Escape From Ripag's Watch - A chaos Space Marine Quest

[baud]

baud
Give us more incline, good master. i like the story a lot so far.

Thanks.
next part should be ready before the new year.

 

[Azira]

psychos running in and killing shit in what boils down to a murder raid.

That sounds suspiciously close to how most of my PnP RPG sessions turn out.

 

[baud]

Chapter 7: Makrimalli, overture

Looking down at the base, you consider going directly to the airfield, grabbing any available aircraft and cutting away your loses. But that might leave you stranded in orbit. And the path of glory is not for the meek or timid, so you prepare to move right at the middle of the base. You might face space marines down there, but you are confident you can take them and such victory would wash away some of the losses of the campaign.

At first you progress slowly, keeping to what meager cover the slope has, successfully staying undetected until you are close to your target, a portion of the perimeter lightly defended by just a handful of light fortifications, manned by a few distracted guardsman, though the presence of an auspex net would have made any infiltration attempt through the perimeter a dubious proposition. With a last whispered prayer to the Dark Gods, you sprung from your concealed position, breaking into a dead sprint. The nightfall which had helped you reach this far undetected continues to help you, with the foolish Imperials detecting you too late to bring their heavy weapons to bear and you are only targeted by scattered stubber and las fire, ineffective against the plating of your power armour.

Then Frax, Zephus and you reach each a different section and the carnage can start in earnest. Each swing of your mace leaves broken bodies in its wake, your victims cringing when they realize what your weapon is made from.

"Where is your corpse god, faithless heathens?" you shout "Now witness the glory of the true Gods!"

On his side, Zephus strikes like lighting one guard after the other, blades flashing and leaving only dead or soon to be, while Frax is holding his shotgun one-handed, each shot pulping whole groups of guards, while his chainsword is cutting down any that comes close.

Suddenly your vision is filled with fire, as a flamethrower is aimed you. But, keeping your calm and trusting the protection of your armour, instead of trying to evade the stream of flame, you walk through it, before grappling the guard wielding the flamethrower, your transhuman grip augmented by your power armour breaking his bones like glass, throwing him at a reinforcing squad and then blowing up the promethium tank with a well-placed bolt, spreading fire and mayhem. Continuing to shoot with your sidearm, you target squad leaders and weapon specialists, your bolts breaking apart the pathetic guards as they attempt to retreat.

Then Zephus, having commandeered a rocket launcher from the position he's assaulted, fires a volley of krak rockets, blowing open a pair of IFV, turning the retreat into a rout.

"A good start." says Zephus as you regroup, surrounded by the dead and dying.

"The Dark Gods were with us! And, anointed by the blood of unbelievers, that field has received their blessing." you declaim, while scooping up some blood from one of your victims and sketching a star of chaos on the fortification you've just stormed.

"Glory to the Dark Gods!" shouts Frax, raising a bloody chainsword.

"Now we keep moving deeper inside the base, before reinforcement arrive; we have to keep moving or they'll drown us under waves of weaklings." you order.

====✳====​

Just a few moments after leaving the perimeter, you move forward through barracks, when you come upon another squad, rushing toward where you were coming from. Too late. Too slow. You rush at them and start butchering, caught flat-footed and in the open they don't stand any chance.

You relish in the carnage, savoring the offering you are making to the true Gods, when, abruptly, twin stream of bolt fire cut though the scrum, leaving a bloody swath behind. You dash away, bull-rushing through the remaining guards to avoid being cut down. As you run, you spot that the fire is coming from a bright green bike rushing toward you, its rider revving a chainsword. Bolts impact your armour, the shocks felt even through the layers of ceramic and plasteel, but you successfully evade the bike in a desperate dive, though the rider leaves a deep gouge in you shoulder pad with his weapon. Frax also has to dodge the bike, but comes out of his dodge shotgun firing at the Subjugator, but the buckshot is too weak to pierce the heavy armor on either the marine or the machine he's riding.

