- Joined
- Sep 25, 2012
- Messages
- 28,367
Someone had to take one for the team.
-
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I knew I could trust you to do it
"I accept. Let us see which of the Urizen or the Praetorian has the greatest son." you answer the loyalist, saluting him with your weapon, before cutting the speaker grill on your helmet and switching to the vox linking you to Frax and Zephus, saying "I've changed my mind. Clean up the drivel, then help me bury this naive fool."
"For Him on Terra! Die, wretch!" the loyalist shouts as he rushes you, intent on crushing you with his power weapon, which you sidestep, the strike pulverizing a chair standing in the way, splinters of wood and metal pinging off your armor.
As you ramp up to strike with your own weapon, you ask "About Terra, will you do like Dorn?"
The loyalist successfully deflects you on his forearm ending in a stump, damaging further his battered armor, causing flakes of ceramic to fly off, but that does nothing to prevent him from answering with a counter-attack which leaves a crater in the ferrocrete ground as you jump back. "You aren't even worth uttering his name, scum! And like all of his sons, I'll do my utmost to upheld our Father's legacy." snarls the loyalist, followed by a back-handed sweep that could have cracked open a rhino, to say nothing of your power armor, but you manage to dodge it.
"So you're going to break down and cry as you realize you've failed? Like he did when the emperor was reduced to a corpse?" You retort as you fire your bolt pistol, but the loyalist brings his power fist just in time, the projectiles exploding harmlessly on the power field. "Because. Chaos. Has. Already. Won. You just haven't accepted it yet.", you continues, punctuating each word with a shot.
As if on cue, both Frax and Zephus turn to attack the loyalist, fresh blood from the guards they've slaughtered still dripping from their weapons. Riled up by your insults and the brazen display of your trophies, the loyalist is focused on you, ignoring the two other chaos space marines and he misses an attack he should have expected, which strikes true: Zephus plunges on his combat knife deeply in the side of the marine, while Frax drags his chainsword along the other side, drawing a fresh spurt of blood.
Undaunted, the loyalist kicks back Frax and shoulders past Zephus violently enough that the chaos marine is thrown against a cogitator, which breaks down in a shower of sparks from the impact, before striking again with his power fist, shouting "Die, for the Emperor!", his voice distorted by fury and hate. This time you're too slow by a hair's breadth and the glancing blow is powerful enough to crack the ceramic of your breastplate, fracturing some of the ribs it protected, shards of bone penetrating your right lung and you're thrown back, falling on one knee. But the loyalist had been unbalanced by his strike and before he can follow up, Frax is already on him, chainsword tearing away the cables powering his weapon. Slowed down by the inert lump of metal his weapon has become, you successfully trip him with your mace and send him sprawling to the ground, where he is set upon by both Frax and Zephus.
You are about to join them when you have to dodge a volley of lasfire coming from guards arriving from the same entrance you used earlier, intent on preventing you from taking control of of the command center. But, despite their courage, they are still only mortals facing a space marine and you drive them off, leaving behind bodies broken by bolt and mace. When you turn back to the others, the last of the interlopers choking in one of your hands, the loyalist is dead, helmet split open and head reduced to a bloody mess by Frax's shotgun.
"One more slave of the corpse-god slain. For the true Gods!" exults Frax, weapons covered with quickly drying Astartes blood.
"Though we won't be able to offer his skull to Khorne. He likes those for His Throne in one piece." adds Zephus, pointing to the remnants of the loyalist's face.
"His blood, infused with a minute portion of the emperor's abominable nature through his accursed primarch, is already a worthy offering to the Gods." despite your damaged lung adding a constant wheeze to your speech, you can't resist some pontification. "This success is a sign they are still with us, watching us enact Their Divine Will on the Materium." you finish, dropping the guard from you grip, the dead body flopping on the ground in a pool of offal.
With the latest opponent dead, you take stock of the situation: the command center is under your control and despite the slowly spreading pools of blood and many impacts of bolt, shot, lasfire and bullet, the various cogitators and vox-casters of the command center still seem to be in working order.
"Looks like the Imperials won't stop trying to take back that room." says Zephus, indicating the latest guards you've killed "But we should have a few minutes before they make any serious attempt."
"Yes, we have the time to go through the cogitators." As expected, the cogitators contain information on the strategic situation, including in orbit and on the status and localization of the various guard detachments in the base, but it will take a few minutes to retrieve anything usable. "After all, that's why we are here, disrupting the local command structure was just a bonus. And there's the vox-casters too, seems we'll be able to communicate with all local forces, including the mortar battery that fired on us earlier."
