Sgt. Heller looks troubled but nods at Simmins suggestion.
"Hmm, yah.
Enginseer Dashkov, do you think it would be possible to engage the Servitors and pull them out of there so we can fight them out here?
A lot of cover for us and no fear of damaging anything we would rather not."
Combat servitors are pretty much hardcoded in their behavior.
Without trying it out first or close inspection of their program, it is impossible to tell how they are programmed to react.
The most common guard duty combat protocol is to not follow an aggressor far from the to-be-guarded area - unless there are several protectors, then it is common practice for half of the detail to stay behind and the others to engage and follow an aggressor for a medium distance.
MacGuyver knows from experience that guard servitors rarely leave the area they are assigned to guard, no matter what happens on the outside. He doesn't weigh in though. It wasn't his place to upstage a Techpriest and he has no idea of what these are programed to do without looking at the code.
"You could try swearing a bit, true it's a very "organic" response, but it might soothe the soul just a touch."
"Indeed, Trooper McGregor, I included common profanity in my evaluation. Even a considerable amount of uncommon profanity and no small amount of blasphemy."
Upon MacGuyver's return and report, Anatoly stands there, seeming unresponsive to the situation save for the occasional twiching of his mechadendrites. That assessment would be entirely inaccurate, however, for his highly augmented mind is hard at work searching for a solution.
After a moment of furiously searching the data stored within his skull, Anatoly is on the verge of returning a negative-knowledge response when his search subroutines uncover relevant data. He turns to the Sergeant, "Sir. If we surmise that their programming follows standard guard-servitor combat subroutines, it is probable that we can draw up to half their number a moderate distance from their assigned area. The problem is that if we do so, the alarm will certainly be raised and further enemies will converge on the highly indefensible target chamber. We will need a two, or even three pronged approach." He begins ticking points off on his fingers, "Primus: The distraction to draw one or two of the servitors away from the target. Secundus: The elimination of any servitors who remain behind. Tertius: The deployment of the Zeta-Omicron-97 Data Breach-Unravel-Glean units."
"The servo-skulls are certainly detection and communication platforms, though they are also probably lightly armed. They should be fairly easily destroyed, but approaching them through stealth may be difficult. Destroying them will not be the simple answer to our problem, for the loss of their signal will, with 86.39% certainty, in itself raise the alarm."
During the hished debates about the right tactic, Sgt. Hrnner seems slightly distracted and takes a peek onto his chronological more than once.
After a minute of back and forth, he waves for Zulu and MacGyver.
"Check out our rear. There should be four more squads here with us and they are more than ten minutes behind schedule by now. Keep box silence if at all possible and report back in ten."
MacGuyver nods and disappears.
if they're caught then Emperor knows we got no time to delay.. Simmins says
MacGuyver re-appears a few minutes after Zulu, We have a squad of what looks like traitor guard and another servitor at our backs, sir. No sign of the other squads. I've rigged a little distraction for them, but it will only but us a short time.
Sgt. Henner takes the news with a stoic, mask-like grimace.
Sgt. Henner takes the news hard.
His composed face slips for a moment and you see a weary, downed expression with a decent amount of fear in it before he restores a somewhat stoic expression which does not fool you any longer.
"Alright.
We cannot dally any longer than this.
The prison break units will begin their move any moment now, no doubt raising an alarm.
Let us pray to the Emperor that they will draw as much attention to them as HQ thought it would.
EVeryone get into position.
Get a place with good cover - from both direction.
Greg, Zulu: you take rear-guard.
Suppressive fire and warning calls when the enemy moves in from our six.
Simmins, you're our trump card against those servitors.
Find yourself a good spot close enough for your melta.
MacGyver, you'll have the honor of pulling them out.
Kenneth, Cecil, Liam: you take out the left servo skull on my mark.
Anatoly, Ulric. You two will take down the other one with me.
May the Emperor protect."
MacGuyver swallows hard when given his task. This is the kind of thing he usually avoids. But he understands the necessity.
The Emperor Protects he echoes. Normally it's reflexive, but this time it's a prayer and a desperate hope that His protection held out.
