I'm not going to post the army lists in an attempt to enhance the psychological aspect of this report. If you read my recent posts you'll have a good idea what I play.
The commander stood with his retinue beside the massive hulk of the ancient Shadowsword. He slowly scrolled down through the combat log embedded in his vid. An unknown enemy had been detected in the immediate vicinity following a recent orbital bombardment. Huge smoking craters pocked the hard ground juxtapositioned throughout the toppling ruins. A full company of fresh conscripts lead by the old war priest were close by scrounging through the burning rubble and debris. More tanks rumbled onto the battlegrounds, thick clouds of sooty smoke poured out from their stacks. A large platoon was up front combing through another nearby ruin looking to find a good point to setup the heavy weapon teams. The veterans' chimeras rolled ahead making their way carefully through the broken ground.
"Can you sense anything?" the commander voxed to a sanctioned psyker inside one of the lumbering transports.
"The warp has been disturbed." replied the psyker in a broken voice. "Whatever it is you can bet it's been touched." The vox then went silent.
"Alpha team has spotted something across the valley." came the voice of a sergeant chirping through the vox.
"Acquire immediate target lock and commence ordnance rounds." the commander ordered the Shadowsword tank crew. The ancient behemoth turned in place tearing huge strips of earth from the ground. The Basilisk pivoted behind the super heavy tank as the spotter ranged the Earth Shaker.
"Whatever it was its disappeared now." came the startled voice of the sergeant.
Suddenly the air grew cold and hoarfrost began to coat the ground. There was the distinct sound of heavy weaponry cycling then one of the chimeras exploded as the surprised veterans stumbled out from the burning wreck immediately followed up by the sudden pressure of an intense shock wave blasted out from a confined area behind a ruin engulfing the conscripts closest to it. They instantly disintegrated, their ash spilling to the frozen ground.
"We are under attack!" shouted the sergeant as the conscripts jostled forwarded urged on by the war priest. A small area of open ground was surrounded by the bodies of the young guardsmen but could not be penetrated and the commander watched in silence as those closest to the shimmering patch were smashed apart and cut in twain. The conscripts refused to break though wildly stabbing into the barren emptiness with their sharp bayonets.
"Do something!" ordered the commander to the sanctioned psyker. "Do it now!"
Focusing his mind the wizened adept reached into the madness of the warp silently mouthing the words to a trained spell. Fresh blood poured from both nostrils and his brain felt like it was on fire. There was the briefest moment of calm as the spell was cast harnessing a small portion of the etheric energy. The conscripts seemed to catch fire as tongues of burning warp flame engulfed them then the psyker's head exploded like a ripe melon inside the transport.
Shouting words of encouragement the war priest urged them back into the fight. Still there was nothing to see but the unseen attacks were now blunted by the blanketing warp. Here and there a conscript was torn apart but the attack had lost its intensity for the time being. They scrambled atop of each other as they speared their bayonets into the void over and over again.
"We have sighted a skimmer making its way towards the forward most objective." came the voice of the sergeant over the vox.
"Can you identify its markings?" asked the Imperial commander.
"Negative." replied the sergeant. "The aircraft is shrouded and moving too quickly to identify. It's small though, I can tell you that for now."
"Realign the the target locks and commence ordnance!" came the command.
The Basilisk fired the Earth Shaker cannon in immediate response followed by the Shadowsword. The ground shook hard as the ordnance found its mark exploding across the narrow valley.
"Target breached!" shouted the sergeant.
"Anything left alive?" asked the commander.
"We have detected transhuman life forms but they've holed up in yonder building."
"Platoon Bravo move out and identify!" the commander ordered.
The commander's attention was brought back to the immediate struggle of his young conscripts. The warp flame concealing them sputtered out only to be quickly followed by more carnage from the unseen enemy force they embraced in a death lock. Shouting more battle hymns the war priest sprang into the heart of the fight where the blows were thickest. Another sudden shock wave poured out from the untouchable area consuming all around it as the telekinetic attack instantly pulverized more guardsmen. The conscripts were slowly being rendered to death one by one and the speed of the assault reached a blinding crescendo. The commander spotted a large boot prints covering the immediate ground as the unseen tore through the last few surviving conscripts.
"It's right beside us now!" quivered the segeant's scared voice as the commander watched the war priest drawn and quartered by invisible hands tearing him apart limb from limb. The priest cried out in intense pain then went silent as the shredded remains of savaged body were hurled apart. "It lives amongst." were the last words of the old priest.
"Form up a rank!" barked the commander to his retinue and a close by squad of veterans. "Fire!" Plasma and melta followed by lasgun fire erupted over the short barricade. He watched as the huge boot prints smashed down upon the piles of dead pressing hard. Whatever it was it moved directly towards them at a quick pace.
"Incoming aircraft!" shouted the sergeant. The commander looked up into the dark sky to see a pitch black gunship pummeling down towards the platoon. Shoving his medic aside the commander manned their lone quadgun drawing a quick bead on the enemy flier. It too had no markings to identify its origin. Barking loudly over the immediate battle din the quad barrels fired into the craft, one round finding its mark. Dark flumes of blackened oily smoke poured out from the rent then the flyer opened fire strafing the platoon. Two rocket missiles belched snaking along the ground towards an outflanking devildog. The rockets found their mark exploding the vehicle.
Large transhumans covered in silvered power armor from head to toe dropped down from the flier firing their weapons at the hip into the remainder of the platoon rapidly dispersing the last of them. They all wore bright red helmets. Quickly they moved into the compound housing the objective.
One last time the Shadowsword fired lobbing more ordnance down upon the visible enemy. There was a bright blast vaporizing some of the armored enemy but not all. At the same moment the unseen menace overran the commander and his retinue. Their death was quick and never did they see whom it was that attacked them.
The traitors have been terminated with extreme prejudice. The few survivors will be interrogated then summarily executed for their sins against the Emperor.
No comments:
Post a Comment