If I can get that shield to him Thud and I can draw it over the minefields! I just need that stupid hunk of armor! Notch growls.
Celephix performs some quick calculations, "I can't get him out of the minefield while we're under fire." Celephix retreats towards cover.
"Well, whatever it is,we'd best get moving!" and tries to move out of line of sight with the thing.
NOT Combead: "Oh for the love of... Sure. Just keep dancing in the machine
gun fire because your new toy is missing. Frakhead."
She curses but looks around for the shield anyway.
Leni carefully pokes her head over the trench, looking for Thudds shield but
can't see it anywhere.
The imperials fall back to the central wrecks, some still searching for their gear while the ominous sound of the moving enemy gives everyone the creeps.
"That's our aim, Private. But first we need to get it actually move there! I need some of you to trade fire with it to guide it there. The rest of you stay low and get yourself explosives. And the shapers!" Sgt. Wallace shouts back before grabbing the long range vox.
Another voice shouts "Shield at my site. Can't lift that thing!
The caller is ten meter from Noth and quite a distance from Thud'dr. Despite being strong, Notch will have PROBLEMS carrying the thing.
The stomping footfalls of the approaching enemies are getting faster and it's fire continues unhindered...
To your luck, the storm of solid projectiles passes by you again. Most ricochet off the wreckages.
A couple of guardsmen return fire with their lasguns, a couple of shots seem to find their mark without visible effect. The lasbolts are unnaturally bright and visible in this dust cloud that still lies over the battlefield.
As the return salvo ends, the giant silhouette of the enemy emerges from the dust like a nightmare.
It's a walker type vehicle of obvious Ork design. It stands on two thick legs that crush the earth beneath with sharp clawed feet. The bulky body is thickly armored and shoots a relentless torrent of bullets from two heavy machine guns fixes to the main chassis. The robotic, three meter long arms end in vicious claws and saws that make no secret of its intended purpose. Thick black smoke billows from its back and a crudely painted Ork face is painted all over its front.
"HOLY S!#~ that thing is ugly. Why can't that thing just stop running like
our tech when that machine spirit mumbo jumbo gets pissed?"
Leni sets the gun she found to burst on low energy - she won't hurt that thing
anyway she just needs to have it follow her.
She starts running towards the street while keeping her head bellow the trench
line and firing roughly into the things direction - this of course means her
shots have no chance of hitting the thing but the lasers still make a nice
lightshow in the dust.
The ammo counter showed full ... but your blind salvo drains a considerable amount of ammo although you are firing on the normal fire setting...
48/60
Also the heat indicator shows a higher value than it should after firing only a couple of normal-mode shots. It's just beneath the orange 'warning' marking. Something is not right with this weapon!
Common Lore: Imp. Guard +0
You remember a page in the handbook warning from potential problems if heat-sensitive minerals embed themselves in the barrel.
It's followed by a dire warning about damaging your gear because of poor maintenance and a list of potential punishments.
Notch locates the trooper who found the shield then shouts something in Ogryn over the com. Thud skids to a hault and reverses course. He sprints toward the trooper and starts using his long legs to simply step or vault over any obstacle in his way.
"The Emperor protects the faithful!
Look at that Ogryn wading through the fire of the Xenos unharmed,
and find your faith and courage soldiers!"
The Priest has stood up behind the cover of the wreck, his giant chainsword held high, pointing towards the approaching warmachine as if challenging it to a duel.
Simmins just keeps his head down and tries to get the damn auto cannon working.
It is evident that the mixed heavy weapon crew has their problems with working together.
Not being used to work together, their every action seems to be in discord, well trained steps fail and the stress situation does not help it ether. Simmins wants to good and help, the other two are deeply worried about their friend who stands out in the open upon an active mine, helpless in the face of the ever advancing walker ...
If you want to take the lead of the weapon team you may try a Command+0 or try to help them focus on their task rather than worry for their lives / the live of their friend with a Charm+10 test.
If you succeed you will receive a bigger boni for your roll
Hey, HEY! Simmins shouts at the other two. We're not going to save your friend. Or our own damn hides if you two don't FOCUS ON the cannon! That tin can is going to kill us all before those mines to. So by the Golden Throne help me get this thing up and running!