MacGuyver advances to the door as the others get ready and peeks in at his targets. He braces and aims and uses his inbuilt auspex to try to target something vital. Then he waits for the ready signal and squeezes the trigger.
Yeah, he's cracking...lovely, got to have my eye on both him and Cecil now.
Liam, still grateful for a chance to get ready, pulls out the tripod on his heavy bolter and braces to fire for effect.
Kenneth takes a good look at the servitor monstrosities and picks up one of the heavy books chained to his belt.
Seeing the situation turning grim on the horizon Kenneth steps up before the planning session breaks the squad into the small units and preaches to lift their spirit.
"His majesty has sent us here with a purpose, one only we can fullfil. And this is the moment we prove worthy of his trust! He has destined us for greatness and we will deliver! And in his wisdom he has granted me the knowledge we require to prevail, for these monstrous things have been defeated before, in the the turning battle of the Terenas 6 campaign it was recorded that they are indeed formidable but aiming for their joints will fuse them with relative ease, rendering the whole monster useless. Their movement is also cyclic. Pick a moment in their movement cycle and simplty fire whenever your target is in your sights again."
Receiving his orders Kenneth looks at his trusty hand flamer and looks a bit dismaied.
He'll have to use the las pistol instead, something he is less than well versed in.
He'd rather lay in ambush for the ones that might approach from behind an greet them with cleansing flames. He'd rather set himself ablaze than bringing the Sergeants orders into doubt. And so he takes out the regimental issue las pistol and aims for his designated target as well as he can.
Sir as soon as the distraction starts I'll use it to creep as close as I'm able before hitting it with Melta.
Anatoly's many implanted sensors constantly scan the area and everyone in it. It is as natural to him as it once was to simply look around and listen. The amount of data he collects is much higher now, and he notices with ease the change in the Sergeant's eye dilation, posture, breathing, and heartbeat. The data, cross referenced to a database implanted in his skull, inevitably leads to one irrefutable conclusion: the Sergeant no longer believes the mission can succeed.
Anatoly knows also, thanks to another store of data, that doubt is infectious in a military unit in the field and one of the most certain predictors of defeat. Therefore, he does not voice his concerns though his attention does linger for a moment on the Sergeant. Instead he turns to face their objective, raising his las rifle and training his ballistic mechadendrite toward his assigned target. As he does so, his two other mechedendrites come around, one clamping firmly to a beam in the side of the corridor, and the other rising to provide a stable firing brace for Anatoly.
Kenneth shot goes very very wide, mostly because a las pistol is not ment for
that kind of range but he does not complain.
Single shot from heavy stubber
BS 48
Fully Braced (integrated bipod) +15
+10 Command
-5 Aggressive
Full Round Aim, Erratic 0
Size, Unaware 0
68
Worried as he is about the rest of the plan, Simmins takes his badly aimed shot and then starts the rest of the plan for him to run in with his Melta and shotgun, leaving his trusty stubber behind.
Bs 42
Fully braced with Tripod +15
+10 Command
+10 Short range
Full round aim +20
Unaware +30
Size -30
Erratic movement -20
Buttt.. actually Simmins shot hit as well.
Everyone spreads out and finds themselves proper cover, then locks onto their assigned targets - the servo skulls make for a remarkable hard targets due to their small size, unstable hovering and the distance of over 50m.
No wonder did the Sergeant assign three guns for each skull...
Meanwhile, MacGyver once again makes the approach to the blasted-open siege gate.
Despite you knowing he is there and the fact that moving isn't allowing his camo cloak to work as well as it does when standing still, you loose sight of him several times.
As your mental countdown from 100 reaches 0, Sgt. Heller calls: "Mark!" and fires his own lasgun, quickly followed by everyone else.
Despite the range and weird movement, both skulls are hit multiple times by precision fire from the squad and taken out within the first second of the engagement.
Simmins rushes forward as fast as he can while you clearly hear heavy footsteps echoing out from the chamber ahead.
Getting in undetected a second time was as much a thrill as the first time only increased by the fact that you know for certain that time for stealth was nearly done.
