Kill Team Challenge Story Thread (Open for public discussion)

[Dooks Dizzo]

Alright guys, I am just going ahead and making a second thread to fit out narrative story entries into.

Once all the stories are posted up, should be 11 of them, then this thread can be used for people to discuss the actual stories going on. I'll use the other thread to post challenge results and for people to ask questions and make requests.





The Planet Mejyt

The history of Mejyt is long and terrible. It was first brought into the Imperial fold during the great crusade when the Space Wolves Legion of the Adeptus Astartes liberated its human population from an age long war with the Eldar Exodites who thought to make it their own.

During the Horus Heresy Mejyt was torn apart by civil war as Chaos Cultists, lead by a small contingent of Word Bearer Marines revolted agianst the planetary govenor. The loyalists eventually won out, but at the cost of millions of lives and dozens of burning cities.

After the war the stoic people of the planet began to rebuild. Efforts were slowed dramatically by the systematic raiding of Eldar pirates. The raids grew so intense and in such high numbers that the powers that a cry went up for help.

Suprisingly that cry was answered not by the Imperial Guard nor the Adeptus Astartes but by the Adeptus Mechanicus. The Ad-mech offered their military support in exchange for an alliance with the people of the planet and space to set up factories and laboratories.

For a millenia Mejyt knew a time of peace and prosperity, a golden age. This time was to be the calm be for the storm that would engulf the planet in war and terror on a planetary scale.

A massive Ork Waaagh! would leave Mejyts people walking over the ashes of ruin and despair. Before the survivors could begin to pick of the pieces a secret Chaos cult summoned a mighty daemon who's presence acted like a beacon for the foul forces of the dark powers.

The Black Templars Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes declared a Crusade to cleanse the planet of the Chaos infestation. Assisted by an Inquisitorial strike team of Grey Knights they defeated the cultists and banished the daemon back to the warp. Taking back to the stars the Champions of the Imperium left a broken planet who's people lacked the means to rebuild on the ashes of victory.

The people of Mejyt never saw the Eldar Craftworld that destroyed the Tyranid splinter fleet above their planet. All they saw were thousand upon thousands of tiny streaks of light entering their atmosphere.

The bio fleet was destroyed but tens of thousands of mysetic spores scattered over the planets surface. Though they had little or no organization with the death of their Hive Ship the warrior organisms of the Tyranids remained a deadly foe who would plague the planet for countless generations.

Often the people of Mejyt would find themselves fighting off murderous Tyranids only to be attacked in turn by a resurgance Orks who could never fully be erradicated.

The battle weary survivors of the planet found themselves moving deeper and deeper into the ruins of their once great cities. Looking for safety in the deepest levels of their Hives. In recent years, those who delved deepest have not returned.

Something dark and terrible is stirring in the depths of the planet. What it is, no one can guess but that it bodes ill for the diminishing population of the ravaged planet goes without saying.



The Cult of Ink
TS Ahriman's Kill Team

"Kill my hated foe..." the words penetrated Raxas's mind, sliding down into his conciousness. When The Ink spoke it was not with audible words. It was more like a liquid feeling that oozed through his brain.

The feeling wasn't unpleasant, unless The Ink wished it to be. Then it became liquid fire, burning itself into Raxas' brain, guaranteeing absolute understanding, absolute obidience.

"Kill my hated foe, slaughter his followers, bath in their blood and let it turn black against your blessed skin."

"Take this, it is my very essence given form in your universe," The Ink extended a hand that was like black smoke. From it poured a substance so dark, to call it black would be akin to calling the fury at a stars heart mild.

It poured into the waiting reseptacle in Raxas' hand, the cloven skull of a dark saint who had slaughtered the populace of an entire planet in sacrifice to The Ink. He had proven his final dedication by sacrificing himself last of all. His reward had been to have his soul merged with that of a favored daemon of The Ink.

"Pour this my essence into the mouth of any fallen Marine and he will be possessed of one of my daemons. He need not be willing..."

Raxas turned and walked away. He would gather his men, there was work to be done.



The Kabal of the Shattered Skull
Moofreaky's Kill Team

Straal stepped forth from the webway gate and surveyed his surroundings. They had arrived in the center of what used to be a massive city square. Layers of dust clothed everything, broken massonry, dilapidated statures...piles of bones.

On silent feet the rest of his team came forward, eager to begin the search, eager to begin the killing.

Their initial payment in slaves had been just enough to slake their bloodlust, for the time being. But if they succeeded in their task the rewards would be almost endless.

All they had to do was find an ancient webway gate that might not even exist. If it was here though, Straal would find it and in doing so unlock a path that had been closed for long millenia. A path that lead right to the heart of countless Imperial Worlds, ripe for the Great Reaving.

Straal and his band weren't the only of his kin looking for this path. Dozens of other teams like his own were even now searching the planet for this mythical webway gate.

To the victor goes the spoils he thought with a nasty grin.



Ferral Ork Mob
Brian Generals Kill Team

With one swipe of his mighty power klaw Gutz knocked aside a jungle conifer that had been annoying him for the past three seconds.

"Listen up you's thick 'eaded grot slobbers!"

The other Orks stopped kicking and punching eachother almost long enough to hear what the massive Nob was saying.

Swipe. Splash.

The Boy formerly known as Blikgut fell one way while his head fell the other. The rest of the Boyz quieted down.

"I'z got the orderz from da boss and when da boss ain't here I'z da Boss you got that?" They got it. "Da boss finks he be knowin' about where da last Warboss what landed here on a rock got hiself a case of da deds.

"Da boss wantz 'is skull so's he can stick it on 'is banner and show the other clanz who's the real boss is.

"Now we'z a gonna' go an getz this skull and then we'z gonna kick da' crap outta da other Ork clanz and get us a real good bashin goin' on all over da's planet."

The other Orks weren't as big or as smart as Gutz, but they knew that bashin was good. And that's all the needed to know.




Hive Fleet Jormungand
Rastani's Kill Team

Across the endless light years the will of the Hive Mind sent it's message. Through the depthless black of space, the imperitive came to the planet Mejyt.

That imperitive was simple: Kill.

Kill everything. Kill all prey creatures, kill other Tyranids and absorb their genetic matter and become stronger. Kill and keep killing until only the strongest minions of the Hive survive.

The Hive Mind is coming, make ready the planet for it's doom.




Tactica Telion
Gorb's Kill Team

Tactica Telion, hunter team assigned to recovering a Necron artefacts located beneath the surface of a string of planets. This is the second to last in the trail, and has a 97.7% chance of success in locating and recovering the ancient devices. The team expects minimal opposition, however recent data-streams from Pylons suggest an unpredicted amount of infantry movement in the past few cycles. Extreme caution is advised for maximum success percentage.

In the course of the hunt, Tactica Telion is instructed to awaken any and all dormant Necrontyr on the planet to aid and assist the mission.

Daemon Hunters, LeFrosts Retinue
Sword Monkey's Kill Team

Lord LeFrost investigation team have come across the legends and myths surrounding the planet now known as Mejyt, independent of the Astartes and Guard detachments on the planet they are leading their own forays into the rumours of corruption, mutation, heresy and xenos on the planet. Their main aims are the rooting out of any daemonic corruption on the planet, as a result the team consists of three Grey Knights led by Justicar Severus Dawn, a singular combatant, two of the Inquisitors personal apprentice investigators and two Catachan veterans whose knowledge of tracking and stealth are invaluable to the unit. What they will find, how the situation will escalate, is, however, unknown to them.

Lord LeFrost himself led an initial investigatory mission down to the planet. Constact was lost with him shortly after his arrival on the planet.

His retinue and attending Grey Knight have come down to the planet to find or avenge him as needed.

Iron Hand Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes
Worsle's Kill Team

Veteran Sergeant Blantar stared long and hard at the planet below him. Down there, somewhere, was his destiny.

Whether that destiny was honor and glory or ignoble death at the hands of hated foes only the Emperor knew.

* * *

Their Drop Pod came screaming out of the sky, retro rockets at full thrust. The power of the rockets blasted through the upper layers of the spire that they hit. The weight of the pod carried them through the first several floors of the building.

The echo's of their landing hadn't yet faded before Blantas kill team was in motion. The spread out and set up fields of fire without needing to be ordered.

Once the area was secured Blantas sent Initiate Nelish forward to begin gathering an idea of where in the Emperors name they were.

While they waited, the Veteran Sergeant considered the magnitude of their charge. Find an ancient Ad-mech lab, break the stasis lock that had held it for these long millenia and bring back the prize.

A partial STC.



Radical Inquisitor Helgrund's IG Kill Team

This strike force has been sent down by Radical Inquistor Helgrund. Upon noticing that many other races were sending down intial stike teams to the surface he sent down everyone who he could muster while he himself conducted further experiments on his orbiting cruiser shielded by his arcane sorceries. Those crypts and tombs could easily contain some artifact that could be used for the greater good of the Imperium and he particularly wanted to get his hands on an Eldar farseer, and see whether he could bind a greater daemon into its psychically tuned husk...

The team mainly who Helgrund had got transferred from a detachment of Cadian Shock troops stationed nearby. Their regimental commander was in no mood to argue with this huge hulk of an Inquisitor, and he supplemented the 6 elite troopers he was asked for, with an additional 10 guardsmen who were at the time awaiting transfer to penal legions to try and prevent the Inquisitor from disrupting his life on the quiet back water world he had been based in. Helgrund however may have different ideas.

One of the Veterans, named Laski, who was transferred showed a keen interest in the experiments Helgrund was conducting, and he was taken in as an apprentice of sorts, and was often the recipient of many "improvements" and aided Helgrund in his experiments on 3 of the guardsmen, leading to their eventual death, however the others were none the wiser about this. Laski was also given a sword which contained a bound nurgling (Helgrund could not accept the risk of a higher daemon) which enabled it to bypass all armour. It also served as a reminder to the troops under his command that he was the favored one of Helgrund and his word was law.


Sisters of the Gun Metal Rose

Maxima looked out through blood soaked eyes...

The gash on her forehead wasn't life threatening, but it was rather annoying. She wiped the blood out of her eyes yet again and took stock of the situation.

Only three Repentia, the Priest and two Flaggelants survived the crash. Emperor knows how many more of here Sisters had gotten off the ship alive.

They could be scattered across as much as a thousand kilometers from where she stood. Bless the Emperors name that so many of their troops had been in their drop ships before the fighting even started. Otherwise...

With no other directive, Maxima gathered her charges and began the long search for survivors.

The Eldar of Craft World Il-Kaithe
Motherland's Kill Team

Lasheir watched as the Wave Serpent screamed back off into the atmosphere. The engines turned white hot as the pilot applied full power, tearing his craft out of the planets grasp. He watched the transport until it was no more than a speck in the sky.

His team stood behind him in silence. Only Cerogerath knew the thoughts that worked their way through Lashiers' troubled mind. The Harlequin could feel his rage and feel the iron will that held it in check.

The Warlock closed his eyes and recalled the details of his last minute briefing.

Farseer Uraseer had absolutly no expression on his face, his eyes told another tale all together.

"Lashier, do not speak. Listen and listen well my pupil. Your mission has become more vital than we had thought at first. And agent of the Great Enemy is looking to open an old wound...and make it mortal.

"Long ago a sorcerer dedicated to She Who Thirsts murdered a great many of our warriors, and stole their Spirit Stones. He planned to sacrfice them to his god in an effort to bring forth a daemonic being of terrifying power.

"He was stopped by a Troupe of Harlequins in the final stages of the ritual. The resistance was fierce and only one of the Troupe came out of the assault alive. His name is Cerogerath
and though he survived he was badly wounded. The energies released by the failed ritual caused quite an explosion.

"We had thought the Spirit Stones destroyed along with everything else. Alas, they were not. The souls of our kin remian on the planet Lashier. They were scattered through out the planet and our enemy has been seeking them out.

"He intends to complete the ritual this time. We cannot allow this. You must go to the planet, recover as many of the Spirit Stones as you can and kill our enemy.

"Cerogerath will join you, he seeks to avenge his Troup and help our people.

"Kill our enemy Lashier, save our people."

Walock Lashier tightened his grip on his Witchblade, took a deep breath and set forward. He would brief the rest of his team as they went. For now they made their way across a barren wasteland, the ruins of a city just barely visible on the horizon.



Stealth Team Shas’vre Fal’shia M’yen Kauyon
Aun Shi189's Kill Team

Anghoran's massive form crashed through the undergrowth of the dense jungle foliage, knocking aside samll tree's as though they were childrens toys. From atop his mounts tall back Prook Kard scanned the jungle around them over the sights of his weapon.

No enemy could miss the two as they made their way through the tropical forrest. But they would almost assuredly miss Shas’vre Fal’shia M’yen Kauyon and his team of silent hunters. Even knowing where to look for them Prook had trouble locating the Stealth Team that shadowed his movements.

Prook didn't know why they had come to this place, and little did he care. The promise of fighting and a feast upon his fallen foes was all he needed. Let Kauyon worry about the details, the brave Kroot warrior needed nothing so grand as a higher purpose as an excuse to slay his foes.

Shas’ui Kauyon slipped along silently, letting his suits sensors scan the area around them for signs of danger. They needed to move quickly, get out of this jungle and closer to their objective, but haste was no call for sloppiness.

Even now, other kill teams were moving about the planet all intent upon the same goal. Find their missing Etheral or failing that, determine his fate.

[Worsle]

Iron Hands Kill Team:

Line Up

Having received his orders directly from the venerable Bannus, veteran sergeant Blantar was determined to live up to the glory of his name sake. With the honour of the clan Kaargul at stake there was no room for error, each member had been hand picked for the mission and the importance of there actions impressed imprinted into them by the furious words of the clans iron fathers. Failures of the flesh would not be permitted.

Veteran Sergeant Blantar – Bolt pistol, powerfist and bionics.
Have long severed the clan Kaargul Bannus had slowly replaced his week body parts with the strength of steal. Both his right arm and leg had been completely replaced and much of his left arm had been removed too though it is hard to find a part of him that has not been mechanically altered in some way. He is driven to purge what he sees as his own weakness to live up to glory his name carries.

K.I.A

Veteran Battle Brother Haines – Missile launcher, tank hunter
While his bionics are no where near as extensive as Blantar his eyes have been replaced allowing him much greater accuracy in his shots. Haines is second in command and will take over in the unlikely event Blantar is laid low.

Battle Brother Vaughan – Plasma gun, frags, krak
The unreliable plasma technology has cost Vaughan most of his arms and required significant replacements in his bionics arms on more than one occasion its battle field worth is undeniable and he has come to see it all most as a blessing purging his own weakness.

Battle Brother Kercher – Flamer, frags, krak
Having long served under sergeant Blantar, Kercher has become known as being rather rash in his decisions and being a little too eager to test his own skills in battle. He is however still high skilled and his risks have paid off many a time.
So far he has gone down for two out of the two fights. How will it go next time?

Assault Marines Gorman and Kilgour – frag and melta bombs
Gorman and Kilgour where added to the team to provide added mobility and reach. Both where chosen because of the long standing service to the clan while Gorman has surprisingly few bionics Kilgour had replaced his in an never ending urge to drive out weakness.

Scout Initiate Nelish – Sniper rifle
Inexperienced in comparison to the rest of the team but if successful this will be his last mission before he can rise to the ranks of a full blown battle brother.

K.I.A

Scout Initiate Kraven - CCW & Bolt Pistol
New member from the Silver Skulls Chapter, saved by the kill team in round 2. His armour is mostly camouflaged (rather than the silver of the chapter’s colours) with black shoulder pads and a silver chapter’s badge. The silver skulls are head-hunters and he has one human head as a trophy, apparently a leader of a group of cultists (whose radical belief in the emperor had lead them to believe than in killing a space marine they could bring them Emperor's judgement on the planet) he team ran into at the very start of their mission.

M.AM.2.53, M.AM.2.11 and M.AM.4.07 - 2 heavy bolters and 1 multimelta
Three servitors gifted to the kill tam by tech adept Quince.

Intro by Dooks

Iron Hand Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes
Worsle's Kill Team

Veteran Sergeant Blantar stared long and hard at the planet below him. Down there, somewhere, was his destiny.

Whether that destiny was honor and glory or ignoble death at the hands of hated foes only the Emperor knew.

* * *

Their Drop Pod came screaming out of the sky, retro rockets at full thrust. The power of the rockets blasted through the upper layers of the spire that they hit. The weight of the pod carried them through the first several floors of the building.

The echoes of their landing hadn't yet faded before Blantar kill team was in motion. The spread out and set up fields of fire without needing to be ordered.

Once the area was secured Blantar sent Initiate Nelish forward to begin gathering an idea of where in the Emperors name they were.

While they waited, the Veteran Sergeant considered the magnitude of their charge. Find an ancient Ad-mech lab, break the stasis lock that had held it for these long millenia and bring back the prize.

A partial STC.

***

Prolog

As they waited for report back from Nelish the rest of the team made ready for what as set to be a long and dangerous mission. Even a quick scan of the planets history had shown a long and bloody history this was no place to let your guard down even for a second.

After several hours of waiting Blantar's vox crackled to life, Nelish had found an Ateptus Mechanicus signal but that was not all there had been signs of resent fighting in the area. Blantar ordered his team to move out, he took point while Vaughan would be the rearguard. Nelish would stay scouting ahead hopefully giving them the drop on what ever was out there.

***

Round 1

Blantar's vox final came to life again after several hours of silent marching, Nelish had found some of the survivors from what ever fighting had been going on here. A small group of Tau hold up in a wear house, nine of them, one was in some kind of strange battle suit too. The Tau had always annoyed Blantar, though the same could be said for most other things, their constant prattle had led him in more than one occasion to take the most violent solution to any problem they where involved in and he was not going to let up now. He ordered Nelish to scout out the area and make sure they had left no guard. If the foul xenos where stupid enough to hold up with out any one on look out he was going to have to teach them their mistake.

***

Blantar slowly edged his way into position, their prey where now trapped in side the ruined wear house they had mistaken for shelter. Nelish had already taken up position, with no guard all he had to was watch and wait for the attack to begin. Once Haines singled he was ready the attack could begin.

The fight was short and brutal after Haines destroyed the main exit killing two of their men in the hail of rubble from the explosion most of them where left with little option but to stand and die. In his typical haste Kercher had paid little attention to his surroundings, so it was no surprise he was now trapped under the rubble caused by the fire fight in an already badly damaged building. Though he had signalled he was fine over the vox and was still sound rather too pleased about the two charged bodies he had left behind.

Brothers Gorman and Kilgour returned a few minutes later bitterly cursing the speed of the strange battle suit that had taken of the moment the xeno had worked out what was going on. They joined in the effort to dig Kercher out, while Blantar searched the remains of the Tau for any signs of what they had been up to though finding no useful clues. Still it was a rather pleasing fight with no losses on their part meaning they would be able to return to the mission with minimal delay.

***

Round 2

The whole situation screamed trap even a guardsman could have seen that. Nelish was lying unconscious in the middle of the square alone side him was an other scout, he could just make out silver marking on his shoulder pad most likely an ultramarine successor that always seems to be the case. It was a rather clumsy trap but Blantar was not in any mood to play games, they where going to take care of this trap the quickest way possible they where going to spring it and kill any one stupid enough to show their faces.

They would be split into three groups brothers Haines and Vaughen where going to provide return fire while the two other groups would strike directly at their assailants. As they approached the centre of the square a series of grenades went off causing no harm but kicking up and singling a rain of ineffectual fire.

It was the Tau.

Though still under constant fire as the dust settled enough to give a fix on the Tau positions the team moved swiftly into action. The return fire of both Haines and Vaughen showed the superiority of the clan Kaargu over the weakness of the Tau and their pathetic empire. Gorman and Kilgour’s assault proved to be equally devastating butchering every one in their way. Blantar and Ketcher charged in the opposite direction the ground the true pace of the astartes catching the xenos of guard, Ketcher was laid low in the assault his right leg giving way. Blantar carried on his assault no time to show concern, no time for weakness, his powerfirst ripping though all that stood in his way.

Not a single xenos was able to escape, Blantar aloud himself a slight smile as he walked back into the square to deal with Nelish and whole ever the other initiate was. Haines has announced they where both fine before going to help Ketcher fix the bionics in his right ankle, though it might have been less hassle with out their new member. Blantar listened silently to both Nelish and initiate Kravin explain what had happened, Kravin was the only member left of a small Silver Skulls till team though unable or unwilling to share any more details and Nelish has fallen into the trap of trying to rescue him. Nelish’s clear show of would have to be dealt with later, but for now Kravin had word of an Ad-mech lab.

Ketcher complained bitterly about his ankle but with no way or time to perform full repairers he would have to overcome his weakness and learn to see it as a test. Kravin was leading them to an ad-mech lab, all they have to do is see he leaves their hands safely, it seems as though they have Omnissiah’s blessing.

***

Round 3

Staring at the defences Blantar was concerned, the Tau where in a fortified position with a clear approach on all sides he could count twelve men and two large battle suits. The only bright side he could see was the deactivated auto-turrets if they where off it meant the inner sanctum was still secure, the xenos had yet to defile the holy site with their presence. It was only a matter of time and with no vehicles they had no hope of getting close, even with them he had seen the large weapons mounted on the xenos suits make sort work of even the heaviest of tanks.

They needed some thing, Kraven and Nelish where scouting the surrounding area for any thing they could use, there was no knowing if or when the xenos would reinforce their position, they clearly planned to take the lab and that was some thing Blantar would not let them do even if took the lives of every man he had.

“Sir I believe I have found some thing,” Kraven practically shouted over the vox. “Nelish is on his way back to guide you, you really want to see this.”

Blantar still had his doubts over wither or not it had been worth the time or the effort to save Nelish and Kravin however the abilities of a scout where invaluable on this mission and he would have taken an other if any had the experience for such a delicate mission. This discovery went a long way to quashing those doubts, it was a underground tank yard, and it must have been kept near the lab so the machines could be properly blessed. The tanks however had seen better days; in the long wars that had troubled the planet the yard had been forgotten and many of tanks and even it yard its self had been damaged by the ravages of this war torn planet. All was not lost as the holy machines of the Emperor where all made to last they found two working demolisher tanks and what would be enough fuel to get them to their destination if not much further.

Squeezing into the tanks was never going to be easy, the genetic modifications of the Adeptus Astartes made even their smallest members larger than any normal human, added to this was the bulk of their armour but given no other option. Both Gorman and Kilgour would have to leave their jump packs behind, even with out them there was barely enough room to breath. After spending as much time as they dared getting used to the controls witch had thankfully been made very simplistic so even a guardsman could use them the team was split into two Blantar taking command of one tank and Haines the other.

***

The tanks slowly but surely moved them to their destination, even though it was badly lacking in space this plan rather pleased Blantar but it was still a risky attack as the Tau where well positioned and heavily armed, the two large battle suits. As soon as they could get a clear shot they opened up with the powerful demolisher cannons on their tanks, one of the battle suits was destroyed in the explosions however the rest where well protected by the fortifications. In return the Tau fired every thing had at the two tanks but their shots where unable to dent the heavy plating of the imperial tanks. As the advanced fire was traded between the two sides but most of it was no avail, despite badly damaging their fortifications Blantar could see no real difference in their numbers.

Haines’s tank took a direct hit wrecking the front armament and stopping it from ever moving again but as both tanks where had achieved their goals and used up nearly all of the merger amount of fuel they had scavenged this was of consequence. Blantar yelled the order to attack and the marines piled out of the tanks charging at the Tau lines. Though he was sure they had lost men under the unyielding fire of the Tau there was no time to look back no time to hesitate; he would take this lab if it cost him every man he and then he would do it all over again if that is what takes.

Once in combat with the Tau Blantar had been sure the superior strength of the Astartes would shine though but the superior numbers of the Tau where allowing them to pull down his with out much of a fight. Blantar could feel his anger rising as his smashed his way though their ranks, his powerfist crumpling even the armour of the remaining battle suits as if it was paper. As he saw Kraven go down next to him he became aware he was the last of his men standing, but he did not falter instead his rage grew and he was as if possessed by the very spirit of his primarch Ferrus Manus. His attacks where so brutal the Tau attempted to run in fear of his brutal assault but the very fortifications that had once protected them now became there cage allowing none to escape the wrath of the Astartes.

As his rage slowly subsided Blantar he scanned the area seeing some of his men slowly staggering to their feet, Haines on the other hand would not be so lucky he had been directly hit by several of their small missiles but now was a time for the living not to mourn the dead. It quickly became apparent that most of them had only suffered minor injuries and Blantar’s attention quickly became diverted by the figure that now stood at the door of the lab.

“Tech adept Quince,” his voice came from a speaker where his mouth would have once been, he had replaced even more of this body than Blantar him self. “The Tau snuck in some how and disabled what few servitors I had to spare on guard and disabled the local defences. Though our main concern is the force on the way to back them up, those xenos set of a distress call more will be here soon.”

Abrupt and to the point, Blantar always liked dealing with the adept mech, “veteran sergeant Blantar from the clan Kaargu of the Iron Hands.” He signalled to his men, “we have no time to rest; more of those xenos scum are headed this way get every one to their feet. The flesh is weak!” He turned back to the adept, “we will do our part you better do yours.”

***

Round 4

The Tau would be on them soon but they where never going to set foot on this sacred ground. Blantar studied the defences the four auto cannons where manned by Kercher, Kraven, Gorman and Kilgour whose weapons where all useless in this fight. Blantar’s own bolt pistol was of no use but had forgone his chance at killing the retched xenos to properly focus their fire power no matter how much it pained him. Four servitors armed with heavy bolters where all the tech adept Quince had been able to reactivate though hopefully more would be on line soon, they where always reliable more so than most marines too Blantar had often thought added to this where the heavy bolter turrets of the automatic defences.