Celephix blasts a few shots towards the xenos abomination, not wasting any time on aiming. Keep its focus away from the autocannon and try and move it towards the minefield.
Monia being bereft of her primary lasgun, the target being armoured and out of direct line of sight for her powers, decides to just hunker down behind cover as to not get shot and wait for the target to close and remarks as she takes stock of the grenades she has on her belt:
"I've still got my two Krak Grenades with me, since Thud apparently went to go get his new toy, who's got the strongest throwing arm here?"
"Krrrr ... Clooonk ... Wheeeh .... Clooonk .... Krrrr .... Clooonk"
The warmachine closes on the imperial position, directly towards the thickst of the fire - and on collision course with the mines - ignoring the occasional hit without slowing in the slightest or any other sign of effect. The two machine guns on it's front continue to spew their fire towards the imperials...
DAKKA-DAKKA-DAKKA-DAKKA
I, Pen:2
Thud'drs luck seem to run out. Being larger than any normal human and running through a storm of bullets has it's risk after all...
A solid round from the gun-blazing Walker magles his chest just as he nears the soldier that found his shield in the mud.
The brutal impact pierces the makeshift armor strapped to his chest, tough flesh and bones to finally leave the mangled body through a fist sized hole in his back. A sickening, crunching sound proves of at least one broken rip and the Ogryn is thrown to the ground where he gasps for air and his vision blurs for a moment.
The fall of the Ogryn is a shock for the imperial troops, at most for the priest. Disregarding the danger, the Zealot starts a mad charge towards the approaching warmachine, his Eviscerator coming to a dangerous life, screaming the Litany of Hate at the top of his lungs. Only 20 meters are now between the priest and the machine!
Sgt. Wallace tries to hold him back, but the priest is all but lost in his charge towards the walker...with a disregarding nod, he starts speaking into the long-range vox but no one is near enough to hear him over all the battle-noise.
Seeing the situation going south and hearing the words from Simmins, the weapon team focus on their task.
The imperial return fire clatters against the Walkers armor ... only causing the painting to melt, but doing nothing to stop its approach!
Ren'Shaw meets Celephix in the trench, shouting towards her. "I want to make it to Doombringer, firing into that thing's back. Hopefully it wont notice me if I keep my head down and take the trenches. I could need your help, priestess!"
As things start going wrong Leni stops and sights "This orgryn is going to
be the end of me."
She takes a quick look how far she is from Thudd.
Taking a moment to choose a proper foothold she is out of the trench in 2 steps
and sprinting towards Thudd. One hand is activating her combead while the other
takes out an injector with stimm.
Combead: "Sarge, if you call in artillery on this position as well then I'll
have to medically hurt you later."
She actually dives for Thudd at the end of the sprint and injects him with the
stimm - getting him back up in an instant
She grabs on to his neck as he gets up and shouts into his ear: "TO THE SHIELD BIG GUY.
RIGHT F@#~ING NOW."
Sgt. Wallace reply is ... loud.
Gonna warn command of the payload of those things. Maybe they don't know and get their heads handed them!"
Sub the 1 for 8 gives me 27E Pen2
With a display of virtuous shooting, Ashora manages a trick shoot at the left barrel spitting death on the squad.
While not destroying the gun completely, the damage done at least disables the weapon ... no one can tell how long though and the second gun is still shooting.
The stress of the situation keeps Simmins and the teams from getting much headway.
"Very well soldier, to Doombringer." Celephix makes her way, careful to try and avoid attention. Should the pilot take note, it may realise their intention and either tear them or doombringer itself apart.
Thud takes yet another shot that should have killed, would have killed, any other guardsman. He falls, moans, then gets hit with a cocktail of chemicals that brings everything into sharp focus. He yanks the shield from the ground as he gains his feet and starts stalking toward the machine.
'Ang 'ight *wheeze* Li'l 'un! he says between ragged breaths. Notch is there just after Leni and falls in beside him. This might get hairy, doc. Glad you're along! he says with a genuine grin. How he is grinning right now is beyond you, but there it is.
Thud holds up the shield and starts moving toward the walker again.
