"Ahhhrgh-huh?!"
Cecil struggles a second or so before her mind catches up and finds herself, once again, being saved by Liam.
"By the Throne, Li, that was ... ", she gives you a very passionate gaze, "timely intervention."
Then she looks down at the panting trooper and smiles wickedly.
"Now, now. Man up. Ya don't wanna screw up that most manly impression you just gave by whining about on the floor, eh?"
She gets her las rifle up and follows MacGyver's lead and sends a frag grenade towards the heavy bolter nest.
Clearly she isnt as over that near death experience as she tries to make everyone believe. Her throw, while not as miserable as MacGyver's, is also quite off target. While the Scout's fire bomb is also disappearing into the abyss below, her frag grenade is barely landing atop the walkway, slightly overshooting the gun nest.
Vomit staining his chin, eyes bleary with pain, head swimming with fatigue and adrenaline, Liam stares slack jawed after Cecil when she jokes about his current state.
...
....
.....
Women...
Maybe...maybe being shot wouldn't be so bad after all.
Doing his best to pull himself together, Liam gives MacGyver a few terse suggestions how to get him back in the fight.
"Keep the stubbers down, I shoot guys creeping up on holy man "
Ikrit's rifle brace was less secure than he thought, collapsing as the shot was fired. His shot pushed wide by the movement and his position given away by the clatter of falling junk.
MacGuyver nods once and his Liam with the suggested meds. One painkiller and a hastily supported shoulder later Liam is about as good to go as he can be.
- finally, a success!
Ikrit barely missed the fat man atop the left walkway creping towards the ladder leading down towards the two distraction squads.
Liam is getting his s!~~ together with a helpful dose of painkillers from MacGyver.
Simmins is climbing atop a stack of crates for an improved field of fire on the two gun nests. He too is becoming very tired and he needs an amount of time that would surely have ended in a lot of shouting and extra rounds during basic. Luckily this isn't basic, but the real thing, so he isn't shouted at. Only shot. Three times in fact from a sickly green hued lasgun opening up from the closest gun nest.
Kenneth gets the sign from Seth as the incoming fire noticeably dulls. Practically no fire is coming down from the right side anymore, so the flankers probably have dealt with them by now. Judging by the amount of smoke billowing around, they have opted for the old smoke and rush. Zeff, a bulky but stocky fellow with a beard the insignia of a heavy weapon trooper, is leaving cover and sprints towards the right gun nest on platform one. He makes it to the gun and slides into the sandbag cover and starts fiddling with the bipod mounted weapon.
One of the ratlings is suddenly squeaking in what sounds like alarm and the more squeaks quickly rippling along the line.
Seth shouts at them to report and then a couple cry out: "Evil-bad sprayer thing on Metal-Walk!"
Spitting out the last content of his mouth, trying in vain to get rid of the taste of vomit, Liam gets up and moves over to a good firing position.
He then sights down his rifle, preparing to shoot.
Sarge. MacGuyver's voice comes onto the vox just loud enough to be heard in a hard trained habit to not reveal his exact location through shouting. I'm getting odd readings from my auspex. I think the Hereteks are about to get reinforcements from those servitor-rats we passed before. From my 7 o'clock through the bulkhead we came through. He thinks for a moment and then holds his readings up to the servo skull that's (hopefully) still floating nearby.
The servo skull is indeed still hovering next to MacGyver's shoulder, a red light flashing up from the depths of it's eye socket as it reads out the auspex. Then it beeps twice and remains stationary for a few seconds before it speaks up.
"Your auspex settings are highly non-standard and will drain the auspex' operation time 123 percent faster than regular."
Another moment later it blurbs up again.
"Contacts confirmed.
Threat level estimation is Beta-Four-Close.
Engaging. "
Down at the platform, the two Magi suddenly, wordlessly turn from their positions to face the bulkhead in everyone's back.