They did not have to wait long till the first of the four Tau hover tanks came into view and the moment that happened the defences roared into life. The xenos tanks despite their flimsy appearance with stood the incoming fire with only minor scratches, these tanks where being followed by four of those strange battle suits. Seeing how little damage most of their weapons where causing to the tanks Blantar diverted all fire into eliminating them, with immediate results the heavy bolters of the servitors ripped though the armour of the suits destroying two of them instantly. However in return the firepower of the Tau destroyed one of the bolter turrets and had badly damaged two more.

As the Tau tanks dropped of more and more men it came clear how badly out numbered they where, but Blantar’s men where astartes and no number of xenos scum would shift them from this spot. The exchange of fire reeked heavy damage on both sides, however as the auto cannons proved far to ineffective at taking down the xenos tanks the Blantar slowly saw his men being taken down one after an other, even Blantar was laid low by the mass of firepower all but amputating his right arm. The battle would have been lost if Quince had not been able to bring on line several servitors armed with multimeltas, this act final tipped the battle in favour of the defenders, with their tanks finally in real danger what little was left of the Tau forces turned and field.

***

Blantar came to as Quince was working on his right arm. He was in the lab so they must have won but he was unable to see or hear any one else, “did we take many casualties?”

“Other than your arm you men are fine, Kraven on the on the other hand did not make it,” Quince replied in a matter of fact tone. “This lab is no longer defendable, I am to report to an extraction point and destroy the lab.”

“I understand I have two requests though I need locations of any site of any adeptus mechanicus labs there have been on this planet and I would also like Brother Haines laid to rest in this lab.” After a long pause, “Kraven too.”

Quince stood in contemplation his highly mechanised brain weighing up his options till final. “It shall be as you ask, I will also grant you three servitors of your choosing for your servius to the adeptus mechanicus.”

***

Round 5

The fact two days had gone by with out the slightest hint of the Tau had considerably improved Blantar’s mood. They where making good progress to what should be the nearest adep mech lab with minimal interference. However like all good breaks on this accursed planet it was to good to last, up ahead they heard the sound of bolter fire and the unmistakable screech of the Tyrand, there was a fight and from bitter experience of how this world works Blantar knew it would be blocking their path too.

Slowly Blantar had his kill team approach the fight unsure if they would join in or even if they would be forced to join in to clear their way. Using Nelish’s scope to gain a better view of what was in store he could see the bright silver glare of the silver skulls armour, from what he could make of the sight a silver skulls tactical squad had been ambushed the Tyrnaids had either disabled or ambushed them while they tired to repair their rhino. Tyrnaids where an other repellent bread of xenos though at least unlike the Tau they would not have to put up with any attempts at communication. Blantar let out a sight was clear they would be over run if aid was not given and signalled to his men.

“We owe the silver skulls for the life of Kravin, he died protecting a sacred sight of Omnissiah, would we be as week and cowardly as raven guard and abandon this debt?” Not even bothering to wait for an answer Blantar began to move out, barking out orders over the vox.

The silver skulls where still just managing to hold out against the swarm of small insectoid like creatures. The sudden firing of the servitors heavy bolters announce the presence of Blantar’s team to all, the bolts scything though the ranks of the xenos. With the sudden change in situation the xenos where given no time to react now surrounded their attack began to waver.

Unable to bring their numbers to bare the Tyranid assault began to melt under pressure. Gorman and Kilgour raced ahead into xenos horde, followed closely by Blantar trying to take advantage of the xeno confusion while it lasted. Though their numbers had been badly hurt the xenos slowly began to reorganise them selves the majority of them pressing the assault on the silver skulls hoping to eliminate one front of the battle before they where crushed between them. The beleaguered members of the silver skulls squad here slowly giving ground unable to fight on much longer.

Gorman and Kilgour using their jump packs moved deeper and deeper into swarm trying to reinforce the silver skulls. However surrounded by the xenos warriors they left them selves unable to properly defend against the frenzied attacks and slowly managed to drag Kilgour down, Gorman fought on but would have been pulled down to if not for the efforts of Blantar smashing his way though to him allowing hem both to break though to the silver skulls. Then slowly but surely they broke the back of the assault, leaving the xenos with no option but the forlorn hope of escape.

***

One of the few survivors of the silver skulls squad made his way to Blantar, from the looks of him he would be their sergeant. "Greeting brothers, your assistance is most welcome. A spore mine damaged our rhino, but we are attempting to repair it. Tell me, what are the Iron Hands doing on this world?”

Blantar considered his answer, he could not trust the members of a lesser chapter with the secrets of his mission. The marines silver armour was smeared with the toxic blood of xenos monsters, though Blantar found its silver shine reassuringly metallic. "For now repaying a debt, one of your scouts, Kraven, lost his life fighting with us and I don't like having debts like that."

"Kraven's sacrifice shall be remembered. We wish to extend you our hospitality. My name is Gabbaton Ionis, veteran sergenat of the Silver Skulls 4th company. We are based at an old Adeptus Mechanicus facility not far from here. You may rest and resupply there."

"Veteran sergeant Blantar of clan Kaargul. We will accept your offer, though that is where we where headed any way."

"Excellent, we'll radio for a Rhino to be dispatched."

***

After thirty very cramped minutes every one was glad to disembark from the rhino. They where at their next goal and with out any further discretion so Blantar was still thankful for the break in luck. Out side of the base was marine waring only a simple robe instead of armour, the complete lack of bionics discussed Blantar reminding him of of the weakness that infested even the other chapters of the adeptus astartes.

The marine moved forward to great them, "Greetings Iron Hands, I am Captain Leomoor, commander of the Silver Skulls force here on Myjet. Your arrival is most timely, as I have a mission for which I have too few men. If you and your men would assist us, we would be in your debt, and offer what aid we can to your mission here."

A commander too but Blantar had little option other than to deal with the fool, "Veteran sergeant Blantar captain, I will need to know your mission before I commit to any thing. There is to much at stake for me to run of on a fools errand."

"Very well. We have come into possesion of a psyker who may have the ability to block synapse in Tyranids. We need to test this, and have located a group of gaunts and warriors. Sergeant Ionis' squad and yours would lure them in, then the psyker, guarded by the remnants of the Deathwatch Kill team that rescued him when he was captured by Chaos forces, will try and block the synapse. If successful, there will be little difficulty in defeating the tyranids, if not, your fighting prowess would be greatly appreciated. This could be a turning point in the Imperiums battle against the Tyranids."

Blantar took a long pause to consider his options, though thought of being commanded by one such as him filled him with dread but if this psyker could do half of what was spoken about his arms where tied. "I guess I have no choice but to assist you if every thing is as you say. My men will need time to rest and prepare and I need full access to this facilities systems."

"Full access is yours, and I thank you for aiding us in in this venture. Captain Corvex and veteran Hawk of the Deathwatch will be here in three hours. We'll move then."

[AHH! MOTHERLAND]

Eldar Kill team

Initial Intro by Dooks

Lasheir watched as the Wave Serpent screamed back off into the atmosphere. The engines turned white hot as the pilot applied full power, tearing his craft out of the planets grasp. He watched the transport until it was no more than a speck in the sky.

His team stood behind him in silence. Only Cerogerath knew the thoughts that worked their way through Lashiers' troubled mind. The Harlequin could feel his rage and feel the iron will that held it in check.

The Warlock closed his eyes and recalled the details of his last minute briefing.

Farseer Uraseer had absolutly no expression on his face, his eyes told another tale all together.

"Lashier, do not speak. Listen and listen well my pupil. Your mission has become more vital than we had thought at first. And agent of the Great Enemy is looking to open an old wound...and make it mortal.

"Long ago a sorcerer dedicated to She Who Thirsts murdered a great many of our warriors, and stole their Spirit Stones. He planned to sacrfice them to his god in an effort to bring forth a daemonic being of terrifying power.

"He was stopped by a Troupe of Harlequins in the final stages of the ritual. The resistance was fierce and only one of the Troupe came out of the assault alive. His name is Cerogerath
and though he survived he was badly wounded. The energies released by the failed ritual caused quite an explosion.

"We had thought the Spirit Stones destroyed along with everything else. Alas, they were not. The souls of our kin remian on the planet Lashier. They were scattered through out the planet and our enemy has been seeking them out.

"He intends to complete the ritual this time. We cannot allow this. You must go to the planet, recover as many of the Spirit Stones as you can and kill our enemy.

"Cerogerath will join you, he seeks to avenge his Troup and help our people.

"Kill our enemy Lashier, save our people."

Walock Lashier tightened his grip on his Witchblade, took a deep breath and set forward. He would brief the rest of his team as they went. For now they made their way across a barren wasteland, the ruins of a city just barely visible on the horizon.

The current team

Warlock Lasheir
Witch Blade, SP, Enhance
40 pt.
One of the best pupils of Farseer Uraseer. He leads the scout party of the Eldar and is armed with an ancient witch blade and holds a way stone to keep in contact with Farseer Uraseer. His impatient attitude has gotten him into trouble before, but his exceptional skill has gotten him out of it many times before.

Fire Dragon
Fission Blaster and Melta Bombs
Marcaius
Marcaius aspires to be an exarch one day and is always willing to throw his life on the line for a comrade. He is brave, but not reckless as he always has a full understanding of the events of battle.
16 pt.



Dire Avenger Exarch Hermashi
The feared Exarch is one of the finest warriors ever to have lived on Il-Kaithe. His skill in defensive tactics is peerless, and he fights by the side of Lasheir as second in command.
Shimmer Shield and Power Weapon.
Defend
54 pt.

Hermashi's Dire Avengers
3 Dire Avengers
Nashil: The Battle Tempered Veteran of many battles. His ability to keep calm under extreme pressure is unbelievable and has earned him respect amongst his peers.
Etheir

Macil
36 pt.

The Harlequin. Cerogerath
Armed with a harlequin’s kiss.
While Lasheir traveled through the webway to get to the planet, a mysterious harlequin offered his assistance to the group. Lasheir accepted Cerogerath's assistance.
22 pt.



Guardians:

Kerisier: Female guardian defender. Best cookie baker in all of Il-Kaithe


Yieral: Storm guardian

Ernashegero
Harliquin with Harliquin's kiss.
He was sent by the great Harliquin near by to aid Lasheir.

Dark Reaper:

Marku-Kil

Armed with a reaper launcher

He is cynical, terrifying and has a morbid sense of humour.

Pathfinder Rekarius

Dead Characters

Masdedier: Defender


Lasneir: Storm guardian
Suheth: Defender

Berilive: The youngest of all the Dire Avengers. He hot tempered manner has led him into all sorts of trouble, but he is inspired by Hermashi and tries to remain calm in battle
Levidier: A fine warrior, he longs to become a warlock one day, but he must continue to train as a Dire Avenger before he may walk the path of a warlock.

Striking Scorpions
2
Both armed with a scorpion chain sword, pistol, mandi-blaster and plasma grenades.
Due to the nature of the mission, Lasheir has recruited Lesheth and Urasta from the striking scorpion aspect shrine. These two warriors offered their assistance and add their stealth and speed to the group. Lesheth is a young warrior who has recently joined the shrine. He has not seen much active combat yet, but this adventure will change that. Urasta is next in line to become the striking scorpion exarch. Years of war have made him a stern, fearless veteran.
32pt

Stories:

The Prologue

Warlock Lasheir signalled for his team to continue onwards, before the heat started to take a toll on their bodies. He sweated underneath his green robes, and the fact that midday was approaching did not ease his discomfort. The dried arid landscape reeked of death and decay, but they all pressed on. The warriors of Khaine were not going to let the elements get to them before they had a chance to bring death to their enemies.



Suddenly Lasheir sensed psychic presence, an Eldar presence. He looked around and pointed to a cave near by. “I sense a spirit stone in there,” he said, “We must retrieve it and take a moment to re-establish contact with Uraseer.” The group nodded and the Dire Avengers pulled their weapons out and took cover behind some rocks to Lasheir’s right, while the striking scorpions took positions to his left along the edges of the rock face. Marcaius, Lasheir, Hermashi and Cerogerath entered the cave ready for any foe, but there were none.



Lasheir quickly found the red glowing spirit stone, its presence and soul still intact. He breathed a sigh of relief and placed the stone in a pouch. It was far cooler in the cave than out in the sun, but time was important and they could not remain here for long.



“We will establish contact with Uraseer,” said Lasheir, “Hermashi, take your Dire Avengers and watch the entrance to this cave.” Hermashi nodded and ordered his Dire Avengers. Lasheir pulled out a rune and placed it in front of him and placed the way stone in the center of it. When he let go, it began to orbit and he could hear Uraseer’s voice.



“There is new insight into your mission, Lasheir, the threat is more dangerous than I have anticipated. I have been able to establish contact with Craftworld Iyanden and they have also sent strike teams to Mejyt. Meeting up with them would be beneficial in your goal, and if their teams have fallen, collecting their spirit stones are essential. I may be joining the cruiser Kronus’ Spear in the future, but until then, Autarch Ethrill will instruct you, and possibly even lead a strike force to aid you. A new threat arrives and must be dealt with immediately. I have seen an inquisitor attempting to capture a Farseer to conduct experiments. Take head, as he may mistaken you for a Farseer, and it is impervious that you do not allow yourself to be captured, lest a greater demon is able to posses your body. I have also sensed our dark kin on this planet and they wish to find ancient webway portals. If you find a webway portal, attempt to close it lest they are able to attack one of our sister Craftworlds. Time is of the essence… may Khaine guide your path of war.”



The voice disappeared and the rune fell to the ground. Lasheir knew what he had to do. Failure is not an option.

Round 1: Out for a stroll

They pressed onwards towards the city in the distance. If any relics could be found, they would most likely be found in the city thought Lasheir. The small ruined city loomed in the distance, but it would still be some time before they reached it. According to ancient lore, Exodites also had spirit stones which were kept underneath the earth in barrows. There he would be able to communicate with the departed spirits and retrieve more spirit stones.



“Warlock Lasheir,” shouted Nashil, “Orks are approaching.”



“Set up Defensive positions,” replied Hermashi, “We will catch them at the ridge.”



“Dem Panzy fings’” shouted one of the Orks, “Letz bash’ em up real good.”



The three Dire Avengers immediately ran up to the top of the ridge and aimed their catapults at the incoming Orks. Marcaius stood behind them with his fusion gun ready, while Lesheth and Urasta took up positions behind a rock. Hermashi and Lasheir took up positions next to the Dire Avengers, while Cerogerath hovered right behind them. The Orks could clearly see the Eldar on the top of the ridge and they charged while screaming “Waaagh!” at the top of their lungs. Lasheir pitied the foolish Orks and today they will taste the wrath of the Eldar.



The Dire Avengers began firing their catapults. The small disks cut through the air, and two Orks fell, but they kept on coming. The Orks fired their crude pistols at the Dire Avengers, and to Lasheir’s dismay Levidier was hit in the chest and fell. Rage entered Lasheir’s mind as he clutched his witch blade tighter as he readied for the attack. The sound of a raging inferno sung above the sounds of crude sluggas and catapults and one Ork was incinerated into a pile of ash. Marcaius reloaded his gun as fast as he could. Lesheth and Urasta charged into combat while shooting their pistols and were able to take down two more Orks.



“Let them feel the wrath of Khaine!” shouted Lasheir, “Into the Fray!” He charged at the Orks with his witch blade readied in his hand. Cerogerath leaped forth in a single bound to the Orks. His flip belt allowed him to fly over the first Ork and drove his Harlequin kiss into the next. The Ork stopped in his tracks as the wires liquefied his insides and soon a green liquid started to ooze out of his ears as he remain motionless attached to the kiss. Three Orks charged Hermashi and he patiently waited for them to come without an expression on his face. The first Ork raised his mighty axe and begun to bring it down for a perfect hit, but Hermashi was faster. In a blink of an eye, the exarch pushed the Ork away with his shield and drove his spear into the next one’s heart. He removed his spear quickly enough as the next Ork came full force like a charging bull. Hermashi crouched in an instant and tossed the Ork over him and was able to use his spear to make his mark in the Ork’s head.



The Ork that was pushed away fell to his feet, while Marcaius ran up to him and blasted the Ork at point blank range with his fusion gun. The screaming Ork was turned into a pile of ash. Lasheir’s fury heightened his senses and as he drove his witch blade into the Ork, he could feel a psychic backlash caused by the death of such a creature. Lesheth and Urasta pounced on an Ork brining their bone crushing chain swords upon his skull. The Ork let out a scream as the chain swords chewed his head apart. He gave no head to the backlash and continued the fight by decapitating the final Ork. Green blood squirted from his neck as the huge muscular body fell limp. The skirmish was over.



Lasheir could feel his rage dissipate from his body, but it did not entirely leave. He looked around battle field for any sign of psychic presence. There was none.

“Warlock Lasheir,” said Nashil, “Levidier has been wounded, but he will live. Hermashi is administering medicine as we speak.”



“Are there any signs of any other Orks near by?”



“None that we have seen. We cannot be certain if they are the only group out here as the sand hides their tracks.”



“Check their bodies for any useful items. Then burn them.” Nashil nodded and they went strait to work. They turned over the bodies of all the dead Orks looking for anything that they may have picked up. The only thing of interest was a gold amulet. He looked at it carefully, but could not determine what it was so he placed it in a pouch. He looked off into the horizon and saw a dark green dot. Aide had arrived.

Round 2: Falling out of the sky

The green dot in the sky flew over head, and Lasheir could recognize it as a Nighthawk transport. It seemed to be dropping something or someone out of the sky. He could not tell what exactly they were, but they seemed intent on reaching something over the ridge. Suddenly he felt cold, as if Eldar souls were being lost to their soul stones.



“We must move quickly,” said Lasheir, “I fear there may be a strike team in danger ahead.” They began to sprint up the sandy ridge as fast as their feet could carry them. Cerogerath effortlessly bounded ahead of them and reached the top of the ridge first while the others were not far behind.



“Warlock,” shouted Cerogerath “There is smoke ahead.”



“Press on,” said Lasheir. They ran as fast as they could gracefully running across the barren desert landscape. When they reached the top of the sand dune in front of them they saw the carnage that had unfolded. Worshipers of Chaos had surrounded the survivors of the crash and were attacking them full force. They even had heavy weapons with them and there were corrupted space marines with them. Lasheir’s anger rose, as the great enemy of the Eldar had attacked.



“We have the element of surprise,” said Lasheir, “Attack, we must save our brothers and sisters!” They began opening fire on the cultist and some of them were torn up by the shuriken catapults as the sharp discs cut through their armour with ease. Just then, grenades dropped from the sky on the cultists. Lasheir looked up to see three jet bikes and some swooping hawks drop from the sky to help the guardians. The cultists still seemed blissfully unaware of Lasheir’s strike team attacked the guardians, jet bikes and swooping hawks. Their large guns took their toll on the brave Eldar guardians who were defending themselves against the onslaught. Lasheir’s rage built up inside of him and his witch blade started to glow a baleful red in response.



“Press the attack now,” shouted Hermashi. His Dire Avengers, Marcaius and himself began to flank the attackers. They fired at the group of cultists carrying a crude missile launcher. Lasheir, Lesheth, Urasta and Cerogerath begun their decent towards the chaos cultists. As they got closer, a loud explosion was heard as a jet bike was shot out of the air by a missile launcher. This only enraged Lasheir as he drew closer to the cultists. Now he could hear them chant their cursed words as soon all he could hear was: “Kill for the Chaos Gods!”.



Cerogerath was the first in the fight. He jumped on top of one cultist and pushed off, propelling himself into the air. The cultists fired their crude solid slug based weaponry and the majestic harlequin, but to no avail, his holo suit dazzled them with its patterns and they could not aim properly. He came down to the ground like a bullet and drove his harlequin kiss into the head of a cultist. The kiss liquefied his brain and it oozed out of his ears as he lay motionless on the ground. Lasheir joined, as well as the two striking scorpions, each cutting down a cultist with their mighty chain swords.



The swirling melee continued, with the swooping hawks joining. Lasheir’s attention was diverted when a missile from the cultist squad flew over head. He looked to see the Dire Avengers cleaning up the group of cultists, but they had run out of ammunition and had to reload. The cultist who possessed the infernal missile launcher raised it as the Dire Avengers ducked out of the way. Suddenly Marcaius charged the cultist, rage filling his heart as he aimed his fusion gun at the cultist and fired. The searing blast destroyed the missile launcher and burned the head off the cultist as the remaining caught on fire.



Suddenly there was a scream as Lasheir turned he saw a guardian trying to drag her wounded comrade to safety, but one of the large chaos space marines was readying his sword to attack. Lasheir tried to get there, but three cultists blocked his path and he couldn’t possibly fight them all and save the poor guardian. Just as the evil space marine raised his sword Hermashi jumped in-between them and pushed the space marine back.



“Your foul presence ends here,” said Hermashi



“You are weak! The strong with purge the weak,” replied the chaos space marine. He charged at the lone Dire Avenger exarch with his spear raised. As it came down, Hermashi blocked the sword with his shimmer shield and thrust his power weapon into the chaos space marine’s helm, but the chaos space marine deflected the spear. Hermashi then kicked the chaos space marine in the stomach and his armour cracked. The chaos space marine tried to take another swipe at Hermashi, but the Dire Avenger Exarch was too fast and easily dodged the clumsy blow. Hermashi attacked again and chopped the space marine’s hand right off with his spear. Dark red ichor flowed down the black arm as the space marine chuckled. Hermashi again attacked this time driving his spear into the gut of the beast. The space marine finally fell over as Hermashi removed his spear.



He looked at the two guardians who he had just saved, then started to walk towards the remaining group of cultists. They were already in combat with Lasheir and the rest of the Eldar, but Hermashi helped, aiding them with his peerless exarch skills. The final chaos space marine had yet to be finished however. As a swooping hawk flew by, he grabbed it and threw the brave warrior to the ground. Then with his boot, stepped on the warrior, killing him. Lasheir could feel his rage build up even more so now and his witch blade began to feel hot and begun to glow bright red in response. He charged, but another cultist got in the way, but he swiftly in one stroke decapitated the cultist. Cerogerath got to the space marine before him though and Cerogerath drove his harlequin kiss into the gut of the space marine. The kiss liquefied his organs, which was the final blow in the fight.



Lasheir looked around to survey the damage. The wave serpent could not be salvaged in any way. Two jet bikes, six swooping hawks and five guardians had survived the conflict. One swooping hawk approached the Warlock.



“Greetings Warlock Lasheir,” said one of the swooping hawks, “I am Icareane.”



“Greetings Icareane,” replied Lasheir, “Please tell me what happened here.”



“We were sent by Autarch Ethrill.” replied Lcareane, “We are to meet up with an Iyanden strike team to reinforce them in securing a webway portal so that more reinforcements could be transported here. The guardians were in a wave serpent following the Nighthawk transport that we were in. They were shot down by the cultists and we swooped down to assist them in combat.”



“Thank you,” replied Lasheir, “You should be on your way then.”



“Yes, but take the guardians, they will be too slow to keep up with us. I’m sure they will aid you in your quest. After our task is complete we will try to regroup with you to aid you on your question. Good luck.” The swooping hawks and jet bikes took off and began flying the direction that the night wing transport had flown in. Lasheir looked off into the horizon until they disappeared into the sun set.



“Warlock Lasheir,” said Marcaius, “The survivors are ready for your instructions.”



“Good,” replied Lasheir, “Did you get any of their names.”



“Yes, in fact one of them is my sister Kerisier.”



“I’m sorry that your family reunion was not as you had hoped for.”



“Quite the contrary, Warlock Lasheir. We are both glad that we are together for this long fight. She is the best cookie baker in all of Il-Kaithe.”



“Very well then, have the other collected the spirit stones?”



“They have.”



“Excellent. Listen up guardians of Il-Kaithe. We are sent on a mission to collect as many spirit stones as possible and to prevent a sorcerer of She Who Thirsts from summoning a demon. Is there any information that Autarch Ethrill has told you?” One guardian stepped forward.



“He told us that if we ever meet up with Lasheir that he should look for a pathfinder named Rekarius as he has been to Mejyt before and knows of all the places. Whether he is here or not is not known.”



“Thank you,” replied Lasheir, “We must press on to the small city.”

Epiloge to Round 2: Down town!

The sun had set as they approached the outskirts of the city with only the stars to guide their path. The remnants of the buildings had scars of great battles and great slaughters, but the shifting shadows did not comfort them. Lesheth and Urasta crept over the ruins like creeping shadows, as they scouted ahead for any signs of danger. Hermashi took his Dire Avengers setting up point and ensuring that there were no foes in the area and if danger arrived they would be met with a storm of shuriken fire. Lasheir creped around ensuring that he would not expose himself by keeping his back against a wall. The recent guardians followed closely behind ready for combat. Lasheir could not sense and psychic presence, but that did not mean that there were no foes.



After scouting the south western part of the outskirts, Lasheir looked into the darkness and saw Lesheth’s and Urasta’s faint outlines in the dark as they approached him. To his left he saw Hermashi and his Dire Avengers on the second floor of a ruined building and the guardians were behind him. But where was Marcaius and Cerogerath? It was hard to see in the darkness, but how far were they?



“Lesheth, Urasta,” said Lasheir, “Where is Marcaius and Cerogerath?”



“I am unsure Warlock,” replied Lesheth, “I recall seeing Marcaius and Cerogerath ahead of us. Perhaps it would be wise to search in the building ahead.”



