844. M30
Tanya Russ
4 years short years since the end of the Wheel of Fire campaign and it felt like I had not found a moment's rest since that operation. Theoretically, I was on my way back to Fenris for a little bit of refitting and negotiations on creating an arsenal world out of that moon. However theories weren't exactly the reality as, though I could easily have just hard burned home, the fact of the matter was I was still technically on Crusade so I was taking the long way.
And when I say the long way I meant we were invading various problems sectors on the way there, trying to secure a route from the Wheel of Fire to Fenris. One interesting thing I had noticed about space was you couldn't exactly put it on a flat plane for a control map. Theoretically, again, I was passing through areas that had already been pacified as there was obviously trade going through it back to Terra, however there were systems just off the most traveled trail that were not. Those regularly raised issues such as pirates raiders and other criminals of various sorts in ambush on to the trail to kidnap, steal, and enslave. All those elements of destructive civilization that I just was not a fan of.
Thankfully the most I had to do in those cases was show up and threaten destruction if we didn't come to a table and negotiate. It seems that the propaganda department that the Imperium employed had heard of my complete cleaning of the Wheel of Fire sector and were spinning tales of how I was a vicious warlord crossing the stars and destroying terrorized enemies. On one hand that was kind of annoying, on the other I had to admit that it worked. It was a thing for the Mongols after all: you destroy one city and you get three others to concede, meaning fewer cities that you have to attack and defeat along the way.
That being said what I mostly dealt with were human civilizations, ones that had been cut off and had minimal tech. Some of them even didn't have Warp engines but were just close enough to the trail that they could put a slow-moving battleship there to hold up anyone who was taking a slow road between sectors. So when a Gloriana class warship warped in above their planets and said 'time to have talks or otherwise…' they were willing to listen. Since they were human they either signed on the dotted line or at least agreed to stop attacking and began the process of negotiating themselves into the Imperium.
However there were aliens I had to run into along the road back to Fenris and I would have to be a fool not to admit the reality that some of them were frankly playing assholes. Taralais were a prime example of the assholishness that you could run into in open space. Their civilization apparently dated back to before the Old Night and after everything fell apart… Well, they just sort of went on a conquest spree by nuking out of existence the human civilizations that didn't submit. The sector I found them had, according to maps that dated back to before the Old Night, been populated by 300 worlds, 200 to which had been devoted to farming and 100 to industry, research, and economic prospects.
Well, of those 300, 150 were still habitable. Those 150 had been farming worlds, the other 150 had all been nuked to unlivable status. From the testimony of the planets that I had been able to communicate with, those whose leadership still had some records, it seemed that they had tried to stand up to the Taralais and negotiate with them. And then the Taralais had surprise-nuked, those hundred industrial worlds with missiles that had been fired even before the Old Night happened. The Taralais had simply been waiting for an opportunity to press the red button while their missiles were kept hidden in some kind of stealth. The 50 farming worlds nuked had been targeted not too long after that as they had tried to take in refugees from the other planets. Supposedly what remnants of advanced civilizations that had been there had taken what they could and simply fled the sector, leaving the unadvanced farming worlds to the rule of the Taralais. And what a cruel rule it was, the records indicated that beforehand the planets had been settled with the general idea of family-ran farming. Well, those families still technically ran them but now as slaves to the Taralais plantation Masters. The food that was produced and any other materials they fancied for whatever purposes was then sent to their own planets.
Well, as you might imagine, I had not been a fan of that. So I unleashed the wolves, hunting down their planets and landing on them directly.
I suppose I could have attempted negotiation but the fact of the matter as it had been presented to me indicated that most likely all 150 planets that still had human life on them were at risk of being… well neutralized by mysterious stealth missiles if we even had tried to force the local garrisons off those worlds. That could probably still happen so I needed to do something big, threatening, and distracting enough that they didn't even think about it.
Which is why I had gone for a total invasion of their planets. We just started destroying stuff, which Marines are good at, power generators, water purification centers, industry, even local farming. The wolves were unleashed on their worlds, most of which were encrusted in urban centers so they weren't producing a lot of materials for themselves.
It was only after I had confirmed that the planet was now pacified from any potential industry that I had offered them a deal.
Surrender and I will not cut the food coming in from the 150 worlds that they had once controlled.
It was a simple deal. They didn't have a major fleet, they had surprise missiles but I had the ability to bombard their planet if I wanted to do. I explained to them that I was against that level of wastefulness, at least without a cause. So giving them the opportunity to surrender and turn their holdings over to the Imperium seemed like a reasonable first step.
Their response was to attempt to nuke all 150 worlds. Keyword being 'attempt'. I had suspected something like this might happen and I had dictated a line of ships around their planet to block communications out of the system.
Now I may not be the most unforgiving sort but I had given them a chance. They had committed massive genocide several thousand years ago, yes, but I couldn't really hold them for the sins of their fathers. But I could hold them for their own sins, because attempting to commit a genocide of the scale they just tried was about the point where I'd started counting them as a destructive element on civilization. I did not think that the Imperium needed their world anyway.
I ordered a retreat from the surface and, once my Marines were back on board, I bombarded the planet for a week or two straight while I dictated the imperial army to go deal with the local bases that they had off-planet.
Even after 2 weeks of bombardment they had refused to surrender so I sent in my troops and attempted to forcibly make them surrender. Their troops weren't that good and their weapons were rather primitive, still relying on slugs in most cases and not even explosive variants at that. It took time but eventually the planet was pacified and what population was left was handed over to the Administratum and the military to deal with, their local government so completely shattered that there was no one to surrender the planet. It was a simple conquest at that point.
