Sir, whole squad rushing us from aboveground! Felix yells out as she very reluctantly turns her attention from the crazed cultists right next to her to lay the pumpgun on the lip of the trench and fire at the third front bearing down on their besieged encampment.
Archibald hops up and peeks over the edge.
Ten meters and closing, sir!
Archibald looks at the onrushing men and math pours through his head. If he was just a hair off... no.
Tark, grenade! he pulls the pin on one of his frags and rolls it a single meter away from the lip of the trench before hopping down and diving for cover.
Thinking that it would be best to fell his enemy quickly so he can step in and help the struggling Sergeant, Ludicus lashes out with his chainsword.
Lugga faces the trench lip and prepares to charge the first one to make it over the ledge.
They're charging us open ground! Fire where I'm firing if you're not doing anything else! Felix shouts at the guards not dealing with the melee.
Though he takes a couple of solid hits, Kersin's armor and superior training protect him from the worst of the blows. As the wounded sergeant desperately presses the attack, the howling of his chainsword sounds for a moment like the baritone section in an Ecclisiarch's choir and caught up in the moment and the sound of the chainsword, Kersin's shout sounds clearly over the sounds of the battle, "Oh God Emperor, Overseer who makes all things right. Whose power none can resist. Grant me the strength to defeat thine enemies. Grant me the will to defeat the beast. From your grace, I shall know no fear."
vs
Faced with yet another attack vector, the squad regroups quickly after Lynn's warning.
First on the trench beside the (slightly disturbed) sniper is Felix, shotgun ready and roaring the moment it sights the enemy at such close range.
Her first target goes down with two third of his chest blasted apart.
The second one pulls off a near miraculous dodge and evades a similar fate.
The third attempts a similar move but stumbles right into Felix' blast and goes down as well.
Martha and Plip both jump up the firing steps and let loose with their lasguns.
Martha misses but Plip scores a good center-mass burst which puts down another one.
The remaining enemy rushers, a squad which just lost three man in addition to their leader seems to shudder under the onslaught.
Only two have the wits to continue their rush and drop into the trench while firing their lasguns wildly from the hip (hitting nothing) and drop dwon right on top of the waiting Ogryn - who is too surprised to hit the suddenly appearing enemy on first try though.
The remaining five drop prone to reduce their target profile and start to return fire.
The majority of the fusillade goes high, with another good part hitting the solid cover of the trench.
A single lasbolt strikes true though and hits Felix right in the middle of her flag helmet!
She seems to remain mostly unharmed though.
5E, Pen:0 => so no wound after Armor & Toughness
Then Archibald's grenade goes up, killing two of the prone targets and very, very nearly hitting Plip's head.
Meanwhile, the melee continues to be a bloody affair.
Commissar Marleno scores another hit, ripping a chunk of the enemy shoulder away in a gorey spray, but the maddened enemy continues to swing wildly while roaring in fury. His return strike goes awry though.
Kersin has trouble pressing the offensive, besieged by two of the mad berserkers but his defense continue to be steadfast resulting in a general draw.
Archibald drops his targeting laser and draws his knife. He intentionally maneuvers to pin the men beteween himself and Lugga, though he fights very defensively.
- 4 DoS!
Still, Lugga is a fantastic distraction and he scores a hit!
Lugga! Smash! He commands.
Lugga nods and roars, his eyes visibly dialating as the adrenaline hits him! His warhammer Whooshes around at the nearest target!
Felix follows the ones who lept in with her shotgun. Ignoring the one who chose to go after Lugga she fires at the one on Archi, then if he goes down she turns towards any other melee still active. Maybe the Beserkers. Each one that falls means another is focused as she target switches like a woman possessed.
"Sergeant, dispatch your foe with the emperors wrath!"
Turning back to his own foe, the Commissar lashes out, taking advantage of the fact that the enemy doesn't seem capable of simple tactics, like parrying for example.
"Ohhhhhh stationary targets. Get em Honey!"
Lynn fires on the ones that went prone outside the trench
+ 3 each
Bad news for the traitors.
Within only a few heartbeats, the squad turns on them with supreme firing discipline and a few well placed thrusts of melee weapons.
Archi and Lugga put down one.
Commissar Marleno finishes his second Berserker of the day.
