Every wound delivered to the Xenos is as pleasing to the Emperor as the most fervent hosanna sung in his praise! Bolus remarks completely satisfied with his shot and so completely unfazed by the vehicular insanity around him.
I have to do this right, calm down, take a breath, make sure you know what you are doing.
"Pilot is down, attempting to take over, you better all brace yourself because this might get bumpy!"
Fumbling with his own straps, Liam attempts to figure out the controls sufficiently to at least stop the damned thing.
"Damn it, targeting lenses overloaded.
Full reverse, get us away before it blows!"
Harkers voice bellows in your ear buds.
***
The long range vox of Angelus beeps and a heavily distorted voice tries to counter all the noise flying around inside a damaged chimera running at full speed plus the ever growing static generated by a powerful energy weapon out of control.
"... have Orks ... sing-by.
Lots ... way.
We must evac ... sition.
Cave is coming ... art.
Do you ... issar? Lieutenant?
..yone?"
The Commissar sighs and puts away the las pistol again and instead searches with his free hand for the ramp controls, trying to close the hatch.
"As much as I want to see that ork dead we'll have to think about our own lives for a moment here. Close the hatch. Look for something to hold on to. Maybe see if you can find what happend to Operator Kront maybe he can help the medic. I'll get onto the long range vox the moment I can see something again."
Liam discards finesse in favour of practically jumping on the break of the APC, causing the tracks to grind to a stop and the armoured hull to slide forward by pure momentum, ripping the hard ground open...
CRASH
With a grinding sound of metal against solid stone, everything comes to sudden and slightly violent halt as the APC crashes against the rock wall - although at a considerably reduced speed due to Liams break manoeuvre.
Coupled with the timely warning, no one gets actually hurt by the crash, a couple of bruises - certainly - but nothing worse than that.
Upon looking around once the crash is over and the adrenalin pumping through your body finally admits movements again, you see the former operator of the Chimera lying in a very unnatural position half-underneath the frontal-gunner seat.
Checking him reveals, that he is certainly dead.
What exactly killed him ... you can't tell.
He has no external wounds, but all his extremities seem to be dislocated and probably broken at several places.
From the expression of pure horror on his face, you might guess that he died during the whatever-the-hell-it-was - out of fear.
Probably some kind of heart attack or brain stroke.
MacVyger has a dream he is flying into monster rock worms made of hard candy and hatred.
Bolus, stops muttering a prayer asking for the protection of the Emperor and looks around. The Emperor Protects! he exults before turning to the Commissar Orders Commissar?
Anatoly sinks deeper into the connection provided by the MIU, requesting direct access to the sensors and motivator controls. Unaccustomed to the direct interface, much less this new intrusion, Longleg resists.
As he fails to convince a machine spirit unaccustomed to working with one of the dedicated of the Omnissiah to allow him a closer union, Anatoly also works with the sensor readings to extrapolate the time until detonation.
"Sorry about the roughness of the stop people, but trust me, it is preferable to the alternative."
"Also, Commissar? Operator Kront is a casualty, he looks...warped to death."
Anatoly struggles to keep the spirits complying. This occupied, it is no wonder that he missed a couple of pulses from lonlegs sensor data, that might have tipped him off, what was about to happen ...
The Commissary has only enough time to head over to the vox and replay the last received message, before the ground trembles hard and a shockwave hits the Chimera from behind.
Bolus, Aurous, Liam and Lind are all thrown down from the sudden shock, luckily shielded from the worst of it by the Chimeras armour. As they try to orientate themselves afterwards, the lights inside the crew compartment suddenly go out. As well as every last control light inside the driver compartment. And the engine noise dies aprubtly. The Chimera is powerless!
They don't activate!
Even the charge indicator on your las rifles charge indicator ... show nothing.
You're sitting in utter and complete darkness.
The only thing your strained senses can pick up ... Is the sound of quick breathes coming from yourself and your comrades somewhere in the dark around you...
Ending a MIU communion is distressing, disorienting and accompanied by a feel of loss at the best of times.
Being brutally severed from the machine spirit you were connected to before just nanoseconds before by an overwhelming haywire effect is hardly such a time.
You feel ... severed as you crash back into your own body - the loss you feel akin to amputation but at an emotional, spiritual level. And your body isn't exactly welcoming after all - painful spasms make twitch and bend like a fish on try ground, all your mechanic limbs failing and malfunctioning.
ZzzzZzzz
"This is trooper Thantus reporting all good, sir, my techs fried however. Goggles're dead and lasguns got no charge left. Is it clear to light something up so we can see?"
The trooper asks the darkness hoping that he had conscious squadmates nearby.