“That would be a preferable plan,” replied Lasheir, “Check the building ahead for any sign.” Lesheth and Urasta nodded and creped forward into the building and Lasheir followed closely behind. Lasheir grabbed Hermashi’s attention by igniting a rune, then he changed the colour to notify Hermashi to flank the left side of the building ahead. Hermashi and his Dire Avengers jumped down from the second floor and sprinted forward into position while Lesheth and Urasta jumped through the windows into the building. Lasheir began to sense the presence of Marcaius and Cerogerath, but he could not determine where exactly they were. He looked around the empty room and saw no sign of them. Suddenly a door on the ground opened and Marcaius looked out. Lasheir was relieved that he was unharmed.



“Warlock,” said Marcaius, “There is a vast network of sewers below the city. We may be able to take advantage of this situation and use the sewers to navigate through the city. The sewers are wide enough to have our entire strike team to walk through, but I am not sure how safe they really are.”



“It is a difficult question to answer,” replied Lasheir, “It could provide a safer path through the city, but we would be wandering blindly. It would be better for now to tread through the city and if we encounter a foe too strong to defeat, then the sewers would provide an excellent escape route. Do you know where Cerogerath is?”



“I do not know Warlock,” replied Marcaius, “I am certain that he did not enter the sewers however.”



“Well then,” said Lasheir, “We will just have to press onwards. I am sure that he is able to sense my psychic presence and that he will rendezvous with our strike team soon.” He looked out of the window, and he could sense Cerogerath’s presence. Even though he could not see him with his eyes, he could see with his mind exactly where Cerogerath was and he started to head in that direction. “Take up watch on this building,” said Lasheir, “Take time to rest, but make sure that some of you stay on watch. We will be moving shortly.”



He walked out into the darkness of the night. The stillness was nerve racking, but he pressed onwards looking for Cerogerath. He found him quickly sitting on a rock gazing into the stars. His holo-suit was inactive, but his decor was still very vibrant even in the darkness of the night.



“Does something trouble you Cerogerath?” asked Lasheir,



“Nothing at the moment Warlock,” replied Cerogerath, “I remember this place however and yet I forget it. These buildings are familiar, yet I cannot remember seeing them.”



“Perhaps you have been here before,” said Lasheir, “Although when you were hear it may have been a very different place.”



“A lot has happened since I last stepped on Mejyt.”



“I think it would be wise to continue moving,” said Lasheir, “I am certain that the confusion you feel now will be relieved some day, but we should move lest we be tracked by our foes.” He got up and headed towards the building. His warriors were ready to move out again by the time he got back. Cerogerath had followed him and was ready to fight once again.

Round 3: Nobody home?

Lasheir looked ahead. The glow ahead of the ruined building was unmistakeable. Even in the night, it shone as if the sun was at sun rise. As they approached the glow, they discovered that it was a webway gate that was open. The unmistakeable arches and the blue crystal liquid sheath that pulsed with energy from another dimension meant that his webway must have been opened. It covered in moss and other plants, and it was a wonder why it had not been destroyed by the humans.


The psychic energy that flowed out of it was unmistakable, and it filled Lasheir’s mind. There was something different about it though, it was not the normal psychic energy and thoughts that flowed out of a webway gate that led to an Eldar Craftworld. It was dark, evil, and sadistic. Lasheir could hear the cry of thousands of Eldar souls being killed or tortured coming from the webway gate. It must have led to Commorragh.


The pain of all those souls tormented Lasheir’s mind as he could just imagine what those unfortunate enough to be caught by the dark kin had to suffer. It griped him in pain as he fell to one knee trying to ignore the pain. He would try and get revenge for all those poor Eldar who and been captured and fed to She Who Thirsts by the Dark Eldar, but now was not the time. Lasheir focused on the task at hand and set aside the thoughts of torment at the hands of his dark kin.


“Be ready for any attack,” said Lasheir, “I am certain that our dark kin will not take it lightly to see their webway gate closed.” Hermashi nodded and turned around to face his Dire Avengers.


“Are you sure about closing this gate?” asked Cerogerath, “It could be used.”


“I am sorry Cerogerath,” replied Lasheir, “But Uraseer said that it must be closed to deny our dark kin and chaos access to the webway.” Lasheir understood Cerogerath’s concern but it had to be done. He gave the sign to advance and they advanced through the cover of the ruined buildings with all their weapons ready for anything. Suddenly, dark black figures began to appear from the webway and they opened fire. Their spiked helms and ammunition gave their identity away instantly. The dark kin had arrived.


Not only had they brought warriors, but wyches charged out from the webway screaming at the top of their lungs. Their cruel whips and blades readied to strike. Lasheir readied to charge the wyches with Hermashi, Cerogerath, the two striking scorpions and the two storm guardians. They would taste Khaine’s wraith.


The Dire Avengers and guardians immediately opened fire in retaliation as their shuriken ammunitions cut through the armour of the dark kin with ease as six of them fell to the ground. The spiked ammunition from the splinter rifles had caused their mark against the guardians and Dire Avengers as only Marcaius and Nashil were left standing. All the others were in pain on the ground as the splinters had left their mark. Marcaius ran forward with his fusion gun aimed at the final warrior left. The warrior charged back armed with a cruel whip that danced about, but she could not use it as before she could strike, Marcaius had turned her into ash.


The wyches charged forward and the Eldar were about to do the same until Hermashi raised his hand. “They are masters of fighting,” he said, “It would be foolish to engage them in melee.” He raised his spear and the remaining Eldar began to open fire against the wyches. Their pistols carved up three of seven wyches, but they continued at full speed towards them. They returned fire and Yieral was wounded and fell screaming in pain. Hermashi readied his spear, his focus and concentration at the battle ahead was peerless. As he pulled back his spear, Lasheir could sense the hatred and rage that Hermashi had built up inside. He threw his spear at one of the wyches, and as if it was a thunderbolt, it impaled a wych. She went flying through the air and the spear logged itself into the side of the webway gate pillar.



As the three remaining wyches approached, Cerogerath leapt forth with his harlequin kiss ready. The first wych attacked Hermashi who blocked the attack with his shimmer shield and kicked the wych back. She fell backwards onto the hard stone floor. Cerogerath landed on her, instantly breaking her back, then he continued to charge at the other wych. He kicked him up into the air and he came back down to the planet with a mighty crash. The striking scorpions jumped on top of him and chopped him up using their chain swords.


The final wych leapt into the air to confront Cerogerath. She must have been a veteran of many fights as she was adorned with skulls of the fallen and sported many scars on her body. As she raised her sword to strike, Cerogerath took his chance to strike and impaled her on his harlequin kiss rending her insides and turning them into a liquid. The mid air collision was mighty indeed, and as they both fell back to the ground, only Cerogerath landed it.


Lasheir rushed to the wounded guardians and Dire Avengers. Berilive and Levidier got up slowly and tried to brush off the dirt which surrounded them. Kerisier got up as well, but the other two were lifeless. Lasheir took the spirit stones from their armour and placed them in a pouch to keep safe for later. He was sad that these two guardians had died, but sacrifices must be made for the betterment of the Craftworld.


He gazed upon the webway gate and to his surprise did not feel the dark presence that he once had. Instead it was a playful and laughing feeling. Suddenly, a harlequin emerged from the webway gate. His holo-suit bright with yellows and reds, and possessed a harlequin kiss on his right arm. He leapt towards Lasheir in a graceful manner.


“Greetings Warlock Lasheir of Il-Kaithe,” said the Harlequin, “I am Ernashegero, and the great harlequin of my troupe has sent me to aid you. He brings words of great joy, but also words of great sorrow. He says ‘Do not despair, for let ye who can sing of great songs come forth. Be strong and have patience, for rushing a delicate procedure will surely cause repercussions .’.”


“Thank you Ernashegero,” replied Lasheir, “Your presence brings great hope and joy, but I understand that great evil is upon us. Quickly Brothers and sisters, we must prepare to close the gate. Set up a defensive perimeter while I prepare for the ritual.” Hermashi nodded as he removed his spear from the webway gate.


“Warlock,” said Marcaius quietly, “I do not like this idea. Why not destroy the webway gate here? Our dark kin have portable webway portals and can summon them at any time. Destroying this gate will prevent anyone from using it.”


“We may need this gate later,” said Lasheir, “If we destroy it then we will not be able to use it ourselves. Our dark kin seek passage to other places, and we must deny them that ability. They can only open portals to known places of the webway, not to the places hidden.”


“But you have never closed a webway gate before,” said Marcaius frantically, “What if you redirect the gate to the warp and demons come forth?”


“The we will have to destroy the gate,” said Lasheir, “But unless that happens I do not wish to see any damage done to the webway gate.” Lasheir was getting impatient with this concern that Marcaius had.


“Yes warlock,” said Marcaius softly and he walked away. Lasheir began pulling out many different runes that would focus his abilities and help concentrate at the task at hand. They began to orbit him and glow in many different colours as he walked in front of the webway gate. He pulled out a bag and began to sprinkle sand in a complex pattern, like a ritual. After he had finished he sat in the middle and focused on closing the gate.

Round 4: Uh-oh!

Lasheir continued to focus on closing the gate, but recently he had been distracted. He noticed that Marcaius had tried on several occasions to place melta-bombs on the webway gate in case Lasheir failed. It made him furious that one of his own team members would not have faith in his abilities. He would prove them wrong he would close the gate. He continued to focus on sealing the gate.



Something began to change though, instead of feeling the psychic energy from the gate lowering, he felt it rising. This began to alarm Lasheir as closing the webway gate would involve lessening the amount of psychic energy being released from the webway gate. He continued to focus in on closing it though as he was determined to close the gate.



Suddenly Lasheir felt a terrible psychic backlash as a bolt of warp energy was ejected from the portal and was aimed at him. Lasheir jumped to his feet, but the bolt of energy hit him. Thankfully his rune armour deflected the shot, but he was still sent flying backwards. When he got to his feet, he looked into the portal. There was a sickly purple ooze that was dripping from the portal and it seemed to have gotten wider. He felt the screams of thousands of daemons. They were coming.



His strike team assembled quickly to prepare for the onslaught that was sure to follow, but they had to flee. The sewers were an ideal place to flee, but the sewers were far away from where they were. They had to make it to the sewers regardless. If they were to die here then the shadow may rise once again to attack the Craftworld directly. Lasheir would have to accept his failure at closing the gate, but it would be better to cut looses now then to suffer any more.



“Fall back to the sewers,” shouted Lasheir, “We cannot stand up to the horrors from the warp.” They began to fall back quickly, but the daemons had begun to arrive. Six black furies flew out of the portal on leathery black wings and came directly at the Eldar strike team. The attack came quickly and unexpectedly, and the Dire Avengers shot at them, but the furies avoided their fire. Kerisier fired her shuriken catapult at the furies and one fell from the sky and crashed into the ground. No blood came out of it and the holes that the shuriken discs had made came forth a purple mucus that evaporated into the air. The furies attacked viciously like giant birds of prey descending for the kill. The two harlequins leapt up to intercept, but they could not land a blow strong enough to knock the furies down. Cerogerath had a lucky break, or so he thought, as when he drove his harlequin kiss into one of the furies the beast pushed him back and the deep gash in the beast’s gut that had been made healed as the purple ooze solidified into skin again.



The battle continued, but the furies were smart enough to avoid Hermashi and flew over him and began to attack the Dire Avengers. The scorpions intercepted the furies and with their graceful chain swords, managed to easily cut down two of the foul beasts. Lasheir, filled with rage, charged at one of the foul daemons and cleaved it in two with his mighty witch blade. He saw the malicious evil that was still present in the foul beast even after he had cleaved the beast. The furies’ eyes had a glare that would have sent shivers down the spine of even the most fearless warriors. Yieral skilfully chopped the head off of another daemon as it came crashing to the ground, but Lasneir was grabbed by the final beast and taken up into the sky. Hermashi looked up at the helpless guardian and threw his spear at the beast. Like a thunderbolt, the spear went through the beast as it gave out a horrible cry. It came crashing to earth along with Lasneir. Lasheir ran up to Lasneir, but the brave guardian was dead.



The warp portal began to increase in size and bolts of warp energy began flashing out of it in random directions. Lasheir and his group sprinted for the sewers, but in front of them were four humans. A bolt of warp energy cracked and whipped across the sky and just to their dismay, hit the humans. They began to mutate quickly as being exposed to the raw energy of the warp would easily turn the unprotected into slaves of the dark gods. Soon four giant behemoths vaguely resembling their former selves stood in the way between escape and certain death.



Hermashi and his Dire Avengers were behind them covering their path in case other daemons decided to arrive. Marcaius was the first to attack and a well aimed shot from his fusion gun saw one of the massive mutants explode into flames. Quickly the Dire Avengers turned around and opened fire, but Hermashi commanded them to protect the rear and so only a few shots hit the mutants and wounded it. Ooze dripped from its cut as they lumbered forwards towards the charging Eldar. Cerogerath and Ernashegero leapt forth and attacked swiftly and gracefully killed the mutant that had been wounded. Then Cerogerath plunged his harlequin kiss into the next mutant and when he removed it, purple ooze poured out. Lesheth and Urasta jumped onto of the mutant and sliced the mutant into pieces. Lasheir struck the final mutant with his witch blade and the mutant retreated without putting up a fight. They has been victorious, but they still had quite the distance to travel before they were safely in the sewers at best.



They continued to sprint at full speed over different debris and fallen walls. They veered around a corner and began to enter an alley way between two buildings. When they were all in the alley, ten blood hounds of Khorne attacked. They jumped out of the windows of either side attacking the unprepared Eldar. The harlequins were the first to attack and as if they were performing a dance, in prefect unison they plunged their kisses into the two first hounds. Lesheth and Urasta both attacked two hounds and sliced their heads clean off. The two bodies fell to the ground and red blood gushed out of their necks. Lasheir retaliated and cleaved one of the foul daemons in half.



Lasheir turned around to see five blood hounds attacking the Dire Avengers. Berilive and Levidier were dragged to the ground by two of the flesh hounds. Hermashi quickly plunged his spear into head of the hound that had taken down Levidier, but then suddenly the hounds fled, carrying off Berilive. Hermashi gave chase, but was only able to recover Berilive’s spirit stone. Regardless they pressed onwards through the alley and around another turn, ever getting closer to escape.



As they rounded the next corner they saw eight blood letters standing in the way. Armed with their vicious demonic axes and covered in blood, this wasn’t going to be an easy fight. They immediately opened fire and their shuriken discs took down two of the daemons as blood poured from the dead bodies’ wounds. They charged into combat with the blood letters. Cerogerath landed a deadly blow as he drove his kiss into the head of one of the daemons, instantly killing it, but when he removed it, blood poured out like a fountain as the body limped over. Ernashegero was less fortunate as when he delivered a proper blow, the daemon’s aura stopped it from being fatal. Lesheth and Urasta unleashed a storm of attacks against the daemons, but the brass armour of Khorne protected all but one from the ferocious attack. Lasheir’s furry was nearly uncontrollable as he decapitated two of the foul daemons in one swift stroke. The blood letters retaliated, but their deadly axes could not find their mark on the swift Eldar.



Suddenly Lasheir heard a high pitched scream which gnawed at his soul. He turned around to see three daemons of She Who Thirsts mounted on long snake like creatures. Their tongues smelling the air for any sent of their prey. Their pink bellies and purple backs reeked of dense musk that they released into the air. Sitting upon their backs were she-devils of She Who Thirsts armed with talons and cruel seductive blades. Their eyes glared at the Eldar as they licked their lips and prepared to charge.



Lasheir looked over his back to see Kerisier being cut down by one of the blood letters, but just as the blood letter finished his attack, his head was chopped off by Yieral with one swift stroke. Lasheir saw Ernashegero drive his kiss into the final blood letter as blood poured out of the wound. Just as Ernashegero removed his kiss, the she-devils attacked, instantly cutting down Nashil. The scream they gave out seemed to dull Lasheir’s senses and he could not properly focus. Cerogerath and Ernashegero leapt into the sky and brought their fury onto the daemonettes, each one driving their kiss through the daemonette and driving it into the snake like mount. It whipped up backwards, tossing the daemonette carcass from its back before it fell forwards crashing into the ground. Lasheir could smell the sour tasting musk even more so now as the dead carcass of the snake daemon released more of it into the air.



He looked past the conflict which had arisen to see three other snake daemons with daemonettes on their backs. They immediately charged at the swirling melee that was going on. Their eyes twinkled of malice and thirst for Eldar souls. Lasheir did not know if his strike team could suffer another attack by these vicious daemons.



Just before the daemonettes reached the swirling melee, missiles and shuriken discs barraged the three daemonettes, instantly obliterating them from the material plane. Lasheir looked up to see a Dark Reaper and two Dire Avengers in the near by building providing fire support. Lasheir was thankful for the much needed reinforcements, but there was still work to be done. He charged forward and sliced the head of the snake daemon in one swift blow. The beast rolled over crushing the daemonette rider. Lesheth and Urasta attacked the final daemon by knocking off the rider and unleashing a fury of attacks on the snake daemon. It succumbed to its wounds very quickly and fell over, and for the rider, the she-devil was cut down before she could even stand.



Nashil and Kerisier got up and they continued running towards the sewer entrance. They could see it from here and escape was possible. Lasheir looked over his right shoulder to see the two Dire Avengers and the Dark Reaper running behind them. Soon they would be safe from the portal, but a massive bolt of warp energy hit the entire group and the psychic overload was too great for Lasheir to handle and he fell unconscious.



When he finally regained consciousness he found himself being dragged towards a giant chaos spawn’s mouth full of sharp teeth. His witch blade was out of reach and the repulsive blue and green behemoth was surely going to get the better of Lasheir if he did not act quickly. Suddenly just before reaching the mouth of the slobbering beast, Hermashi cut the tentacle that was dragging Lasheir. The beast roared in anger and begun to lash out at Hermashi, but he skilfully dodged and deflected the attacks with his shield. Lasheir jumped up and grabbed his witch blade and surveyed the scene.



They were fighting three giant chaos spawns, and Lesheth, Urasta and Levidier were nowhere in sight. They must have been turned into chaos spawns by the powerful bolt of warp energy that had knocked out Lasheir. Rage built up and his witch blade glowed a bright red as he attacked the nearest spawn. He drove his blade deep into the soft mound that was the spawn and it screamed in pain, but it lashed out pushing Lasheir back. The other two spawns lashed out at Nashil and Yieral, which they both were knocked out. The Dark Reaper and two Dire Avengers had joined combat against the spawns.



Cerogerath drove his kiss into the wounded spawn and as the wires liquefied the insides, it exploded in a display of deformed organs, blood, skin and mucus. The other two spawns attacked viciously, knocking out the two Dire Avengers who had just joined combat, but Ernashegero retaliated by driving his kiss into the second spawn and liquefying its insides. This time it simply flopped over and crashed onto the street. Cerogerath had managed to create a deep gash in the side of the spawn that began to ooze out purple and green fluid. It screamed in pain and lashed out wildly, but missed the graceful Eldar. Hermashi charged the final spawn and drove his spear into the final spawn. It ignited in a blaze of purple and red flames as it stumbled around violently breaking windows and walls. In a final scream it collapsed and fell to the ground.



Nashil, the two new Dire Avengers and Kerisier got to their feet and Marcaius opened the hatch and they descended into the darkness of the sewers.

Death of the Chaos Spawns

If anyone knows how they are supposed to die please tell me. My understanding of them is similar to the following: 8 kg of compost (rotten vegtables, fruit and other perishables that can easily decompose without attracting wild life.), 4 road killed dear, four littres (about one gallon) of crude petrolium, taking all the books writen by C. S. Goto (note this step is important as this is the real garbage put into them) and adding a touch of chaos magic, then tossing them into a blender and seeing what happens. The compost and road kill should give the spawn it's substance and the dash of chaos magic it's animation. The curde petrolium acts as blood, but the books by C. S. Goto do the REAL damage by turning them into hidious creatures. If there were no books, the spawns would look like normal people. I'm sure that isn't a stable recipe and most likely would result in their death being as random as possible. I personally like the flames.

Epiloge to round 4: Did I step in that?

The sewers were dark and reeked of foul odour, but at least they were safe for now. The sewer system seemed to run on forever and it was not a very small sewer system. It was a giant labyrinth of twisting paths, but none of the team members knew the way out. They would be trapped in the sewers for a while. Lasheir looked at his wounded comrades and he felt disgraced that he had caused the death of five of his members, three of which they could not save the soul stones.



“I am sorry,” said Lasheir, “My careless actions have caused the death of our fellow kin.” There was a silence that becalmed the group.



“Let us move on,” said Hermashi, “Lest the daemons enter the sewers. Lasheir, war lacks the time for regret.” They began to descend into the sewers of the city. They walked down the metal stair case to the first level, where there was a walk way and a channel for water, except that it was empty. The water must have dried out years ago, as the surrounding area as a desolate wasteland and there would be no water for miles around. As they continued down the path the Dark Reaper approached Lasheir.



“Greetings Warlock,” said the Dark Reaper in a deep sinister voice, “I am Marku-Kil and the two Dire Avengers that accompanied me are Etheir and Macil. We were sent by Autarch Ethrill to aid you in your quest. He has also sent other strike teams to aid you, but he lost your signal and we were given orders to search for you.”



“That is good news indeed,” said Lasheir, “Hopefully we will be able to cross their paths.” Marku-Kil nodded and they continued to walk through the disgusting human sewers. The previous battle laid heavily on Lasheir’s mind, but they had to continue on their quest. Finding some Eldar rangers would be of help to them, but they were almost impossible to detect or find. Lasheir began to hear a voice, but it did not come from his strike team. It seemed to come from the walls of the sewers, but he could not pinpoint exactly where it was coming from. After a few seconds he began to recognize who the voice belonged to, Rekarius.



“Well Lasheir,” said Rekarius, “It has been a very long time since we last met.” Lasheir knew that Rekarius was using telepathic psychic powers to send his thoughts directly to Lasheir.



Rekarius had very potent psychic abilities and was able to send and receive thoughts. Lasheir knew Rekarius before he was exiled, in fact they had been very good friends up until that point. Before Rekarius became a pathfinder, he was a warlock and a very powerful warlock at that. Rekarius had always been very bold, but he was never careless. Most of the Eldar on Il-Kaithe did not know why Rekarius had been exiled, but Lasheir did. Rekarius had become very skilled with his psychic abilities, so skilled that he nearly matched the psychic abilities of Uraseer. With a single rune he could cast many different warlock powers, but he was dangerous in the eyes of Uraseer. Such untamed raw power would surely be a lure to any daemon and Uraseer did not want to take that risk as Rekarius was not disciplined enough nor would he listen to any of the Farseers. He was then exiled from the Craftworld and told that he may return when he had more discipline. Rekarius was bitter about it and said nothing when he left. Why would Autarch Ethrill believe that Rekarius would help them remained a mystery to Lasheir, but Lasheir knew that Ethrill had opposed the Farseers decision to exile Rekarius. Perhaps that would be enough to sway Rekarius to help Lasheir.



“It has been,” thought Lasheir, “Tell me Rekarius, why choose Mejyt out of all the planets?”



“Mejyt? There is no reason. I travel the stars and the planets and it just so happens to be of a coincidence that I am on Mejyt.”



“Since you are hear will you help us in our quest?” Lasheir did not know how Rekarius would respond as it had been a long time since they last talked.



“I will take my time on answering your question. I will find you when I choose to find you. In the mean time I would recommend that you find your way out of the sewers as quickly as possible. I am sure that the daemons you have released here will begin to enter the sewers. Also I would like to inform you about some events. As you may know, my ranger’s eyes and ears are very where throughout Mejyt and they have been monitoring every other mon-keigh’s actions. Perhaps it would be nessecary to inform you that one group is near by and they are powerful. Even though they have recently attacked some of your comrades, they will prove to be a greater ally then you think. I will be in constant contact with you throughout the way. Be weary of what you find in these sewers, for man and beast live down here.” Rekarius’ voice disappeared from Lasheir’s mind. They continued to walk through the sewers in hopes of finding a way out.

Round 5: What not to flush down the toilet.

The sewers reeked of the foul stench of decay, but they continued onwards, knowing that finding a way out may be their only chance for survival. Lasheir knew that his team was disappointed with him, and it weighted heavily on his heart. He felt that he had failed them and doomed them all. They would most likely never forgive him. He needed to contact Ethrill and ask for reinforcements, but it was unlikely his communication device that was given to him would work without taking the time to use the way stone. They would have to wait until they escaped from the sewers.

“Lasheir,” said Nashil “Do not despair over the loss of the webway gate. It is imperative that you focus on the task at hand. I am certain that Uraseer still has faith in your abilities or else he would not have selected you.” This comment eased Lasheir’s mind, but he still felt guilty that his arrogance caused the death of many of his comrades. Hopefully Ethrill would understand and send more reinforcements to aid them in their quest. Suddenly, Lasheir felt something and he halted his group. The air around them was far too still and the waters too calm. They had walked into a trap.

Suddenly five Giant Crocodiles leapt from the water and attacked. One knocked Macil clear off of his feet and onto the ground. The others missed, but they landed on the walkway, surrounding the Eldar. The two harlequins were the first to respond swiftly attacking, but only one of their attacks hit the beast, while the others bounced off the crocodiles’ thick skin. Cerogerath’s harlequin kiss grazed the back of one of the crocodiles and it reared up, exposing it’s soft underbelly, which Marcaius took advantage of the situation by firing his fusion blaster and incinerating the beast. Hermashi’s spear could not find its mark on the great beasts and as they lashed out, Hermashi was forced to block with his shield.