As your own mental countdown reaches 0, you start lobbing slugs at the closest target and actually manage to place a double tap right into the still fleshy elbow of the murdermachine, drawing some blood.
From outside the heavier gun reports echo in.
A second later, all three servitors stop their synchronized steps and red targeting lasers flare up brightly from behind dead eyes.
Then all three speak, again in unison, their machine voice disturbing and unmodulated.
<< Sentries destroyed.
Attack recognized.
REPELL ATTACK. >>
Then the one you attacked and the right-hand one turn on their heels to face the entry and they weapon arms come up.
You notice that the one you hit is slower to raise his heavy gun than the other while lobbing off another due of rounds.
It is getting harder to hit a weak spot when they're moving but you manage and draw another minute amount of fluids.
Yet you get a certain feeling that your pistol is so not the right weapon for this job, it would be funny if not for the fact that your life is on the line...
The one coming in from the right traces his targeting laser over you ... then stops and comes back for another pass as if unsure whether you're a target or not.
Then the heavy weapon traverses in your direction - but the target laser is still waving around in a zick-zack pattern.
=>
MacGuyver sighs. Sometimes he's just too good. He needs to draw them out. To do that they need to detect him.
He aims and fires again, this time at the targeting lasers or some other target that will make them less able to hit his comrades!
The shots don't do much damage and these merely plink off the thing's augments, but they're still doing what they're meant to do. Every second he can buy for his squad, the better they can prepare for what's coming.
He intentionally lets the edge of his cloak slip as he fires. If they show any sign of detecting him this time he bolts into a dead sprint back into cover and away from the door.
As an after thought, he reaches of and flicks the switch on the remote detonator he set up before...
Two things happen in quick succession.
From behind you, a loud thunderclap of a detonation followed by the unmistakable sound of tumbling, smashing rockrete is coming down the hallway.
And from up ahead you can hear heavy weapons fire and a running, blurred form that must be MacGyver legging it as fast as he can while tracer fire is licking at his heels.
But outrunning gunfire as a mixed history at best.
And in recent milenia, this fact has not changed and the dual line of impacts catch up with the running scout as he already is halfway down the broad stairs leading up to the gate...
The good news is that only the very end of the burst is catching up with the majority of solid round wasted. And the fact that MacGyver is now at the bottom of the stairs and halfway into cover.
The bad new is that he is clearly wounded badly from this.
With ambivalent feeling you see two of the truly massive things stomping out of the gate. That was the plan, so that's good. But boy do they look heavily armed and armored.
Pen:2
Pen:2
Pen:2
Pen:2
Raw damage values are:
9 Pen:2
8 Pen:2
15 Pen:2
The shots hammer into MacGuyver. His armor takes the first, and the second , but the third punches through barely and he thinks he can feel a few ribs crack. He stumbles and nearly goes down, but continues running!
Anatoly decides to try something. Perhaps these are not new creations of these Hereteks, and are merely coopted by the traitors. If that is the case, there is a small chance that his authority as an enginseer may allow him to command them...if they will recognize his general Mechanicus authority codes. Well, there is little to be lost in the attempt. Activating his external vocabulator with sufficient volume to reach the sentry servitors over the nascent battle, Anatoly emits a burst of binaric cant. Though it means nothing to the organics coming from behind, Anatoly hopes that it will have an effect on the servitors.
Following this are his general authority codes within the Mechanicus based upon his own rank, and any other such codes he can think of to try to pull this one off.
Called shot -40
Size +20
Range +10
Braced +15
Total bonus is +5 then...
Seeing his own shot go wide but the serve skull still shot down he decides it is not in firing that he helps the most here. Instead he stands, altho still in cover and shouts:
"Take heart! The first enemies have fallen and the next are soon to follow, we are on the right path!" then, standing up he intones
"With the fire of faith, burn the xenos! with the fire of faith burn the mutant! with the fire of faith burn the heretic! In nomine Imperatoris, stoke your hatred for these heretics into a hellfire that purifies them into nothingness!"