As Thud stands he feels Leni sliding off. In a moment of that legendary Ogryn loyalty he grabs the back of the medic's uniform and drags her with him those last few meters to the shield.
Monia, seeing their mightiest squadmate laid low by a single shot and their zealously-insane new religious companion rushing head on into the maw of danger, decides to give it her all in an attempt to flatfoot the orkoid walker so that the priest can hopefully get in a good swing or two and be the proverbial can opener to his tin can target whilst also giving Thud, Leni and Notch time to properly get behind his new shield.
Warp Whispers: The voices of daemons fill the air within 4d10 metres of the psyker, whispering terrible secrets and shocking truths. Everyone in the area (including the psyker ) must make a Hard (–20) Willpower Test or suffer 1d5 Corruption Points and an equal amount of Willpower damage. In addition, whether or not the psyker passes the Willpower Test, he suffers an additional 1d5+5 Willpower damage.
meters.
Monia fails, the whispers are too insidious.Total of 12 WP damage and +4 Corruption. Neat.
WP 41 down to 29 regaining 1 point back every hour.
As Monia fires off her psychic blast, the air around her starts to visibly shimmer and hum and a cold, bitter wind sweeps through her surroundings accompanied with mocking, leering, ghastly, seducive and unholy voices that whisper dread and terrible secrets too vast for their mortal minds to comprehend, sapping the very life force from her as she braves daemonic onslaught.
Running, their thead low, through the trench towards Doombringer, Celephix and Ren'Shaw make good time, while the Walker is distracted by the charging priest, a perfect sniper shot and the luring fire of the imperials.
Leni and Thud'dr make it both back to the mid-aged private from Wallace's group that discovered the giant's shield - the medic getting carried the last meters to safety by the wounded but steadied Ogryn.
Simmins and the weapon team continue to struggle with the autocannon, the impacts hitting all around them distracting them thoroughly.
Then Monia gets up, her eyes glimmering with inner power and let's loose all her potential on the advancing enemy - ripping open the veil in the process...
The psychic attack hits the Orc-Walker on the left leg, the pilot trying to get his machine out of harms way but failing.
The attack struck and shakes the massive leg through, a few pieces of scrap metal falling off and but the pilot is able to steady it's walker, taking a step back in the process rather than falling to the side.
But the struggle of the machine is only a blurr before your eyes, as words appear in your mind - unheard by your ears but oh so real nevertheless...
The voice that enters your mind is a low whisper, unearthly graceful and clear. Every word diving deeply into your soul.
Steering thoughts to roads untraveled, undiscovered and feared.
"What is an ant to an giant? What is a man to a god?
Why suffer for a dead master?
Why endure hardship for an unthinking universe?
Why not raise to a god by yourself?
Why not deal pain instead of suffer it?
Why stay loyal to a corpse?
Free yourself, for you are destined for a greater fate than dying in the mud of an unimportant world!
Break the shackles they put upon you.
EMBRACE THE POWER OF THE FIVE TRUE GODS!"
"WHIIIIITCH!!!!! WHAT ARE YOU PULLING HERE?
Answer me or you will greet the Emperor ... or to whomever your soul belongs by now! "
Monia finds herself looking at roaring chainblade of Sgt. Wallce - his eyes full with mistrust and disgust - the blade only a hand span from her throat.
All around you, the moaning of the guardsmen can be heard, their return fire drowned to a only to man continuing their luring attack as their comrades try to cope with that experience.
One of the heavy weapon team must stop his work, trying to steady his violently shaking hands from pulling the pin of a grenade he had unconsciously drawn in response to the psychic assault.
An explosion shook the trenches - a mine has gone off near you. A sickening sound of falling flesh causes you to turn to see bloodied parts wearing guard uniform fall to the ground around a new crater where the stranded soldier stood moments before.
"MAKING SURE WE LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER DAY CONSEQUENCES BE DAMNED!"Monia shouts back trying to drown out the voices.
"GUT ME LATER ALL YOU WANT BUT I'M NOT DYING THIS DAY TO AN ORK NOR AM I LETTING MY SQUAD GET BUTCHERED WHILE I SIT AND COWER IN A TRENCH!" she states before turning back to face the void.