You move to fire on rider before he's made his U-turn and comes for another pass, but before you have time to do so, you have to jump into cover as another motorbike starts shooting from the same direction the first one arrived. Stuck behind a dwindling rockrete barrier that's getting destroyed by boltfire and with another bike about to bear on you from the other direction, you curse the marines. But before you try to get yourself outside of that tricky situation, Zephus bursts through a window, knife in hand and jump on the second space marine, taking him off his bike, but you don't watch the combat unfold, as the first marine is charging back at you.

With the second bike out of action and the remaining guards having ran off, you successfully coordinate with Frax and the two of you strike the marine at the same time. Despite the dual strike, the impact is terrible, Frax's chainsword get cut in two, the tip flying off and Frax thrown to the ground, bleeding from a jagged gash on his arm. You hold on, despite the screaming in your muscles and the warning runes lighting up in your helmet, throwing the marine off his bike. You follow up with a rain of blows, making so that the loyalist can't stand up, but it takes Frax plunging the stump of his chainsword through his chest for the Subjugator to stop his struggles.

You turn to see Zephus stumbling away from his opponent, leaving the loyalist with combat knife plunged to the hilt in his helmet, but Zephus hasn't won unscathed, having received a volley of bolts at close range, digging divots in the plate and in one case breaking through, exposing the fused ribs beneath the skin.

Seeing that this side is secure for the moment, you clap on Frax on his shoulder "And now you have faced our erstwhile brothers, separated from us by the Emperor's arrogance and deceit, still struggling against the true nature of the galaxy. This one is the first of many, I hope, whom you will show the superiority of Chaos."

"They die harder than standard humans, but they die all the same, all for the glory of Chaos." he answers, saluting you with the dead marine's chainsword, taken to replace his own.

"Well, he's not dead yet, but close enough for a first time, I guess.", you continue, pointing to the weakly struggling marine on the ground. But then you hear the thump of mortars and the whistling of shells and you understand that the near-dead loyalist wasn't mumbling curses or oaths against you, but rather calling an artillery strike on him, hoping to get you at the same time. The bastard. But before you move away from here, you have the time to loot something from the dead marine

a) Bolter, which will expand your range capabilities.
b) Belt of frag and krak grenades, always useful in urban combat.
c) Helmet, to stick on your armour, showing everyone you've beaten one of the loyalist angels of death.
d) Tank filled with promethium, which can be used as a makeshift incendiary bomb.
e) Nothing.

Then you run away, the shells exploding just behind you.

"The remaining marines, if there are any, will likely be aware that two of their number have died, they'll be on their guard." points out Zephus, whose wound has stopped bleeding, but he's still running less smoothly than usual.

"We'll still kill them, just like we did with those two." you answer.

Now that you're inside the perimeter, you have to choose your objective.

X) Go to the airfield. Now that you're inside the perimeter, stealing a flyer should be easy. But you still have the same downsides as before.
Y) Go to the strategium
Z) Go to the space marine's landing site

AN: Well, it's still 2021 somewhere on Earth, right?
Votes will be counted separately.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

A
Y

Edit - CY

 

[ERYFKRAD]

C
X

 

[Kalarion]

B- the Gods have witnessed our deeds, and the rest of these shitstains on the belly of the galaxy will see them as well... in fire and shrapnel.

Y- we have given glory to Khorne, now Tzeentch will have his due. We require intelligence to crystallize ( :D ) our strategy.

 

[vazha]

C - Moar Swag for the Swag Lords
Y - lets see what puny smart humans are up to and hopefully ruin their plans

Excellent updatan, well worth the waiting. Happy new hear!

 

[ERYFKRAD]

We require intelligence

Well, shit.

 

[hello friend]

CZ - Grab a trophy, then grab their extra good space marine ship

 

[Endemic]

C, Y.

 

[oscar]

CY

If we're going out let's go out in style.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

AY

Getting a Bolter will increase our FIGHTAN POWAH, we really need some ranged power.
Going to the Strategium because we need information and intelligence. We're running blind here.