The largest one is unfolding four more mechadendrites ending in a circular saw, a suspiciously orky looking power claw, a blazing plasma torch and what looks like power maul. The Magi takes a blocking stance only a few steps before the bulkhead, mechadendrites spread wide like a wrestler making ready for a charge.
The other one, with the heavy cannon spitting lightning balls, is unfolding three equidistantly spaced claw-tipped legs which burrow into the solid plasteel floor, anchoring the Magos to it. Electric charge is building up all around him, quickly forming a bubble around it, which seems to deflects all incoming fire.
"Right... ", Seth sounds like a man noticing the water reaching his lower lip.
"... time to get moving everyone. Kenneth, make some noise, I get mine up the right side. Count the catechisms down from 20, then go left.
Simmins, get to the other side asap."
Kenneth looks over to Seth.
Right... what now? Load or attract attention? Is it wise to attract attention to the gunner? Sigh... A command is a command and he on earth expects me to obey...
Kenneth tries his best to shout and preach over the noise of the gun dispensing ordnance next to him while loading... but it seems like all the shouting is catching up even to him
Apologies, Magos. As you yourself noted, I am uninitiated. MacGuyver mumbles.
Knowing he has zero chance to help with the incoming servi-rats, MacGuyver moves on the weapons nest he smoked. He lights a Molotov as he moves and pitches it in as hard as he can at point blank range before sliding into cover barely a meter from the nest itself.
A string of what can only be murmured curses exits Ikrit's mouth, as he resets his 'rifle. Calming himself he forgoes stealth and controls his breathing, spending a moment to take aim. Finally mmurmuring the 7 sacred verses of marksmanship, he squeezes the trigger.
His shot lands exactly where he intended, punching into the fat man's head in a blast of light, cauterising blood and burning bone.
"Lug it yourself now skinny man!" he mutters in triumph.
Liam braces his gun and keeps aiming, looking for the most likely target.
Although he contemplates forgoing aiming and simply go for a pinning volley if that would be more efficient.
If only I had a little more bolter ammo...
Simmims doesn't even notice the three shots amidst all the chaos haha. Maybe later he'll see some larger than usual trip of scorch marks.
Finally in position though he unloads full suppressive fire on the now out of cover nest.
Kenneth is feeding Zeff as the stocky trooper gets to work and sends a long stream of stubber fire right into the tightly pressed mass of bodies trying to stall the Astartes. Bodies jerk and twitch as they are hit and a ripple of shock seems to run through them. Enough of an opening for the Astartes to make some real progress! They consolidate their position, take out two of the gunners on the far platform and plow into the tight space of the stairway leading to the third platform. Several unseen gunners quickly target the newly operating gun nest and a dozen or more solid rounds smack into the solid plasteel gun shield and sandbags - for now without finding their marks.
Ikrit second shot removes half the face of the fat mutant, which doesn't decrease it's appeal by any noticeable amount. The mutant staggers and sways but keeps on going despite singed portions of skull showing underneath the wound. The dissimilar weapon team has reached the ladder leading down towards the first platform and the smaller mutant is pointing the handle of his weapon (?) downwards. Ikrits actions do no longer go unnoticed though, as a single lasbolt impacts a few centimeters above his head clearly indicates. Or maybe someone was just a really, really bad shot, who knows ...
Simmins has climbed atop a nice pile of crates and has now a premium fire position to hose the heavy bolter emplacement with some serious stubber fire. His scope highlights a target within his target zone which jerks under at least one Hit and subsequently flips and rolls underneath a row of solid seats. Considering that the loader has been killed already, this probably means the heavy bolter nest is cleared for now, the gunner being wounded, driven out and pinned for the time being. Continued lasgun fire is seeking Simmins' new position however. Various lasbolts land all around him but the shooters from the closer gun nest manage to all miss him somehow.
Liam now has a very nice bead on one of the targets in the closer (stubber) nest shooting at Simmins, then... . Cecil is sniping at a gunner on the opposite walkway. The wicked smile you can see out of the corner of your eyes is enough to confirm a kill.