While the his words are not as inspiring as Kenneth tried to make them sound, after all the only castualties so far have been server skulls, his litany of hatred stirs something in the hearts of the squad, and that something seems to guide their aim towards more punishing targets
The blurt of machine code coming from Anatoly is deafening and makes your heads hurt as the mind instinctively attempts and fails to bring meaning into this blurt of noise.
From the eye of the non-inducted, it seems nothing happened and the towering combat servitor is still coming and firing after MacGyver...
At first, none of your codes seem to work.
IFF and mechancius overwrite codes are all blocked and don't even get a response.
But then, you dig deeper into your mind and try a very old, rarely used universal maintenance code - and then you get replies via the noosphere!
The closest one, the one hunting after MacGyver, is returning an error code: << Engaged in combat action. Maintenance cycle cannot be started. >>
But the other two replies you get are acknowledgments!
That should mean that they are powering down for a hard-coded amount of time (usually a minute at most).
If they do not receive further commands (via direct link) during that shutdown, they will just power back up.
Bare seconds after Anatoly's burst of cant, Liam opens up with his heavy bolter, filling the hallway with the trademark noise of this particular weapon: the fast automatic triple-bang - one for the initial charge, one for the starting rocket propulsion and one for the detonation against the target.
The salvo is nearly completely on target and only the last bolt is flying wide.
The first one though, is hitting the weak spot described by Kenneth and blasts a sizable chunk of tech from its left knee joint. The remainder of the burst is racking over its heavy armor, blasting fist-sized craters into the main body.
The creation shudders under the impacts and his one knee joint is sending sparks flying and as it takes another step forward, shrill grinding sounds announce the imminent failure of part of the creations walking system...
Sgt. Heller, Cecil and Ulrik open up with their lasguns as well - but their lasbolts fail to find the weak spot and spend themselves harmlessly against the main armor of the servitor, where they only leave a few scorch marks.
Liam is honestly a little shocked at the sheer joy he felt for a second.
This, THIS was different from how helpless he had felt during the Junathan mission.
Then, proving once again that his mind might not quite work like others he glances over at Anatoly and Kenneth.
"Was that accurate, or should I have shouted Hereteks?"
A few seconds after the burst of binaric cant, and right on the heels of the heavy bolter salvo, Anatoly's head jerks upwards as he receives some unexpected information. Turning his head toward the Sergeant, Anatoly speaks rapidly as a hum starts to build seeming to originate from Anatoly's lower body, "Sir, my gambit seems to have worked. Two of the servitors are shutting down for a maintenance cycle. We have a one minute window when they will be mostly deactivated. I am going to see about a more permanent deactivation. Trooper MacGuyver's assistance would be valuable."
Under the impression that he has adequately conveyed the information and his intended course of action, Anatoly leaps from behind the cover and sprints toward the server room. The humming changes to a very fast rhythm as he sprints straight past the damaged servitor with speed he has never before displayed.
While on the one hand Simmins is real happy that the servitor has stopped moving. He's also kinda sad that the evil machine is just out of the range of the full power of his new weapon. Nevertheless he goes to follow the plan. He fires his weapon and the heretical monster and runs back.
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Out from his cover, Simmins brings the business end of the melta around and onto the big, limping target and presses the trigger.
A blinding flash of superheated air burns into everyones retinas - and right into the center mass of the construct.
The already cracked and scared armor of the target is no match for this assault of thermal energy and fails to protect the more delicate insides of the man-machine.
The melta blast melts a forty centimeter wide hole right through the chest and the surrounding area is all molten and scorched beyond recognition.
The hulking Servitor tumbles forward and crashes down the stairs, forcing Anatoly to make a quick side-step to not get buried beneath it.
You get inside quickly and find your noospere nearly spiked by the sheer amount of data ghosts and free-roaming noosperic fragments in here.
Truly it must have once been a data vault of incredible value.
Even now, years after its fall, the machine spirits of this room still fight to repel the intruding scrap code tendrils bearing down from the ceiling.
Five of the twelve corridors, framed top to bottom with rows upon rows of cogitators and memory machines, are yet resisting the invading tendrils, while the other seven are bleeding corrupted data into the local noosphere in the organic rhythm of the blood red lighting.