Lynn and honey pop another head, although this is not as clear a kill as they are used to, their target screaming and writhing in agony, fingers searching for the left half of a face which is all bot gone.
Plip scores another triple hit and kills one of the prone shooters, leaving only a single, horrified one remaining in the open.
And Felix ... well, Felix "cleans" the trench by splattering all three remaining targets (one would be gunner and both of Kersin's enemies) with close-range shotgun fire from her slightly elevated position, beside the best attempts of the traitors to evade her.
The single remaining traitor on open ground clearly looses his shit, stands and attempts to flee while firing his gun at full auto, hoping to suppress those merciless foes.
Then he ceases to exist as the beam of superheated air of a melter evaporates him utterly.
One of the strange combat walkers rushes out of the thick smoke that hangs over the western part of the trench network and is on top of the trench crossing within a few pounding heartbeats.
The gun, you now know to be some kind of heavy melta weapon, is pointed down on the close packed squad.
Its disturbing array of lenses and augurs seem to scan and measure every single one of you.
Then a machine voice blares at you, at a volume that can only be described as "inappropriate".
The Commissar steps to the front, to make sure he is seen.
"Commissar Marleno, of the Serenus 1st, identity code H, 3, Rho, 0.
Todays code is Alpha, Rho, Sigma, Epsilon."
Three other similar warmschines, who were running along nearby trenches change course at the last statement and now near your position.
The warp?!
Tapping his combead, Ludicus opens the command channel.
"This is Commissar Marleno, we have a problem with the admech reinforcements, they are not recognizing the official codes. Advice please."
Lynn chimes in, blissfully unaware of the tense situation. She admires the big melta with almost equally big eyes.
"Hi there. Nice gun! Big too! Are you from this planet? The warp dumped us in this system or something. We were supposed to go fight some big bug things somewhere. Then they tell us to help the loyal Mechanicus guys on this planet so they can help us repair... something. Are you one of those loyal guys? Please tell me you are that heretic metal person thing in that tower was scary as frak!"
"If there is any doubt, we can officially surrender to your custody, and allow the higher ups to straighten this situation out."
Taking over for the commissar as he his on the command channel, Archibald chimes in, Agreed. I am Lt. Thunderblossom, commander of this detachment. We have forces scattered through this trench system and in the bunker above. We thank you for your timely purification of the heretic.
Sir, I'd like to pilot one of these things, sir. Felix says wide eyed. She does have an idea and holds her lasgun out palms up. It looked a bit like the machine designs. One of yours?
Comm-Bead, Command Channel:
The immediate reply is a very pointed:
<< Ehhh... >>, which sounds a lot like a suppressed: well, f&~%.
<< I recommend you desist and follow any given order to the letter, until we can sort this out, Commissar. >>
The warmachine, which never stopped walking and is stalking around in a tight circle, or its rider seems to struggle sorting through that multi-sourced babble for a moment, before discarding most and focusing on the Commissar.
It chirps away in what must be the AdMech language for a few seconds before continuing, the volume reducing to a much more bearable level.
Stand down and wait, soldiers.
Alpha-538.Zeta is approaching your position.
WARNING: Do not raise your guns when he approaches or speaks with you.
Such action WILL result in your immediate annihilation.
Having delivered this message, the strange ever-walking machine suddenly breaks its circle and rushes off north, joining up with some of its kin and storming towards a pocket of resistance.
Which is taken out moments later by several shots from heavy melta and flamer weapons.
Well, Lynn pouts at that. "Yeah yeah go off and take the cool stuff away with you. Meanie."
But that does give her time to finally reload Honey. The world just doesn't feel right when her love is not 'full'
"Everyone, follow trooper Edwards example."
Turning to the Lieutenant, the Commissar strokes his chin for a moment.
"Well, we are safe for the moment, but I believe we should probably talk to this "Alpha" on our own, and with our weapons sheathed, to avoid stirring up any trouble."
Turning to the other troopers, The Commissar affects a half smile.
"Well, for the moment, we appear to be safe enough. When the Lieutenant and I step out to meet with this admech leader, you will keep your weapons at hand but lowered, and look to the sergeant for command."
Agreed Commissar. I feel like we are walking on ice here, so let's tread carefully.