 

[baud]

A - Bolter
The Brazilian Slaughter, Azira

B - 'nades
Kalarion

C - trophy
Major_Blackhart, ERYFKRAD, vazha, hello friend, Endemic, oscar

======

Y - Strategium
Major_Blackhart, Kalarion, vazha, Endemic, oscar, The Brazilian Slaughter

X - airfield
ERYFKRAD

Z - stormraven
hello friend, Azira

Thanks for the votes, so it seems Procrus is grabbing a helmet and heading for the strategium next.
Edit: no idea when it'll be done (I haven't started writing), but aiming somewhere next week

 

[Azira]

Late to the voting, but since I'd be going for a losing choice, it doesn't seem to matter much.
My vote:
AZ

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Lets see what happens next with the good ol' rapepig

 

[baud]

Chapter 8: Makrimalli, crescendo

While you continue your advance in the base, you give a closer look at the helmet you've taken from the dying loyalist, with the chapter emblem stamped on the side, covered with engraved litanies of hate and battle damage, some old and repaired, some recent. But that's the beak shape of the muzzle that brings back memories of those heady times at the close of the Great Crusade, before the start of the Heresy, where everything seemed possible. The Corvus power armor pattern such helmet belongs to wasn't much used in your legion, but a few suits were brought for trial by the reconnaissance squads of your legion, mostly with success. But then the Heresy happened, Horus failed at the critical juncture and the galaxy was thrown into the Long War instead of a new golden age, mankind across the galaxy united in the worship of the true Gods...
With a muttered curse, you stop yourself from dwelling on old, bitter memories, much more important to stay in the present and fight for the future (and just mere survival for now) and stick the helmet on a spike protruding from your armor, orienting it so that it's clearly visible to anyone facing you in a fight.

====✳====​

With their defenses in disarray from your lighting-fast attack, you manage to avoid further contact with Imperial forces, until you are within sight of the strategium, hiding in what seems to be Munitorum offices. Night has fully set, but rows of searchlights are illuminating the surrounding of your target in crude, yellowish light. The strategium itself is built of ferrocrete, all straight lines and hard angles, decorated with stenciled Aquillas, about three storey high, crowned by various antennas. Owning to its role, the building and the area around it are fortified, sporting stubbers emplacements behind sandbags, embrasures with heavy bolter and rocket launchers, and with the roof carrying additional heavy weapons like autocannons and lascannons.
In addition to that, its defenders, amounting to multiple platoons, seem better equipped and more experienced than the guards you've gone through previously like a mono-blade through unshielded flesh. They are all handling their well-maintained weapons with the quiet assurance of those who've seen combat and survived, their faces hidden behind identical masks, representing a local hero, saint or somesuch figure of import. And owning to your loud and brutal attack, the guards are on alert, but they haven't seen you yet.

"Not going to be an easy fight, even against Imperial weaklings." starts Frax.

"Maybe. And do keep in mind that even weaklings can kill those who've received the blessing of the Dark Gods, including Astartes." turning towards you, he asks: "You're seeing this, Procrus?"

"Yes. The Imperium is as foolish as it's ever been." Seeing that Frax doesn't, you explain, pointing toward the defenses in question "You see how the Imperials have set up? The obstacles and mines there would canalise rushing infantry towards killing fields covered by overlapping heavy weapons. And the anti-tank weapons, up there, are set up to blow up any armored vehicles that'd try to support the infantry, with the anti-tank obstacles preventing them to easily move around."

"A good design to defend against massed light infantry, even accompanied by armored vehicles." continues Zephus.

"But not against a small squad of elite infantry... By the Changer, how can they be so blind?" finishes Frax, realization dawning him.

"Exactly. The Imperials who devised this just considered what they knew as methods of attack, blinded by their biases and inane devotion to their corpse god, leaving the defense mostly inefficient against us." you conclude.

"Maybe that particular design is to allow the HQ to be able to defend itself against rebelling guards, who'd have at most infantry and a few vehicles. But not against stormtroopers or space marines, so that even if the whole regiment rebels, other Imperial forces can still crush them." speculates Zephus, turning from the window towards you "Or at least that's how Talion explained it to me when we were preparing to storm that bastion on Graphone V, which had similar weaknesses. You remember Talion, right? Block-headed moody bastard, couldn't stop mopping about 'muh visions'."

"Yes, quite alright for a son of Kurze, and good enough at shanking idiots in the dark. And as for that idea, it'd be paranoid and foolish enough of the Imperials to be possible." you finish with a smirk.