I kept good to my word and confirmed I would not stop the local food shipments, but other than that the Taralais had been removed from power within the sector. The 150 farming worlds had signed on to the Imperium and I counted this as a massive victory. For the members of their species that had been off-world I offered to bring them back to their planet and deliver them there if they surrendered but some of those holding lands on those 150 worlds had attempted to fight back so it had taken a little while to remove them. The process of detaralaising that sector had taken a full year but I believed it was for the best.
After that I'd moved on, the losses we had taken on this campaign had been minimal to none so moving on to the next sector to clear it out of any such troublemakers was easy. Not to mention we were still getting shipments of new recruits every couple of years, though not as many as we once had as the initial burst of recruits had already been run through the process.
Out of the two alien species that I ran into at this point I currently had the most respect for the Orks. In that first fight the Orks had attempted to genocide their slaves but once they realized that I was there to free them they just sort of looked at them as an opportunity to draw me to fight them. They even used it against me and my men in one or two cases, I had noted. Something I kept an eye on. That was something they would use against me most likely in the future and, if I was not careful, could be my downfall.
The Taralais though were quite at the bottom of my list. Well it was a short list but it would grow. In fact I think I had found a species I actually liked with the next problem I'd run into.
The Saharduin were shark people, or maybe eel people. There seemed to be some sort of species or subspecies that looked more eelish while others looked more sharkish. Of course I was not a biologist and for all I knew what I was looking at was a difference between males and females but the point of the matter was they had a lot of teeth, they lived in water, and they had a tendency to fight the Orks quite a bit.
But they also had a tendency to hire themselves out as mercenaries, and that's how I found out about them on the way back to Fenris during the second year of the trip. We had stumbled across a water planet that was run by humans and was currently under attack by Orks, they asked for our aid and promised to join the Imperium so we had deployed. Except they had forgotten to mention the Orks had brought in water specialists, the Saharduin.
They had fought us on the beaches, in the white lakes, in the plains, in the mountains because even though they were water specialists they had suits designed to allow them to operate on land. They were carrying weapons that mirrored our bolter guns in effectiveness and their jaws were literally rows of sharp teeth they were not afraid to use to just bite off a limb. I had seen several instances of them just biting limbs off and swallowing them whole, though mainly amongst the sharkier versions.
That initial fight had been hell as the shark people didn't consider intelligent life sacred in the same way I did. Lots of the fishermen we were here to save simply got eaten by the shark people as provisions. I would have been more upset about the whole situation if the Orks had apparently not forgotten to pay them after the first 3 months of the conflict so they simply got up and left, using ships they'd hidden underwater to basically escape the conflict. Well, the majority of them. Some of them stayed and actually fought the Orks, which had been an interesting experience.
There was actually one instance where an Ork compound had been assaulted by us from land and them from sea and we had basically been in a race to see who would win the compound first.
The Orks had been dealt with, completely eliminated from the planet, and at that point I thought I was going to have to deal with them. But they immediately used their vessel to escape as well and I'd sort of… just let them go at that point. Well let them go as in not chased after them right then and there, nor trying to destroy the ship. I did have my ships track them as they left, just so I knew the general direction from which they had come from in case I needed to deal with them.
Which turned out to have been a wise move. Over the course of the next three systems I had been called on to help, usually against Orks, I'd run into their species each time. Each time under the employment of the Orks and fighting against humans, for what payment I didn't know. There was a perceptible preference in what planets they were willing to fight on though, they had to be somewhere wet and with somewhat stable weather and that had no real threat against themselves. I suspected it might mean that this was some sort of plan to sell the water-covered parts of the planet to the shark people while the Orks kept the emerged parts.
I had no guarantee nor surety that this was the actual plan, it's not like the shark people were willing to talk. They seemed to be more than willing to fight against me once paid and fought my enemies when not but talking seemed to be a step too far for them.
Either way though, in each case, my wolves won the conflict and we forced the Orks into Extinction and the shark people to flee off into space. After running into them three times it was now quite apparent that we were going to keep running into them.
They were a problem and, if my calculations were correct, the three points they had flown in indicated they were native to this area so I'd set sail for the general direction they came from.
Most expeditions by Imperial fleets were led by the Star Hunters as they were usually the ones to do pathfinding and thus initially meeting with potential threats or Allies. This would be the first time, at least as far as I was aware, that a Primarch would spearhead an operation to find out what was beyond known space.
And said operation went as well as I could have expected. Following the trail of the last space shark mercenary Force I arrived at a series of world that were terraformed to be almost completely covered in water. I'm sure there were some land masses scattered here and there but it was obvious that the fish people lived in the water.
Now, theoretically, this is not a problem for my Space Marines, their armor could handle underwater pressures up to a certain point and did have systems to allow them to breathe for a while. Not to mention the simple biological advantages already imparted to them. But my goal was not really to declare war with them if I could get around it.
As I had done with the human civilizations that I had forcefully recruited into the Imperium through simply showing up and declaring 'talk to me or else', I did the same.
Sitting above what I thought was their Capital world I demanded negotiation with their leadership to discuss the current hostilities between the Imperium and their people.
What I had been expecting to come from this I don't know but what I got was not at all what I was expecting. Especially after the fights with the Orks and the Taralais.