"BE SILENT FIEND YOUR HONEYED WORDS SHALL NOT SWAY THE LOYAL OF THE EMPEROR! BEGONE! RETURN TO YOUR FEEBLE MASTERS, THE EMPEROR GUARDS OUR SOULS AND NOTHING YOU OFFER CAN SWAY US FROM HIS LIGHT! BEGONE!"she shouts back, trying to drown out the whispers and remind those affected that the words whispered are naught but lies.
"Thanks big guy, pretty sure you have its attention, back to the mi..."
"GAAH get out of my head stupid thing! I'm here to keep my people in one
piece! Shove your promises where the light of the emperor doesn't shine!"
Even while screaming back at the voices she notes that she left the defective
lasgun somewhere when she started to sprint to Thudd in favor of keeping the
medkit with her so she draws her laspistol and starts firing around Thudd and
the shield into the general direction of the walker
and manages not to hit anything despite the size of the thing.
The whispers end shortly after with a last, cackling, ironic laughter that tears deep and will certainly accompany your nightmares for some time.
Wallace looks Monia all over, gazing at the swaying Walker, then grunts and stops the blade of the chainsword. Between clenched teeth he curses and in a low, dangerous tone answers Monias outbreak. "Make sure do be more useful than a burden in your own interest witch or ..."
He abruptly turns around, shouting at the men.
The demon made a tactical error. He used big words. Thud understands very little of it. Unfortunately the supernatural words twist themselves into pictures at the last moment and Thud Sees
He hauls up the shield to protect himself from the vision, not that it can help. He sees himself clad in power armor and leading a charge against an army of dead men. He feels POWER OVERWHELMING, then shakes it off because he feels the cost. Thud roars in defiance of the tempting pictures and charges at the teetering walker, ripper in one hand, shield in the other.
When he has moved as far as he can he swings the shield around in front of him.
"Not wanting to complain but THATS THE WRONG F!~%ING DIRECTION! IS THAT HOLE
IN YOUR GUT NOT ENOUGH TO CONVINCE YOU YOU HAVE ITS ATTENTION? FALL F@#*ING
BACK!"
Leni tries to keep Thudd - and the shield - between her and the walker but she
will not move any closer to the machine.
To many words, Doc! Notch shouts.
Screaming, Ashora screws her eyes shut tightly and shakes her head, but the daemonic susurrus cuts through the noise and sears into her brain.
As the voices fade she pants, eyes wild and beads of sweat running down her face. Still, the drill teams on Serenus had done their work well, and muscle memory guides her as she lays her rifle against the edge of the truck and places her eye to the scope. Clicking on her combead, she pants out, "Notch, Leni, get that big lunk away from there! He's gonna block the autocannon team's firelane!" Hoping to repeat her trick with the other machine-gun barrel, she fires.
24E Pen2
Monia, now drawing in on the Warp in an unrestrained manner, shouts to the squad "Move away from me lest you be caught within the grasp of the forces I unleash! Away!" and she'll also try to move away from as much of the squad as she can before unleashing her might once again paying special attention to get away from the Autocannon team since they might be the only ones who can actually take the thing down.
Could be worse, but this isnt good either....still going to save my FP Re-rolls.
Falling Upwards: Everything within 2d10 metres of the psyker (including the psyker himself ) rises 1d10 metres into the air as gravity briey ceases. Almost immediately everything crashes back to earth, suffering falling Damage as appropriate for the distances fallen.
meters, so, not really high enough to hurt anyone....but its still....EVERYTHING around her that goes flying....
Celephix attempts to get Doombringer fired up, focussing on motor control for the turret.
Just as Ashora REPEATS her pin-point shooting at the other gun, the priest continues his mad charge, swinging the oversized chainblade at the left leg of the walker. The screaching sound of it's chains running and biting into the metal blades is terrible to behold - but you are to far away to tell if the blade bit deep enough to do actual damage.
Then Monia begins to get lifted into the air - surrounded by mud, tools, discarded weapons, guardsmen, sandbags and literally everything within 14 meters. At the highest point, a barely visible flash of high-velocity movement becomes visible, razing towards the walker.
The impact causing the walker to stumble again ... but the pilot is able to steady its machine AGAIN. The sluggish movements of the machine are accompanied by an outburst of anger and hate coming from some form of external speakers.