Lasheir gracefully dodged the attacks of the crocodiles and sliced one across the back. Cerogerath took advantage of this opportunity and drove his kiss into the weak spot of the armour. The wires, liquefied the insides as blood and fluid drained out of the mouth of the great beast. The remaining crocodiles lunged forward, taking out both of the storm guardians, one of the beasts grabbed one of the storm guardians in its mouth and violently shook its head back and forth, killing the guardian. Hermashi was on top of one and drove his spear through the skull of the crocodile, but it began to violently thrash about and threw Hermashi off, while his spear was still imbedded in the skull. Ernashegero attacked another crocodile and preformed a flying kick directly into the beasts face. It could not retaliate as the blinding dizzying colours of the holo suit dazed the poor beast, but after the blow, it thrashed about, knocking Nashil into the air, where he fell into the disgusting water of the sewers. Lasheir swiped his blade across the shoulder bone of the beast and blood gushed out of the open wound. The beast lashed out in a blind rage, but missed the lightning reflexes of the Eldar Warlock. Cerogerath saw his opportunity and drove his kiss into the wound and liquefied the insides of the beast.

Lasheir turned around to see Marku-Kil club a crocodile across the head with his reaper missile launcher. The beast roared with anger, but then was kicked in the head by Marku-Kil and the blow was strong enough to cause it to roll over. Hermashi leapt up and drove his spear into the heart of the beast and it roared one last roar before it was killed with another swift stroke. Macil and Yieral got up after being knocked out, but they had lost a member. Nashil climbed a near by ladder after falling in, but his armour did smell quite repulsive. As they were readying themselves to continue their way through the sewers, fog rolled in, but it was no natural fog and as the rest of his team was baffled by its appearance, Lasheir knew exactly who was coming. Rekarius.

The faint outline of the once proud Warlock was barely visible with an eloquent Eldar long rifle in his hand. Even with their keen eyesight, only Lasheir could truly see Rekarius with his mind as the powerful psychic energy that he gave off was easily visible to Lasheir’s tuned senses. He could sense Rekarius staring at him, but he wondered why he would show himself now.

Rekarius moved closer and then he spoke. “Greetings Eldar of Il-Kaithe. I believe that some of you know who I am and I welcome you to the underground sewers of Mejyt, where I have been traveling in recently. I have come to warn you though, that you must flee these sewers as quickly as possible, for the warp rift has awakened what I feared would come to pass. A great power was locked beneath these cities. Alone, we are not match for the untold power it holds, but with allies, we may be able to stop it. The mon-keigh that have sealed the warp rift will begin to enter the sewers, however their ignorance will most likely lead to our down fall. I recommend that we begin heading towards a local Tau base, as the young race has had little contact with us and has far more of an ‘open mind’. You have the choice that I have given you, follow me to safety, or die here, for crocodiles should be the least of your worries.” The figure began to walk into the mist.

“We must follow him,” said Lasheir, “We do not have any other option.” They began to follow the shrouded figure. Rekarius picked up speed and began to sprint at full speed, but all the Eldar were able to keep up. Shadows moved and darted as Lasheir looked around at the massive catacombs which the sewers had opened up into. They must have been nearly the size of an underground city, with bridges and arches rising to the height of large towers. Lasheir felt disgusted that humans would put so much time and effort into managing waste. Their foolish constructs must have been a breading ground for many different beasts and other untold horrors that lay beneath the ground. They continued onwards as Marcaius ran up next to Lasheir.

“Are you sure we can trust him?” asked Marcaius, “He was exiled from Il-Kaithe.”

“I am not sure we have much choice,” replied Lasheir, “We are taking a risk by following him, but what if he is correct in that the warp portal has awakened something far more sinister. Autarch Ethrill trusts him and therefore we should put our trust in him as well.”

“Do not let your past influence your decisions. You both were friends long ago, but it would be difficult to understand how the path of the outcast has changed him.” That drove into Lasheir’s mind. Rekarius was to begin with a very temperamental Warlock, and being exiled would most certainly not help in calming his temper. If anything these strange circumstances seemed to cause more dispair in Lasheir's mind. He had been idle and did not speak out against Rekarius's exile, but deep in his heart he was sad to have his best friend leave. He remembered back to his final conversation with Rekarius.

"You know of my sentence," said Rekarius, "I beleive it is insensable, but I have no option but to leave."

"It is sad," said Lasheir solomely, "But I am sure that you will return one day to Il-Kaithe." Lasheir looked at the waveserpent which was too take Rekarius to a Ranger outpost far away. He was disheartened, but he still had hope.

"No. I have lost faith in the ways of Il-Kaithe. I do not think I will ever return." Rekarius looked at Lasheir, his helm and witch blade were taken from him, but the fog that powerful Warlocks are known to create still was present at his feet. His radiance was still as powerful as before and without a helm, Lasheir could still sense that his powers were still as potent as ever. He walked towards the wave serpent, and without turning around. His gaze met Lasheir's and it did not comfort Lasheir as Rekarius' eyes had a burning resentment for Il-Kaithe and for Lasheir. Then Rekarius said: "Farewell my friend, until we meet again."

"Farewell..." replied Lasheir faintly.



They continued on following the fog and mist that Rekarius had created. Eventually they reached the end and the light coming from the end of the tunnel was very bright that Lasheir had to close his eyes as he approached it. When he exited from the pipeline, he could hear running water and could smell the fresh air. He was glad that he was out of the foul sewers.

Lasheir looked around, and he was at the edge of a cliff that ran down into a forest below. From there he could see a clearing where what appeared to be a Tau base was established. He looked at Rekarius who was staring back. The years had not seemed to change him at all, as he still looked similar to how Lasheir could remember, but his eyes looked remarkably different. Before they were filled with youthfulness, happiness and joy, but now they looked empty as if his time as an outcast has completely erased those thoughts.

“The Tau encampment is below,” said Rekarius, “Let us go and negotiate with the commander of the camp.”

[BrianGeneral]

the prologue for the Serious Mob

With one swipe of his mighty power klaw Gutz knocked aside a jungle conifer that had been annoying him for the past three seconds.

"Listen up you's thick 'eaded grot slobbers!"

The other Orks stopped kicking and punching eachother almost long enough to hear what the massive Nob was saying.

Swipe. Splash.

The Boy formerly known as Blikgut fell one way while his head fell the other. The rest of the Boyz quieted down.

"I'z got the orderz from da boss and when da boss ain't here I'z da Boss you got that?" They got it. "Da boss finks he be knowin' about where da last Warboss what landed here on a rock got hiself a case of da deds.

"Da boss wantz 'is skull so's he can stick it on 'is banner and show the other clanz who's the real boss is.

"Now we'z a gonna' go an getz this skull and then we'z gonna kick da' crap outta da other Ork clanz and get us a real good bashin goin' on all over da's planet."

The other Orks weren't as big or as smart as Gutz, but they knew that bashin was good. And that's all the needed to know.

the tales of Serious Mob: The First Encounter

The Ork Nob wanders around on the field, trying to find something valuable to sell.
"Hey boss, look at this thing." Kickaz picked up a piece of metal on the ground. "This seems to be a......ARRRRAGGGHHH!!"
The Nob Gutz is furious and runs at him, while he raises his Power Klaw and slap that thing aside.
"You boyz born with no brains? How can you pick up that thing when it'z konnected by a wire?"
"Sorry, boss."
"Drop that and continue the search!"

Gutz is thinking something else. Before they leave the camp, their Warboss told them about the possible presence of other Ork Klans and try to eliminate them.
So the search for valuables is just a cover.

After they walked for another while Kull shouted, "Boss, we hear sumthin'!"
The Nob raises his hand and stops the fellow boyz.
From the hearing, there're heavy footsteps nearby. A squad of Necron Warriors advances before the Ork Nob without noticing them.
Gutz then says, "Well, Boyz, we'z now have some chopping to do! Let's go! WAAAAGGGHHHH!!"

Leading the series of Waaagh the Ork squad charges into the Necrons' ranks. The avanlache of Choppas knock out many of thw Warriors, while the Power Klaw finishes the job, laying the remains of the warriors around.
"Boss, our Burnas must have become rusty. We can't even kill anyone!" Dankaz shouted.
"It's not the Burnas' problem, it's yours, you stupid git! Now, let us leave these Metal Boyz alone."

But as they moves away, some of the Necron Warriors reknitted their bodies, and fires their Gauss Flayers upon the mob.
"HEY BOSS, WE'Z GET SHOT UP!" Stanz shouts at the leading Nob.
"DON'T YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT!?" The Nob roars and leads the charge again.
Both units exchange fire and blows again, until all the Warriors fall down once more.
As the dust is cleared, Gutz tells his boyz to move away. Preparing his Power Klaw, he tears those Warriors who're getting back up apart with ease.

As he returns to the mob he asks, "Alright boyz, are all of you alright?"
"Boss, Gargan and Pick are gone. Me and Tartot are hit but we're fine." Jeak replies.
"Bah. That's fine enough. Let's carry their body to somewhere else for burying. We Orks ain't goin' to be eaten by those inferior humies or such!"
Then the mob moves on.

the tales of Serious Mob: The First Duel

The mob continues their search of something valuable, but in the wasteland they can find nothing but scrap metals.

"Boss, look that this thing. It's a horn!" Kull grabs the horn on the ground and take it to Gutz. "It will become a nice decoration for ya boss!"
But Gutz throws that horn aside. "Nah, it stinks and doesn't fit my armour."
"Then perhaps you should stay here for good." A cold voice comes up nearby.
The turned, and sees a Chaos Aspiring Champion standing in front of a mob of Cultists.
"You talkin' to me, spikey humie?" Gutz asks the champion.
"I guess Chaos Gods will favour me more if I kill you."
"Hah! You dare to try? My Boyz will cut you and your men good!"
"Yes. And I sincerely offers you an one-on-one duel so that I claim glory over the gods. You know that, Ork?"
"How dare you! You think you can beat me alone?"
"I'm sure I can beat you. If you win, you can take over my clan. But if you lose, your followers will be mine."
The fellow Orks tremble with fear when they hears that.
"Boss, don't try that! You can't risk our lives!" Stanz shouted.
"Shut up, ya git! You think I can't handle this stinky humie alone? Give way!"
Then the Nob marches forward to face the champion.

Both side charges at each others at the same time, exchanging blows. The Klaw and the Sword swings around, hitting both of them for many times, and blood spills around them.
The Boyz and the Cultists watch the fight with fear, hoping their leaders won't lose in this fight.
At last, the champion swings his sword into Gutz' unprotected left arm and creates a deep cut. But the Nob also finds the champion's head is unprotected, and swings his Power Klaw at him, ripping the head off.

The Cultists are about to pledge their loyalty to their new leader after the champion is slain, but suddenly the Nob shouts a mighty WAAAGH! and leads his boyz to kill them all.
After the bloodshed, the Nob lays down to rest in exhausion.
"Boss, you alright?" Hoak asks their leader.
"Nah, I just need some rest. That spikey humie is just hard to fight against......"
Suddenly 3 Shoota Boyz show up in the rubble above the mob. This scares the mob and points their weapons to them, but the leading boy shouted: "Don't shoot! We 3 boyz are now following you, boss! You're the strongest around, so cna we come with you guyz?"
Gutz grins when he hears these words. "Ya, just come down and introduce yourselves to my mob."
The 3 Shoota Boyz are known as Rustiez, Yaupon and Basta and they're now the part of the mob.

But the Nob feels something strange.
"What's happenin' to my scars in these places?" He mutters."These seems not normal wounds......"

the tales of Serious Mob: The Second Encounter

The mob keeps moving on for their looting around.
"Boss, can ya tell us when we can go back to our camp?" Tatrot asks Gutz when they're passing a plain fill of junks.
"You better ask yourself when you can get good scraps to take back first, ya git! Stop speakin' and search!" Gutz replies and starts digging around with his claw.
After about an hour they can just find some scrap metals.
"You boyz 're all useless! These metals don't even have any uses for us!" Gutz scolds his fellow boyz for their inability to get something useful.
"So, boss, what should we do?" Yaupon asks.
But before the Nob answer, the ground itself seems shaking.
On the side of the forest neaby, 8 Boarboyz rush out and fire their Sluggas upon the mob, which fall 6 boyz.
"Eh! Drop those scraps for now boyz, we'z now goin' for fightin'! WAAAGH!" The Nob commands his mob and they prepares for battle, firing their weapons on one hand, preparing their choppas on another.

The exchange of fire drops 1 Boarboyz but the remaining are still able to reach the mob's line. Another 2 boyz were chopped up in the process, but the sheer number of the mob still gains an upper hand for the mob and chops up another 5 in the progress.
"Their 'eads will be a good thing for my trophy rack! WAAAGH!" Gutz shouted as he holds a Boarboy's head in his claw.
Seeing how the situation is, the survived 2 Boarboyz used their speed to withdraw, leaving the mob behind.

After some more time of searching the mob finally finds something useful in the junkyard: shattered pieces of some Big Gunz. Carrying these things with them the mob continues their journey, including the bodies of 3 dead comrades (Stanz, Jeak and Louba) with them.
Learned the experience of being ambushed, the mob now advance even more cautiously in the jungle, until they see an Orky Settlement.
"Oi! Open the door or I'll cut it open!" Gutz shouted at the gatekeeping Grots and they opens the door with fear.
As they walks in they see 2 familar Boars nearby, and soon they recognized that they're the ones who fought them before.
"Boss, if you want that we can give ya." A boy comes up to Gutz and said.
"Hah! Ain't you're the one who're riding these boars and fought us?" He shouts at him.
"Yeah, but since you've beaten us, 'The 8 Boar-Riders of the Jungle', I think we better follow you boss."
"Hmmm.....Not a bad idea. So what do ya got?" He follows the boy and asks as his fellow boyz start resting around.
"We've 5 Madboyz for ya boss."
"Ain't you have any Cyboars for us?"
"Sorry boss, but we have to keep those Cyboars to protect this place."
"Fine. Then tell those Madboyz to see me and give us some huts to rest. Send some boyz to here and tell my boss that Gutz need some Truuks to carry some stuff for him." Gutz says as he points at a place on his map.
"OK Boss, we'll do that."

The Mob then takes a rest in the settlement when the Nob is testing how good are the 5 new Madboyz (named Fanz, Mandz, Tunk, Cropa and Krup, all with Slugga and Choppa) in fighting. He also grabs some Frag Stikkbombz stored in the armoury.

the tales of Serious Mob: The Third Encounter

After some rests in the Feral Orks camp, transfers of some equipments and the dead bodies of the dead boyz, the mob moves out again for looting.
According to the camp's leader, in this jungle they're the only known Orks camp so it's pretty safe from any other Orks' attacks.

As they moves along the paths some of the boyz try to speak with the Madboyz but they doesn't seem talks too much.
"Guess, they're prettty mad in their own right so we better not to speak with 'em......"Dankaz said.
Then they see a plain ahead, with some strange creatures wandering around.
"What're they, you boyz?" Gutz asks Tunk and he replies, "Boss, those are Suranak as we called them, they're pretty like apes."
"I can see that, ya git......"As Gutz tries to finish the centence, they see the apes line up in formation facing them.
"Boss, they're preparin' to attack us!" Fanz shouts.
"I can see that! Boyz, line up and prepare to attack! WAAAGH!!"

Both sides rush at each other, with the Orks firing their weapons. Sluggas seem to drop one of them and hitting some others while the Burnas burn down a few more, but those Suranak keeps on charging and kicks down some of the boyz. However, the avalanche of Choppas remain steady and proves to be stronger, and all Suranaks are cut down. They then come to some rest and cleaning-up nearby.
"Hey Boss, we don't even have a chance to chop 'em up!" Those Burna Boyz and Madboyz protests at Gutz, but he replies: "Ain't I dun have that chance either? Now shut up and see what we can get 'round!"

As they clear the field they find that Buakz and Igantuk are gone, but Cartakz and Slipotseems to be fine.
However when they look at them close, along with Hoak, seems to be tougher than before.
"Hey, why're you growing stronger?"
"How do I know that? But it seems that we're capable to do some more fightin' than before, ha ha!"
Gutz comes to the mob and says, "Well you lucky gitz, you three seems to fit the rank among the Skarboyz. But, I'm still ya boss! Now move out and find more stuff!"
"OK, Boss!" The mob responds and they leaves the place with the dead bodies with them.

the tales of Serious Mob: The Fourth Encounter

After dealing with the Suranaks the mob continue their journey for looting.
"Boss, when can we take a break? We've walked for a long time!" Yaupon shouted as they had wandered for hours around without stopping.
"Shut up! You want me to kalw you ya git?" Gutz roared back at him.
"Nah, boss. You're da boss so we'll follow."

The mob then moves to a open ground.
"Well ya gitz, take your rest here. It seems that we all are safe for now." Gutz announced, and they're heading for some rrocks nearby.
But suddenly they stepped on some kind of soft ground and all of them falls into a pit underground. There're human and Ork skulls and skeletons all over the place.
"Uh, boss? We dun like these. It's horrible!" Bunna screams due to the horrifying scene.
"SHUT UP YA GROT! THERE'RE NOTHING AN ORK WILL FEAR!" Gutz once again shouted as if he's going to eat up Bunna.
"Uh, boss? He's no Ork, he's just a Grot!" Kickaz replied.
"Boss? There's sumthin' in da walls!" Fanz said.
Suddenly the "four walls" burst open. They're no walls, they're doors.

From a small voice of whisper to a noisy voice of warcry some Cultists charge out from all directions.
"Fire! FIRE! CHOP 'EM ALL!!" Gutz commanded and hurled the fellow boyz into the fight.
The initial exchange of fire drops some of the Cultists but their Laspistols also drop the Madboyz unconscious in the chaotic fire exchange. Meawhile the Burnas also burn some Cultists alive.
After firing their shots Gutz lead the charge by a roar of WAAAGH! and sticked into the Cultist mob. The Cultists are able to drop the less protected Yaupon, Dankaz and Lyboyz in the fight, but the chaotic bloodshed makes the Cultists are dropping like flies as Orks' Choppas lands upon them like arrows. Bunna also manages to knock a Cultist in the head and kills him.
As Gutz squeezes the body of the last Cultists into half all the Cultists are dead.

"Boyz! Line up and report!" He than roared to the surviving mob.
"Boss, All my mates are dead and only I live." Krup replied.
"The rest of the boyz seems are all fine, boss." Cartakz replied.
"Good, let's find the way outta here......"Just as Gutz said they hear further voices within the doors. Some mourning arouse and a mob of mutants staggering out from the doors.
"Oi! Boss, we dun like these stinky humies!" Mindaz shouted again.
"YOU WANT ME TO KLAW YOU EH? NOW PUT YOUR GUNS INTO FIGHT!"
The volume of fire and the Burnas dropped some mutants onto the floor. Facing these losses the mutants turned around and staggered back into the doors, which the slugga fire from behind drop a few more mutants as well.
Seeing the situation the mob bursts into laughter.
"Ha ha! You see that boss? We sent these humies into walkin'!" Krup laughed along with other boyz.
But their laughter are soon covered by the cry of "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!" and they realized that dangers aren't over yet.

From the doors burst out 8 Khrone Berzerkers and the prepared Orks fire their weapons, but only manages to drop one of them from their rank. Meanwhile Krup and Basta are hit by the Bolts and fall to the ground, however the mob don't have time to care about them and charges into the fight directly in the roar.
The Berzerkers fight their way to the Nob but is blocked by other boyz, so they decides to chop the fellow boyz first. In their warcry they knocked Yaupon and Dankaz aside to the walls, but then their armour can't bear too much of the Choppas' attacks and they fall down one by one. Bunna also manages to smash a Berzerker on the face and killign him.
In the wave of Orks the warcry of Khrone diminishes steadily and eventually no voice from them are heard.
The mob again shouted in joy, celebrating their victory as the fallen boyz also gets back up into their rank.
However some more footsteps are heard, and 6 Bloodletters come out.
"WHAT? WE STILL HAVE TO FIGHT 'EM?" Krup shouted once more.
"CARE NOT, WE ORKS WILL GOIN' TO FIGHT AND WIN! LET'S FIGHT, YOU BOYZ!! WAAAGH!!"

Even in exhausion the mob keeps on fighting by their single-minded thought of fighting.
They loaded up their guns and fire at the daemons, but most of the shots are passing through their bodies completely or blocked by their armour and only one daemon vanished upon being hit.
"How can they do that!? WE'S ALL GONNA DIE!" Bunna screamed out once more.
"SHUP UP OR I'LL CERTAINLY KLAW YA!"
The mob then charge into the 5 remaining Bloodletters, but the fight is even more difficult than those before.
"Hey! My Choppa hits the air instead of these monsters!"
"It's not just you! Mine too!"
These kinds of voices filled up the air, but the older boyz fear not and keep on fighting. The Skarboyz manages to chop up 2 daemons in the exchange of blows but at the same time Dankaz, Krup, Yaupon and Mindaz are knocked down by the great axes they hold.
The boyz started to stumble upon the might of the daemons as most of their attacks don't even have any effect against them, but Gutz himself cut 2 Bloodletters into half and hold the mob in fighting.
"I'LL CHOP UP WHO'Z RUNNIN'! NOW GET YOUR FEET INTO FIGHT!"
In the chaotic fight the last Bloodletter knocked out Kull as well, still the Orks hold their ground by parrying their attacks with the last daemon. They're all waiting for a chance.
But time is running out as the it strikes again and knock out Cartakz and Hoak and leaving the mob only a handful of orks capable of fighting.
"THE TIME IS NOW! WAAAGH!!"
Gutz roared and the boyz gives way to him, letting him to hit the Bloodletter by his Power Klaw and squeezes its head apart.
As the blow scores its kill all the Orks fall down due to exhausion.
"Well, boss, is it over?" Bunna asked.
"We better hope so. You boyz impress me in this fight." Gutz said.
Those injured Orks started to get back up but Krup and Yaupon didn't.
"Well, we lost 2 more. What should we do boss?" Kickaz asked as well.
"Um, we better find some Ork settelments around and transport these dead boyz to the main camp. But first......" The Nob replied, "......Who want to wear these humies' armour? They looks pretty shiny."
"Shiny? WAAAGH!!"
The rest of the Orks rushed at the dead bodies of the Marines and the armour left behind by Bloodletters, picking suitable bits for themselves.
"Hey, that's mine!"
"Drop it, ya git! I like this pad! Give it to me!"
As the shouting voices die out all the boyz looks weird as they all wear salvaged armour bits.
Gutz said to the mob, "Finished? Perhaps we should find our way out."
"But boss, it's too high for us to climb out, and these things are pretty heavy." Lyboyz said.
"Um......Then we have to walk through these doors."
"YOU SERIOUS BOSS! I AIN'T GOIN' IN THERE! IT'S DARK IN THERE!" The Grot screamed once more.
"YES! I MEAN IT! NOW MOVE YOUR LEGS AND START THE WALKING!"
Leading by Gutz, the mob then go through one of the doors and walked into a complex. It seems it's an underground mine.
What will be waiting ahead?

the tales of Serious Mob: The Fifth Encounter

The Mob travels out of the underground mine without much trouble. These indeed saves some weak-willed Orks from trouble.
Gutz takes some time to calculate who remains in his team.
For Slugga Boyz, only Mindaz, Kull and Tartot remains, along with the 3 Skarboyz (Slipot, Cartakz, Hoak), 3 Burna Boyz (Kickaz, 'Lyboyz and Dankaz), the Grot Bunna and 2 Shoota Boyz (Rustiez and Basta).
As they arrive in the surface they see a forest before them. But before they enter they see some Mutants they fought before staggering around.
"Boss, what should we do?"
"Just scare them away, you git!"
The Burna Boyz then raise their burnas and fire, forcing them back away from the fire, and the rest of the Boyz laughs again.
"Ha ha! You see that boss? They are sent walkin' once more!" Mindaz laughs again.
"Shut up! Now get your stuff and start moving!"

The mob slowly moves into the forest with caution. With such heavy losses they can't bear to lose some more men before they can get reinforcements.
"Boss, is it the right way?" Bunna asks.
"Yeah! I followed my boss to a settlement around this area. I won't be mistaken, since the trees are so familar!" Gutz replied.
"Let's hope so......" Kickaz said sliently but soon the Nob roars out: "I CAN HEAR THAT, YA GIT!"
As they walked for some time they all see a red flag hang in the sky.
"Yeah, that's the place!" The Nob said, and the mob moves faster as they prepare to enter the settlement, but very soon they hear something strange on their way.
"Huh, Boss? Why do ya stop?" Kull asks.
"Dun't you hear that? There'z sumthin around! Battle stations, you boyz!"
Soon enough there're Kroots dropping down, surrounding them.
"Boss, these Kroots are just tougher and greener than normal! What happened?" Bunna said.
"We care not, KILL THEM ALL! WAAAGH!!"
Thr Orks then fire their weapons, but the Sluggas fail to do much, just misses or bouncing off enemy bodies harmlessly, but the Burnas burn some Kroot alive. Both sides charge subsequently, exchanging blows with eahc other. While the more experienced Orks are able to chop down a lot of Kroots by their skills and strength, the Kroots use their advantage in numbers to knock down some Boyz in the progress. However they don't have time to rest even all the normal Kroots are dead, since there're still lots of Hounds and the Shaper around.