You spend the next few moments to hash out a plan of approach, taking advantage of the flaws you had observed.

"Once we start our attack, they will likely call in reinforcements from all available units, we'll have to keep moving so that we don't get overwhelmed. We won't have time to clear all the building before they get here, so we get in, blitz the command center, kill everyone there and get any available information, then leave."

Then, with a last beseeching to the Dark Gods, you spring into action. Taking advantage of the blind spots in the defence and bypassing obstacles with feats of agility beyond the reach of unaugmented mortals, you rush toward the defensive positions. With the guards unable to bring any of the heavier weapons to bear against you and their lasgun and stubbers inefficient against your power armors, you make it unscathed to the Imperial lines, where you grab the first guard you came upon, using him as a shield against the other guards before sending him bowling in a squad that was about to fire its weapons at you. As planned, instead of attempting to kill all the guards outside, once a path is open, you enter the structure, where you start making your way towards your target, killing any who stand in your way and painting the walls red with spilled blood.

Inside the resistance is much heavier, helped by the closed confines that stop you to from using the full extent of your speed, letting the guards organise the defense of the command center, bringing weapons that can bypass even power armors, which you realize when you're forced to dodge a burning ball of plasma fired from behind a barricade. Lacking any grenade or any similar weapon and pressed both by time and guards trying to attack on your flanks, you're forced to charge through a hail of murderous fire, with your armor weakening enough that a grenade blast sends shrapnels inside your flank, but your recent mutation prevents them from going too deep and a melta shot shearing away your left pauldron and narrowly missing the shoulder underneath, leaving the flesh singed and aching, but functional.
While Zephus looses his left arm below the elbow to another plasma shot, you make it to melee range and you move quickly, each blow sending broken bodies to the floor, until a commissar successfully deflect your blow, but his success is short-lived as a punch from your off-hand takes his head off his shoulders in geyser of gore. You continue your bloody dance across the defenders, their superior armements and experience not availing them much now that they're within arm's reach.

"You souls will burn in the flames of the true Gods, unbelievers!" you shout, while you break apart the last of the resistance and enter the command center with Zephus and Frax at your side. Inside, various officers, staff and cogitator operators are scrambling to mount a defense.

But before you can attack the last defenders, a space marine appear from the back of the room: another Subjugator, his armor cracked and pitted by recent conflict, revealing the grey ceramite under the green livery, with some of the most important damage crudely repaired by cement; in addition to the damage his armor has suffered, one of his hand is missing and the damage around that wrist seems to reveal it's been chewed on by some kind of savage beast. But despite the battering he's been through, his armor still sports visible battle honors indicating his status as a veteran and he's wearing around his neck a small bone relic on a chain, something you've seen many times on sons of Dorn.

Upon seeing your weapon and the helmet sticking out from your armor, the veteran powers up his power fist and pointing it at you, shouts "Face me, traitor, so that your transgressions may be washed away by your corrupted blood! For the Emperor!"

A) Answer the loyalist's challenge and fight him in single combat
B) Have Zephus and Frax join you against the loyalist once they've dealt with the guards

AN: argh, missed the deadline I tried to set for myself, started too late for that.
Hope there's not too much repetition, since it's the second chapter in a row where you assault fortification defended by guards.

 

[Kalarion]

I told you guys! Should have taken the grenades. Grumble grumble.

B. I don't know who the fuck this dog thinks he's facing. Maybe he thinks every CSM is a preening Lucius, eager to get into difficult fights without stacked odds? The more fool him.

 

[Andnjord]

Would have chosen A had we taken the "Get out of jail free" card from before, but as we didn't, I'll vote for B as well.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

A

 

[Azira]

We'll face him yes, but not in single combat. We have absolutely no reason to.

B

 

[Major_Blackhart]

B

 

[hello friend]

B

 

[Endemic]

B.

 

[baud]

well, the vote's nearly unanimous...

A
ERYFKRAD

B
Kalarion, Andnjord, The Brazilian Slaughter, Azira, Major_Blackhart, hello friend, Endemic, oscar

 

[oscar]

Ha! No.

B