Within an hour there was an agreement sent back in relatively high Gothic, saying that a representative of the Saharduin mercenary guild would be dispatched to my ship within an hour or later probably. In fact something I found rather endearing was just how on the spot they were as said ship, looking like a shark swimming through space, came up from the planet and docked with my vessel.
From it came one of the more sharky-looking creatures in what amounted to their armor. It wasn't power armor but it definitely was higher grade and somewhat heavy. They didn't have their weapons with them though, which was a good sign. Still, considering their jaws could probably cut through the power armors we were wearing, they weren't completely disarmed. One of the more eel-like creatures followed the shark. He was wearing a similar attachment, allowing them to breathe through the gills above water, but beyond that had a funny hat that somewhat reminded me of a mix of a turban and one of those hats from the French colonies that I could not remember the name of. It even had a gold string thing hanging from the top of it. And he wore silk clothing that allowed him to easily hide his hands if they were folded in front of himself.
What followed was hours of negotiation demands for them to stop eating or harming humans and them saying they would do what they pleased as they were mercenaries and though they somewhat regulated the member companies that made up their people they were free to do as they wished. Which was actually a rather interesting point that I was able to use to my advantage.
Through negotiation, I was able to get them to agree that they would not support any company that would declare war on the Imperium. I made it quite clear that if they were not found in full compliance or attempted to deceive the Imperium we would be forced to take action against their systems and leave them no better than boiling seas.
But if they promised to end all support to any companies that attempted to raise funds to go to war with the Imperium we would be willing to hire some of their companies to fight against those renegades. Fighting fish people in the sea was not something that was going to be good for humans, so why not let fish people fight each other.
Oh I'm sure they would make some profit in playing both sides of any conflict but sooner or later there would only be one side, the imperial side. At that point it would be either adapt to a non-mercenary way of life or keep going further and further out to the edges of the Imperium to keep that same racket up. Once they had to get far away from their local cluster to find people willing to hire them? I was sure that they would find it easier to deal with the Imperium.
The leader of the delegation fought me rather vehemently on these ideas but even actually conceded that they would move forward with trying a simple system like what I'd suggested. And when the negotiations were over I felt I'd accomplished something great, as what I had basically created was a potential mercenary vessel for the Imperium: someone to do the fighting while people worried about improving the economy back at home.
Granted I was well aware that as far as the Imperium was concerned no alien could really be trusted but this is why I negotiated as finally as I could, to make it clear that any attempt to fight the Imperium could result in a proper response against their system.
They would either play by our rules or we would remove them from the game board as a player, that simple.
After I had assurances that the Saharduin would follow through on their word and watched about a dozen vessels leave orbit heading in all directions to recall mercenaries that may be fighting against the Imperium. I made sure to have this system noted down to be checked on every few years by a rotating force, just to make sure they were following the rules, and headed back towards Fenris as it was only a year away at this point.
It was at this point though that we had reached a point close enough to the leagues and the dwarves who had followed us into the Wheel of Fire returned to their homes. The negotiations on them taking over duties to help rebuild the Wheel of Fire were still ongoing though, they had left behind one of their ships to do a little bit of prospecting.
Well the majority of them did leave. At least one ship was continuing on the Warp trail with us as general Vavem, having completed his mission and activities, wanted to actually see Fenris. I was not against letting him tag along, an extra ship was an extra ship and the Squats were capable mechanics at the very least so having a bunch of them hanging around was useful.
That being said we didn't get too far on our trip back home before we got another call to deal with a situation. Along the final stretch of the route home there was a series of attacks from an unknown Force that had left many planets devoid of human life. These planets had just joined the Imperium so them being under attack meant it was our problem to deal with. In fact it was a major mistake for us not to have set up some sort of imperial Force there the moment they joined. Apparently whoever had attacked had left enough bodies to imply that this had been done as a warning about expanding further in that direction.
The reports that had been sent to me had been very vague on exactly who it could be, though the general indication from the fleet commanders in the region implied that it was probably Eldar.
Well if I was a foolish person I would assume all Eldars the same and be rather annoyed with the one we just talked with in the Wheel of Fire but we were light years away from the Wheel of Fire and the probability that the Eldars were that united was very unlikely. Most likely this was another faction of elves, one that had not shown enough respect to try and mend fences. instead they were seeking a way to cause trouble for the Imperium and going for it. So gathering the nearby fleets with my own I chased after this raider force, searching for them as they moved ever further from where my goal was until I tracked them down.
Where I tracked them down proved to be rather annoying. What I had found could best be described as a pirate harbor, a planet surrounded by ships of various species. Orks were in the majority though I saw even some of the shark people ships, as well as dozens of other designs.
Immediately upon entering the system the ships ordered our surrender and attempted to… Well, they tried to board.
This did not end well for them. Over the next 3 days the imperial fleet that had been trailing behind me jumped in and the pirate fleet I had been fighting was slowly destroyed and burnt to husks. During the first day I had mostly engaged in long-range firefights and kept my ship as far away as possible, there had just been more ships than I could handle in a fair fight. As more and more of my fleets arrived we had managed to pull this off and now that the space above the planet was cleared out I readied my wolves for a new campaign on the surface.
By my guess there was a population of unknown number of Orks, as well as several other species, spread out across the planet. They had been using this place as some sort of pirate harbor for who knew how long so there were probably slaves as well, knowing how greedy pirates tended to be.
