Simmins shakes her hand but it's a quick one and he pulls his hand away rather quickly.
"Don't worry its not contagious." She chuckles before turning away to do her rounds along the trench line.
"Always fix, this fix that, never the right materials provided, no proper schematics." 'phix mutters to herself as she directs the servitor to construct some shelter over the trenches.
Her marsian training kicks in and Celephix starts to construct Mechanicus and Imperial Guard recommended (mostly) artillery-proof positions every 20 meters along the trench-line, using malformed armor plating stripped from the totally destroyed vehicles.
+++ Several hours after midday (about three o'clock). The most part of the squad is sleeping inside the bunkers. Celephix is working feverishly on the new defensive positions - having finished two in the southern and one in the northern trench already. Simmins and Monia patrol the northern trench, the Commissar (and two other newcomers) can be heard in the southern trench. The sun is high, the temperature has risen to over 25 degrees and the muddy ground has hardened to a concrete-like consistency. +++
You notice a sudden flash of light flares up at one of the far hilltops to the west - deep inside the region his new comrades simply calls 'Greenskin Hills'.
Your not sure what it was, but it is gone as you look again.
"zZz"
To Monia: More worried 'bout you exploding or something to be honest
On Patrol:
Simmins stops and stares out at the dreaded Ork infested hills.
There! I saw a flash of light there! Far in the west! I'm going to report that in
Simmins taps his combead Private Simmins currently on patrol in northern trench reporting single flash of light spotted deep in the West of Greenskin Hills just now.
Before anyone can answer the comm-message or react in any other way, distant thunder becomes audible, increasing in volume for some seconds before decreasing again.
A quick look to the sky will confirm to anyone that there is not a single cloud in view...
The timeliness and reports the Captain mentions this can only mean one thing: Artillery Fire.
Between Simmins shout and the thunder, six seconds have passed. Given it took the trooper 1-3 seconds to send his message, the source of the artillery fire would be between 2 two 3 kilometers away.
"Passable construction, unlikely to withstand a sustained barrage, but better than unprotected trenchworks at least." Celephix analyses her own work.
She see's the sky light up "Is that artillery?"
"Oh, Spontaneous explosions aren't something that can happen when we aren't actively channelling power from the warp into our abilities, you'd definitely see it coming. Spontaneous Combustion, however..." and she just opens her palm at chest height to her and Simmins to reveal an open flame."I'm saving it for the Orks."
+++
"I didn't see a-" she gets cut off as Simmins quickly calls in the sighting and frowns as she looks to the hills and the sky to make sure her partner wasn't seeing things but will try to move them to/closer to cover in the event of things going south.
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HUH? What you say?
From the bunker, Ashora snores daintily.
Suddenly a panicked voice screams over the comm-bead a warning, no one really need anymore, as the unmistakably sound of falling artillery becomes audible and everyone awake is hastily diving to the ground of the trenches...
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
A giant explosion erupts 15 meters before the northern bunker, towards the hills. A second one, the same distance, hits the street and causing another deep crater. A third fireball erupts nearly on top of the southern bunker, showering its outside with dozens of fist-sized pockmarks.
Whoever was sleeping only moments before is now thoroughly awake.
Despite any other inconvenience such a sudden and unfriendly wakeup is causing, your skin feels like you have a light sunburn - everywhere.
Any movement causes you discomfort, as the clothes rub over you highly-sensitive skin.
But at least your head is mostly clear again and the feeling is not bad enough to actually hinder your movements or actions.
Still - the words of the Sister about keeping it low for a day still echo in your mind...
Bolting awake, Ashora immediately reaches for her micro-bead and flips it on. "The hell was that?!"
Not waiting for an answer she rolls to her feet and starts scrambling to armor up, Malchior doing the same beside her.
Thud sits bolt upright after his sleep-talking comment, gun reflexively in his hand. Notch is up too and they both scramble from their traditional post at the point of the northern trenches to the nearest shelter.
After a moment of starring at the ceiling Leni just plops out of the field bed onto the ground with a wince.
"For the love of the emperor why does no one ever let me sleep? I dunno yet what that was EXACTLY but if that wasn't an explosion then I'm eating my dirty socks. Down on the ground guys and keep your mouth slightly open and your jaw loose. Don't want to get your brain squished from the pressure of an implosion while this nice bunker of ours withstands the actual EXplosion."
putting in her Microbead and activating it: "Alright guys, what exploded and do we have orders how to deal with it yet? Anyone needing my attention?"
While talking she is already awkwardly scrambling around on the ground, trying to get her armor on both carefully and without getting up.
Artillery fire coming from the hills in the West! Simmins repeats in a far more panicked voice Hitting around us all over. Do we have orders? Simmins moves as fast as possible towards the closest of Celephix's armor plating.
A harsh voice cuts through the sound of falling artillery grenades - overriding any other comm-traffic.
Simmins hunkers down behind a particularly nice looking piece of plating and decides that this is going to be his part of the line. He readies his stubber to fire at anything that might come in sight before trying to see what might be happening outside.