"That one was apparently set to communicate exclusively with the space marines." Frax says, as he rip off one of the purity seals that vox-caster sports, crushing into crimson dust.
"Though it seems the cogitators don't have any information on their number or situation." you continue. "As usual, paranoia and mistrust, true cornerstones of the Imperium."
"The veteran we killed would have been there to help communicating, alleviating the need to directly share information." Zephus remarks, as he cleans up the blood on one of his knives, before sheathing it, though it's clear he's hampered by his missing forearm.
"No matter. The fool is dead now and we have to leave before his brothers come to avenge him. Frax, prevent any interloper from entering. Zephus, get us that orbital information." you order, leaving Frax to keep watch as he had never showed much talent to either orbital or ground tactics.
"Do you want me to look for anything, while we're here?" asks Zephus, turning from the closest cogitator. As you think of any intel you might want, you realize you'd also have the time to make a few calls on the vox, maybe to preach about the true Gods to the unbelievers, or maybe to sow confusion, send false orders... in order to make the next steps in your escape easier.
What information do you want Zephus to look for? And what do you to whom on the vox-caster, keeping in mind you don't have unlimited time?
AN: Originaly, I was planning to leave the choice on who should do what (ie defending/working on the cogitator/using the vox) to you, but realize that Procrus would already have an idea on which should be the best on each, though I have changed my mind on that a few times.
If you need information, you can ask directly, including on what you can learn from the cogitators.
Unguarded sections of the stratosphere to find a useful escape routes, any lock codes for the vehicles etc basically making our exit as smooth as possible
Reposition soldiers to abandon the hanger and surrounding areas to immediately repair, fortify and hold position (no matter what!) in the far north against an imminent land assault (hopefully denuding any AA installations too).
Reposition soldiers to abandon the hanger and surrounding areas to immediately repair, fortify and hold position (no matter what!) in the far north against an imminent land assault (hopefully denuding any AA installations too).
hello friend
Arcane
Could broadcast to all signal troops or equivalent that communications is compromised, blame it on a virus or whatever - stay off the vox and disregard all future orders and mistrust all intel that is not delivered in person. If we can disrupt comms hard enough and make troops actively resist attempts to reestablish them all opposition we meet will be more disorganised.
Endemic
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2012
- Messages
- 4,327
Zephus: same
Vox Caster: have guard regiments turn on one another through confusion and distractions.
Vox Caster: have guard regiments turn on one another through confusion and distractions.
Andnjord
Arcane
I like this. I'm almost certain this is a terrible idea, but I like it. You know what would actually be better? Record our sermon and spam it on repeat, all channels, maximum volume. Some units might have better emitters or secure channels, but most will have their vox completly jammed. Old school jamming baby! And it might make a few of the leaast secure guards turn on their brethren, although I doubt it.
Following Oscar as well for Zephus.
The place where's the space marine Stormraven is or the airfield with more basic aircraft? (I'm guessing the former?)
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hello friend
Arcane
The problem is the moment we leave the door is open for someone to come in and restore comms. That sermon probably won't be playing for very long. Still, maybe it's long enough.
Andnjord
Arcane
During that time everyone who's receiving our sermon has to turn off their own in-ear vox (the Ciaphas Cain novels has the Imperial Guard systematically equipped with them), base loudspeakers would have to be disconected if not outright destroyed by frustrated soldiers. It would put everyone on edge and frustrated and make them more likely to commit mistakes as well as making coordination a lot more difficult for an army that's used to and relies upon that form of communication. At least I hope :D
We need to figure out what we can play on the Voxcaster that will give us the best chance of getting out of this situation. I'm inclined to think hello friend's suggestion,
would be good because after we broadcasted this couldn't we destroy the Voxcaster terminal so no one else could broadcast anything to cancel out this order? If we play a sermon on full blast, it would do a great job of sewing discord and psychologically damaging the enemy, but as soon as someone ran into the room they'd turn it off and have full control of the Voxcaster again.
Andnjord
Arcane
Could we plant some explosives on the Voxcaster timed to go off a little after we leave the room? Or maybe even just shoot some bolts into it before leaving?
yes, you'll definitely blow up the vox casters (and other equipment in the command center) when leaving, to make harder for Imperials to coordinate.
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So for the tally:
Everyone went with Oscar's suggestion for Zephus.
For the vox-caster:
Reposition soldiers to abandon the hanger and surrounding areas to immediately repair, fortify and hold position (no matter what!) in the far north against an imminent land assault (hopefully denuding any AA installations too).