Which meant this would have to be a hard-fought campaign to clear the planet and save as many civilians as possible, all while dealing with the possibility that more pirates could show up at any time. Assuming that I had wiped out the entire fleet would be stupid. I had wiped out the fleet that was present but it was possible that this was only a small component of a major power's assets. A larger fleet could be out there, just raiding different places across the Galaxy or ready to be called back.
Not a great position which is why I put in a request for more fleets in this area, to try and search for any more smaller fleets before they could join together and create some sort of bigger super fleet to hit me here. Of course finding smaller fleets would be troublesome but there was always signs: people who created destruction left a mark on a region and if the captains were smart enough they would figure out where the enemies were hiding.
My thoughts were interrupted as Captain Tetanus came down from the bridge. I had been sitting in the Great Hall, looking over a map of the planet and trying to figure out where the best place to lay groundfall to the place would be. There were several major settlements and one major city but attacking those right off the bat… It would be better to land in an area where we could build up our own supplies before pushing into their fortified places, I thought.
Either way the Captain came up to me and gave a bow, before saying, "Primarch Russ, an imperial fleet has just entered the system. They are claiming to have hunted a couple of dark Eldar ships to this system."
"Dark Eldar, uh?" I said rubbing my chin in thought. I think I heard mention of them before, some sort of offshoot of the Eldars. How exactly were they dark, I wasn't sure. Perhaps they were just dark-skinned elves? I could only hope it was that or I could be dealing with Gyaru-like elves with a fetish for suntanning.
That gave me a bit of a chuckle before I stood up and answered, "Well, tell him that whatever fleet they were chasing has obviously been destroyed. However they are more than welcome to join us in the hunt for pirate ships coming in and out of the sector if they wish to."
Captain Tetanus nodded his head before saying, "My Primarch, I believe I've made a mistake and not made things clear. This fleet belongs to the XVIIIth legion and their Primarch is aboard. He's asking to take part in the clearing of the planet below."
The Primarch of the XVIIIth legion? Well, that was unexpected. I hadn't actually run into any Primarchs except Horus so I was interested in meeting one of my potential brothers and sisters. After all if they were anything like me and Horus they were probably rather intelligent and logical beings.
Not to ignore that I was somewhat curious about what they had accomplished. Horus had managed to conquer his planet in a year from what I understood and was already on his way to trying to meet Father, as he liked to be called, when he'd been found. I'd done it in a little bit more time but I had less things to work with, being that it had been a medieval world after all. One that had been created in such a way that it just wanted to kill everything that lived on it.
So finding out how this particular Primarch had come out and what they'd accomplished was something I was curious about. Standing up to stretch out my back, I said "Well, that's wonderful. Send a message saying I would love to meet them."
Captain Tetanus nodded before replying, "They've already said they would like to meet you too, my Primarch. Unfortunately they say they are a bit too busy at the moment."
That raised an eyebrow. "Busy at the moment?" I asked. What could they be busy with I wondered.
The captain did not keep me waiting long as he rubbed the back of his neck and said "they've begun landing operations on the southern continent already. From what I understand they've detected a large majority of the slave population are settled there so they are moving to free them."
"Oh?" I said, somewhat surprised but not entirely angry about this. I would have liked to have waited a little bit, got in a better lay of the land, figure out everything that was going on. But apparently the leader of the XVIIIth legion was a man or woman of action and had gone straight for trying to free the slaves. Respectable, Just had to hope they didn't land themself in any trouble.
That being said I wasn't exactly going to let them run off and get themselves in trouble when I was right here.
Nodding my head I declared, "Send an order to my Varagyr Wolf Guard and have them prepared for landing immediately."
Without question the captain said, "Yes, my Primarch!" and turned to head back up the elevator to the captain"s bridge where he would have someone do the job. For myself I started walking towards my room.
Needed to get my armor on, of course, and get my weapons. Two legions attacking that small of a settlement was a bit of Overkill, that's why I only asked for my best men but obviously this was a Primarch who wanted to get things done and would only account actions taken while on the field. If I wanted to generate any respect with them I needed to get down to the planet as fast as his possible, and help free as many slaves as possible. That was old hat at this point so it shouldn't be that hard and, well… It would be interesting to see this brother or sister Primarch in combat.
Tanya Russ
Opposed landings are never fun, that's why I try and to avoid them as much as possible. Every moment you don't have a chance to fire at the enemy is a moment the enemy has a chance to fire at you then cause serious damage or death to a number of your men you'll need to succeed at the landing.
That said it is a bit easier when the enemy is already under assault from outside their compound. Landing my wolves via drop pod inside the compound that ruled over the southern settlements would, under normal circumstances, just be a terrible idea. But right now, with the XVIIIth legion Laying siege to the outer walls? It was a damn good idea.
And I had to imagine the surprise on the faces of the Xenos when a giant brick landed in the midst of them while they were already trying to defend against something else and wolves, of both the Marine and four-legged variety, were delivered from space and rushed out of a pod to just start attacking them.
However I didn't see much when I landed. My pod landed a little bit closer to the middle of the city and it was just me and my wolves, Freki and Geri. No one was around and it was rather, well… empty. No doubt all the forces had been called away to defend the walls that the XVIIIth legion was currently laying siege to, and what a siege it probably was.
I had not been able to see much while falling in the pod, due to g-forces and everything, but it looked like the entire Southern Wall of the facility was on fire. It must either speak well of their abilities to unleash chaos and mayhem with fire, or just a preference for using it. I would find out soon enough. Cracking my neck I looked around, wondering where the enemy was, before signing and taking a knee to pet the wolves on the back of the neck.