The fight lasts for very long and some more boyz are fallen, but the Kroots' numbers are also falling fast by the skills of the Orks. At last, when the Kroot Shaper remain all by himself, Gutz raises his Power Klaw and squeezes its body into half, winning the fight.
The survivors take some time for resting while some of the boyz stand up and join their rank again, but Basta, 'Lyboyz and Dankaz failed and are carried by the remaining boyz, along with the dead Shaper's.
After their short rest the mob moves to the door of the settlement, with Gutz knocking the door.
"Who'z there?" A guarding Ork Boy asks.
"Klan Krawler's boyz here! OPEN THE DOOR!"
"Why should I open the door?"
"BECAUSE I WILL BREAK THE DOOR IF YOU DON'T!" Gutz roared.
But the door keeps shut, however a small mob of Orks pass by with the leading Nob shouts: "Hey, ain't it Gutz over there? What're you doin here?"
"Kaz, long time no see, heh heh." Gutz replied. "Your boyz just don't open the door for me."
"Sorry, mate." Kaz shouts, "HEY, YOU! OPEN THE DOOR FOR ALL OF US!"
"OK, Boss." The Ork jumps down behind the door and opens it.

The Boyz are resting in the settlement while Gutz and Kaz are walking around.
"This Ork Settlement seems to be battered, ain't it?" Kaz said. "It's all because of those Ork Huntas......"
"Ork Huntas?"
"Yeah. Those are stronger Kroots than normal and kills lots of my boyz already. Oh, is Warboss Krawler Okay?"
"The Boss is fine. But I need some help, Kaz. My searching team are battered by numerous attacks as well and I need some more boyz to do my work."
"What work?"
"My Boss tell me to collect scraps around for our trading purposes. Perhaps I can depend on ya to transport these dead boyz' bodies and scrap armour back to the Boss' camp eh?"
"No problem, mate. But Gutz, to be honest, with those Kroot around, I can't spare you some boyz."
"If you mean it's the leader of those Kroot," Gutz throw out the corpse of the dead Shaper, "I think we killed em all."
Kaz stares at the body and shouts, "Nice job, Gutz. These should solve our problems for a while."
"So can I borrow you some boyz now?"
"Ha ha, no problem Gutz. We should thank you afterall."

As such, Gutz leave the dead bodies behind and take a way 8 Slugga Boyz (Clok, Rantz, Nat, Eclip, Tatos, Prad, Drosk and Varn) and a Burna Boy (Falz). Gutz also grab a Bossple like Kaz does to indicate he's the boss of his mob.
They then prepares to move out of the settlement.

[Sword_Monkey]

the Team

Grey Knight Brother Severus Dawn
-Storm Bolter
-Nemesis Force Halberd

Father Jack Finnegan or the Pervading Light
-Close Combat weapon(Knife)
-Power weapon

Veteran Sargeant Blake Marsden
-Shotgun
-Trademark item: Cigar

Acolyte Horatio Fawkes
-Hellgun

team additions

Sargeant Mike Vaughn

Faladon Keel of the Reformation of Light
-Bolt pistol
-Power sword

Grey Knight Justicar Arcturus
-Storm bolter
-Nemesis Force Halberd(Power weapon)

Grey Knight Brother Symphus
-Storm bolter
-Nemesis Force Halberd

Grey Knight Brother Tolarian
-Storm bolter
-Nemesis Force Halberd

deceased members

Grey Knight Brother Apotius
-Storm bolter
-Nemesis Force Halberd

Guards(wo)man 04 Amy Rose
-Flamer

4 Fire support guardsmen, split into teams of 2 Heavy Bolters;

Guardsman 06 Janus Regal
-Heavy bolter crew 01

Guardsman 07 Jeremiah Zeal
-Heavy bolter crew 01

Guardsman 08 Frankie Deloitte
-Heavy Bolter crew 02

Guardsman 09 Chark Domagne
-Heavy Bolter crew 02

Trooper Catrina Selsby
-Laspistol and ccw

Trooper Carmen Selsby
-Laspistol and ccw

Acolyte Errol Spencer
-Hellgun

Guardsmen 01 Angie Farnswaring
-Lasgun

Guardsmen 02 Russ Dosan
-Lasgun

Guardsman 03 Charlie 'Chalky' Andersen
-Lasgun

Guardsman 05 Dirk Pinter
-Lasgun

Grey Knight Brother Syzygy
-Storm bolter
-Nemesis Force Halberd

Grey Knight Brother Loqutus
-Storm bolter
-Nemesis Force Halberd

Grey Knight Brother Calvin
-Storm bolter
-Nemesis Force Halberd

---

Lefrost's team Vs the heretic scum!

The squad had been proceeding from its intial drop point on the outskirts of a city, into the city. It had been wrecked by war more than once, but this time the only things living inside were mutants and poor folks who couldn't leave.

Up ahead from the Knights and tag alongs was an old building, there was movement inside.

Severus paced forward, he had seen the cultists already, his prayers formed on his lips and the rest of his brothers simultaneously broke into prayer, this was the shrouding. Father Finnegan was somewhat later on the uptake but nonetheless he added his own strange brew of lyrics to the Shrouding Prayers. The cultists noticed the odd appearance of something, but nothing they could fix their heretical gaze on, they quickly took up covered positions in their small outbuilding on the outskirts of a grand city, this was their home, it had been their ancestors home in the Great Heresy too, know they followed in their footsteps, betraying the Emperor.

Sargeant Marsden and his girls followed closely behind, the two very resolute apprentices to Lord LeFrost quite at calm with the units first encounter with Chaos on this planet. They knew to stay behind the Knights when danger reared its mutated head, the Shrouding was very useful protection.

The cultists meanwhile were still quite suspicious of the odd sensation clouding their minds, what was even more disturbing was the odd word to be heard in the distance.

"....Burn....ith....zeal and....tear....earts....or the glor...of our eter...ather."

Father Finnegan's words weren't helping their stealthy headlong approach, but they certainly had other effects.

"These foul creatures know no good, their lies make them feel invicible, their eyes see only weakness, brothers it is time to show them the light of the Emperor, to show them their own bleeding chests and let them gaze in awe at our magnificence. Come now let us bring blade and bullet to our foes!"

Marsden moved his men around from the side of the Knights, the Acolytes respected his tactica and followed, their hellguns opening up immediately. The Knights, feeling the strange anger like no mere human can know, leapt forward their own Storm bolters churning round after round of blessed shells into the heretics, as they closed the heretics dispersed, but many were dead already.

Amongst the rubble were scattered many bodies, the unit paced toward and entered the building, incensed smoke clearing from the firing.

Then from the darkness of the building a Chaos Spawn leapt to Father Finnegan, cruel barbed pseudopods whipping out to strike at the old man's armour. In an instant Dawn was there, underneath the spawn, his body twisting, the two holy Nemesis blades glowing with his malice, he spun up and disembowlled the creature in one fell swoop. He rose to his monstrous height and looked back at the Father, quite content and flanked by the still squirming body of the spawn.

"Collect firewood and find some oil, after the Father has blessed the oil burn these heretics, we move off immediately after that."

Finnegan smiled and sat on one of the buildings sills, Fawkes and Spencer took to lookout duty, whilst the Selsby twins, Brother Syzygy and Brother Loqutus searched for the fuel. It was a menial task, but it had to be done.

Round 2 vs traitor scum!

By now the group had delved further into the dark city, a storm brewed overhead and as of yet they had encountered no further resistance, but the twins were cautious of the shadows.

Then things take an unexpected turn, Syszygy notices a figure up ahead, quite outnumbered by foul heretics. Dawn and his men immediately sprint forward, Father Finnegan trailing behind but screaming his divine preachings with a fiery zeal. Marsden and his men charged too.

Severus and his men did their best to reach the man and defend him from the assault of the giant marines, but to no avail he was struck down before Severus could put his blades before the deadly blow. Nonetheless they fought on as hard as they could, several knights falling to the ground with injuries before the foul ones were killed.

Loqutus shot down the final fleeing marine with his blessed bolts, ending the dire conflict.

Finnegan came to the dying man's side,

"How odd to see a man of the cloth in such a city." The man croaked, blood dripping from his mouth. Finnegan rested his head on his knees and tried to ease him.

"Everything is okay now brave citizen, you've shown true strength to hold back ten traitors like that, we'll call for aid, we'll have you healed."

"No, no time, something dark is at work in this city, darker than the sieges during the great heresy, you must seek it out father."

"What darkness, how do you know of this man?"

"That doesn't matter, find LeFrost."

"How do you know our Lord?"

"...*Splutter* Promise one last thing Father, my sword, promise to avenge me and all the fallen with my sword, tak-" And the man was gone, his life had passed away in one of the darkest depths of humanities lands.

Finnegan took up the sword himself, it crackled with power.

"...The Emperor weeps this day."

"Father the bodies, should we burn them?"

"No Time Dawn, no time, we must move faster, souls have been cast aside here, and soon daemons will be upon this place, we have to carry on." Finnegan looked around, the injured were all getting to their feet, they would go on.

As they moved off Fawkes and Spencer paused and looked at the dead man, they didn't recognise him, but they respected him.

"Finnegan knows best, this is his territory." Fawkes said to Spencer in a near whisper.

"He is a priest Fawkes, nothing more, so what if he commands the Knights, he is beginning to overstep that command, we must affirm ourselves."

"Wait brother, patience, Finnegan will slip. But we can't be seen to denounce him for the sake of it, he has the respect of those marines, and we don't. If LeFrost could see this desperate act of ours..."

They went silent as they caught up with the others, the march would be hard and relentless from here on in as they neared the city centre.

Round 3 vs mutie scum!

Finnegan walked through the streets of the city, flanked by his students, admiring the sword. Marsden was up ahead with the Selsby twins, Spencer and Fawkes, they were alot more strategic and careful in their advance, clearing each street corner, whilst the knights strolled forward with a sublime disregard.

Finnegan was ignoring the hybrid formation and scouting manouvre, completely taken in by the man's sacrifice early that day. This city was a deathtrap, but it hid amongst its blades and fires a golden heart, beating against the onslaught of Chaos.

"Father, up ahead, citizens, survivors!" Marsden called back, hushed, but quite confident.

Before Finnegan could answer Dawn interjected.

"No, not survivors, these creatures fell long ago, they are mutants."

"Then what should we do, there are at least two dozen of them. They haven't seen us yet, we coul-" Marsden said, but was cut off before he could finish.

"Burn the Heretic,...what comes after young sargeant?" Finnegan said, a fire of zeal warming in his voice and eyes.

"Kill the mutant, I understand Father, forgive me."

"Then I suggest we charge, may our prayers of shrouding shield us brothers, may our blessed weapons strengthen us brothers, may our faith bring us victory brothers." This little mantra of Finegan's was now growing in volume, the mutants had heard but not yet seen. "Burn the heretic, kill the mutant, purge the unclean!" Roared Finnegan in unison with his baritone battle brothers.

The Knights charged forward, Storm bolters hailing into the crowd of mutants, several were cut down immediately, and in response their swarm moved forward too. Spencer and Fawkes added their own helfire to the light show, Fawkes managing to kill a mutant in a single shot. moments later the pace picked up and everyone was in the firestorm, charging forth, more mutants fell, but their numbers were near endless in the chaos.

The two groups then clashed like a wave breaking against the shore, the knights stood firm and ripped into the mutants with their might halberds and Dawn's wristblades. Finnegan too carved his own path into the foul creatures, the sword swung true and clean, cleaving a mutant in half with ease. Marsden and his (wo)men joined the fray and delivered their strength into the enemy.

But then tragedy struck, Catrina was struck down by the enemy, falling limp to the ground, blood trickling from a jagged gash across her chest. The shock rippled through them all, the knights mercilessly began hacking into the remaining mutants, Syzygy was to free with his parries an blows, resuling in a deep scor across his arm, but he withdrew safely. Unfortunately for the others their fury wouldn't be so tempered, Spencer and Fawkes lashed out against the heretic freaks, and payed a dear cost, Spencer was slain outright on the spot, and Fawkes wounded trying to cover his ally. Carmen, her body shaking with sorrow cut into the last few stragglers and leapt onto one of the poor mutants, her anger knew no restrain and she thrashed the creature with the butt of her rifle until its head was but a pool of blood and mushed bone, but in her anger she had left herself open, and cut off from the others, the last remaining mutant struck from behind, completely by surprise and ended her life a bloody claw stabbed through her chest. Finnegan moved with unerring accuracy and beheaded the creature before it could retract its claw.

He sheathed the sword and stood amongst the carnage, Fawkes was barely standing and Syzygy's armour looked a mess. But the true cost had been the lives of three of the unit. Marsden knelt beside the sisters, pushing the mutant away and removing their dog tags morbidly.

A clattering of feet could be heard round the end of the next block. Six men rounded the corner, and the group readied for battle on their feet. But it was not enemies this time, but friends, six guardsmen.

"By Terra, Daemonhunters! If only you'd come a moment sooner, most of my platoon just fell to those bastards." Said the sargeant.

Finnegan glanced at the man, "I could say the same to you sargeant." He glanced back at the bedraggled bodies of his fallen comrades, truly a sad site, two sisters dead within moments of each other. "There can be no respite in war." He said as he walked on and past the guardsmen.

The knights followed, leaving Marsden and Fawkes to level with the Sargeant.

"Name soldier?" Asked Fawkes.

"Mike Vaughn sir, Cadian 112th sir." He replied.

"Consider you and your men requesitioned to Lord LeFrost's investigation unit as of now."

round 4 against xenos scum!

The group marched into the night with a rather more sombre feeling, as the heaven's opened on them. The new additions were awed by the towering giants, especially the crackling blades they bore, but it was hardly heartening to see an old downcast man leading the Emperor's finest soldiers.

It wasn't long into the night when the next disaster struck, something that would turn out to have less immediate consequence than first thought.

"Father, something lies round the next corner, too quiet to tell what..." Dawn spoke, the Knights suddenly becoming cautious.

As they rounded the corner of yet another clone of a city block they came face to face with alien warriors, Eldar! The rain bounced off the Knights armour, but slid gracefully, with no chaotic course off the fine mesh armour of the lithe figures in front of them.

"Turn back now Mon-keigh, this place slipped out of your grasp long ago, leave it to your elders to dispose of your mistakes." The lead figure said, in a sinister tone, rising from a crouch with supreme ease.

"Don't insult me xenos, you are trespassing into humanity's territories, you live under our rule whilst you do so. And it humanity's rule to execute filth like you on the spot, you should be turning back now, not us, charge!" Finnegan ordered, it was unusual for him to take time for such pointless rhetoric against the condemned, but it was his mood at that time.

The Knights stepped forward, too slow compared to the agile warriors before them who were already firing a hail of shuriken rounds. The warriors hit the Knights with grace and speed, but not to any great success. Many of the aliens wre cut down immediately. But as the Guardsmen joined the fray the chaos of the battle took its toll on the slower human mind, many fell, the aliens killing more and more even as their numbers dropped to none. When the abttle was over the Knights once again recovered from their light wounds, but half the nameless guardsmen had died, Sargeant Vaughn had two men left, Fawkes had barely survived yet again.

As the group consolidated another small group of guardsmen rounded the corner like before, this time hurrying along in the rain with two large weapons, heavy bolters.

"At last, Imperials, we're saved!" Cried one as they neared.

"Don't be so hasty in your search for salvation young one, we're headed into the maw of this beastly city, not away, and you'll be joining us. Seargeant Marsden you have some new men, get ready to move out again, this time we'll be hitting the city centre, we'll see whats in the square, and figure out something from there, I hope we find a lead soon."

The men organised themselves, Vaughn's men were even more bedraggled by now, they'd seen a combat with Finnegan, and understood how he felt, they lost half of their own survivors, this city was truly damned.

"Father, what are you thinking?" Dawn inquired as they set off ahead of the others.

"Eldar is what I am thinking, why are they here? What mess do they speak of? Why should we turn back? What did LeFrost find that he couldn't handle? Is our search in vain? Whatever the answers the xenos appearance is a dire warning, I ask you all to be on your guard at this time, every skirmish we hit has ever more dire meanings, a cult, a spawn, traitor marines, mutants, now xenos...what next? Psykers? This hell trap holds a vast secret, I'm sure the guardsmen know nothing of it, but its big." Finnegan answered.

They walked on into the inky blackness of the city's moonlit shadows, the rain pelting down on them, the least of their worries.

round 5 the sealing of the portal!

But it wasn’t two moments before Finnegan’s worries returned to him, ahead a strange lightshow was illuminating the street side, before them was an Eldar portal. But the portal was twisted and dark energy ebbed and flowed from it, it made the guardsmen feel sick as they approached. The portal had been corrupted by the malign influence of Chaos.

“Those arrogant fools! Look what they’ve done in coming here, and to think they’d lay the finger of blame on us! Quickly, secure the perimeter; I must shut this gateway down. Beware though, such a gate can only mean one thing, daemons!” Finnegan said, now reinvigorated with a daunting task.

The knights moved around Finnegan and the gateway, its sickly rainbow rays glinting off the bloodstained armour. Finnegan placed his hands on the gateway and began to chant, only to cause the gateway to glow around his hands; he looked as if in pain but knelt on the ground and kept going. Whatever it was he was doing it would take some time, and the flashes of light from the gateway revealed their foes, all too eager to wrest the gateway from their cold wet hands.

The guardsman hurried to their own positions as the creatures snaked and clambered through buildings and car wreckages to surround the Imperial force. The first to come to the fore is wave of furies, leaping from the rooftops nearby. As if in defiance of everything the heavens had thrown at them the Knights and Guardsmen fired up into the enemy, every single one being sent back to the warp before they could desecrate the defence lines with their forms.

Then without pause slavering spawns of chaos leapt from the shadows of a nearby alley, this time the staunch line of laser and bolt fire failed to down a single one and the knights met the charge, storming through the guardsmen in an offensive counter strike. The knights try as best as they can but the spawn’s attacks are simply too rampant and Syszgy is knocked down by the onslaught.

As the knights struggle with the spawn a group of Daemonettes throw their lithe and alluring forms into the mess. Fortunately Vaughn’s men are ready; their trusty lasrifles find their mark as well as the blessed flamer wiping out the foul creatures before they could even scratch a man. The knights struggle on and Loqutus fells one of the beasts only to have the favour returned and is impaled by a gnarled horn that somehow twists inside his body and rends him apart.

Nurglings curry from the wrecked rubble before the guardsmen and they try to find their targets, but before they know it the little critters are amongst the squad. The little devils are stomped on, stabbed and blasted at point blank range until only a few remain.

As the knights carry on their fight with the remaining spawn and the guardsmen clear the Nurglings out a pack of chaos hounds lope forward to swarm the guardsmen, but they soon turn their tails and flee as half of them are cut down by heavy bolter fire. Fawkes and the loyal flamer guardsman succumb to the pestilent bites and wounds inflicted by the Nurglings and fall.

A trio of mutants add their weight to the brawl and charge the heavy bolter team, wiping it out quickly and mercilessly, the guardsmen still struggle with the Nurglings, whose nasty bites claim Vaughn and Marsden. Calvin and Dawn carry on slashing at the spawn, but to no avail.

Behind all of this mess Finnegan rises from his position and intones one final word of the Emperor’s grace, the portal closes and the gateway glow with one final heaving breath of smoke, before it begins to crumble and turn to an ashen husk. He turns to see the Nurglings fade away, the spawn die off and the mutants fall to their knees wracked by the flare of energy, only to become new spawn. Finnegan raises his sword and charges with Calvin and Dawn by his side, they strike the fresh spawn with renewed vigour and claim two victims, only for the remaining one to claim Calvin’s life as he feeds off Calvin’s exposed chest. Dawn and Finnegan carry on regardless, reminding the last spawn that the fight is not over yet. In a near endless storm of blows, slashes, stabs and parries, Dawn is knocked down, leaving Finnegan to deliver the finishing blow to the last forsaken creature. As he does so an Inquisitor rounds the corner, backed up by four Grey Knights.

“LeFrost?” Finnegan manages as his chest heaves with pain.
“No Father, not Lefrost, I am Faladon Keel of the Reformation of Light, LeFrost trained me many years ago, now I’ve been called here at short notice with no reason. Can you shed any light on this dire city and the whereabouts of LeFrost?”

“I am afraid not Keel, I am here for the same reason, we are looking for our master too, we’ve made it this far and now wonder where else there is left to go.” Finnegan says as he helps Dawn to his feet, behind them the guardsmen who survived collect themselves and recover any weaponry they can.

“I know where else is left, this city hides much Father, the catacombs of Mejyt lie under this city. At least some form of underground structure, connected by sewers and caverns and all sorts of strange architecture. Our aerial scans showed nothing on the surface of interest, so we are heading there. I’d be more than happy to lend my aid to you in your search, since we have common goals.”

“Thank you Keel, your help will be greatly appreciated, as you can see we’ve seen our fair share so far.”

The two groups merged and walked on, as ever leaving the scene of death behind them, Marsden, Vaughn and Fawkes had survived another dance with death, but their men were growing thinner each time, and Marsden was running out of Cigars fast. All they could do was laugh to themselves as the Inquisition lured them into the maw of hell itself on this damned planet, in this grim city.

Let's change the style a tad.

round 6 sewer time

The sewers. Same old Imperial sewers, vast things, you could almost have pride in their construction if it weren't for the rot, rust, and stench. Finnegan hated it, his faith in the Emperor and humanity ended its anatomical end.

He was starting wish he'd never heard of this damned planet, the light of the Emperor had no reflection or reception here. He just intoned his prayers, it was as much a ploy to keep Keel from blathering on at him as well as its tactical use. Then as usual things took a change for the worse, the hawk eyed Grey knights spotted yet another Chaos incursion in the sewer, it at least confirmed Finnegan's theories of following the stench.

"Father, heretics." Dawn said, good old Dawn, the last of his trainees.

Finnegan continued his absent murmurings and drew his sword, notched with the death of the foul chaos forces. It crackled to life once more, alongside Keel's blade and those psychically charged of the knights. The guardsmen behind readied their lasrifles, which had until now been on a higher setting to provide a light source for the squad.

"Once more into the fray, eh father?" Keel asked, adorned by his mighty power armour.

"...Caudex, yes indeed Keel, yes indeed." Replied Finnegan, he really had grown to hate that bastard in a matter of mere hours. It was his air of superiority.

There were nearly two dozen cultists in amongst the pipes, even one swam in the sewer waters below. The exchange of fire saw that one soon sink and several others die. Finnegan and the others charged after the rest of the cultists who had turned tail and scarpered down into the abyssal tunnels. Finnegan knew they were just the vanguard of something much more sinister, it was in the air, a hair raising electricity, that tingle, it was almost...sensual.

"Slaaneshi..."Finnegan said to himself.

They entered a larger nexus of tubes and pipes, amongst which was a clean plinth of obsidian metal. Atop it a dark ritual was taking place by forsaken altar, the body of a poor woman lay on it, naked but twitching, it wouldn't be long until that twitch was killing Finnegan and his men, or rather Keel and his men.

This time the place was teeming with cultists, Finnegan hated them with a passion so strong it pained to have to share their deaths with Keel, the only thing better about that man was the damn armour, he had no other worth. But then Finnegan was forgetting his own blade, and the promise it carried.

"Foul Slaaneshi cult, you shall feel my blade this day, men charge, leave none alive!" Keel roared trying best emulate the deep voice of an astartes, whilst nearly striking a dynamic pose with one foot atop a hydrant. It sickened Finnegan.

His blade still cut true as he waded into the fight, and all around him it was a massacre of the evil bastards. Hardly any were left alive to cut and run by the end, and everyone was still standing. Finnegan could almost see a golden shaft pierce the heavens and sewers, but he knew hope didn't exist in the long run, the next challenge would impose itself just as fast as the last had been defeated.

The dank pipes swelled and sung with the sonic prelude to the next assault, Noise marines. Probably the least imaginative name Finnegan could think for these traitors, they didn't just make noise but god-emperor-awful noise. Finnegan would have to cut this opera short, charging immediately gun blazing besides the knights into a throbbing world of pain for the unhelmed old man.

He crashed into combat, the unwieldy weapons of the traitors giving him the advantage. He fought back sonicly too, at least that's what he would have jested about alter if he were in the mood, by the prayers he roared at the top of his voice, inciting the knights into even greater fits of fervent rage.

But the armoured traitors were quite the match for the knights and guardsmen in their armour and once the songs had subsided nearly half the knights were down and only the officers stood.

Finnegan blessed each body solemnly, his muscles aching. Over his shoulder Marsden stood, his last dying cigar in mouth, nearly brought to tears over the whole affair. Keel however was smiling.

"The purging of the enemy has never brought me such joy, everytime it feels better and better." He said as he wiped down his blade.

Finnegan just looked at the dead marines, their sacred genes, their bond with the Emperor and his hatred for Keel nearly boiled over. These young marines had given their lives like drones for that mere human, they were close to God than any of the others here, something Finnegan could only reach through prayer.

"We cannot go on like this Keel, we are on our last legs, there are no more last minute reinforcements round the next corner, we have to go back. We know there is something wrong down here and we can and will return but by the Emperor this is futile!" Finnegan said.

Keel's smile was wiped from his face. "I hear you old man, we'll withdraw, but my ship is in orbit I have more knights at my disposal, we shall return within the hour, do not fear."

Disposable? Was that what the knights were to him, mere fire and forget munitions to be expended as and when? If Keel didn't die by the end of this whole damned episode by chaos blades then it would be by Finnegan's own. He couldn't let that man have died in the darkness for the Emperor and let such useless tools of the inquisition run everything, nor could he let a so called student of LeFrost go on in such a way.

They trudged back through the tunnels leaving the carnage behind them this time, but they had sworn to return.