Oscar,
Could broadcast to all signal troops or equivalent that communications is compromised, blame it on a virus or whatever - stay off the vox and disregard all future orders and mistrust all intel that is not delivered in person. If we can disrupt comms hard enough and make troops actively resist attempts to reestablish them all opposition we meet will be more disorganised.
Hello Friend, Endemic, ItsChon
Men. We've been disciplined long enough. It's time for every single knock-kneed fool on this base to know the glory of the True Gods! PREACH!
Kalarion, Andnjord
Vox Caster: have guard regiments turn on one another through confusion and distractions.
Major_Blackhart
I'll go with the bolded option (unless the winning vote change before tomorrow)
Everyone went with Oscar's suggestion for Zephus.
For the vox-caster:
Reposition soldiers to abandon the hanger and surrounding areas to immediately repair, fortify and hold position (no matter what!) in the far north against an imminent land assault (hopefully denuding any AA installations too).
Oscar,
Could broadcast to all signal troops or equivalent that communications is compromised, blame it on a virus or whatever - stay off the vox and disregard all future orders and mistrust all intel that is not delivered in person. If we can disrupt comms hard enough and make troops actively resist attempts to reestablish them all opposition we meet will be more disorganised.
Hello Friend, Endemic, ItsChon
Men. We've been disciplined long enough. It's time for every single knock-kneed fool on this base to know the glory of the True Gods! PREACH!
Kalarion, Andnjord
Vox Caster: have guard regiments turn on one another through confusion and distractions.
Major_Blackhart
I'll go with the bolded option (unless the winning vote change before tomorrow)
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2012
- Messages
- 28,367
Guess I'm breaking the short lived tie.
After taking just a moment to decide on how to use your limited time, you first asks Zephus:
"Do they have a tactical network in place?"
"Yes, company level commanders or equivalent should have access." he answers after a cursory check.
"Hum. I'll have to start with that, Changer willing." you say, before ordering "In addition to the information on the ships, see if you can find anything that'd actually help us get to the flyer and then to orbit, like the areas not covered by the Imperial defenses, IFF codes and maybe codes for the vehicle."
As Zephus turns to the cogitators, inputting commands as quickly as his missing hand allows, you check on Frax to see that he has build a barricade of mangled corpses, topped by the dead loyalist, the body of the space marine positioned so that it'd be clearly visible to any assailants and is now crouched behind it, his shotgun complemented by a heavy stubber taken from somewhere, ready to fire on any imperials that'd try to dislodge your group from the command center.
You punch runes on the biggest vox unit available, dredging back half-forgotten activation rites implanted into your mind during your indoctrination as a space marine. Then you modulate your voice, trying to get it closer to one from an unaugmented officer and not from a transhuman physiology blessed by the Dark Gods, before saying
"High priority communication. Noospheric tactical network is under attack by hostile scrap code from Dark Mechanicus spacecraft in orbit. Its integrity have been compromised. Discard all data received since the last two hours and disconnect your terminals from the noosphere, until they have been reconsecrated by annointed Mechanicus members."
The power of your vox unit and command priority codes drown out all comm. traffic in range. And once you stop, a tumult of voices answers, cutting each other, questioning and asking for clarification.
"Repeat your last, I'm not sure..." "What?" "Acknowledged." "Here captain Tolandus..." "Cadia's blood, explain..." "But..." "Where's the..." "We're not..." "Requesting reinforcements..."
You let the brouhaha unfold for a few moments while admiring the craftmanship of the bone relic taken from the fallen loyalist, fine scrimshaw depicting ancient heroics of past Subjugators, engraved on a piece of phalanx, whose size indicates it came from a space marine, likely a brother-in-arm of the one Frax and Zephus have slain. Then, after a deep (but still wheezing) breath, you continue, the next words making you gag a little, but you push past the disgust: "In the name of Emperor! I am not finished. Attached enginseer personnel is warning me that vox communications are about to get similarly compromised. Henceforth, silence all vox casters and ignore any communications."
Boosting the gain on the vox caster to cut off anyone else from talking you continue "I repeat, vox communication will soon be compromised, shut down all vox-casters and disregard any further communication coming from them. Do not attempt to receive or transmit by vox. Command out."
Then you punch another rune on the vox, emitting a continuous white noise drowning any communication from the Imperials.
Gunfire makes you turn around toward Frax, but you see he has the situation well in hand, filling the corridor with hails of bullets and imprecations to the Dark Gods, driving back another group of guards, who leave behind more bodies in the corridor, dead or agonizing.