MacGyver sprints towards then slides into cover right next to the gun nest. A moment later, flames erupt from the improvised grenade and engulf everything within three meters. Terrifying screaming is his reward as the mutants are torched. Only one remains and is rapidly clapping at his burning rag-tag clothes, the other two flee in utter terror, screaming and burning. One goes over the ledge and topples to a not-so-quick death, the other runs for debatable safety towards the rear of the walkway - while burning.
Seth leads his band of misfits towards the ladder leading up to the left walkway, wildly shooting and shouting abuse at the enemy. In their back, the two Magi face off the first monstrosity to attack your rear. No one has the time or inclination to actually look at it. Fact is, it is pretty huge, part metal part mutated flash and has way too much fur, claws and snapping mechadendrites than any one being should be allowed to have.
Kenneth keeps the ammo rolling for Zeff. He's not really comfortable doing this because he was never formally trained in it but years and years of studying means he does one thing well: remember stuff. In this case the section in the primer about feeding ammo for heavy weapons. And the description is just accurate enough that Kenneth manages not to mess up.
All the while he's mumbling the catechisms to himself to keep track of the time till Sergeant Seth needs them to go.
He'd like to inspire everyone to greatness but remembering how to feed the gun properly AND counting down the catechisms leave little time to think about how to lift their spirits.
As he looks up from the shot he just took, Liam spots the bolter nest and nods to himself.
Even if there wasn't any ammo there, it was worth a check just to see.
So he quickly makes his way towards it.
Assessing the risk of getting shot versus the damage if the spray weapon is unleashed, Ikrit opts to continue firing from his current position. The larger 'loader' is irrelevant now and Ikrit switches his aim to the skinny man with the nozzle. Calming his heart and breathing is tougher this time, and the shot lands off centre from where he aimed, but punches deep into the mutants head.
Kenneth is loading the ex-heavy gunner like ... well, not exactly like a pro but certainly like any other non-specialist guardsman, keeping the ill-cared for weapon from jamming and allowing another long salvo of stubber fire to rack the mob of mutants trying to bog down the Astartes.
Counter-fire is still strong but also inaccurate. A serious number of small arms fire is coming your way now, but all they seem to hope for is suppressing the heavy weapon instead of going for a well aimed kill shot. You are well into cover thankfully and Zeff is just lighting a Lho stick on the heated muzzle of the machine gun and laughs manically while traversing the tracer fire all over the enemy mob, seemingly oblivious to the return fire.
Simmins notices the heavy bolter nest to be pretty much cleared and the close-by stubber nest being cleared by MacGyver and Liam. He quickly swivels around and targets one of the gun nests on the opposite walkway and fires for suppression. The salvo is not exactly one of his proudest moments of shooting. But it is hard to argue with a dozen bullets landing all about you and one of the two-man fire team ducks out of sight.
Counter-fire is greatly weakening after the demise of the gunner sin the close-by stubber nest. Only a single autogun from the third platform is searching you but misses by a somewhat comfortable margin.
Ikrit fires another well aimed, bright lance of laser a a target on the opposite walkway, this time burning roughly half the face of the frail mutant to charcoal, reducing its already abysmal sexappeal to a level close to the lower end of the measurement scale. He also drops like a stone - as far as a stone can scream and flail about manically then stop moving from shock and pain.
Counter-fire is indeed getting dangerous. One greenish lasbolt is impacting against your shoulder, leaving a minor burn mark.
Liam rushes towards the heavy bolter emplacement, neatly overtaking the burning mutants, casually shoving one of them down into the jawning abyss. With a final leap, he lands inside the emplacement which is still nicely shrouded in thick smoke. His goggles are of little aid in finding what he is so desperatley searching for though (ammo is usually not emitting heat after all, and if it does you do not want to bear anywhere near it), so it is down to his sense of touch for now.