Lynn shrugs, then asks.
"Works for me. Who's the Sergeant tho? Can't make out the stripes under all this mud."
"That would be the rather large and bloody fellow over here, Sergeant Walkover."
The Commissar puts a hand on Kersin's shoulder.
"And while we wait, I suspect it may not be a very long wait, let me express my pride in all of you troopers.
You have done the emperor proud today, as far as I am concerned, each and every one of you is a hero in his or her own right."
For the Throne sir. When's the parade?
"We'll have to see what we can arrange Trooper Tark.
I'm afraid that the traditional 21 gun salute might be somewhat outside of our current capabilities."
Martha does look pretty sick as she approaches Sergeant Walkover and speaks up in a bleak voice, tears glinting in her eyes.
"Sir, Syna died sometime during the firefight...
No one noticed or was by her side when it happened.
What ... shall we do with ... her?"
"We don't leave our fallen heroes behind.
If need be, I shall carry her myself."
"T-thank you, Sir.
By the Throne, you really are a good man."
She seems on the verge of hugging the Commissar, but decides against it in the last second and redirects her outstretched arm into a somewhat awkward salute, before quickly turning and hurrying back.
She waves after Plip and the two of them carry their fallen friend closer to the group.
After a small breather of no more than a minute or two - after the stress of battle this feels like half a day - you hear the heavy steps of a machine approaching.
Looking over the lip of the trench, you can see a monstrous looking warmachine approaching.
This one is far heavier armed and armored compared to the fast and lean walkers from before and looks as if someone has mounted four heavily armored legs to a Leman Russ tank and moved the main turret (which is replaced by an unknown energy weapon) to the right side. Multiple antennae, and mechadendrites emerge from below the snout like front and a secondary pintle-mounted cannon from the top of the red-painted machine.
The walking tank crosses the trench-riddled area with ease and surprising speed before coming to a rest beside the half-molten gun emplacement, its main gun sending occasional orange beams of surely deadly energies into the distance.
The top hatch opens and a heavily augmented head appears through it, eye lenses flashing, first over the surrounding battlefield, then over the assembled squad before and below him.
With a surprisingly fluid motion, the Mechancius warrior is out of the hatch and on the ground beside the walker and about to drop down into the trench...
... when a sudden blindingly bright lasbeam sizzles from the second trench line. A sniper shot!
Before anyone can react, the shot has already reached its target and ...
... dissipates against a wall of energy suddenly visible around the walker.
Without turning, the warrior makes the jump down the trench.
You can feel his landing, as it makes the ground shudder as if an Ogryn has made that jump.
From your knowledge of the Mechancius, this person most likely is the "Alpha", for only high ranking members of the martian priesthood are augmented to such a degree.
Seconds later this assumption is verified as the "Alpha" speaks up, addressing Lt. Thunderblossom.
"Greetings, soldiers of unknown origin.
Your action against the gun emplacement has made our mission easier and improved the probability of your assumed loyalty to Mars and Terra.
This entity is Alpha-6642 of War Cohort Epsilon, Macroclade Tertius.
Entity 346-61-Theta-Phi reported, that you claim to be of the "Serenus 1st Imperial Guard Regiment".
If that is indeed the truth, answer this priority question:
Where is Enginseer Secundus Rho-Zero-Gamma-Rho-Four-Seven-Four and what measures have you taken to ensure the sanctity of his cyber-physical remains?"
The Commissar frowned, sure this was a test, but unsure of what exactly the test was.
However, he certainly couldn't answer a question that he had absolutely no knowledge of.
"I am Commissar Ludicus Marleno, of the Serenust 1st, recently deployed to Junatan 3 where we successfully vanquished the Ork warboss Screwdriva.
We were not meant to be deployed here as we have been blown off course by warp current, or so I have been told."
"You really should get into contact with our Colonel for further information.
As for your question, we have encountered no tech priest bearing that designation.
Indeed, the only tech priest we have encountered was in the cannon emplacement, and was most assuredly not a loyalist."
I can confirm this, Alpha-6642. The only augmented individual we have encountered was Heretek. The remains are there. Archibald points to the mound of metal and meat that counted as a corpse laying just outside the door of the emplacement.
If required I can provide contact codes for our CO.