[TS_ahriman]

summary

Night Lords

Cult of the Ink
Without their primarch or the guiding force of any one powerful Chaotic entity, the Night Lords suffer from a severe lack of true organization and the Cult of the Ink is a direct response to that. Its numbers swell as more and more traitor marines willingly submit their bodies or minds to the service of a Chaotic manifestation known as the Living Ink, a daemon held within underground tanks that stretch for miles. In the final rite of Initiation, members are submerged for weeks within the body of the daemon, emerging as shadowy avatars of the Ink.

Possessed Raptors and daemons are much more common within the cult, and their raids almost always involve the capture and enslavement of hundreds of Imperial citizens to the will of the Ink.

With the guidance of the daemon, the Cult is emerging as a prominent force within the legion and has already begun spreading its influence beyond, leading it to Mejyt.

Intro By Dooks

"Kill my hated foe..." the words penetrated Raxas's mind, sliding down into his conciousness. When The Ink spoke it was not with audible words. It was more like a liquid feeling that oozed through his brain.

The feeling wasn't unpleasant, unless The Ink wished it to be. Then it became liquid fire, burning itself into Raxas' brain, guaranteeing absolute understanding, absolute obidience.

"Kill my hated foe, slaughter his followers, bath in their blood and let it turn black against your blessed skin."

"Take this, it is my very essence given form in your universe," The Ink extended a hand that was like black smoke. From it poured a substance so dark, to call it black would be akin to calling the fury at a stars heart mild.

It poured into the waiting reseptacle in Raxas' hand, the cloven skull of a dark saint who had slaughtered the populace of an entire planet in sacrifice to The Ink. He had proven his final dedication by sacrificing himself last of all. His reward had been to have his soul merged with that of a favored daemon of The Ink.

"Pour this my essence into the mouth of any fallen Marine and he will be possessed of one of my daemons. He need not be willing..."

Raxas turned and walked away. He would gather his men, there was work to be done.

The team

Jamrah the Shadowfiend
Possessed w/ Flight, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Bolt Pistol & CC weapon

Lucas, Initiate
Raptor w/ Flamer

Olipid, Initiate
Raptor w/ Bolt Pistol & CC weapon

Champion Raxas
Raptor Aspiring Champion w/ Bolt Pistol & Power Sword

3 Furies, Rk'thl, Tk'thl, *T'avil--deceased*

199 Points

*Karth*, Chaos space marine inducted in round 2 *as deceased as it gets*

5 LatD traitor guardsmen, 1 w/ plasma gun, inducted in round 3

---------------------------------

Fight 1

The firepower pouring from the compound was more than Raxas had planned for, but the sensor network they had stumbled into wasn't typical of useless, isolated guardsmen either. The opening volley had shredded one of their furies and a wicked shot from the base's autocannon had clipped Olipid's helmet, and now the entire Flight was pinned down. Raxas could see Olipid's body convulsing, the Ink taking charge and awakening the unconcious marine already.

In the dark of night Jamrah was barely visible even to Raxas' inhuman senses, a being of pure shadow and murderous intent.

"Let me go. Let me kill them myself. I am a God. Let me kill them myself! I am a God!"

And then he was gone, literally melting into the shadows. That had hardly been a request....

The autocannon fire that had marked the last few mintues suddenly subsided, and the Night Lord marines left cover in an instant and fired their jump packs, the momentum of the battle finally theirs. A wash of flame cleared an entire fireteam of the fools moments before it turned into a brutal melee. It was refreshing.

Raxas turned at the sound of a battlecry while he shook the gore from his steaming sword, smiling when he saw the seargent running at him with a glowing sword of his own. He looked almost heroic until Raxas shot him.

Fight 2

On the surface, the compound that had housed the Guardsmen was little to look at, and the Nights Lords didn’t plan to stay for long before continuing the pursuit of their objective. Jamrah however had been uneasy since the fight, and had stalked around the structure with a purpose probably known only to the Ink coursing through his body.

A crash finally heralded his discovery, an arching entranceway that had been disguised behind a concrete Imperial Aquila. Raxas still had no intention of delaying their mission, but the Ink suddenly became insistent and Raxas was given no choice but to obey the searing pain in his brain. The traitors descended, Raxas at the fore following a trail of candles and incense burners that had every sign of belonging to the Imperial Cult. The incense seemed to stir the Ink inside him and his vision became cloudy, but he forced the sensation down when he caught sight of the Inquisitor.

For a wrinkly old hack the Inquisitor was still impressive in his own way, though it probably had something to do with the elite stormtroopers guarding him. An array of wicked tools sprouted from his power armor, each of which seemed to have already been at work at the traitor marine pinned to the wall, and Raxas hoped for his sake that he had the favor of Slaanesh…the Inquisitor was being needlessly sadistic. The signal to kill was given without hesitation.

Ancient jump packs ignited, and the stormtroopers only managed an instinctive volley at the source of the noise before the Night Lords were upon them, ripping and tearing and howling with reckless abandon. The twilight of the chamber was punctuated by the sure, deadly rounds of close range bolt pistol shots and panicked hellgun rounds, but then also by a scream of pain as the Inquisitor clove Lucas almost in two with a glittering blade. By the Gods, the old man was quick. Raxas snapped the neck of the last stormtrooper and turned to face him, but with a flash and the characteristic *thump* of a teleportation device, the Inquisitor was gone. No style at all.

-----------------------

The Ink was hard at work at Lucas as they unfastened the stranger from the wall. Lucas’ wound bubbled and spat, and the marine was starting to move a little already. The same couldn’t be said for their new companion, who was still coping with a cocktail of toxins and nerve agents poured into him by the Inquisitor, no doubt in search of some valuable morsel of information. Raxas considered forcing the Ink upon him immediately, but thought better of it. No, the marine would survive, and he would serve the Ink readily enough even before his forced initiation. Better to save it for something a little more…satisfying.

Fight 3

Their new companion Karth was broken. He could function well enough, but whatever the Inquisitor had done to him was beyond even his Astartes limitations and his mind had folded in upon itself. He had proven useful regardless, hinting at a much larger compound to the south where he had been held for months before a new, more important guest of honor had arrived. Raxas and the Ink smiled together....somehow they knew that this was what they had been looking for. Karth just winced and tried not to look at his grim new 'friends'.
-----------------------------

The Night Lords descended from almost directly above the guards. Fast, they had to be fast for this. A timer counted down in Raxas' visor, a self-imposed time limit that should keep them from receiving a heavy response from Imperial forces. 19 minutes and the guards were messy heaps. Karth climbed up the wall to join them before they plunged head first into the compound.

The only sound was the chittering of the furies as they descended into the heavy brick hallways, slipping by guards and ducking sensors....and Raxas was from impressed. If this building really did house a living, breathing Psyker, a handful of jittery guardsmen was hardly sufficient to keep anyone out, especially his marines.

18 minutes and they had found a heavy door guarded by Ogryn. Poor man's astartes, more like, and the furies raced ahead to grab their attention. The Ogryn were quick enough and managed to keep the furies from overpowering them, but they were hardly prepared for Jamrah as his black, liquid body dripped down behind them like tar and ripped the throat out of one of the giants with his dripping claws. Raxas had to admire his style, and felt a little upstaged as he took the head off the other Ogryn. The door was next, and all thoughts of stealth had to be pushed aside in favor of pure brute strength. 17 minutes.

14 minutes and the door crashed down, revealing a hallways and a wall of angry storm troopers blocking their path. The Night Lords charged through the laser fire and dug in, punching and slicing and smashing. 13 minutes and his blood was finally starting to rise. The Ink buzzed in his brain, time slowed down, Raxas smiled a killer's smile. Time sped up and men died. Heavy bolter turrets popped out of the walls to coincide with a piercing alarm, and Raxas did what any level headed marine would do. He ran at them.

10 minutes and they had finished ripping the second gun from its housing. Raxas could feel that they were close. Resistance was getting heavier and the stench in the air smelled more and more of blood. He also noticed that Karth had gotten slower, less reliable….that wouldn’t do at all.

“Karth, you’ve got point.”

Inquisitor Jeliah had been the man torturing Karth. Raxas had never heard of him, though he hadn’t really kept up on current affairs in the first place. He wondered if the inquisitor was down here, only now realizing that he had only postponed his death by escaping their previous encounter. Ahead a door slip upwards slowly, and for a moment it seemed the inquisitor had been summoned just by thinking of him, but the reality turned out to be far more intimidating. An astartes in reflective silver terminator armor stepped out without pausing and made the sign of the aquila. Such a showboat. A mean, heavily armed showboat, and the Night Lords backed up, waiting for something to happen.

The terminator’s storm bolter barked and the brick floor rumbled as he charged, screaming and winding his enormous maul back as far as he could stretch. Everyone dodged away but Karth, who seemed frozen in place. How embarrassing. The battle was on though, and losing their third wheel suited them just fine. Jamrah was first, running bodily into the terminator only to be thrown off with terrifying strength. The maul came cashing down into Olipid’s knee next, and his armor bent at painful angles. The furies charged in however and managed to wrench the loyalists storm bolter from him, keeping his attention away from finishing a follow through strike. Jamrah, persistent as ever, shot out a black pseudopod and covered the terminator’s helmet before charging in again. Blinded, the terminator could only lash out wildly as they all tore his armor to pieces. How much time? 8 minutes. They rushed through the door the terminator had exited from.

There, chained to a chair in the middle of a cell sat the psyker. It wasn’t conceivable to untie what looked to be dozens of restraints, nor would it serve their own interests, so Raxas had Jamrah rip the chair from the ground and carry it with him. The psyker was blinded and gagged, meaning his protests weren’t much more than muffled ‘mmmmfs’. There were other cells, some of which held men covered in tattoos of Khornate worship, and they yelled at the Night Lords for their freedom. 6 minutes, well ahead of schedule, and they’d made a nice diversion on the way out. If they survived the ordeal, their freedom would cost them very little, only a change of masters. The psyker however…his freedom would cost him immeasurably.

Fight 4

They halted their escape an hour from the compound. The marines weren’t happy to pause with their mission so nearly completed, but the traitors were exhausted and Lucas needed a moment to break his leg back into a normal shape. There was no pursuit from the Imperials...the raptors had made certain of that in the most grisly way possible.

*kkkKkkkrrrsssh*
Lucas had his leg back the way he liked it, and the Ink flowed down through his skin and became the flesh and bone of his leg. It was a beautiful symbiosis of man of daemon. The traitors sat by themselves, catching their breath. They didn’t look particularly happy to be little more than armed slaves of their Astartes saviors, but Raxas had made it very clear that deserting was their least attractive option.

And then, as if to contradict that, the night was evaporated in a blinding white flash, leaving behind something the night lords had been hoping to avoid. A Deathwatch killteam, guns blazing.

The traitors died immediately, or at least most of them…they never should have separated themselves like that in the first place. A well placed volley of return fire dropped one of the loyalists, and then the space between the two teams was closed in an instant. The night lords had to stay mobile, stay airborne so that the superior equipment of the Deathwatch didn’t have a chance to come into effect. The flitted around, diving behind cover and reappearing somewhere else a moment later, but the Deathwatch were too disciplined and equipped to be effected. The pair of furies latched onto the helmet of the astartes with the heavy bolter, and his head came off even as another loyalist pummeled the daemons into shapeless lumps of flesh. Olipid took a bolter round to the chest and fell in a daze, only to land upon his attacker. Jamrah and Lucas fell to the lightning claws of the Veteran marine of the Deathwatch, but veteran or not, he clearly hadn’t heard of the Ink, as Jamrah was up moments later slaying yet another marine.

Raxas had hung back, hoping to form some sort of plan to deal with the difficult odds, but he regretted the decision when the Deathwatch made a break for their true objective. The psyker. Their psyker. That couldn’t be allowed to happen.

And then, something strange happened. Raxas felt his body convulse, as if his mind and flesh were vomiting all at once. His fallen brothers were also writhing as the Ink forced its entire essence from them and coalesced into a pure black sphere. It was in complete clarity that Raxas watched the ball fly of its own volition, crushing and breaking a marine in its path toward the psyker. It had to have its psyker, but fate was not with the daemon that day, the veteran and his captain vanishing with their prize and leaving the Ink to flail around in frustration.

Raxas didn’t know if he wanted it back. He hadn’t been able to think clearly for years, hadn’t been allowed, and now he had been given a taste of freedom again. Too late however. The Ink was weak without its human shells, and it dove back into its hosts through mouths and ears and noses. His mind was no longer his own.

‘They’ve taken our psyker,’ they thought, ‘and it’s all our fault, Raxas. We’ve failed me, and we know what that means.’

Hours of pain, white and black and red.

[MooFreaky]

The Kabal of the Shattered Skull
-=Dark Eldar Kill Team=-

Kill Team Composition

Succubus Straal wielding an Agoniser
2 x Wyches with Wych Weapons (Yrr & T'ssl)

2 x Dark Eldar Warriors wielding Dark Lances (Vexx & Lithtiir)
2 x Dark Eldar Warriors wielding a Splinter Cannon (Korbiat & M'assit)

Beast Master (Gorgat)
3 x Warp Beast (Fluffy, Grr! & Tiger)

2 x Mandrakes

Incubus

Tau Devilfish

Prologue

Ref : Inquisition/01152431007/GW
Author : Lukas Rizion
Title : Report on the Kabal of the Shattered Skull

Recent 'interviews' with captured Dark Eldar prisoners has provided me with some information that may prove useful in our actions on Mejyt.

While these prisoners, much like their Craftworld kin, prove inconcievably difficult to interrogate, they have let slip some information regarding a certain Kabal that may prove of interest.
The Kabal of the Shattered Skull, as they are known under official title, have a history that is baffling and one which I personally feel to be completely improbable.
Apparantly they control no territory within the city of Commoragh, and apparantly do not seek to gain direct power. This, of course, is completely ridiculous as AdMech dogma has proved that all these foul Xenos are obsessed with personal power and glory. This has served us well for thousands of years. Are we to say that our forefathers, who provided us this information, are fools?

These prisoners claim the Dark Eldar themselves cannot agree up the existence of this Kabal. Apparantly, so it is said, they operate in the shadows, working for a handful of the most powerful Archons within Commoragh, acting as a combination of intelligence, assassasins, secret police and other such duties. Of course, I would assume it is not cheap to contract such a force.

The prisoners claim that most inhabitants of the Dark City pass this Kabal off simply as a legend that has built up over time. Yet their name is still only whispered, as even the staunchest of skeptics has an underlying fear of bringing about their wrath. It is said that they will come for any that say the name too loud. For this Kabal brings death to all in their path. They are feared by all, ally to no-one and masters of death and destruction.

It is clear to me that these ramblings are little more than a myth and nightmare of a depraved and crazed society. However, my colleagues feel it is important to report these findings, as it was all we could extract from these prisoners before they expired.

Why they would willingly reveal this information is beyond me;
however, I must admit they seemed almost happy to tell us this information as if it gave them sadistic joy. They enjoyed telling us of what we would encounter should we continue with operations on the planet. Obviously they do not understand the determination of the Emperor's charges. We will not be scared so easily.

However, I digress. Surely this is not but ramblings attempting to distract, and potentially disrup our operations in the Mejyt system.

--- End Transmission ---

Planetfall

Planetfall

Straal stepped forth from the webway gate and surveyed her surroundings. They had arrived in the center of what used to be a massive city square. Layers of dust clothed everything, broken massonry, dilapidated statures...piles of bones.

On silent feet the rest of his team came forward, eager to begin the search, eager to begin the killing... and they were masters of such things.

Their initial payment in slaves had been just enough to slake their bloodlust... for the time being. But if they succeeded in their task the rewards would be almost endless.

All they had to do was find an ancient webway gate that might not even exist. If it was here though, Straal would find it and in doing so unlock a path that had been closed for long millenia. Why it had been closed, she did not care. These were the things for the Archons to debate in the Great Chamer. And Straal cared little for politics. She knew all she needed, and that was she was tasked with finding the Portal. She knew where it lead, she knew what it offered. She knew her Kabal would be the first to reach the countless, defenseless Imperial worlds that lay on the other end. Once she found the gate it would be reopened, and the Great Reaping could begin!

Straal wasn't naive enough to think she was the only one seeking the ancient portal. There would be dozens of teams scouring this pathetic planet, and she had no second though about dealing with them appropriately. No-one would get in her way, be they Imperial, Ork, Craftworld or their own kin.

A sly grin crossed her thin lips. This will be fun.

Fight I

Ambushed

Straal glided silently through the streets, her feet just barely impacting the ground. Just as swiftly, and just as silently, her team moved through the city's ruins in their search for the ancient Webway Gate.
A sudden noise up ahead caused the entire team stop dead. Straal scanned the road and nearby buildings using her keen Eldar senses to detect any life, any threat... any slaves.

The buildings were either crumbling or completely destroyed. Debris was everywhere and craters marred the streets. Straal moved from behind the remains of the vehicle which she was used to take cover, taking in her entire surroundings. Nothing.
But something seemed wrong. She could just feel it in her bones. She shuddered.

She looked to her left, signalled then repeated it to the right. She was giving instructions to her Warriors, two of whom flanked each side. Even she could not see them, as they had concealed themselves expertly; however, she knew exactly where they were. Her neural implants, which came at no small cost, meant she knew the exact location of all her team. Almost all. The Incubus was a recent addition to her force and had refused to have an implant.
But that was unimportant, that fool had dissappeared shortly after their arrival. A deserter. Just her luck to be the one leading the first ever Incubi deserter. She'd never hear the end of it. She allowed a brief smile while she considered the pain he would suffer for his cowardice. She would not let it end quickly.

Slowly she moved onto the road, her long, slender legs inching her forward in complete silence. She could see her fellow Wyches moving with her, two on the left and one on the right.
Something was wrong. She couldn't shake the feeling. She shuddered again.

A large crash behind her was the only warning anyone had that the fight had begun. Several large pieces of debris, including a massive statue, came tumbling from the ruined building as a number of Tyranid organisms came barging over the top. The Tyranids were upon the Wyches in a flash, Straal was momentarily taken back by their speed. The first Tyranid launched itself forward, talons raised and ready to strike. A slight side step and the creature crashed into the ground behind her. Before the beast could get back to its feet she had ripped its head from its body. Her agoniser blades easily ripping through the Tyranid beast's flesh and bone.

The rest of the Tyranids approached with haste, but a deadly cross fire covered Straal and her Wyches, as Splinter Cannons opened fire from either side. The mass of bullets they were producing was more than enough to deal with the Tyranids; their bodies were torn apart by the deadly Eldar weapons.

Even Straal didn't hear the Genestealer approach. She heard a hiss and turned to face her assailant. Despite her immense speed, she was in no position to defend herself. The creature was too fast. Scarily fast. The Genestealer's claws lunged forward and Straal awaited her death. It never came. It took a moment for Straal to realise what had happened... The Incubus had saved her life! He had arrived even more silently than the Genestealer, and suprised both of them. His Punisher had cut the Tyranid's arms at the elbows, easily carving them from the beast and saving her life. The Incubus then turned and cleft the Genestealers head off in one swift, powerful stroke.

Silently he turned and faced Straal. The two green orbs where his eyes should be stared blankly at her. It felt like he was delving inside her, looking into her very soul. He bowed then turned and walked away.
She shuddered. Then signalled for the team to proceed.

Fight II

Things to Come

Fight II

A cool breeze blew in through the windows, stirring the dust that covered everything within the dank, poorly lit room. Then there was nothing. No movement, no sound, nothing.
The massive room was perfectly square, with row after row of seating encompassing a small center stage.
The long pews were excessively thick and heavy, however still possessed incredibly intricate patterns, painstakingly carved into the black stone.
They provided amble cover for the Dark Eldar warriors, who had taken up ambush position within the room's borders. They had been stalking the Kroot for over days and they knew that the two forces were about to come to blows. Every night the Kroot located a safe haven to rest in, then signalled to the Tau Hunter Cadre their location. They had chased them into this building, and Straal knew this room would be passed through as the Kroot moved toward the top floor. Every day they camped in the tallest building avaiable, apparantly to give them firing position over any enemy that may move into the vacinity.
Just as she had predicted the Kroot had come, and now they were just outside the hulking, double door that lead into the trap.
A single kroot moved through the door, ever so slowly, stopped and crouched. Softly it sniffed the air, its head twitching from side to side like a bird. Gradually it got to its feet and moved forward, down the isle between the pews.
Behind it came the rest of the squad.
As soon as 10 had moved through the door the trap was sprung.
It took less than a second, Straal had lunged at the kroot in the isle, slashing his throat and dragging him into the rows of seating.
The Incubus had dropped down from his hiding place above the door and immediately began to cut down the Kroot who had just passed through the door. Every swing saw his ancient weapon performing a killing blow.
A single Wych moved to block the door, her inhuman agility and her decades of experience meant she easily dealt with the Kroot trying to press in and help their comrades. The heavy stone door meant they were being forced through one at a time, making her job extremely easy.

The Kroot in the room had immediately opened fire, randomly and in every direction, the moment the first had been killed.
Their shots painted holes in the surrounding pews, but Straal was uncertain if they had actually hit anyone. They weren't even aiming, simply firing wherever they were facing.
The same cannot be said of the Eldar guns, who's deadly salvos cut down several of the kroot with ease.
A warp beast rushed past her position and threw itself forward. Straal laughed to herself as she heard the chirps of a startled kroot, followed by sound of bones being crushed.

Silence gripped the massive room yet again. Straal and her comrades moved from their positions and examined the dead.
Straal had already looted the corpse of her kill, taking his communication device. He had deliberately been taken first, preventing it from destroying this valuable piece of technology. He had also not been killed instantly. Straal stood over him now, the wound across his throat oozing dark blood down his neck and onto his chest then to the floor.
Straal's delicate fingers clutched a long, thin rod which was pointed at one end. With a single thrust the device pierced the creature's skull and penetrated the brain. Wires extended from the other end, and they were attatched to a second device, which had been placed around Straal's head. The wires began to glow, as did the sly smile across her face. Picking up the device she had taken earlier she pressed a combination of buttons, a combination she had taken from the mind of this pathetic creature.
Soon the Tau would be here. While there were far more of them than there were of the Kroot, they would be defenseless within the maze of rooms and corridors inside this building. The first slaves would be taken.
She laughed to herself, then thrust the rod further into the Kroot's skull, finally killing it.

Epilogue to 'Fight II'

Things that Came

Epilogue to 'Fight II'

The Tau had come, just as planned. Fourty Tau had entered the labarynth of corridors and stairwells, none escaped... Even the deadly Stealth Suits had been destroyed.
They had entered cautiously, 5 man teams swept through the building. Moving methodically they progressed up several floors before the Dark Eldar had struck. In one sweep they would pick off one squad, then reposition and ready for another attack.
They had split into four groups, the Warriors stuck together, as did the three Wyches, while Straal and the Beastmaster made up the third group. The Incubus worked alone.
Before the Tau knew what was going on half their number were gone. Fear found its way into their hearts and panic ensued. Three of the squads formed up and tried to retreat, while the fourth fled blindly, attempting to escape as quickly as possible. Instead they were met by the Incubus, who slashed his way through them without resistance.

The remainder had tried to hold out in a small, single enterance room on the 10th floor. They even managed to kill Zranth, one of the warriors, who arrogantly entered the room without caution.
When the Wyches came crashing through the large stain-glass windows behind them slaughter was all but ineviatable. Despite the Wyches combat superiority Flont was killed. A loss Straal considerd disastrous.

The Tau were no longer warriors, they were now prisoners. 32 of their number were taken, 12 killed, including the three Stealth Suits destroyed by Dark Lance fire.
Straal had opened a portal to one of the many slave pens, hidden within the webway, that her Kabal possessed. A number of heavily armed Warriors, and a grotesque looking Haemonculus, stepped through and, without a word spoken, guided the prisoners through the portal.

Strall looked toward the Haemonculus "Tell Lord M'ssn that things progress well. We have not found the Webway's location yet, however, our primary objective progresses well. As you can see.
These pathetic lifeforms gave up vital information as to the suspected location. And I will kill every Tau on this planet if that is that required. The Ethereal will be ours."
The creature gave a firm nod, then flicked his right hand. Three Warriors stepped forward and and stood before Straal, re-enforcements.
The Haemonculus turned and walked through the swirling portal.

Fight III

Ambushed... again!

Fight III

Suddenly the air was still. Straal paused for a moment, not even bothering to shift her long hair, which covered her face. She exhaled deeply, greatly relieved to be away from the vile Haemonculus. She hated those foul creatures, and there presence made her stomach churn.
With a flick of her head her hair was back behind her head.
Without warning two of her new warriors had their torsos explode.
The kill team went to ground immediately, and began to scan the area.
Two more Warriors fell before the enemy was spotted. Straal saw them in the distance. The air blurred as they moved, their bulky shapes moved in tight formation, repositioning to flank the kill team. Stealth Suits.

A single hand signal and the remaining Warriors opened fire, forcing the Stealth Suits to take evasive maneuvers. The rest of the team used the opportunity to sprint to the nearest stairwell and evacuate the roof.
The Warriors continued to lay down supressing fire until another door, on the other side of the roof, blew open and the Wyches moved back into the fight.
The Suits we not where expected, leaving Straal and her Wyches dangerously exposed. Fortunately Gorgat and his Warpbeasts had exited a third stairwell and ploughed straight into the Tau suits. Gorgat sunk his gloved hand into the chest of the closest suit, and activated the energy source. Elictricity jolted through the Stealth Suit and the pilot's screams were clearly audible over the sounds of the progressing skirmish.
Fluffy and Spot, Gorgat's much loved beasts, hammered the remaining Suits, but failed to break through their heavy armour.
The riposte saw the two beasts fall.