The two remaining servitors are frozen in place, their arms lowered their heads lowered to the point of being barely within reach of a normal-sized person.
"So, do we take the remaining servitors out while they are stationary or not?"
MacGuyver curses violently from behind a pillar. He takes out a bandage and attempts to stop the bleeding.
But the twisting only makes it worse. He can feel broken ribs shifting inside his chest!
Emperor's balls! Medic!
"Mmmph, get over here!"
Liam hurries over, leaving the heavy bolter set up just in case they will fire more in that direction in a moment.
Getting his medikit out, he grunts and pushes MacGuyver gently but very firmly down in a sitting position.
"Broken bones, deep lacerations, going to be some fine bruises later...
Does this hurt? Yes? That's a damn good thing, otherwise we'd have some serious internal bleeding."
MacGuyver hobbles his way over and grunts his way through treatment. It was brutal, but effective.
Simmins picks up his Stubber. I think we should be following the tech priest in Sir.
Going back to his heavy bolter, Liam nods a bit.
"Guess it's all up to the enginseer now.
Only question is, do we dispose of the servitors while they are powered down, or can the enginseer fix that as well?"
"Wheww", Cecil whistles between her teeth as the battle ends much faster than anyone thought.
Sgt. Heller is equally surprised and peeks out of cover with a somewhat incredulous face - his eyes following the quickly vanishing Enginseer.
"Uh, yeah.
Group up and get in there.
The gate makes for good cover.
Simmins, get your melta and get rid of those other two in case the Enginseer canno-"
Right into this, Zulu's voice over combead intrude.
<< Firefight in our 6.
Sounds like lots of lasguns and a couple stubbers.
We see muzzle flashes and lasbolts. >>
Throne save us... Did... one of the other groups lead defenders right to us? Simmins swears.
"I WAS thinking it was a little bit easy. Oh well.
Sarge, I'll set up to cover the rear once were all inside.
Hey, Simmins, if you take out the servitors, then we can set up a crossfire with our heavy weapons down the corridor.
Permission to carry on Sergeant?"
Yeah I'll conver the techpriest with the melta, I guess we're releasing the bugs too and... hey does anyone know who's in the other groups? If they're running in then friendly fire would be bad... we get them in and then fire on whoever's chasing would be best.
Simmins makes sure he has all his weapons and sprints into the room to nudge Anatoly. Uh, so, what's the word with the Omnisir and these ones?
Kenneth puts away the las pistol and follows the others inside
"Do not be discouraged! We have succeeded here in his majesties name and he will guide us onwards! Let us prepare a warm welcome for his enemies!"
MacGuyver winces his thanks to Liam and hurries after their sprinting cogboy. He notes with some dark amusement that this is the third lap of the hall he's taken.
While everyone moves into the big control room and into the cover of stairs and broken gate, Sgt. Heller suddenly stops and moves his hand to the ear in an instinctive gesture you are quite familiar with.
His face turns grim, then he rushes in last, quickly nodding an acknowledge to Liam's plan.
"Probe-2 and 3 are down there fighting with the remnants of the barricade MacGyver found earlier.
They had another fight in the main route and lost the majority of Probe-1 there."
"They think they can break through the barricade soon and link u-"
At that moment, a horrifying screeching sound emits from unseen speakers in the walls and ceilings.
A mix of metal-on-metal, stepped-on bug and fingernails-on-cardboard.
Somewhat similar yet a lot more disconcerting to the binaric cant of your tech priest - this ought to be some kind of machine code reverberating throughout the room and corridor.
It is indeed a distant, mutilated form of the Technica Lingua.
You only manage to wrench the surface meaning from it.
But this is some kind of priority alarm and bearing a set of coordinates.
MacGuyver hurries a little faster to help Anatoly. Whateveer that was it wasn't good.
Simmins heads to the second servitor and aims his melta at it while trying to not hit anything else in the bizarre place.
TechPriest! Do I fire or no?!
