes for it's vital fluids) and disables one of the targeting lasers before it can complete the transformation process. Sparks fly from the disconnected socket and the thing is screeching ever more animalistic.
Then she dives for cover right on time as the barrels start to glow eerily.
A single heartbeat later a storm of lightning bathes the inside in stark violet contrast. The nearly solid looking lasbeams punch into the makeshift barricade with lethal force and it looks for all intent and purposes as if the abomination is thrusting spears of light into the cover shielding two of your squad mates...
The first three spent most of their energies in melting through the stacked and bolted together ammo crates and don't have enough force left to punch through Felix' armor.
But the next three, even brighter then the previous, are much worse, having a considerable weakened and half-melted target to penetrate instead of the solid metal boxes that once made up the barricade.
The screams of the brave trooper are hard on everyone, made worse by the fact that (beside the Commissar) no one can actually see Felix. Only seeing the onslaught and hearing her scream is truly terrible...
So, please double check my math, but I think you are now down to -6.
The last hit was against your body, so you should be prone, stunned and maybe on fire (50% chance)
The single hits (after cover) are:
5, 5, 3, 10, 15, 12 - E, Pen:0
Hit locations are:
Head,
Head, Arm, Body, Arm, Body