And manages to get a good glance outside before ducking back from the explosions.
Thud is overtaken with a feeling of invulnerability. It's not entirely unjustified, but the sight of him suddenly reversing course and darting back to his post is still an inspiring sight. He shoulders the braced Heavy Bolter he installed earlier and cocks the mechanism.
But he can't make anything out quite yet. Thankfully the field of fire is more clear this time.
You can see flashes of light on several far away hill tops.
The moment you back down, you think you noticed something fast moving coming along the street that disappears into the hills.
Simmins activates his combead Private Olways. Holding Line in North Trench. Reporting fast moving target coming towards us on the street from the hills. Also more incoming fire.
"Emperor forsaken pompous fool. " Leni mutters switching off the send of her combead while still putting on her armor. Despite this she's already listening to the rythm of the shells.
Int 58
Untrained -20
+30
- 2 DoS
Leni continues to put on her armor before crawling over to a firing slit in the bunker - only pausing to kick Aubray for fiddling with the last straps of her armor. After getting there she braces in the firing slit and looks for targets during the firing pauses
Success.
- 1 DoF
Leni is pretty sure she has figured out the rythm but she can't find the nerve to actually test her deduction. Instead she continues to fiddle with her armor, getting some more straps in place, sighing each time the armor snaps into it's proper place and stopps chaffing against her sunburned-ish skin.
1dos
That happened. 1 DoF
As the artillery shells start to rain down, Monia successfully mentally calculates the rhythm at which the shells would be hitting but before she can put that information to good use, one of the previously fired shell that she previously didn't notice when pvt. Simmins brought it to their attention strikes the area near her and bolts into the trench line for cover.
Nope
As the last flak-plate locks into place Ashora snatches up her rifle and rushes to the firing port. As the shells rain down she tries to count their flight time, but she hadn't been paying attention at the start and so had no good frame of
reference.
In between to attacks, you take another look...
As you know where to look, you can detect multiple fast moving objects racing along the street emitting black smoke in obscene volumes.
The second big volley of the artillery hits the line. Two grenades miss the southern part of the line by several dozen meters but this time the luck of the northern trench seems to have run out.
An artillery grenade lands just two meters before the bunker and the following explosion rips open the complete front of the bunker, filling its interior with intense heat and concrete fragments.
As the dust settles, the front of northern bunker is mostly gone, part of the roof is crumbling and a giant crater now exists just before it.
Seeing that none of the shells in this most recent barrage landed anywhere near Monia this time around, she decides to take a look around for the fast movers Simmins had mentioned earlier...
-> 6 DoF
Getting a load of bunker to her face for the 2nd time in not many more days Leni looks around disoriented for a second before cursing in an odd voice - not hearing yourself does that.
She takes a good look at the destroyed bunker front trying to find a part of the wall that still stands and will protect against more shells. If possible she'll take one that is almost down to the ground and lie prone behind it so only her helmeted head and her lasgun poke out.
There's a lot of fast moving things coming for us! Simmins yells into the combead as he goes to ground and prepares his Stubber to fire at the first targets he sees that come into range.
Thud swings his bolter around toward the road and prepares to fire.
As the explosion knocks Ashora and Malchior on their asses, a shard of shrapnel tears a gash across her left cheek, but she hardly notices. Clambering to her feet, she screams "GET OUT, GET OUT, GET OUT!!" as she sprints out the ferrocrete deathtrap and into the second trench line, scrambling for new cover.
What with the ringing in her ears, she can't hear herself, the falling shells, or anything said over comm-bead.
With the bunker having a section blown out of it, Monia starts heading that way while following the trench line to make sure that her new squadmates are fine.
"Bunker, status report?" she calls over the squads combead network.
Should be about 400m away, closing in fast.
You can make out at least six different vehicles racing down the slope...
Vox blares to life, featuring the distorted voice of Commissar Heindl:
"If anyone inside the bunker is still alive, get out of there, or you were alive for the most part of your life!
Anyone, keep a safe distance from the bunkers.
Seems like they use them as their main targets.
Anyone with a clear reading on the enemy position?
Someone fetch a glass or scope and the vox and call a counter-artillery-strike on those damn green buggers!
"
Simmins North Trench. See six vehicles closing in fast. 400 meters right now. Opening fire when they get in Stubber range. Simmins reports in via bead.
Celephix stays down until the stubbers open fire, once they're within Stubber Range they will hopefully give up on the barrage fire.
Shaking her head--futilely trying to get that ringing sound to go away--Ashora crawls up to take a look over the trenchline at the no-man's-land, remembering the Commissar's warning that the artillery was a cover for an attack.
When Simmins judges that the vehicles will close the distance halfway between where they are now and the trenches themselves he will let loose with fire over the trenchline.
Seeing the vehicles rushing towards them, Monia will take up her lasgun and brace herself against the Trenchline and take aim at the incoming vehicles.
Inwardly she just hopes that the shoddy construction of their vehicles and the volatile nature of their fuel can be used to her advantage once they get closer to them.