The Commissar untangles himself from the random pieces thrown at him when the chimera got rocked by the blast. He frowns - not that anyone can see it - and checks his own tech, frowning even more at the blank charge indicators.
"That's not supposed to happen. Our tech should be shielded against such attacks, otherwise the orks with their joke tech would roll over us with bombs like that everywhere."
He shakes his head, then addresses the others.
"Let's hope it's just the power, the chimera should be able to supply some using the promethium engine. Either way we need the tech to take a look and for that we need to get out. I'll try the top hatch, everyone else check the ramp. The should be manual release levers of some kind."
Lind manages to find the way to the top hatch using his hands to find his way. He has to use all his strength supported by well braced legs to get the hatch to move open - becoming immediately blinded by the sudden light of the sun for a couple of moments.
In the back, Bolus and Aurous search the inside of the Chimera for the mentioned wind. Bolus struggles to find his way, but the Storm Trooper puts his training to good use and quickly find the wind. Attaching the lever he then begins to wind the ramp open. It opens painfully slow but the harsh light and stank of ozon, thick smoke and burnt paint quickly fills the Chimera - long before the ramp has lowered enough to permit exit.
A quick look-around reveils that the discarded Ork suit is gone. A big crater is located at his last position. All three imperial vehicles lay utterly still, the battletank considerably closer to the epicenter than the Chimera or longleg. Not that you miss it, but the Gretchin-Thing is gone as well. Looking up, you can see a far-away trace of jet exhausts, flying west - now well out of your range.
You wake from the double earthquake that rip apart your dreamworld - to replace it with a pitch-black darkness filled with pain in your back and head plus incredible fatigue the-like you never felt before.
We must find survivors Commissar! Bolus exclaims as he stumbles out of the Angelus, blinking in the sunlight. And then organize a march back into the safe bosom of the Imperial Guard.
MacVyger groans as he comes back to the world. It's s black, harsh world of pain that he really wishes he avoid and just crawl back into unconsciousness.
He can't tough. It hurts to much.
Ughhhhooowwww.
Then the light from the hatch hits him square in the face. He yelps and hisses as hot daggers stab his eyes. On the plus side, he's not blind.
No ammunition, so all I have left is a knife to defend myself with? Lovely...the emperor sure do enjoy his little jokes.
"Well, the best place to start looking would be at the other vehicles isn't it?"
"First things first. Check your weapons. I want to know what we still have. Everyone who does not have a functioning weapon fix bayonets. We're still soldiers after all."
He draws his chainsword, thumbs the activator without much expectation, then swings it in the deactivated state to get a feel how to use it while off.
As you check your las weapons (and chainsword for that matter) you can make out a (very) faint humming of energy, that is a tell-tale sign for a charged power pack.
So probably your weapons and ammunition packs are just (slightly?) damaged rather than totally useless?
A Tech-Priest could certainly say more on that matter...
Bolus sees nothing but says I am running low on promethium Commissar! But I think it is not affected by whatever foul witchery has sapped us of our charge packs
Anatoly groans profoundly. His masters on Mars told him of such agony, Dumpshock, they called it. But, oh! by the Omnissiah it hurts! Not even entirely aware of where he is, Anatoly puts his hands to his temples and squeezes his eyes shut. His nerves, but those he was born with and those the Omnissiah gifted to him are jangling with aftershocks from the .. whatever it was.
Try though he might, his cybernetically enhanced brain simply cannot flog itself to functionality.
MacVyger gathers himself like spilled pudding is scraped into a bowl. His every move feels like he's doing it through water. He pulls himself up, checks his hand cannon. It was mostly mechanical, so it should be mostly immune to whatever xenos trick had scrambled the electricals in the other's weapons.
"I have my knife Commissar, that seems to be about it."
...
"Do you think the tech priest might need help getting out of the sentinel? It looks just as dead as the transports."
"If I had rounds for it, sir, my underslung grenade launcher would be serviceable. Otherwise, I've only got my knife too." The Trooper unenthusiastically replies as he slings his weapons and tightens the straps to fix them in position and he drew his knife as he made his way out of the Chimera.
Anatoly sure does look like he could need some help.
It is not so much the case that he can not exit the Sentinel, rather it seems something is wrong with him - or rather with one of those many cybernetics of him ...?
"
Well, those sentinels have open cockpits so probably not a problem with getting out. But who knows what that blast did to that clockwork body of his.
Everyone with me, we need his services right now, we need his skills right now, clockwork concussion or not.
"
Bolus isn't a medicae by any stretch of the imagination but he stands ready to help the acolyte of Mars as best he can.