With little effort I opened up the radios and listened in to try and get an understanding of what was going on. Being in higher command it wasn't really necessary for me to be involved in the fighting, I just needed to control everything and it seemed that the Xenos were not blocking communications so I could literally control it from the front door of what looked to be a town hall.
Which made me wonder if they were possibly controlling their battlefield from there? I would have to check it out in a moment, but for now all I did was request several Marines that had landed near me to head to my position. From there I would move in and see if the town hall was where they controlled from and I'd cause chaos as best as I could if so.
Mainly I just listened to what was going on. From the sound of it the XVIIIth legion was pushing through the southern walls while my wolves were making contact with them at the moment and helping them push through areas of stiffer resistance. At least that's what I was getting through the radio communications. It seemed that there was a preference for just burning the enemy out, which was probably for the best since most the reports indicated Orks and the best way to deal with Orks was with fire.
Beyond that there were reports that the enemies were using unconventional weapons, that Shark people were involved so they had their own version of the bolter gun, and that unknown weapons were being thrown at us. There were a scattering of many designs, one causing the most harm from reports were something like diamond shards being thrown at people.
Sounded unhealthy. I would probably need to have all the men checked in case there was anything mysterious with that kind of weapon. If diamonds or anything like gems had been in my last life then there could be unknown spells carved in them, which could be dangerous. I don't want to have one of my soldiers get back up to the ship and then explode in a pile of gore, killing two other soldiers who had been sitting next to him. Better to just remove any of these shards and make sure that they weren't anything more dangerous than exotic bullets.
Well these exotic weapons had taken my Marines by surprise but they were pushing through their power armor allowing them to deal with the damage that was given out and kill the creatures that dished it. Most reported long ears, which tracked with the mention of Eldars being part of this whole cabal.
I wondered if they were the leaders or just a member party of whatever this was, perhaps a pirate Republic with official votes? Doubtful, so far since Awakening on this world I had not heard much of official governments taking a republic or Democratic status. Hell I was working for an Imperium of all things! I had a distinct feeling that though I would love to push democracy, as it was a more effective tool for the economy, it would be a while before it would have working models for people to follow. t had probably been abandoned by anyone who wasn't cut off from the rest of the Galaxy by Warp storms.
Shaking my head I was about to listen in for where the Marines I'd called for had landed when four Marines came around the corner, wearing my colors. They immediately saw me and force-marched half a block in my direction, giving a smart salute as well as a sign of the Aquila in a few cases.
"My Primarch, we've arrived. The enemy is a little bit more prickly than we thought they'd be."
I nodded and said, "Yes their coordination appears to be not so great, the initial drop seems to have sown chaos across the city and that is in our favor. Let us sow some more so it's permanent." A that, indicating the town hall, I started to march. "Let us see if we can find their headquarters and deal with it, my boys."
"Yes, my Primarch!" came a chorus of voices as the Space Marines deployed to either side of me as we walked towards the townhall looking building.
It was not a pretty building, at least it wasn't anymore. It looked like, perhaps a long time ago, it had been designed to look like some sort of Greek pantheon with large Stone pillars with a relief in front of the roof's Arch. However it appeared that time had not been kind to it, time or the local population itself, as it was defaced, damaged, and generally looking like it was only being held together by what I could have guessed was Ork magic. There were several metal plates just banged into the stone to hold it together, obviously trying to cover up cracks in the pillars.
Part of me wondered if I should just order a bombardment right on it and then put the building out of its misery, another part of me wondered if there might be something important in this building. Perhaps some lost bit of history might be of use to the Imperium so I would let that stand for now and simply invade it, kill the occupants, and see what could be found in the days to come.
Walking up the steps with some little trouble as the steps had been designed for bog-standard-humans-sized beings and, well, even the boys had feet a little too long for these steps. I relied on momentum to keep us moving forward but once we were at the top I quickly moved to the front door. Another Marine stacked up to either side of me as I used my hearing, trying to determine if there was something on guard inside. That, of course, was an easy thing to do.
"what do ya mean 'dat dese aren't 'da Space Wolves?! Drkshadow said 'dat 'da space wolves would totally be drawn 'n by 'da attack on 'da frontia an we would get 'da WAAGH! uv a lifetime."came the deep voice of a leader class of Ork, sounding perturbed that things are not going his way.
"sorry, boss, but accord'n ta 'da frontline troops dese guys are wear'n 'da wrong kolor. Dey're green, green an' gold, not blue an' gray." Responded a lighter and screechy voice, possibly a Gretchin. Either way it sounded like something that could be punted across a football field so not the biggest threat in the world.
"but dey are marines, right?" The boss demanded
"yeah, boss! totally marines from wot we kan get. 'dat an dey have a propensity ta jus burn anyth'n 'dat gets 'n dere way. 'da kommandaz 'n 'da field are try'n ta get fings unda kontrol but more marines jus fell from 'da sky." This little sounding creature seemed to be the intelligence operator of the group, was that a common thing amongst their species or just something special to this particular planet?
"are dose ones da space wolves?"
What the hell were the Space Wolves? I thought for a moment, trying to figure out who they were referring to, before I heard more chatter.
"maybe, boss. Reports indicate dey are wear'n 'da right kolors an dey have kreatures dat look like wolves wander'n 'da streets now dat dey have arrived. Dough dey seem ta be jus mov'n 'n an' stomp'n', not really engag'n 'n WAAGH!."