You quickly find what feels like a standard munitorum ammunition box stacked upon ... a standard munitorum issue ammunition box. The upper one is actually open and as you feel inside, there is a leather belt with very familiar, thick and bulky bullets inside.
Counter-fire is licking at your heels but the enemy is not fast enough to catch you mid-sprint.
MacGyver satisfied with the havoc "his" incendiary created, he is about to finish the job with his pistol as Liam charges ahead, body checks a burning mutant down the walkway and disappears into the second gun emplacement with a leap. Cursing under his breath, MacGyver follows him.
Counter-fire is licking at your heels but the enemy is not fast enough to catch you mid-sprint.
"Keep it up lads, we are going up the left now. We are making some progress here. We can make it!"
Sergeant Seth's voice is coming strained and exhausted sounding, as if he is going up a ladder after a long and very harsh day...
The voice of a Magos is immediately following that last vox call:
"Negative, Sergeant. At your current speed and after recent combat analysis, we will not make it.
Consider trying harder.
Enemy combat constructs prove to be of a higher-than-estimated threat level.
Estimated time before taking serious damage eliciting all-out withdrawl: 23.768 seconds."
Liam searches desperately for what he is hoping to find, and while it takes him much longer than he would have liked, his lips turns upward in a triumphant grin.
The emperor provides...
MacGuyver hears the sound of an ammo belt and immediately helps Liam load and brace his weapon. We need to support the Magi, now!
The minor sizzling of fur on his shoulder does nothing other than give Ikrit the warning that things were heating up. Changing position, Ikrit ducks into cover and lines up a shot on the fat man again.
Hide and half action aim
Just as Kenneth thinks about how the situation is getting worse his hands start fumbling, making the situation even worse
Kenneth is counting to feed Zeff while also trying to keep an eye on the rest of the combat. This probably explains why the sudden end of the ammunition belt rattling through his hands comes at a surprise and catches him off guard for a moment. A moment a more experienced loader would have anticipated and already started preparing the next belt of course. Another salvo of solid slugs hit against the gun nest's cover, blowing up little billows of sand, dust and the blood of the previous, heretical occupants but doing no harm.
Ikrit changes position rapidly his companion-ratling scurrying alongside him as usual. "Need recharge soon-soon!", he reminds Ikrit under his breath.
Simmins continues to rapidly deplete his ammo by sending series after series of suppressive fire against the thickest pockets of enemy gunfire. While he does get two nice, deadly hits against loader and gunner of a gun nest on the third platform, his stubber stutters a bit towards the end and he notices the telltale sign of a barrel wear-out. The guns machine spirit probably does as well and thus automatically lowers the cycle rate of the weapon.
Liam works feverish alongside the white helpful MacGyver to feed the oh so empty stomach of his hungry heavy weapon. The ammunition is the form of a long belt rather than the blocky boxes which are preferred by most gunners having to move about a lot but they trump being flat-out any day of the week. At last, the belt is fiddled in and the loader snapped back and forth, creating the most satisfying sound of a bolt being chambered.
Seth finally reaches the top of the ladder and finishes off the two mutants he finds there with quick swipes from his Chainsword while several ratlings climb up after him, fanning out and getting into cover.
The Astartes, freed of the tight pressure of a mob of crazy, suicidal mutants, show off their superiority by rapidly advancing over the narrow bridge connection platform 2 and 3, clubbing, kicking and simply bodily forcing any resistance aside and down over the ledge all the while firing controlled and rapid single rounds, each of which is taking out one of the now quite few (not to mention pinned down) goes on platform 3.
The Magi and the hideous monster they are facing off against are continuing a MAD exchange of blows, each one ripping out junks of mutated flesh or fistful of armor plating and assorted augmentations respectively. Neither looks particularily healthy by now ... But neither did at the start of the battle to your eyes anyway so who knows....
"I am going to need some help with this. Cecil! I need you here!"