Alpha-6642 does seem to react to the offered codes but pressed the issue of the Enginseer instead.
His posture remains bolt upright and unmoving, but you can literally feel the powers circulating within his metal body in your teeth.
"According to the distress signal we received 0.1 standard hours ago, Enginseer Secundus Rho-Zero-Gamma-Rho-Four-Seven-Four was assigned to the Serenus 1st Guard Regiment."
"Ordinary troopers are unlikely to know an admechs id code.
But admechs assigned to guard regiments tends to have a more common designation s well, so maybe if you tell us that one?"
Ah, Alpha-6642, sir, where was the distress signal coming from? From these trenches?
"Lieutenant, the group currently holding the bunker providing us with fire support, can you contact them and ask if they include a tech priest?
Even if it's not the one we are after, he may be able to identify this Secundus Rho-Zero-Gamma-Rho-Four-Seven-Four."
Archibald nods and taps his comm to switch over to their line and asks.
"It was an automatic transmission, bearing only a severity code and the Mechanicus ID.
And yes, it originated from this grid zone.
My augurs placed it 107.6 meter south-east of this location, but the scrapcode and data fragmentation density in this area is above the threshold of 0.25, making an exact sourcing of a no-longer active transponder from recordings alone inaccurate.
This position is well within the inaccuracy circle."
The coms net is suddenly alive with bolter, las and heavy weapon fire, riddled with explosions and the occasional *crunch* which might or might not be a breaking cranial bone. Then a voice enters the crowded noise
"This is Commissar Yeta. Your code means nothing to me but unless you have reinforcement for us in the bunker behind trench lines you may enter us in the annals of heroes anytime soon - and have all the traitor weapons facing towards the trenches again!"
A short pause - you can't tell whether that is thinking, combat or something else entirely, then you hear something again. It's a little muffled - maybe it is not directed towards the combead?
"Enginseer Dashkov! Someone on the coms is looking for a Rho-something-747. Does that have something to do with your roger-747 shorthand?"
The Commissar can't quite keep a bemused look of his face as his fairly reasonable order of "Call up the bunker and ask if they have a tech priest that could identify the code" turned into "call up the bunker and ask a random person if THEY know the code.
He also wasn't entirely pleased at hearing Yeta's voice.
The man was a madman, and since he had not ALWAYS been so, it was somewhat regrettable.
"Hmmm, Alpha 6642, you said the signal occurred to the south east? I believe that this would put it in the area where the distraction attack happened.
The other element of our force currently in the trenches made and attack there to distract the enemy from my own group of infiltrators, while we made a strike at the lascannon emplacement."
It is reasonable then to assume the force currently hard pressed at the bunker is the group responsible for the broadcast. They sound hard pressed. Does that logic seen sound, Alpha-6642?
They should go help them then. This place is as quiet as a rabbit fart right now. Felix mutters.
Suddenly the Alpha snaps into perfectly upright position and a mechanical voice unlike the well modulated from before chirps:
"Connecting ...
Mechanicus-encrypted cipher ...
Used encryption: Blowfish-7.
Deprecated cipher detected.
Downloading legacy protocols...
Code is still deemed valid ...
Inloading ..."
Then he remains silent for several seconds, leaving you in a somewhat awkward silence.
As he finally speaks up again, he seems to be in a hurry.
"Connection to the target has been established.
He is indeed with the forward squad that conquered bunker complex Theta-Phi-Epsilon-64.
My striders rush in to reinforce.
Your identities have been vouched for.
Let us finish this conversation quickly.
I am to lead my forces.
We still need to settle some high-priority inquires first:
Inquiry #1: You mentioned an encounter with a presumed Dark Mechanicus member.
Elaborate.
Briefly."
We entered this emplacement by forcing an entryway. When inside we encountered a heavily augmented individual with shielding that had very throuoghly desecrated this weapon and it's power plant. We overcame it at a dear cost. The remains are there of you wish to inspect them.
Archibald points to the corpse laying just outside the blasted hole of a "door".
"Position noted for inspection.
Inquiry #1-Beta: Did you eliminate the cyberworm of the target?
Inquiry #2: Did you made contact with the illogical abominations of the arch enemy commonly found inside their defenses?"