"bah! dis iz wot I get for trust'n a kommando. Uv kourse 'e tells me fanciful storiez uv great warriors 'dat I kould stompn an' instead I get some wussiez 'dat won't even engage us 'n an upstand'n WAAGH! while dere green minions lay siege ta 'da wall."
I heard every single Marine near the doorway snicker. They had all heard that and they all were inhaling laughter. I didn't really want to spoil it for them but well we needed to end the threat to the attack so I slowly opened the door and stepped inside. I had to lower my head a bit to get in the doorway but once inside I got a good look around and could stand up tall. There were about 20 Orks inside, as well as 30 Gretchins and near the center of the room was the boss and what I guessed was the boss Gretchin, both wearing red clothes and, though I will never know why, they were wearing green hats too. For some reason. With an amused smile I asked, "Now, what's this about me being a wussy?"
There was absolute silence for a moment as everyone's eyes turned into my direction and then the Gretchin who was talking to their leader screamed like a woman and toppled over. Apparently fainting.
"huh, don't see dat every day." the boss said, looking down at his fallen compatriot before he reached for what looked like some sort of staff and pointed it at me. "kill 'dat wun."
Two Orks grabbed nearby weapons or rather, to call it closer to reality, a wooden chair and a metal chair. Still weapons, I guess? Technically at least but they weren't really going to do any damage to me. As they charged all I really did was raise one wrist and fire a couple shots into them, the bolter rounds blasting them to pieces.
With my right hand I reached down to my hip and unleashed my bolter gun, aiming it at another Ork who was charging from that direction. I held down the trigger, firing a burst of rounds into that Ork and exploding his guts towards a map wall. Unfortunate since that map wall could probably have Intel for the rest of the campaign.
"Now who's being a wuss?" I said, firing off another couple rounds at an Ork who managed to dunk under a table and come out with what looked like a double barrel shotgun, one with magazines of all things. And I do not mean a double-barreled shotgun with a magazine underneath it, I mean it was a double barrel shotgun appearing to be made from paper mache and two magazines rolled up. We did not get to find out if that worked or if it was going to explode, it very well could have to my mind, as the Ork fell over dead when my shots impacted it.
While I was doing this two Marines entered the room and began firing into the gathered mass of monsters, the other two stayed outside to watch for anyone trying to intercede in our execution of the command staff.
With the element of surprise at our side and the Orks apparently not having planned for the potential of orbital drop we were quickly able to kill off most of the room. Even the Ork leader, who had kicked a table to try and hide behind, was eliminated in good order.
For a moment I just stood there, looking over the room and the Carnage, wondering if anything had survived. It looked like we'd done a good job and I stepped further into the room, looking left and right to try to make sure that we had completely eliminated The Orks.
Nothing tried to shoot me so I think it was a success. Walking further into the room I tried to see if there were any plans or anything that could be gathered, unfortunately I think we had done a good job of destroying everything here. Even what I think was a radio had several bolter rounds in it, which hopefully would signal chaos for the Orks. Without a leader, of course, they tended to fight each other. And if they were fighting each other they wouldn't be fighting the Marines on the field. That was assuming that it was only Orks that we were fighting, as we'd already have confirmed that it was at least some sort of Eldar variant here.
Taking a few more steps I came to the center of the room where the body of the main Ork lay and quickly confirmed that, yes, it was dead, with a little bit of a double tap. It might be a bit much but I'd seen reports that Orks, especially the bigger ones, were tough to kill. Better to be sure than have one Ork stand up behind you and try and cleave you in half with a battle ax.
I was about to turn away when I heard a groan, causing me to tilt my head to look past a common obstruction on my vision directly beneath me. The Gretchin that had passed out the moment I stepped into the room was coming to and was holding its head as it looked around, confused. It looked left, then looked right, and then its eyes caught my legs right in front of it. Its head slowly tilted up towards me.
There was an audible gulp from the creature before it said, "i surrenda!" in the squeakiest voice I think I'd ever heard.
I raised an eyebrow before chuckling, turning to a marine who was coming up with his gun already pointed. I said, "Has an Ork or variant ever surrendered to us before?" He stopped and seemed to think for a moment before saying, "Not that I'm aware of, my Primarch."
I laughed at that before turning to the Gretchin and said, "This is your lucky day, I want to see what happens when we take one of you prisoner."
"My Primarch, are you sure that's wise? Bringing such a creature on board could spread its spores." I swear I saw that gun lift a little, the Space Marine in question already ready to blast the Gretchin to blood and guts.
I nodded to his objection before replying, "I agree but perhaps the Mechanicus can come up with some way to prevent them from spreading their spores. Maybe a cream they'll need to apply every day or something. It could be useful finding some use for the Orks other than problems we need to destroy. It always is a worthy objective, manpower is manpower wherever it comes from."
The Space Marine lowered his gun and nodded before looking to a nearby radio man and saying something on an internal channel I didn't hear, most likely calling for a very solid steel cage to keep the Gretchin in.
Looking back down at the Gretchin I asked, "If we got you a radio could you demand the surrender of all forces currently fighting the Space Marines in this town? You seem to be the last boss's right hand man and communications officer."
The Gretchin seemed to think for a moment, before saying "i kould do 'dat, boss lady. Yes, I kould do 'dat dough 'da pointy ears will probably ignore 'dat demand an well 'da sharp teeth will jus kome ere an eat yer."