"Aye, sir." replies the Stormtrooper and he climbs out the rear of the chimera on the lookout for any hostiles.
Anatoly shakes his head to clear it as his vision clears slowly, The ground. I am staring at the ground. Have they killed Longleg? By gear and prayer, Enginseer, get your systems working! The Omnissiah and your squad have a use for you yet!
He tries to get some functional response from his mechanical limbs as he tries gather his wits.
Anatoly looks about to determine if he can safely release himself from the harness without snagging his mechadendrites on anything as he drops to the ground.
A grinding sound announces the manual opening of the Fists top-hatch, revealing a gasping Lieutenant. Smoke is billowing out around the man and he quickly climbs out, helping another trooper out.
After that, he quickly links up with Angelus' crew.
Still breathing heavily and caughing, your CO speaks up - louder than was entirely necessary (or appropriate).
"They can't even die silently, can they?!
Anyway, good job everyone.
Next thing: get the hell out of here, right?
How's that base-destroying plan going?
Shouldn't it explode or something?
Or was that ... experience earlier what your Engineer...
Where is he anyway?"
MacVyger points at Longleg as he stumbles in that direction to go help Anatoly get his bits back in order.
"Well, the next thing should be confirming what happend to the base. Then report in the situation to HQ. Because even if it isn't we're probably not going to be able to do much more to it. We're all out of fire power. Unless the Tech Priest can work some magic. And even if he does ammo count doesn't look good to storm a fortress. Anyway, first of all we need the tech priest. He has yet to emerge from the walker, so we're going to give him a hand with it."
The rest of the squad finds Anatoly trying to revive his mechadendrites.
With some help from MacGuyver and a couple of the others, Anatoly is able to reset and purge his limbs of the lethargy induced by the explosion.
Lowering himself to the ground, Anatoly nods his thanks to those who assisted before beginning his inspection of their affected tech. Unless directed otherwise, He starts with their portable weapons before moving on to the vehicles.
After a quick inspection, Anatoly lets out an angry burst of binary.
Only Longlegs system have survived the energy attack unharmed (they simply shut down).
But both larger vehicles have several burned-through wires and circuits.
So they are in need of the 'gentle' touch of an enginseer.
3d100
After a quick inspection, Anatoly lets out an angry burst of binary.
Only Longlegs system have survived the energy attack unharmed (they simply shut down).
But both larger vehicles have several burned-through wires and circuits.
So they are in need of the 'gentle' touch of an enginseer.
Every powered weapon has lost half its ammo (same for reserve mags) and will come online a few minutes after the shock.
"Report, Tech Priest. We need weapons, we need communications with hq and then we need the tanks running. Whats the status?"
Voxs are damaged as well but may be repaired rather quickly especially if one uses parts of one to repair the other.
Tech-Use +10 to repair one with spare parts, -10 otherwise.
Tanks are more delicate and would require lots of work (hours).
Maybe half an hour to make them go at least.
Anatoly quickly discovers that most of your portable weapons were just momentarily disabled and are powering back up just now, although all charge packs have lost nearly 50% of their original capacity.
Turning his attention to the vox transmitters he is able to get Angelus' vox system going withing a couple of minutes with some aid from MacVyger.
He then tunrs his attention to the vehicles, but clearly expresses his doubts about bringing them up to fully-operational condition without a proper repair forge and necessary spare parts.
After a couple of minutes of deeper inspection, his fears confirms.
There is no way to get the vehicles battle-ready again.
Too many wires and blessed chips are burned out and too many machine spirits have curled up and shut down from pain and fear.
While the others are all busy with repairs or important vox calls and plan-making, you are momentarily left on your own.
Sitting down for a breather you soon feel semi-regular shudders running through the earth below your feet.
It feels like a strange mix of a heartbeat, a regular-but-weak earthquake and distant bombardment.
The Commissar will actually take Liam aside while the Anatoly looks at the weapons to look at the deep gouge that went through his armor straight into his chest, courtesy of a two handed ork axe.
Afterwards once he hears the weapons will come back online they will wait for that to happen, and then form a scouting party - with everyone not busy doing tech stuff - to check out what damage they actually did to the Rokk. No use calling HQ with only guesses to report back to them.
We will follow you Comissar. Ye into the very depths of the foul Xenos Hive itself so we may burn it to ash!
"It honors you. And if the missions requires it we will take on that challenge. But for now we'll see if the Tech Priest did not do just that with the time we bought for him with our lives on the line. Either way we report to HQ before our next move. They need to know what happened here and they might have enough resources to spare for us to succeed. An attack in the Emperors name is a victory in its own right but it is the results that keeps his Imperium in one piece."