To the luck of Simmins and the weapon team, the last couple of steps Monia took before creating her powers, took her out of range of the warp effect ... barely.
Witnessing the close by warp effects is disturbing as well ... causing the assembling to not go as planned ...
Not affected by any of the happening, Ren and Celephix reach Doombringer, trying carefully to enter it without alarming the Walker what's happening just a couple of meters behind it ...
Thud'dr ignoring the possible danger and the bad wound in it's chest, approaches a couple of meters towards the walker behind the cover of his new shield....
Taking Notches hint Leni shouts:
"BE LOUD. MAKE IT ANGRY. MOVE BACK TO MINES"
She rummages through the medkit for something while shouting.
Cuddles starts circling around and backing up to do as ordered and draw the walker over the planted mines. As he moves he slams his weapon on his shield. Normally this wouldn't mean much, but Thud has a big weapon specifically designed to take this kind of abuse. So he wails on his shield and starts shouting in his rough tongue. Key phrases include "Brrn in Emprahs layt" and "Come At Meh, Geenskn!"
"How much longer on that Autocannon Simmins!? I cant keep this up forever!" Monia shouts, clearly out of breath despite having run a very short distance as she tries to get more space between her and the autocannon team; if daemons and gravity fluctuations are ocurring, then she had to isolate herself before the warp decides to truly strike back at her.
Unnatural Decay: All plant life within 3d10 metres of the psyker withers and dies.
4 DOS
Finally the gunnery crew starts to get their act together.
These ain't the best of circumstances Lady! Simmins hollers as they get halfway through the setup process.
Once again the psychic powers hit the walker forcing it to take a step back. This time though, its feet seem to give way, the walker sinks to a ... crouch. It's legs folded.
The way they fold does not look unintentional. They fold neatly, reducing the height of the walker. Steam hisses from somewhere along the legs - but not as part of damage ...
The buzzing sawblade and the pincer comes crashing down as well, aiming to reduce the priest to bloody shreds...
A Hal step to the side is not enough to save the priest from the buzzsaw coming at him at chests height and he is hit. Mercilessly the amount of blood splashing that follows the hit, hide the actual cruelty of what happens to the priest. What you can make our is bad enough though and a second later the priest lies in several pieces before the walker in a puddle of deep blood. A last gutteral shriek echoes over the defender: "EMBRAAaaaaahrghl"
Simmins and the team hurry up their efforts, finally managing to complete the main gun. Only the ammo feeder, clip and stabilizer are left.
Ten and Celephix enter Doombringer in a hurry, their movements causing clearly audible noise that rang far ... But the walker is distracted enough at the moment and ignores it - same goes for the brutally loud spectacle the Ogryn is displaying. The inside of Doombringer is still a mess of half-repaired circuitry, battle damage and filled with holy incense. A multitude of voices scream at Celephix to let us IT fire, take revenge, KILL.
Sgt. Wallace finally sets down the vox. "Don't wait for the cavalry. They suffered multiple direct hits and point blank fighting with those bastards friends. They are doing good, but it will take time to kill them off and get reorganized and get here... Where in the name of the Emperor did that priest go, eh?"
The last sentence is filled with exhaustion and confusion.
Another man of his squad, jumps up behind cover and starts running towards the kneeling Walker - one grenade in each hand. "It's going down now, in the name of the Emperor! Lets finish it off for good!"
Just as things start to go right, they all start going wrong again and the harried gunnery crew is just completely incapable of putting the dammned auto gun together as the screams of the dying priest rattle them.
. 7DoS
Celephix works feverishly at powering up the tank, aided by it's own eagerness to take revenge.
Thud continues making a tremendous racket with his shield and Ripper while backing away toward the far side of the mines. Maybe he would get some attention now that the priest was chunky salsa.
Leni continues firing wildly into the general direction of the walker without
hitting s&#~ while staying behind thudd and the shield. Her hands moves to
facepalm at the retards of the other squad but she barely manages to control
herself - instead the movement fluently changes to activating her combead:
"The priest just went to see his holyness himself by way of that things saw
arms - and the same thing is going to happend to the madman that just charged if
no one stops him."