Gorgat's screams of distress rose above that of even his Tau victim, who was still attatched to his Agoniser. The elictricity stopped flowing from his foul weapon and he charged forward, slashing his gloved hand at his enemy. No electricity flowed, however its claws were more than sharp enough to rip through the armour of the Tau. The three Tau warriors fell to the ground and then the electricity began to flow again. The Tau screams went through the entire night. Vengeance would silence his pain, for now.

Fight IV

Revenge!

Fight IV

Straal shuddered. She knew they were being followed, they had been for the last several days. However, she had been unable to capture, or even locate, whoever was following. She was certain it was not any Tau, their awkward suits may have possessed stealth technology but they were hardly inconspicuous. And the Tau were no match for her team's skill, their pathetic race was no match for the nigh immortal Eldar. Perhaps she was simply losing her mind. Or perhaps-

Her thoughts were cut off by the voice of one of her Warriors.
"Succubus. We have located a Tau force ahead, it appears a squad of Pathfinders are meeting with a Kroot force."
There was a moment of silence as Straal considered this information. She looked off into the distance, her cold eyes seemigly glaring at the horizon as if to intimidate the sky.

"Obviously there is some exchange of information going on here. Perhaps these Tau scouts can be, encouraged, to pass this information on to us also.
Prepare the team. We move out immediately."

The Eldar force moved through the dense jungle with unbelievable speed, but also in complete silence. The Tau would never know what hit them, even the bird like Kroot were no match for the Dark Eldar. This would be short and sweet. Taking the Tau prisoner was vital, however, the Kroot were insignificant. The Tau may have information on the location of the Ethereal and this was vital to the current objective of the Kill Team.
Why her master wanted this Ethereal so badly Straal did not know. She didn't need to. Her mission was to bring it in alive, and that is what she would do.

Almost all creatures would have thought the jungle was competely normal. There was no sign of any sentient creature, be they Tau, Eldar or Kroot. The creatures of the jungle chirped and went about their lives completely unaware that two enemy forces were going about their duties in almost complete invisibility.
Any lesser beings would not have located the meeting point of the Pathfinders and the Kroot. But the Eldar are not average beings, not only had they located it, they had prepared to ambush them.
Hidden in the jungle's mass of vegetation the Kroot and Pathfinders were hidden, communicating in complete silence, completely confident that they could not be discovered.
A dozen Kroot were positioned in the canopy, keeping a sharp eye on their surroundings. Even they, who possess tremendous senses, did not notice the Dark Eldar force.

The jungle suddenly erupted into action. The splinter cannons opened fire, raking the jungle canpoy and the Kroot hidden within. Half a dozen fell from the trees and crashed into the ground uncerimoniously. Dark Lance fire soon followed, but instead of aiming for the Kroot they were aimed at the tree trunks, blowing them apart. Trees fell and Kroot scampered to safety, unable to counter attack the oncoming Eldar.
The Warp Beasts rushed through the undergrowth and launched themselves upon the Kroot as they fell from the trees, ripping them apart before they could even react.
The Pathfinders were quickly disarmed and brought to their knees by Straal and her Wyches.

Without warning the Kill Team was under fire and forced to take cover. A second team of pathfinders had arrived, backed by an indiscernable number of Firewarriors.
As suddenly as it began the gunfire stopped. Straal slowly emerged from behind the massive roots stemming from the nearby trees. Ahead of her the Tau lay sprawled on the ground, blood covered the ground and was spattered over the surrounding foliage. Hunched over the bodies was a shadowy figure, slowly wiping the blood from his blades.
Straal shuddered. Mandrakes. Clearly it was they who had been following her force, definately sent by her master.
The questions surrounding this Ethereal suddenly became foremost in her mind. Why was the Tau so important as to deal with the vile Mandrakes? What made this creature so important?
For the first time Straal had questions. What was the real agenda here?

Fight V

En Route

Fight V

The low, unceasing hum of the skimmer's engines began to grate on Staal's mind. Just having to use these pathetic vehicles was a disgrace. Having to lower themselves to the level of these pathetic beings was digusting; however, Straal knew it was vital to their mission.
The Pathfinder's her team had ambushed had parked their transports nearby and taken time to conceal them in the jungle. While this pathetic attempt may have been of some use against the equally pathetic humans, it was a futile activity against the Eldar kin.

From the survivers Straal had extracted the location of a sectret Tau base. They would know where the Ethereal was, or they may even have it in their possession.
She also extracted the codes to gain entry to the base, and finally she extracted the Tau's soul.

The two Devilfish toddled over the treetops at frustratingly low pace. While these vehicles may have been fast for the Tau, they were infuriatingly slow for the Dark Eldar who were used to the far superior speed of the Raiders.
Straal piloted one vehicle, while Korbiat piloted the second. Everyone else sat impatiently in the troop holds, growing increasingly frustrated at the situation with every passing minute.
Suddenly the radio crackled and a stern voice spoke to them in the Tau's awkward language.
They knew what they were asking, the Tau wanted their Identification Codes, proof of who they claimed to be. Clearly this secret base was real.
Straal hadn't thought to get this information and cursed herself for being so dense.
Four Tau aircraft pulled up behind the Devilfish and fell into an escort position that was still highly aggressive. If the ID codes were not presented soon, they would shoot the Devilfish down.

Straal opened the comm channel and spoke in a calm, precise voice.
"Man" (the Eldar word for 'Die')
The Devilfish opened fire with their primative Burst Cannons, raking the Tetras with laser fire. Three of the fragile aircraft burst into flame and fell into the mat of green below.
The final Tetra, jinked wildly and dropped to within inches of the canopy. Both Straal and Korbiat followed suit, not wanting to expose the underbellies of the Skimmer to the Tau pilot.
Unfortunately, before they could get down the Tetra opened fire at the exposed skimmers, shredding the Korbiat's engines and ripping a hole in the floor of the troop bay. Straal watched as a pair of bodies flew from the hole, one of them crashed into the Tetra, leaving a deep purple blood stain on its hull.
The Devilfish went into a flat spin, burning debris flying off in all directions. It crashed into the canopy, wedging itself in the branches.

M'assit got to his feet and yelled "Bry deash!"
Straal turned, looked at the Warrior and was about to launch a hail of abuse at his command, afterall this was her team and he should do what he is told.
Instead she nodded once and turned to the control panel and hit a series of buttons.
A warning light lit up on the control panel, which she comletely ignored. Finally, with one final button she had overridden the controls and the rear hatch opened. With a hiss the armoured door move away, opening the craft to the environment. Despite the heavy wind swirl M'assit walked to the opening with no harness to speak of, stood firm and took aim with his Splinter Cannon. A single volley was loosed at the Tetra, who was more than a little suprised at what he was seeing. The deadly splinters pierced the cockpit as well as the Tau pilot, leaving the aircraft to fly itself. The vehicle began a long, slow arc until it crashed into the jungle canopy with a grand explosion.
The hatch closed and Straal turned the skimmer around and headed back toward the other Devilfish so they could rescue any survivers.

[Rastani Helios]

Hive Fleet Jormungand
Hunter-Killer Force.

All stories in this post written by myself are fictional stories derived, without permission, upon the Warhammer intellectual property owned by Games Workshop Ltd.
This work is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited.
This text is a work of fiction based in the fictional Warhammer Intellectual Property owned by Games Workshop Ltd.

the Hunter-Killer Force

THE HUNTER-KILLER FORCE
At current (presuming my calculations are correct)-

Lictor
Six Genestealers with Extended Carapace, Toxin Sacs and Scything Talons
---

the prologue to the Invasion of Mejyt

THE INVASION OF MEJYT
The grotesque Lictor raised its' head to the sky, moisture giving its deep blue exoskeleton and crimson chitinous armour a glistening sheen. Its' feeder tendrils quivered, sensing the air about it. Images and memory flooded its mind, and in an instant, the lurking Genestealers about it became aware of what the Lictor was aware of, knew what it knew.

The billions of thoughts that coalesced into the Hive Mind changed pattern. One That Has Mind had been here, though some time in the past, yet there were always prey-things around to defend it. Occasionally they differed, though the Hive Mind cared not. It knew that if the Fleet were to prosper, One That Has Mind had to be stopped. One That Has Mind, and its' ability to disrupt the synaptic pathways of the Hive Mind, though minor, had to be removed from the prey before it could be utilised. Then the prey-world would be consumed, and the Hive Fleet would grow strong. And this time, the situation had to be handled delicately.

That was their sole purpose at this time, and why One Who Leads had been sent to this prey-world. While the prey-races may have known it as a Broodlord, those Tyranids of its' Fleet knew it at a much deeper level. A memory, an action, a scent. One Who Leads.
The Lictor withdrew itself back into the jungle foliage, to the Brood-nest. The hunt would continue.
---

the First Hunt: Hive Fleet Jormungand Fight 1

THE FIRST HUNT
Well blended into the ancient greys of the ceiling, none noticed the Lictor as chaos ensued below. Prey-unlike-prey, the unusually metallic ones, assaulted the Hive of the fleshy pale things, though not a large, or well-defended, one. The Hive Mind knew not why the Metal Ones fought the Ones of Flesh, only that the Hive was being denied its prize.

The currents of the Hive Mind shifted, and haste sought. Prey was being taken, and the Metal Ones could grow strong. As the skirmish was fought below, the Lictor dropped from its' concealment, rending apart the slow, deliberate-moving Necron Warrior unfortunate enough to be below it. The creature sensed brief relief, and confusion, from the Ones of Flesh whose lives it had saved, though these emotions were short-lived as the Lictor slashed its' way through those not of the Hive indiscriminately.

At a stir of frenzied thoughts Genestealers burst from concealment, spreading destruction and panic throughout the battle they had interrputed. The Metal Ones turned to contest themselves against a more dangerous foe than the small prey-Hive, though the swift Genestealers gave them little chance, and in a moment, the battle passed.

As the Metal Ones disappeared, the Lictor raised its tentacled head to the night sky once again. One who has Mind had been here, though long before the attack. Before more armed prey could be mustered, the Tyranids disappeared back into the shadows.
---

the Hive Grows: Hive Fleet Jormungand Fight 2

THE HIVE GROWS
Genestealers scuttled through the shadows of yet another small prey-Hive, though this one was strangely empty. The occasional body was found, prey that had already been contested and defeated. Why the hunter would leave their prey undefended and practically in the open as this, the Hive Mind could not identify with. Easy prey for the Hive Fleet in such a manner as this, however, did cause tension and wariness amongst the Tyranids.

The Genestealers detected a pheromone trail left by the Lictor, and gathered toward it. It too sensed the Hive Mind's suspicions and began the process of bolstering the forces' numbers. The Lictor was aware of other Tyranids in the vicinity of the deserted prey-Hive, and their movements as they too followed the Lictor's sensory footprints. It seemed that there could only be much other Prey here on this prey-world, other than the Ones of Flesh and the Metal Ones. Danger, to the Brood Hive, to the undertaking of harvesting the prey-world. And the danger that should they fail, One That Has Mind could escape, and then the prey would become stronger. The imperatives of the Hive Mind shifted.

Grow.

If the Brood Hive were to remain, and to become strong, there must be growth. Then One That Has Mind can be removed, and the prey-world harvested. Then the fleet would be stronger.

Suddenly, directly in front of the positions between prey-structures held by the Genestealers, a gateway of energy pierced the night sky on the tarmac, and prey poured out. As if they knew where the Tyranids were they opened fire without hesitation. Their positions discovered, Genestealers poured out of the shadows, claws clutching for prey. The Lictor felt three fall to the slivers of splinter-fire as it too charged towards its' prey, also being wounded in the process. However, it reached the lines of the prey with the remaining Genestealers. Catching one of the prey-creatures with deadly scythed talons, the Lictor's feeder tendrils quickly analysed its' preys' physiology. They were similar to the Ones of Mindpower, the 'Eldar', though not quite identical. The Hive Mind decided that such prey had been fought before, and knew them as the Ones of Dark Mindpower.

In an instant the Genestealers knew of their prey and tore through their defences, killing four of the remaining Ones of Dark Mindpower. A stronger creature, the Lictor itself tore through another three. Only one remaining, the prey-creature attempted to flee, though with a mighty leap the Lictor landed upon it, crushing it. And then, was it over.

The Lictor knew it would recover from its' wounds, and would hunt again. As for the three Genestealers caught by the fire of the Ones of Dark Mindpower, they joined their prey and would continue to strengthen the Fleet. The Hive Mind rippled with knowledge. It understood the threat posed by prey with ranged weapons. Some of this prey would be consumed to strengthen the Genestealers, and with the recollections of the Hive Mind, to encourage growth of protective chitinous carapace. With a chittering, six Spinegaunts emerged from the shadows, drawn by the Lictor's trail of pheromones. Already the force grew stronger.

As the Genestealers prepared to remove the prey, the Lictor retreated ahead, returning to the shadows. The Ones of Dark Mindpower held this area, and if they knew where the Tyranids were, or even that they were here, reinforcements could come and deal more damage to the fleet. With the Lictor wounded, three Genestealers killed and the remaining in a weakened physical state due to their growing, the next encounter could be fatal. However, it mattered not. The Lictor knew the way to this empty prey-Hive, and therefore so did the Hive Mind. They could return when they were stronger, and claim this sector from the prey. As the Lictor left the outskirts of the settlement, it turned to look at the sign, and memorised the sight of the shapes on it, the smell, the taste of the area. It didn't know that the sign read 'New Lugos'.

It didn't need to.
---

Knowledge of the Hive: Hive Fleet Jormungand Fight 3

KNOWLEDGE OF THE HIVE
The Lictor peered through the dense foliage of the tree, staring down at the prey-creatures below. Well organised, the platoon marched onwards towards the site of the first real encounter the Tyranids had on this prey-world, where the Metal Ones attacked the prey-creatures, and tried to deny the Hive. These creatures appeared to be the dominant species of this world- the Hive Mind recognised them well. The thoughts and feelings coalesced and surmised they were investigating the loss of their prey-Hive. Little did they know they had unknowingly crossed the territory of the brood-Hive.

The Tyranids had followed them until they came to an ideal ambush location. While the prey-creatures marched unawares to a narrow ravine, the trap was set, and there would be no escape for the prey-creatures, nor would they discover the cause of the loss of their prey-Hive. Then perheps they would send more like these, and the Hive could grow stronger still. One That Has Mind would find it difficult to escape again.

The Genestealers stalked through a cave-network within the cliff face itself, and the Spinegaunts were creeping ever closer through the long, yellowed grasses on their abdomens. The Lictor sensed, felt readiness amongst the Tyranids, and the Hive Mind knew it was time for the trap to be sprung.

The Lictor dropped from concealment in front of the platoon, one tonne of muscle and chitinous armour landing amongst the prey-creatures, as the Genestealers and Spinegaunts burst from concealment. Sensing shock and horror from the prey, the Lictor attacked, knocking over three with severe talons, tearing through armour and flesh alike.

Meanwhile, the Spinegaunts leapt at the centre of the prey-creatures' organised structure, opening fire at close range with Spinefists. The barbed projectiles embedded themselves in the armour of the prey-creatures, failing to fully penetrate. One of the three Guardsmen the Lictor had knocked over stood hurriedly again, a deep gash scoring his helmet and a steady trickle of blood running down his forehead. They began to fight back against the ambush. The pendulum had swung, and the odds were evening.

The Lictor, however, sensed the high-strung emotions of the One Who Leads Prey as they fought back against it. They scored blows, only one of which could have injured the Lictor, but its' deep red chitinous plating took the strike. Realising that their assault was ineffective, the prey broke in panic, the rush of emotions felt by the Lictor, and fled. The Lictor gave chase, its' large form and weight no obstacle to its' speed. One Who Leads Prey, and the prey around it, were trapped and dealt with.

Seeing their leader fall, the discipline of some of the prey-creatures began to waver. Suddenly the Genestealers appeared behind their lines, effectively sealing the prey in and picking off those that tried to escape.

The guardsmen, seeing now the Genestealers, formed a defensive circle and prepared to fight the Tyranids away. The Spinegaunts tore at the circle, striking two prey-creatures and bringing one down. The prey retaliated, completely wiping the Spinegaunts out. It did not take long for the Lictor and the Genestealers to join the melee, and while two Genestealers were wounded, the prey-creatures eventually broke under the strain of the Tyranids and were overwhelmed.

The Lictor oversaw the removal of the prey. The bodies of the Genestealers would recover from their wounds, eventually, as would three of the Spinegaunts. Their losses, however, would be recovered with the prey. Already the pheromones of the Lictor were drawing more to their number- five more Spinegaunts and Rippers joined their number.

As the Lictor's feeder tendrils learned of its' prey, the Hive Mind analysed the information. One That Leads Prey held intriguing information, though incomplete. The Lictor learned of a greater prey-Hive of these prey-soldiers that they were heading to. And there, a creature of great importance to them was. The Hive Mind knew that this could mean danger for the Brood Hive, and that they could undo their prey if they stopped this creature, or it could even strengthen the Hive. There was a possibility that One That Has Mind could be present.

The Lictor returned to the jungle with the Tyranids and the prey. They would return...
---

Overcome: Hive Fleet Jormungand Fight 4

OVERCOME
Alarms blared, as prey-creatures ran in seemingly random directions. Genestealers watched cautiously from the shadows, the Lictor sensing what they sensed. One That Has Mind was here, only hours before. The Hive could easily take advantage of the situation, and strike during the prey-creatures' panic. The brood-Hive would grow much stronger then, and the Tyranids would have gained more territory. Yet still they watched. There was more to the situation than that. Whatever caused the prey-creatures' panic could effect the Hive also.

Shots suddenly rang out, striking terrain and Tyranid alike. The Lictor felt three of the Spinegaunts fall to the fire, as they leapt from concealment towards their enemy. Their foe became clear to them- ten Greater Prey, with ranged weapons that could see far. They wore armour that was metal, and some that was black, and they bore the symbol of a skull upon them. The remaining Spinegaunts, now closing in with speed upon the enemy scouts, opened fire with their own ranged weapons. Barbed spines embedded themselves in the body of one of the Greater-prey, and it stumbled backwards, falling. It did not get back up.

Showing knowledge of the unusual weapons that were not part of them, the Greater-prey fired again in short time. Seven times were the swift, bestial Genestealers hit, though due to the Hives' improvement of their carapace only two fell. It would be, however, the last time for now that the scouts' ranged superiority would work for them. The Lictor dropped from an old stone ruin, landing lightly behind the Greater-prey, then leapt into combat like a compressed spring. Talons and claws tearing at armour, another of the Greater-prey fell, its' armour compromised by the sheer strength of the Lictor.

The Genestealers also reached the line, and quickly took down another two of the scouts' number. The Greater-prey, however, retaliated with force that made obvious the Hive Minds' calling of them. Four of the Spinegaunts were overwhelmed by the superior strength of the scouts, and the fifth and last after the remaining Tyranids failed to wound the immense creatures.

The small Rippers, however, overwhelmed another scout with sheer weight of numbers, dragging it to its' knees, though the Greater-prey stood firm, as did the Tyranids. The brood-Hive was losing much in this prolonged stalemate, but in turn so were the Greater-prey. They were but half their number now. Yet now the Rippers' numbers were falling, the Lictor sensing their decline. Too few in number now, they failed to wound more of the scouts. The tables turning, so too did the Lictor and Genestealers fail to wound any of the Greater-prey.

The Lictor struck again, armour once again being scored but the damage caused only minor. While the Greater-prey assaulted the Rippers, the Genestealers managed to take down one more. Then, with the Rippers gone, their numbers were few. Too few. The thoughts of the Hive Mind changed. They must retreat if they were to survive. The prey was lost this time.

The Lictor watched from the shadows as the Greater-prey checked their wounded, and consolidated at their position. Already more Tyranids had come to join it; four more Genestealers with improved carapaces lurked at the border of the brood-Hive. It would take time for the Tyranids to recover their losses.

They had been overcome, but they had not been beaten.
---

Infiltrating the Prey-Hive: Hive Fleet Jormungand Fight 5

INFILTRATING THE PREY-HIVE
The Brood-Hive had weakened. The Tyranid presence on this world was simply too small- a defeat like the kind against the Greater-prey again could cripple it for some time, though without the discovery of the Brood-Hive, deep within the thick jungle that the dominant species of prey dubbed the 'Arbortoreus', they could return in force, if circumstances allowed.

The Lictor had felt the need from the Brood-Nest of One Who Leads distinctly, and had without hesitation followed its' commands through the whirl of thoughts and emotion that was the Hive Mind. Easier prey had to be found. Prey-that-holds-danger to the Hive would have to wait, for to grow and develop easier prey would have to be taken. Then could the Hive develop, and the Prey-that-holds-danger be resisted.

And that was why the Tyranids were in the Prey-Hive. This Prey-Hive was small, but it contained normal-prey, and not so many soldier-prey. With a success here, the Hive could grow again, and success here would be easier than at the last prey-Hive.

"My shift's up. I'm gunna go grab something to eat." The Arbite stretched, as the next came to relieve him.
"Sure. Bye, Adamus." The other replied.
The 'other', Tomas by name, settled into position as the darkening clouds in the sky started to rain. He stared up.
"Great." He muttered to himself. He straightened his clothing, and headed down the makeshift road to a house with a veranda. The people could still be watched from there, and it would be dry too. Tomas felt that it wouldn't be the people that caused problems, but whatever was outside the settlement. He had heard of conflicts. And yet it was the Arbites force that had been called in to defend the settlement, not the Planetary Defence Force. Oh well, whoever was at hand. They were watching over people, Tomas supposed, not defending a location as such like the PDF.

Despite the rain, however, few went for the dry of the indoors. They were getting distant from the Arbortoreus now, but they were still in that warm, humid region, with some of what it implied. This rain, for instance. The people Tomas was watching over must be growing used to it. As he watched, a small group of unusually dressed people congregated between a couple of structures, then went their own separate ways through the settlement. They must be new to the area, or officials of some kind, to be dressed the way they were. Covered by thick, loose pants and coats, with hats and the like that well covered their heads, Tomas thought that they must not like the rain. Yet there was still something unusual about them- they didn't look too comfortable walking the way they were, and they looked bulky and uneven, as if they were hiding something in their clothes.

Tomas frowned. He continued to watch them, when one noticed him watching, and looked up slightly. Through the shadows he saw yellow eyes, and a deep blue, almost wet-looking skin, and severe, sharp, gleaming teeth. Tomas' jaw almost dropped in shock, but he recovered quickly.
"Hey!" He yelled, and a few turned to face him as he took his shotgun and ran out into cover. He didn't get very far, as the archway collapsed onto him, knocking him out cold.

The Lictor stood over the fallen prey-creature, its' chameleonic scales already adjusting from the greys of the stone archway. It was not dead, but it would give no more trouble. There would be more soldier-prey coming, attracted by the vocal signal of the now-fallen creature. Tearing through the clothing disguise, the Genestealers leapt at the normal-prey, the day that had at first seemed nothing out of the ordinary erupting into violence. The Lictor followed suit, its' feeder tendrils analysing one of the creatures and the information sent to the Genestealers.

The normal-prey fought back, managing to knock down a Genestealer. The Tyranids, however, took down ten of the prey. More normal-prey, and the first of the soldier-prey, poured out into the centre of the prey-hive. The advantage of surprise had been used, and still was being used in a way, and the Lictor sensed panic from the beings. The overall advantage was still the Tyranids, for they had infiltrated to the core of the prey-hive.

The soldier-prey stood back with their weapons that were not a part of them, but in their disorganisation the normal-prey went for combat. Firing into the fray, two of the normal-prey were taken down, and while one Genestealer was hit, the wound was not serious. When the last of the normal-prey was taken down, the Tyranids turned their attentions to the soldiers. Fourteen had now been downed.

Leaping to the attack, the Lictor struck with heavy, fast, bladed arms. It knocked down the soldier-prey about it, yet the three it struck rose, perhaps a little disoriented or scraped, and rejoined the fight. Overwhelming them with numbers and clawed limbs the Genestealers piled around the Lictor, and soon the remnants of the hastily gathered force had been downed. The advantage of surprise had ensured that the Tyranids could strike at a vulnerable position, where the prey had not expected them. As a result it affected their defences. Nineteen of the prey-creatures had been downed now. The Lictor could feel the need in One Who Leads, from the Brood-Hive. Nearly enough, for now.

More normal-prey and soldier-prey came forth from the panic in the rain, heading for the Tyranids as the Tyranids were heading for them. The Genestealers leapt at the normal-prey as the soldier-prey once again fired their weapons, and again the normal-prey were caught between two attacks. This time, however, another Genestealer was taken out by the ranged weapons, though two of the normal-prey were taken down also.

Enough.

The thought from One Who Leads, while not precicely a sound, or a feeling, or a scent, meant that close enough. The prey were organising now, and it would not be long before the soldier-prey came in force. Enough prey had been taken this time to further recover from the defeat of the last prey-hive. The Genestealers, sensing the call, bounded quickly from the area, leaving the remaining prey-creatures wondering. They did not wonder for long, as they turned on the slower Lictor.

A force of normal-prey and soldier-prey larger than the others quickly arrived, and the Lictor felt itself pummeled repeatedly by weapons-fire. The Hive Mind controlled the creature's changing emotions, and continued to direct it from the prey-Hive. Four of the normal-prey were also hit, one seriously, but the Lictor was not overly wounded from the blasts of metal. Catching up to the Lictor, one of the normal-prey leapt up at the creature from behind. Now the Lictor had no choice but to fight, though with its' larger size and weaponry it had the advantage. One swung a large metal pipe at the Lictor's back, managing to splinter its' carapace. A swing of a scythed talon knocked over the normal-prey, and the Lictor seized the opportunity to escape, becoming lost to the prey-creatures in the undergrowth and the trees.