Liam braces the heavy bolter, realizing that even his strength is too little to free hold it with the extra weight, then he fires a burst towards the nearest collection of enemies.
MacGuyver waits for Cecil to arrive and take over before moving on toward the far end of the cat walk. He really hopes that the Magi finish off the rats already, because there's nothing he can do to help.
Kenneth tries to help fixing the jam but he doesn't manage to be very helpful. However he doesn't really make things much worse either so Zeff should be able to fix it himself
However, time is almost up
"Almost time to go. We need to get up the left walkway after we fix this"
Simmins unbraces and hefts the overheated Stubber onto his back and then moves forward on the walkway towards the last major gun nest. The suppression phase of the task was over, now it was time for some shock assault.
When he's within 10 meters of the last nest he braces the melta on a walkway railing and lets loose. It's a pretty big target...
Then hurriedly moves to cover.
"On my way, Li!", Cecil shouts and soon comes into the still partially smoke covered emplacement with a running jump, a few tracer rounds searching but missing her.
Her eyes go wide as she takes in the long ammo belt attached to Liam's heavy weapon.
"You got to be kidding me! How much luck can you have, really!
Oh I can already hear Kenneth's sermon about how the Emperor provides and protects and all that building up..."
She sniggers and flips the chin length mess of hair out of her face with a shake of the helmeted head. She shortly addresses MacGyver before settling in at Liam's side, hefting the heavy belting several neatly ordered folds over her right shoulder.
"Li and I got this. Go ahead scout, find us a way out of this crappy s!!@ show, pretty please - oh look, there's Simmins coming!"
She points at the rushing tank buster with his meltagun drawn, as he just draws level with the emplacement.
"Yess, yess, alright, I have a few more yet."
The distraction is too much however and Ikrit snatches at the trigger, pulling the shot at the fat man wide and high.
"OK, ok, time to move, then we reload. Yess yess"
MacGuyver nods and immediately disappears into the chaos of the battle looking for a way forward or out. Or even just a way to improve their position.
"The emperor helps those that helps themselves, or so I've been told.
Anyone who claims we haven't done our duty this day is a liar or a heretic."
Liam can't help but be pleased, despite hi stoic demeanor. They all had been working hard, and perhaps he in particular, seeing how much damage he had taken keeping others alive, and punishing the enemy.
Perhaps the emperor was showing his appreciation?
Well, Liam could show his appreciation in turn, by reaping a bloody harvest on the emperors enemies.
Liam settles into the greater weight of his fully loaded heavy weapon, now aided by Cecil and is ready to unleash some serious firepower with buit the press of the firing stud!
MacGyver is following Simmins, briefly clapping the specials on the back to signal his quiet arrival. Together they make it nearly to the edge of the right walkway... ... when MacGyver suddenly pulls Simmins behind a crate of standard issue equipment crates stacked to nearly shoulder height. Moments later, heavy breathing and clanking announces two heavily armoured humanoid figures arriving atop the walkway via the ladder. Both of you remember the quite capable enemies you encountered in the middle of the barren battleground of the collapsed district on your way to the ratlings strong-point. Here are two more of them, barely out of spitting distance of you!
Ikrit fires his last across the vast room, missing barely, then has to duck back down and recharge by attaching his improvised gun to the contraption carried by his companion ratling. A high pitched whine is building and a low pulsing sheen is shrouding some parts of his gun as it charges.
Kenneth finally gives the signal and Zeff isn't arguing to stay at the slightest. As they hurry off towards the left ladder ... ... they partially witness the monstrous enemy fighting with the towering magos suffer sudden and complete existence failure as a tiny beam of blue lightning from the second magos is hitting it squarely in what supposedly is its head followed by a series of lightning fast strikes from various deadly mechadendrites ripping out limbs and organs. But they also notice the looming form of yet another similar grotesque monster behind the first!