"Oh? How unfortunate for them then, I don't think I'll be eaten that easily" I mused out loud before saying "And sowing chaos behind an enemy's lines is always good. Does this facility happen to have a spare radio?"
The Gretchin nodded before saying, "yes, big boss lady!" and immediately got up, walking a few feet to a carpeted rug and pulling it out of the way to reveal a hatch. It was made from wood, with a little chain handle to pull it open. The Gretchin attempted to do it but failed terribly. I moved over to it and took a knee, pulling the chain and revealing a very small radio room with three other Gretchins cowering in fear. The small concrete room appeared to have no lighting except what was coming through the hatch so I wondered if this was actually an emergency radio room or just a place they kept disobedient Gretchins in.
"don't kill me."
"i don't want ta be eaten."
"if only i'd been born an ork!"
Came a trio of screams as the creatures panicked, the first Gretchin jumped down into the hole and said "bust dis! 'da new boss tells everyone ta surrenda."
The Gretchins looked at him, a bit confused, before looking back up through the hole at me. I simply smiled, forgetting that I may have just bared my enlarged canines at them until after I did it. Either way they seemed to have gotten the… the points and immediately got to work, sending out calls for a general retreat and surrender to the enemy.
The first Gretchin turned and said, "job's done, boss! wot do I do now?"
Looking around I checked the hole and made sure there was no other way out, before saying, "Well if you're right and the enemy are now going to be moving towards this position from all sides it seems like you guys are in the safest place in the entire facility. So I would say stay here." Reaching into a pack on my side I pulled out a chemical light and cracked it against my leg before dropping it in the hole. "A little light to keep you safe while I deal with these 'sharp teeth' as you call them." and I shut the door.
There were some panicked squeaks but I really didn't care at that point. They were safe, they weren't going to die, and after I shoved the broken radio equipment on top of the door they weren't leaving. So they were well and truly contained, I could deal with them at my leisure at this point.
Turning around I saw my Marines already starting to gather near the entrance as they expected the counterattack. Quickly I joined them by the doorway, looking out for any incoming horde of monstrous Xenos looking to kill whoever just taken over their headquarters.
Nothing happened at first of, course. After all it would take a few moments for the commanders in the field to make up their minds about what was going to happen. But, after a little bit, the little Gretchin was proven right as a swarm… What do you call a group of shark people… I would have to ask the Mechanicus when I got the chance, I'm sure they have records on that.
Whatever you call them about 30 to 40 of them rushed into the Central square, headless of the fact that they were not in cover as they headed directly for the headquarters. I waited till they were about halfway across the square before saying "Open fire.", making sure that there was nowhere they could easily run to besides towards us for cover.
Thunderous bangs of our bolter guns unleashed into the oncoming horde of Xenos, their bodies exploding as they were hit mid-stride. They of course immediately responded to this attack, using their rather unnatural agility to attempt to get into cover to the sides though some of them did manage to get up onto the steps themselves before we annihilated them.
The surviving enemies took up positions and then unleashed their own fire at our position, trying to get us to stop firing at them. The old 'pin the enemy to a position' trick. Wasn't really much I could do about that… Well, there was one thing. Pulling out the magazine in my bolter gun I pulled out another one from my side, a specialty one that I had been working on. I wanted to see if it would work but I had lacked time to check it.
Today was the day to see how effective our bolter guns could be with a little bit of spellcraft.
Loading the rounds I took aim above the shark people's position and unloaded a spray of shots. The rounds hit the top of the building and a magnified blast caused it to crumple forward, large sections of the building exploding outwards and falling down. This forced the shark people into the square again, some of course immediately attempted to get back into their position. At that exact moment however, wolves of the bipedal type appeared from one of the streets, howling their victory calls as they charged blades in hand into the chaos already forming in the Central square.
The shark people who had been in the other position attempted to support their fellow Xenos while also trying to keep our position pinned but wolves of the quadruple kind rushed them from behind, forcing them out of their position. Then, before me, was a melee. A rather large one at that.
As I watched more Marines started appearing and more shark people and Orks started joining the fight, coming in from various locations as they made their way to the high command. I couldn't exactly get off shots with my explosive ammunition now so I detached that magazine and brought back a normal one before grabbing my short chainsword in my left hand. I said, "well, looks like it's time to get a little bit up and close and personal, my wolves."
The Marines around me chuckled as my two wolves came up to either side of me. "Let's get in this fight," I said, before jumping down the steps of the headquarters and right into the square where the fighting had intensified more and more.
A shark person attempted to bite at me the moment I landed but I simply shoved my chainsword in its mouth and pulled up, cutting its head in half. Not the hardest thing to do considering their bone structure was rather weak compared to both species.
An Ork, seeing its ally slain, attempted to rush me then, wielding double chainaxes. I blasted away with my gun, several rounds pulling a little bit to the right and hitting another Ork behind it, but its head was blown off and that was the important part.
Another Ork tried its luck but my wolf Freki tackled it and immediately grabbed its head in its jaws before breaking its neck. The shark that had meanwhile been trying to sneak up on me from behind had Geri deal with that by simply grabbing its tail and ripping it off with his jaw, resulting in one of the most horrid screams I think I'd ever heard.
All around me was a good old-fashioned brawl, soldiers beating the hell out of other soldiers. Well from what I could see it was generally leaning in the Space Marines' direction. Yes, the shark folk were fast and agile and able to put a lot of bite pressure down when they brought their jaws to bear but Marines were almost as agile as them and tended to know, after our last couple fights against them, how to handle them. Which was to shove your sword into the brain. It wasn't that hard except for the more eel-like variance, though apparently none of them were here.