On one of the cogitator Zephus is using, you can see a list of ships is slowly appearing, with information from the strategic network, like coordinates, heading, allegiance and basic information like size, known armement and damage. Another screen is showing information on ground to air and ground to space defenses around the Makrimalli and a cursory look is enough to determine getting into orbit would be easy.
"It seems the Imperials didn't expect the command center to fall, or at least that quickly and everything is open to us." Zephus states, before grabbing a map printed from another cogitator, showing the base and annotated with troops position and other data. "We're here, the space marine craft is on that landing platform there and we can follow that road, then..." pointing at the map, Zephus explains possible itineraries that'd allow your group to reach the flyer while avoiding further confrontation on the way.
"But we'll have first to fight our way out of the command center." you say, once Zephus has finished.
"Yes, but that should be easy enough, with the guards here leaderless and isolated. Though the platform is defended." says Zephus, indicating a handful of skull and cog icons on the map.
"Mechanicus forces?"
"Only servitors, it seems, most likely of combat type. There's a note indicating the Astartes have received control codes allowing them, and only them, to command the servitors."
"So if we had those codes, the flyer would be defenseless. But we didn't find anything of the sort on the idiot we killed here and if one of the bike riders had them, they're now beyond our reach. And even if other space marines have those codes, we don't know where they would be." you say, wondering where Zephus is going with this.
"Well, I might have an idea where we could find the remaining Subjugators." Zephus explain, pointing on the map a building adorned with the symbol of an eye set in the middle of a column, located not too far from either the command center where you're standing and the landing platform. "This is marked as a high value target, but it doesn't have any units directly defending it, the Imperial forces present are only forming a perimeter."
"You'd mean those damnable marines would be there?"
"Yes, that would be my guess."
"Dubious, could also be any other imperial force that's not under direct control of the Guard."
"Possibly, but with martial law in effect, there's not many forces that wouldn't be. Anyway in one case that'd be a few more space marines to kill and a easier time to escape afterward. And in the other, if the space marines aren't there, destroying what the emperor's lapdogs are trying to defend, maybe getting some spoils, could mitigate our failures so far in that campaign."
As Zephus finishes his explanation, the other cogitator pings, indicating that it has retrieved the full list of ships. You quickly scan it, seeing it's a mix of Chaos and Imperials warships, with a few civilian ships trying to escape attention from either side. You commit the relevant information to your memory, before ordering to move out. You take the time before stepping outside the room to destroy the vox-casters and cogitators, the explosive ammunition of your bolt pistols smashing apart the delicate apparatuses, ensuring that even after the guards take back the command center, they won't be able to make any use of it. The number of bodies littering the corridor has grown again, so much that the ferrocrete ground isn't visible beneath the bodies, blood and viscera, while the walls and ceiling are streaked with splashes of vital fluids.
"They were just like gnats before me, not even a worthy sacrifice!" clamors Frax, the carnage around him filling him with blood lust.
"Even such worthless souls can still be offered to our divine patrons and sufficient numbers will be seen propitiously." you counter, before leading the way towards the outside.
The guards that try to block your way inside, disorganized and demoralized, are easily brushed aside, but the guards outside had regrouped and would have ambushed you, had you not spotted them beforehand and used the heavy weapon emplacements inside the command center to decimate them, dispersing the survivors. With that done, you safely exit the building and can now make your way to your next objective, which is
A The supposed location of space marines, to potentially kill them and take the codes controlling the defenses of the landing platform; at the very least strike one last high value target before leaving.
B The landing platform, to steal the space marine flyer and fly off.
C The airfield, where it should be easier to take a flyer, the intelligence you've recovered in the command center ensuring you're not flying blind.
AN: I hesitated to finish at this chapter, but I found going directly from the command center to the conclusion a bit too abrupt, so I added another choice here (and makes for a shorter chapter, this one took nearly one month already...)
B - Probably too risky to hit the supposed location of the Space Marines, and I assume the Space Marine flyer that is being guarded would be better suitied to getting us off this rock versus what we can find in the airfield?
yes. The space marine flyer is a stormraven, which is more or less a flying, well-armored IFV, whereas the best you'd get from the airfield would be a valkyrie
hello friend
Arcane
B - Anything else would be mission creep and we're on the clock
Andnjord
Arcane
Which one would make for the most SWAG ride?
The virgin metal bawkse?
VS
The Chad death from the sky gunship?
I'm voting for B, where do you stand Oh Codex?
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