Everyone's vox blares with two badly overlapping transmissions, making it very difficult to understand, especially since both voices are deep, thundering and mechanical sounding voices.
Transmission one is coming from the Astartes commander:
<< Proceeding to final stage of breach and clear. Estimated time to reach next bulkhead: 24.78 seconds. >>
The second one is from the Magi.
<< Dispatched one class 7 cyber-mutant. Three more similar forms detected and approaching. Withdrawal and fire support required immediately. >>
MacGuyver sorts the overlapping noise relatively easily, but can't relay the message right this second. He uses hand signals to tell Simmons to get ready to ambush and takes aim with this gun. As soon as the armored hereteks pass he glances over to make sure Simmons is ready with a good firing line, then fires at the back of the right man's neck.
He then drops down immediately to relay the meaning of the vox traffic while Simmins murders the two encroachers.
Liam cracks his neck, then he listens to MacGyvers com message.
He turns lowers the business end of the Bolter down at the enemies menacing the magos and let it rip. .
"SMITE MAKES RIGHT! THE EMPEROR DEMANDS YOUR DEATH!"
Aware of the backwash from a point blank shot of the melta Simmins yells to Mac This might burn a bit! as he melts the ground the enemy is trodding on aiming to melt it away and make them go bye bye.
Ikrit gestures to his companion
"Come, come, we run now, yess yess! Not get left behind!"
Scampering forward, Ikrit constantly tugs at the recharge connection, urging his companion to run faster, despite the heavy weight his companion lumbers under.
"Quick, quick, yess, no dawdling, they have long legs the manfolk"
Kenneth moves over to the ladder while listening to the vox. He gets it easily enough and so relays it back to the squad:
"The lords Astartes will breach the next room in a little over 20 seconds but the magi have 3 more incoming and need fire support!"
before getting up the ladder at speed. Well at least he'd like to climb it at speed but he is much slower than he'd like to be.
Liam lets rip once again and is delighted to find his by now notorious precision. Shell after exploding shell streams into the looming gateway, exploding only moments later as it impacts whatever horrors it thankfully yet hides from (unaugmented) sight. "Ohhhh, yeah...", Cecil moans at your side with a manic grin even as she is rattled by the powerful vibrations causes by the bolter going full auto and the ammo belt she is holding is rushing through her hands. "Riiiight, there!"
MacGyver pulls off a perfect ambush, planting a shot through the unprotected neck of the red-clad warrior from less than three meters distance. Despite the rather pitiful penetration power of his obscenely modified pistol, his target lurches forward from the impact without even crying out then the world vanishes in a singular brightness of actinic light and searing heat.
Simmins lines up a clipping shot at the walkway, slightly to the left of the enemies and evaporates the thin metal walkway with alarming ease. The backwash is not as bad as it might have been if used against a more robust surface and yet every inch of exposed skin aches as if touched by hot stone. As you reopen your eyes you closed with the expert training of a melta-trained specialist, you see the two enemies gone, presumably still falling to their deaths below (while half melted and burning) and the walkway thinned down to single-file width with ragged edges.
Ikrit hushes over the right walkway, criss-crossing around tight corners while tucking at the bulky and short connection cable spitting the occasional bright blue spark, keeping a half-eye on the slow color change of the blinking light on what passes for the grip of his improvised gun... His companion mutters under his breath - which comes in quick succession from the strain of carrying the much larger ... piece of equipment.
Kenneth reaches the end of his muttered verses and gets going together with the heavy weapon trooper (who he notices has left a frag grenade primed but pinned under the heavy stubber) towards the distant ladder. The sound of heavy bolter fire blitzing the bulkhead and whatever monsters are lurking within a welcoming pain in their ears. Incoming fire has very noticeably thinned, with the Astartes on the advance and many enemies dead. You reach the ladder at what passes for a full sprint for you and a jog for your much fitter companion. "Here, father, lemme boost you!", Zeff calls out to you, and assists your climb with occasional powerful shoves and support. The two of you reach the top of the left ladder in short order. From a little further ahead, you can hear the sound of gunfire. You are also practically face to face with two grotesque mutants, half-fused together with what looks a bit like a flamer. Half of their respective faces are gone and a lot of yellow and red sticky fluids is splattered about together with a noxious stench of some unknown chemicals.