The Orks were, well, Orks. They were hard to kill but once they went down they were dead and the possible Dark Eldar, or Eldar, or whatever they called themselves contingent did not make themselves known in the fighting though I saw several Marines pulling shards out of their armor. More likely than not they were trying to shoot at us from the side of the battle, helping their allies while not getting too involved themselves.
Shoving my chainsword through another creature, this one not one of the two I knew so hurray a new Xeno. I wondered if I would get the name of it, I internally joked, as the creature fell over dead. I saw that the battle was starting to settle into a central line, my Space Wolves fighting their way to be around me as we slowly killed every Xeno in the square.
This was a bit concerning as, well, the more we became centralized the more kills we could rack up sure… But that also meant the chaos was abetting and the enemy could just focus on one point and send everything they had at it. Granted I think we could survive that but I would prefer not to end up in that situation. So I was already looking towards the former HQ to see if we could possibly fight our way to that as having them fight their way up the steps would be a deterrent and we could better organize there, possibly even form a second line of actual shooting infantry to try and push these things back.
However that never came to pass as, though we were now encircled, none of our men were also in the enemy ranks. This seemed to be the go-ahead for something to just light their ranks on fire.
From the edges of the square gouts of flame and gunfire rolled into the enemy ranks as Marines in green armor began to push forward, unleashing torrents of hellfire as they did.
The Orks immediately turned and charged into the fire, some even making it through only to be smashed in the head by what looked like giant hammers. The formation of the XVIIIth legion seemed rather tight and well-conceived for dealing with uncontrolled charging.
Said formation pushed onwards towards us, seeming to give no care to the enemy's attempts to stop them and just cutting them down as they did. They burned, cut, smashed and repeated the cycle as a square of Marines push forward from three of the 8 ways into the square.
The Orks and sharks that have been surrounding us slowly realized that the threat behind them was breaking them apart and began to retreat from our lines, allowing my men a moment's rest as the green formations hooked up on either side of our circle. This secured the immediate area and more troops, I saw, were already pushing down alleyways and streets around the square. I quickly saw the sharks notice that as well as they began retreating. The Orks, being Orks, simply took a breather before coming as one in one last charge, but we had room now to fire and we did. We unleashed a torrent of Volkyte and flamethrowers and bolter guns, the two forces blue and green quickly decimated The Orks as they charged us, rendering them into Gunk on the street. What was left either died or retreated, heading away and towards the other side of the city where they would either hold up or more likely retreat into the jungle area around here and start heading towards one of the more Northern settlements. This was unfortunate, maybe I would just send some flyers to see if they could get rid of them before they made it. Oh, it was totally possible that the enemy knew we were coming and where we had landed but they wouldn't know how we fought unless those men survived. I would prefer to keep that information in the correct hands as long as possible.
Holding up my wrist I was about to press a call button to call up the ship and ask for such things when I heard a voice behind me.
"Sister!" Came a very cheery and happy voice before I felt a pair of arms around my lower section and then all the air was forced out of my body as I was lifted into the air in a hug and swung around a bit before I was put down in my feet.
A bit discombobulated by that quick action I slowly turned, trying to keep my balance, and saw a bald man with skin as dark as coal "It's a wonder to finally meet you, my little sister. How little you are, father never mentioned it." He said, clapping his hand down on my shoulder and I felt somewhat like a nail being driven into the ground there with each strike. "Then again, father never actually mentioned that you were a sister. I had to figure that out on my own. He needs to lighten up about his secrets, I think."
I blinked as, well, I agreed with him on that but before I could try and ask any questions he stopped and said "Oh! Where are my manners?" He stepped back and bowed a bit before saying, "Good evening, sister. I am Vulkan of the Salamanders legion, it is an honor to meet the Wolf Lord although should she not be the Wolf Lady?"
Finally getting a moment to speak, I said, "Tanya will do. Ancient traditions though on the Wolf Lord bit, though if you prefer Wolf Lady that's perfectly fine. How exactly did you figure out that I was the Primarch here?"
Vulcan laughed out loud before saying "Well, even if you are short by my standard," and what a standard he must have, considering he probably was almost 15 to 16 ft, "You are the tallest person here and, well, I've never seen a female Space Marine. So I have to make the assumption that, seeing you are not only female and tall, you must be one of The Emperor's children. And he did say children when we first met and not sons."
"Huhn how reasonable!" I said, enjoying the fact that this Primarch had the ability to think through a situation to its ultimate conclusion. Perhaps all my brothers and sisters would be on my mental scale after all.
"Well," I nodded my head before answering, "Welcome to San Katos, brother Vulcan. We have many enemies to defeat and many people to free from the bondage of the forces of destruction." At that, I offered him my hand.
"Oh, I like that terminology." He replied, taking my hand and then pulling me into another hug, this time crushing me against his lower chest. If I was not convinced he was just a hugger I might be worried he was trying to kill me with how little oxygen I was getting there. But, as he let go, I simply took in a deep breath and patted my chest to get some air flowing as he said "Mind if I steal that in case I ever need to whip up forces against the forces of destruction?" I simply gave him a thumbs up as, at this point, I needed a moment to catch my breath.
Well this was going to be an interesting campaign, I mentally noted as I turned to look towards the headquarters. At least I'd get to work with another Primarch, that would be new