Almost absently Anatoly responds, "Not just yet, we have a short time." Anatoly studies the servitor for a moment before turning back to the data stores and pulling the four data miners from beneath his robes. With skilled motions Anatoly activates the devices one by one and sets them on the floor. A series of small appendages sprout from them, giving a distinct insectile look and they make a short skittering motion away toward the large data stores. Anatoly makes another of the horrible, static noises and the four bugs seem to pause for a moment as if waiting for instructions.
Anatoly flinches as the distorted machine code shrieks through the air. Having to damper his auditory receptors, he misses what little he might have been able to glean from the corrupted signal. Once it is over, he turns to the Sergeant, "Sergeant, the other Probe units are each carrying four of the Zeta-Omicron-97 Data Breach-Unravel-Glean units. I need those devices to accelerate this stage of the mission. Whatever that corrupt machine code was meant to communicate, it cannot be good news for us. The additional Guardsmen would not be unwelcome either."
Turning back to the 4 bugs on the floor, the impression or waiting for orders is confirmed moments later when Anatoly emits four seemingly identical bursts of binaric cant and the bugs skitter away, changing from their initial courses and heading into separate data vaults.
Anatoly turns back to the servitors and the waiting Simmins, "Now, Trooper Olways, shall we address the question of the servitors."
Anatoly studies the servitor for a moment longer, then beckons Simmins over. He points to a specific, armored spot on the back of its head, "Aim your melta weapon here, Olways, and if it starts to move, shoot it until it stops moving." pointing to three other locations on the servitor, he says, "Also here, here, and here. Its main power coupling, logic controller, and primary motivator." He then walks over to the other servitor, glancing toward where the bugs have disappeared into their assigned vaults.
Stopping before the second servitor, Anatoly increases the volume of his vocabulator, "Sergeant, in the interest of communication, I will now attempt to turn these servitors to our service. Should I start smoking, making any sounds like those that so recently came from the speakers, or anything else untoward, sever the connection and kill the servitors. MacGuyver, as the most technically trained here, should I fail, the success of the bugs will fall to you. You may assist me here if you choose. At this access panel, you will activate the command circuits as I direct you." Leaving no time at all for discussion, Anatoly's dendrites snake out of the sleeve of his robe and plug into the command interface on the servitor furthest from the door.
After a short time, Anatoly disconnects from the servitor and moves over to the other one, shaking his head a little before he once again gestures MacGuyver to the command circuits and connects his MIU to the command interface.
Sgt. Heller nods, seemingly surprised by the sudden flurry of words coming from Anatoly.
"I am aware of that, Enginseer, but if we leave this position to try and help Probe-2 and -3, we'll vacate this position, possibly having to take it again from hostiles.
And the fight will be over one way or the other when we reach them."
At the new of turning the servitors he looks a bit troubled but nods again.
"Expandable firepower sure would be useful, especially for our retreat.
MacGyver: you have explosives, right?
Place some on those things as a backup plan should they suddenly turn hostile again.
No disrespect, Enginseer, just a precaution..."
With that the two tech-affine members of the squad sets to work, while everyone else is nervously checking the corridor for signs of movement - trying to keep their trigger fingers not too twitchy in case a member of the other squads is coming into sudden view.
A few seconds of relative silence pass (there is still a firefight going on down the corridor but it seems to lessen in intensity) before suddenly Zulu whispers over the com-bead.
"You hear that?
Sounds like ... wing-", which turns into a sudden yelp of alarm.
"Incoming-above!"
From high above the center of the command room, out of air vents that are very hard to spot so well are they crafted into the gilded ceiling, things half-drop, half-fly downwards in long spirals.
From the distance of twenty-or-so meter they look like servo-skull.
But with slowly beating wings reminiscent of bats.
And they're not the gleaming white of bone but darker and with a less smooth surface.
MacGuyver tries his best to help, but only manages to actually do the right thing once or twice. After that he gets to planting detpacks at critical points of each servitor, specifically at the points Anatoly told Simmons to shoot should he fail in his reprogramming. As he's planting, the call of contacts goes out. He knows this is not his strong suit, so finishes setting the detonators before drawing his weapon.