Via vox: << Fire support acknowledged. Keep up current targeting procedure. Initiating withdrawl protocols.>>
While Kenneth is a little out of breath he decides now is a good time to get back to his job of preaching
"The way is almost open! Do not falter now, He on earth demands we finish this!"
And also, seeing the foul tainted spawn in front of him he gets out his hand flamer and hoses them both with a nice dose of cleansing prometheum.
OOOwwww! Emperor's buttcrack! MacGuyver calls, thankfully not over the vox. Crap. I can't see, Simmins!
Can't really see the enemy at the moment, so just keeping their heads down is more important.
Does mean I don't have to aim quite so well.
Liam continues to fire at full auto, saturating the area with bolter shells, going for the old guard standard of "spraying and praying".
Light's gone, your eyes know it. The problem is. In. Your. Head Simmins says and elbows Mac at a very precise point in his temple. And then it's time to exit.
****RETCON****
Simmins first of all unbraces and holsters the melta on his back and then takes out a small tin of some substance from his pack. hold STILL Mac and smears it across the scouts eyes in a quick motion before he can blink. There you go know let's get out of here
And OH MIGHTY EMPEROR IT STINGS! Mac stifles a pained shriek as the fetid paste does it's work and his foot tries to stamp the pain away (to no avail). But his eyes work shortly thereafter and the pain fades quickly too. Good God Emperor, warn a man, man! he complains, but as they move out he isn't more than a step behind his squad mate.
He's not yet concerned that he just got shoe polish jammed in his eyeballs. Or that his vision is currently black and white. Survival is a great drug.
Besides, if what the magi said was true, he probably would have his eyes replaced soon.
"I hope you are all moving! Because I am doing all I can to cover your scrawny behinds! Don't get them shot off now!"
Having made it over the walkway, Ikrit whirls round as fast as his charging cable will allow and takes a snapshot at the nearest enemy outside of where Liam is laying down his blanket of bullets.
Scoring a headshot and forcing the enemy to slow, Ikrit moves after the scouts again.
As the imperials are on the verge of breaking through on all fronts and initiate a (mostly) coordinated withdrawal, a bubbling, hissing and spitting sound is sure to attract attention from some of you to the ominous pool if greenish goo on the middle platform.
The previously calm surface is now bubbling and frothing. Bits and gobbets are flung far and wide and where they hit, metal is hissing and rapidly dissolving with a sound reminiscent of distant screaming.
What's worse: there suddenly is the sound of buzzing flies - everywhere.
Even drowning out the heavy *bang-bang-bang* of Liam's heavy bolter on full auto.
Out of the goo, shapes emerge.
Small shapes, not larger than a toddler.
Things which look like a (horrible) cross between the ugliest (and most hairy and partially decayed) cherub in creation and a semi-mechanic, overgrown fly.
They swarm out in all directions but quickly change course, heading directly to those imperials closest to them - which happens to be Seth and company, Kenneth, Jeff, Liam and Cecil as well as the Astartes.
Looking at the foul pool, you notice much larger shapes lurking below, probably about to emerge soon!
Kenneth turns to the new threat in their midst. They are things he knows but he wishes he would not need to know
First things first: it is his job to make sure the others stand firm despite the unholy abominations forming:
"Take heart! Vile things are coming because they know his majesty is winning on this day! Keep his light in your hearts and banish them with me as he has banished them from his galaxy!"
Kenneth then steps towards the oncoming flies and nurglings and douses them in cleansing prometheum. Knowing full well they hate the sterilizing effect of fire and nicely emphasizing his words.