"Tomas... Tomas!"
The Arbite's vision blurred, but he stood anyway, picking up his fallen shotgun and scanning for the intruders. Scenes of ended battles and confusion met him, though the intruders were not to be found. His breath came in short, sharp gasps, and he ignored the gash across his chest, the splitting headache.
"Where are they?!"
Tomas noticed the source of the voice that roused him as Adamus, and he allowed himself to relax, but only a bit.
"What happened here?" Tomas frowned. As an afterthought, he added, "And what happened to me?"
Adamus grimaced as he saw the scenes around him. "Tyranids. A Spook landed on you. They ran off, all of a sudden, though why I'm not sure. I don't know if we've seen the last of them, though."
The authorities would have to be informed about this, Tomas thought. There had been Tyranids on Mejyt for some time now, though this seemed to be more of an organised attack. A new force, perhaps?

As if just realising his injuries, though he had known they were there, Tomas winced and put a hand to his head. Adamus led Tomas towards the medical area, and pointed out the two Tyranids downed in the attack.
"'Stealers. There were more than that in the attack."
Suddenly both Genestealers leapt to their feet, and began bounding towards the undergrowth and the trees.
"Hey!" Tomas tried to raise his shotgun, but found himself unable, weakened from his injuries as he was. Similarly, Adamus was unable to fire as he was supporting the wounded Tomas. One of the creatures turned its' head to get a final look at them as they escaped, and the Arbites got a glimpse of teeth and yellow eyes.

The Lictor felt the two recovered Genestealers enter its' vicinity, led to them by a trail of pheromones. The Brood-Hive could grow stronger now. Already the Genestealers were beginning to grow up, points on their arms expanding to become venom-filled sacs, and claws growing into elongated scythed talons.

The shattered carapace would also recover, given time. Yes, the Brood Hive could grow stronger now. One Who Leads was satisfied, for the time.
---

[queztacoatl]

Introduction

This strike force has been sent down by Radical Inquistor Helgrund. Upon noticing that many other races were sending down intial stike teams to the surface he sent down everyone who he could muster while he himself conducted further experiments on his orbiting cruiser shielded by his arcane sorceries. Those crypts and tombs could easily contain some artifact that could be used for the greater good of the Imperium and he particularly wanted to get his hands on an Eldar farseer, and see whether he could bind a greater daemon into its psychically tuned husk...

The team mainly who Helgrund had got transferred from a detachment of Cadian Shock troops stationed nearby. Their regimental commander was in no mood to argue with this huge hulk of an Inquisitor, and he supplemented the 6 elite troopers he was asked for, with an additional 10 guardsmen who were at the time awaiting transfer to penal legions to try and prevent the Inquisitor from disrupting his life on the quiet back water world he had been based in. Helgrund however may have different ideas.

One of the Veterans, named Laski, who was transferred showed a keen interest in the experiments Helgrund was conducting, and he was taken in as an apprentice of sorts, and was often the recipient of many "improvements" and aided Helgrund in his experiments on 3 of the guardsmen, leading to their eventual death, however the others were none the wiser about this. Laski was also given a sword which contained a bound nurgling (Helgrund could not accept the risk of a higher daemon) which enabled it to bypass all armour. It also served as a reminder to the troops under his command that he was the favored one of Helgrund and his word was law.

The list

Hardened Veteran Sergeant (Laski)
Honorifica Imperialis
Bolt Pistol
Deamon Sword (Power Weapon, Trademark Item)

3 Hardened Veterans (Destriane, Demus and Arcadian)
Lasguns

2 Hardened Veterans (Urskar, Castellan)
2x Melta gun

7 Conscipts (Kage, Creed, Kell, Tyrok, Jucha, Forax, Caffran)
Lasguns
(I am using conscipts as guardsmen in this as they alow me to have more bodies + it makes the veterans all the more precious and elite)

Sanctioned Psyker (Al'rahem)
One of Helgrunds long term astropaths, he is able to send and recieve psykic messages. He is also able to detect warp annomallies which might be of further intrest to his lord and master.

(Dooks --> not sure how to run the whole random psychic powers powers thing. I would be grateful if you could roll a dice of something to give him a power for the whole narrative so that I can write some fluff around it, rather than saying "today he decided not to be able to do anything)

Ogryn (Nagred)
One of the experiments went wrong (or right??), and a hulking man was created who was infused with the power of a deamon, and kept bound by powerful charms on his belt.

2x Ratling (No idea yet, they are a bit of a mystrey, will introduce later)
Unbeknownst to the everybody while Helgrunds ship was docked at the port of Jopall a couple of ratlings managed to stow away in the hold. They quickly realised that they had chosen the wrong place to stow away as they witnessed the horiffic experiments that were going on and they resolved to get out as fast as possible. Their chance came when supplies were being loaded up for the scout trip down to the planet. Upon arrival they swifly realised thier error, and resorted to following the guardsmen around for their own safety. While the rest of the squad advancded, little did they realise the number of enemies being downed by the little fellas following behind.

Total 200pts

Current Team

Laski

Psyker - Al'rahem

Orgryn - Nagred

2 Stormtroopers with Plasma guns

5 Hardened Veterans with Shotguns
1 Hardened Veteran Sergeant with PF + PP
2 Hardened Veterans with melta guns - Ursakar, Castellan
1 Hardened Veteran with Heavy Bolter - Arcadian

RIP - All the guardsmen (Kage, Creed, Kell, Tyrok, Jucha, Forax, Caffran), 2 veterans (Destriane, Demus), 2 stormtroopers and the ratlings

First Enemy Encounters

1: First Enemy Encounters

The search had got off to a bad start, they had been given a map of the area, however it was remarkably inaccurate, which is not a surprise since it dated to pre-heresy times, and what should have been a beautiful landscape of rolling fields was a dense jungle, unlike any jungle they had ever been in before as it was deathly cold.

Nevertheless the team, unwilling to give up and face their master’s wrath organised into marching order. The Veterans arrayed themselves into an arrow head formation, Laski just behind them, with the two melta weapons at the side – Nagred had been granted the unfortunate job of rear marker.

They advanced along a deep ravine, shaded from the majority the sunlight, the guardsmen were nervous, and many of them were muttering to themselves that they would rather be back at their old posting, awaiting action from the commissar, than be were they were now, lugging well laden rucksacks through, broken rocky, tree-twisted land.

They re-consulted their map, and eventually pinpointed that the ravine they were in, and began to head up the slopes, slipping and sliding as they went. Once more they plunged into the jungle, heading towards the first of many energy spikes that had been pinpointed by Helgrund’s scanners. It was still over five miles away.

Once more they plunged into a ravine, although this was more sinister than the last, causing the panicky guardsmen to begin shooting off in all directions at the slightest provocation, convinced that at least 2 small creatures were following them. Their fears were soon to be realised as a two giant cat like creatures, with leering yellow eyes, leapt off from behind a rock, right into the central huddle of guardsmen.

The guardsmen had no time to aim, let alone shoot the giant cats, and were reduced to clubbing them with their lasguns while they screamed for help. Al’rahem attacked with his staff, being more focussed in his attacks than the guardsmen struggling to beat them off and managed to land a strong blow, sending a cat flying through the air.

The Veterans, used to screams from their rear, were slow to react turned to fight the new foe, and Nagred, who is just plain slow, due to the daemon spirit possessing his body began to run to the aid of their weaker comrades.

Laski charged in with all the power he could muster, determined to show the power gifted onto him and swiped out and cut one of the giant felines in two, making a mockery of their tough fur with his daemon imbued sword, while Nagred swung with out with his huge ripper gun, clubbing the cat which the psyker had sent flying into small pieces.

The guardsmen, taking strength from routine, set up a protective circle, while Al’rahem sent a psychic message to Helgrund’s ship of the cats that had attacked them. The reply was not what they wanted – Helgrund demanded that he had their protective pelts for his new coat. Caffran groaned as he was nominated to carry the specimens back for the remendier of the operation.

They continued their trudge to the energy spike…

***

Second Battle

“Sir, Sir the energy spike we are headed towards is fading”. The frantic voice of veteran Demus brought Laski running to the long range scanner he had been holding.

“You are right, speed up everybody lets get there before it’s totally gone”

***

“The last known coordinates of the point are 50m away now, Sir”. The guardsmen crouched and advanced weapons raised, however what they saw both shocked and appalled them. In a small clearing there was a huge pile of dead, Imperial, bodies hacked into near unidentifiable pieces. There too was the source of the energy spike, large antennae now snapped in two, which they had obviously been tasked to defend.

“Defensive circle on me NOW” Laski’s voice cut shrill through the cold air as shots started to come from both sides of them sending five guardsmen screaming to the ground. For Jucha it was the end of his mission, shot to pieces by crude weapons, his head hanging limp down from his neck.

The rest started shooting at the bushes all around however, it was to no avail however as they could not see a single thing and were shooting wildly around them.

“Al’rahem, Nagred, with me!” With a mighty roar they charged the bushes, to flush their cowardly enemies out. They got what they wanted as with a mighty Waaagh six dirty, shaggy orks leapt out and attacked, swinging great choppas aiming for directly at Laski. Laski ducked, sending an ork right over his head, before turning and killing him with his sword, the nurgling bound inside screaming with delight. Meanwhile on his left Nagred pulverised his foe to the ground with his ripper gun, grunting with glee. The rest of the feral orks left as quickly as they came, up into the mountains, calling out for assistance.

“Move quickly, and gather the bodies weapons and ammunition” barked Laski “they will be back within hours unless we move”

Attack of the Plants!

Ever wary of the roving bands of orks in the area, the team moved quickly and quietly through the Jungle, constantly changing direction to avoid detection. Still however they believed they were being followed, and occasionally they thought they saw a small creature following them, however these ideas were quickly dismissed from their minds as they hurried to a clearing that had been identified to them from the circling ships augurs. By the time they reached it the sun was low in the sky, and they were weary from a hard days footslogging.



Suddenly a giant spike headed straight for Nagred, however he swiftly batted it away with his gun. Then another came, and another, until a virtual torrent of sharp spines were hurling their way towards the embattled guardsmen. They all dived behind a rock, causing the shooting to stop. The guardsmen in their fear left the safety of the rock and leapt out, shooting all they could at the strange plants. Within seconds the spines had started up again, and every guardsman as hit, two of them, Tyrok and Jucha right though the head. Laski did the only thing he could think to do in the situation.



“Return fire, all guns”



As one the veterans left the safety of the rock and started taking well aimed shots at the plants with Arcadian’s new heavy bolter being particularly effective at smashing the bulbous yellow plants into a hail of ripped leaf and spores. Nevertheless there were many of these plants in the clearing and another salvo of sharp spines began to come towards the men, although only Destriane as hit, although it was a fatal wound, puncturing his jugular.



This only increased the soldiers’ determination and within a few short seconds all the plants were dead, lying in small heaps around the clearing alongside 3 soldiers of the Emperor. The remaining troops sombrely gathered up the bodies and built a large cairn around, Al’rahem casting sacred signs to prevent desecration and commend their souls to the Emperors.

Epilogue to Attack of the plants

Just as they were beginning to set up their camp and settle down for he night a small creature ran up to Laski and addressed him;

“Sir, you do not know who I am at this stage, but a guarantee I can be of use to you in your quest.”

“My name is Sneagg and I am a Hafling from the planet of Jopan. I came aboard with my companion while your ship was docking there to escape from the tyranny of the planetary governor there. I left your ship as soon as I could and ended up on this planet. With no other humans in sight we decided to follow you, however due to our fear of retribution due to hiding on your ship we hid. Without our help those five cats which attacked in the ravine would have all reached you, we killed three with our snipers. Without our help those orks would not have left you, as we killed five of their number.”

“That is nice ratling, but why do you come forward now, and how do we know that we can trust you?” The harsh voice of Ursakar cut into the humanoids speech.

“A terrible thing occurred today” continued Sneagg “A spine from those plants killed by companion, impaling him against a tree, there seemed no point in sneaking about anymore. Your ship is the only way I can ever get off this cursed planet, so I have made it my mission to keep you alive, and until today I had been successful. Therefore I ask for your kindness and allow me to stay with your troops kind Sir, and I will do all I can to help”

“What should we do Sir?”, questioned the troops, uneasy about their potential friend, who was also a mutant of the worst kind.

Laski spoke, for the first time on the matter “You can stay, but consider yourself to be on probation, one slip up and you will be left on this planet to rot for all eternity. Al’harem can I have a quiet word please”

When they were safely out of earshot Laski turned to him and with a hushed voice said “Send a urgent message to Our Lord. Tell him I may have found a host for Chernab’eal, should we find him”

round 4

The next day, and before sunrise the march of boots could be heard as the guardsmen set off to the next energy spike, who’s coordinates had just been sent via a psychic message to Al’rahem. They had no idea what it was, but orders were orders and they were soon on their way.

The terrain was becoming less dense, and soon they were able to walk easily along the rough track, closely following the route that they had decided to follow.

“Sir”, spoke Al’rahem “I feel the presence of the great foe, and they are many”

“Never mind, we must press on. The emperor protects”, Laski’s reassuring voice helped ease the tension that was building in the less experienced guardsmen throats – they had no idea what he meant by “many”.

Soon they began to here gun fire up ahead. The men were well trained and dropped to their knees and began to advance slowly into a row of bushes over looking the battle field. A force of cultist that had seemingly started with well over 50 members was shooting at an embattled guardsmen squad, entrenched in a sandbagged position. They were giving ground, and looked as if they were about to flee, despite their leaders best efforts to rally them.

“Take careful aim, and fire on my command”

Laski’s order was quickly passed don the line of concealed guardsmen, before with a loud scream of “For the Emperor” they unleashed with all they had, killing 8 in a single volley.

Their sudden arrival caused the other guardsmen to quickly regain their positions and continue fireing. Round after round, and grenade after grenade hit the cultists, but they had conjured up some arcane sorceries that protected them from much of the incoming fire. Nevertheless they stared to fall, but so too did members of the scouting party, and soon all the regular guardsmen were down having taken up inferior hiding positions in the tree line.

The cultists were soon taken care of and the scouting party approached the platoon, the hulking form of Nagred stopping any opposition from them. Their leader stepped out and invited them back to their base to stock up on ammo before calling in medical teams to treat to the injured guardsmen. Laski duly accepted and they made the short march into their heavily fortified camp.

Once there they opened up a direct communication link with the orbiting strike cruiser. Helgrund was not pleased with being disturbed from his sleep, but nevertheless due to his position as an inquisitor was more than capable of “persuading” the company command to help his team. Soon enough four Storm troopers had joined the team, two of them equipped with state of the art plasma technology, specially formed not to blow up.

With these new additions to their team they headed off towards the energy spike.

Round 5 - THE END

“There are still more of them, but stronger, but fewer” The crazed murmuring of Al’rahem was beginning to bore the Guardsmen. To them things were looking up; they had left the jungle with its eerie trees and strange wildlife and were out into open country. The platoon commander they had saved had gifted them with them with all they could need and had the best rations, the best sleeping bags, the best maps and best of all a decent nights sleep. They were not to be put off any crazy psykers mad ramblings.



This attitude suddenly changed when they rounded another of the lush hills. In a small cave six chaos space marines were cackling as they injected themselves with some vile purple liquid. There was no way out and with a loud roar they started to unload their weapons straight at them. There armour was strong however and all the las weapons simply made small pock marks in the pink, gem encrusted armour that the heretics were waving.



The heavy weaponry was then brought to bear, and both the two melta gun shots hit there targets true, obliterating the traitors into the cave wall.



“Block your ears”: the warning from Laski came too late for three of the guardsmen as a lethal barrage of sonic weaponry was aimed at them, blasting their heads apart.



Ursakar and Castellan hunkered down and fired there melta guns, taking apart two space marines, while the two storm troopers with the plasma guns fired them at slaying two of the heathen Marines, exploding them into a ball of blue fire.



“We must do more, advance everybody!!” Laski barked an order, his sword beginning to drip with evil magicks due to the proximity of the great enemy. They all advanced, taking cover behind some rocks in front of the cave as the two remaining marines backed away and continued to shoot them with their weapons, which were larger than the others. Their helmet less faces grinning with contempt for the guardsmen as they unleashed another deafening roar with their guns, flooring two of the storm troopers, screaming in pain.



“Aim for the head”, shouted Al’rahem, diving for a hell gun dropped by the storm troopers. Firing it, he hit their leader right between the eyes. This caused the final chaos-worshipper to go extremely unsteady on his legs, before uttering the most extreme cry of rage he had ever seen, running to the centre of the guardsmen, shots pattering of his armour.



It was at this moment that it happened. Sneagg, who nobody had taken any notice of in the whole fighting, leapt up from behind some crates and landed on the marines head. The marine realised what was about to happen, and pushed a very large, and very nasty looking button the side of his gun, at the very same moment that Sneagg pulled the trigger on his sniper rifle aimed directly through the traitor skull. The gun then proceeded to issue the worst sound that it would be possible to hear, leaving all save Laski screaming with pain.



The battle over and the majority recovered from the sound they entered the cave, to find a series of small, glowing crystals. Al’rahem screamed out with glee and rushed over. Laski then did the same thing.



“All our dreams our complete, we must leave and inform Helgrund immediately.”



“What are they, those things” ventured forward to ask what the fuss was about.



“Eldar spirit-stones, in which the soul of dead elder are kept safe. They will be extremely useful”



The message was quickly relayed to the orbiting dropship, and soon huge engines were head over head as the spacecraft landed with a thud on the plain outside the cave.



“Thank you my friends, you have been useful to me”. The voice of the Inquistor boomed over the plain. The silhouette appeared and came down, flanked by twenty inquisitorial stormtroopers



“Your usefulness has run its course, and you have been tainted by the influences of the foe. Troops, initiate protocol 24”



As one they shouldered their weapons and aimed at the kill team, instantly doing what a myriad of foes had failed to do.



“We leave now, the eldar will be here soon to reclaim the stones”



The engines started up again, leaving nothing more than a trail of dust in its wake. Helgrund had got what he wanted, the rest he was happy to leave to the other races, squirming about on the surface.

[aun_shi189]

intro

M’yen’s comm. unit crackled into life in his ear “could that cursed beast be anymore conspicuous?” the acrid voice of Or’es distorted slightly by static; “We are all here for the Greater Good Shas’ui” M’yen reprimanded “focus on the task at hand brother” he went on in a softer tone “this terrain is treacherous and we have no idea what lies ahead, most of the recon drones never returned and those that did had scrambled circuits.” He assumed the grunt he received in reply was affirmative in nature, bitter though he was, Or’es would never turn from the Greater Good.

The vast jungle around them was eerie in its silence, aside from the lumbering steps and splintering crashes caused by the krootox there was not a sound around them, not a bird sang, nor a petrosquirrel chirped. The shadows cast by the trees were no problem for the Xv-15’s advanced sensors but even then there was an aura of unease amongst the team. This planet had seen blood through the ages and it stained the soul of the world presenting a bleak wilderness to those who saw it, but to some sick, corrupted individuals it presented a paradise, a hunting ground.

The team pushed on, ever cautious as they did so.

first fight

The team pushed on through the jungle ever cautious. Suddenly the sensor screen of M’yen’s Xv-15 battle suit lit up with alarm warnings, life sign spotted.



“Shas’vre, picking up multiple life signs coming from all directions” voxed O’res “damn aliens”

The things appeared, around the size of a fio’s arm and covered in a shiny black carapace festooned with lethal spikes; they moved with ease through the think foliage of the jungle, a shrill chittering emitting from their vice like jaws.

Data file: 267530-789: kiriatch, local lifeform of the planet designated 789. Highly dangerous and often attack in large numbers, be vigilant.



M’yen read the data appearing on his visor screen “open fire” he ordered as his burst cannon revved into life spinning out a cacophony of death as lethal pulse rounds smashed into the chittering hoard before him. He grunted in satisfaction as two of his rounds hit, the beasts exploding in a shower of gore. To either of his sides both O’res. Mont’yr and J’karra also opened fire on the insects while Prook Kard blazed away with his powerful kroot gun; albeit to no effect. Mont’yr’s fusion blaster immolated one of the beasts before they finally closed in, and the brutal press of close combat began.



Here the mighty Krootox was in as element as he smashed the beasts with his powerful fore limbs, ignoring the spikes that entered his flesh even as he crushed his foes. The Tau fared worse in the press of melee and both J’karra and Mont’yr were smashed to the ground by the jaws of the kiriatch. M’yen feared the worse…



As quickly as it had begun the storm of combat passed, Anghoran crushed the last of the insects between his jaws and once more silence engulfed the forest around them. M’yen scanned the area his spirits lifting as he saw the green life signs around the fallen forms of J’karra and Mont’yr

“Are you ok brothers?” he asked



“The greater good protects Shas’vre” Mont’yr replied his voice shaky



The team headed off more determined than ever to find the missing Aun

second fight

“Shas’vre, we sense kin in the area” Prook Kard suddenly announced to the team, as he and his mount stopped in the quiet jungle “find him we must” he said, his grasp of Tau still not yet perfect.



The team followed the charging Krootox as it stormed ahead smashing through the undergrowth. By the time the Stealth suits had reached its target they heard the sound of ferocious fighting and the primal roar of the enraged Krootox and then they saw the enemy. They were big, almost twice as big as a Tau and with claws that could rip through armour. There were six of them and through the fury of the Krootox’s assault an injured kroot houd could be seen, desperately trying to fend off the ape like creatures with weak bites of its normally powerful jaw.



“Open fire” M’yen ordered. His orders were obeyed.



The fight was short but brutal, the overwhelming fire power of the disciplined fire warriors easily thwarting the charge of the beasts.

Anghoran eventually went down amidst a whirling melee of the monsters and Prook rolled clear just as a furry paw descended with force towards his skull, he prepared for death… and his enemy’s head disappeared in a blast of smoke and super heated air, Mont’yr nodded to the fallen kroot and continued to scan the bodies checking for survivors.



Anghoran recovered from his injuries thanks to a poultice applied by Prook, M’yen hated to think what the foul smelling paste was made of. Prook later told the Shas’vre that the kroot hound was the last survivor of a small kindred that had been hunted by the beasts, known as Suranaks. The Kroot hound was willing to join the team “as is duty of all kroot” Prook hastened to add. M’yen kept his scepticism to himself; sometimes the greater good was best served by the bending of the rules.



Current team: 1 shas’vre stealth suit: burst cannon
3 shas’la stealth suits 2 burts cannons, fusion blaster 3 targeting arrays
Krootox: krootgun

Kroot hound: teeth

fight for the kindred

DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA

The harsh sound of crude gunfire echoed through the forest pierced occasionally by the distinctive scream of a kroot and the guttural roar of an ork.

The team sped off in the direction of the battle Prook Kard driven by fear for his kindred, O’res fuelled by his hatred of the greenskins, the rest of the team by discipline and an urge to end the tedium of jungle travel.

M’yen emerged from the jungle to see Anghoran and the newly acquired kroot hound already in combat, the mighty beast smashing orks aside with his powerful forelimbs. As M’yen viewed the scene he saw around 20 kroot struggling against a larger force of orks. The orks were terrible to look at, festooned with animal skins and feathers in some strange ritual to their stranger Gods. M’yen powered up his burst cannon and began to open fire on those orks he could hit with out risking a kroot in the swirling melee

A krootox is a mighty beast, but faced against such a multitude of fire from the feral orks even he soon went down. M’yen watched as Prook Kard was punched from the beast’s back by “shoota” fire and then Anghoran gave one last desperate charge faltering as he reached the lines of orks that had killed his master. Dozens of bloody wounds were opened in his flesh by the large calibre slugs of the orks. M’yen felt a cold fury inside of him and ignoring the fire protocols, as laid down by Commander Puretide, he let rip the full fury of his rage on the orks. The hapless orks were confused by the stealth fields projected by the XV-15 and did not know where the withering hale of fire was coming from. However luck was not with the Tau this day. One ork firing in the direction of “dem shiny blue lights” scored a lucky hit on Mont’yr and he went down his life signs flagging on M’yen’s sensors. Despite the los of 3 of their team mates with the help of the savage kroot soon all of the orks were dead, however victory came at a price. Only 8 kroot and their shaper remained and they now set to work at consuming the flesh of their fallen foes. Of M’yen’s team Anghoran, his rider Prook Kard and the Kroot hound were all dead. Luckily Mpnt’yr survived his wounds but would limp when out of his suit for the rest of his days.

The shaper spoke to M’yen giving his thanks for their aid and offering to lead them to their nearby settlement. M’yen gladly accepted.

[Gorb]

Dooks' introduction

Tactica Telion
Gorb's Kill Team

Tactica Telion, hunter team assigned to recovering a Necron artefacts located beneath the surface of a string of planets. This is the second to last in the trail, and has a 97.7% chance of success in locating and recovering the ancient devices. The team expects minimal opposition, however recent data-streams from Pylons suggest an unpredicted amount of infantry movement in the past few cycles. Extreme caution is advised for maximum success percentage.

In the course of the hunt, Tactica Telion is instructed to awaken any and all dormant Necrontyr on the planet to aid and assist the mission.

Tactica Telion

2 Flayed Ones - Alpha 01 and Epsilon 07.
1 Necron Warrior - Gamma 23 (recent acquisition).
2 Pariahs - Naranthar, Telios (designated team leader).
1 Immortal - Mali (new acquisition).
1 Destroyer - Melenor.
3 Scarab Swarms.

Omega 02 phased out due to heavy weapons fire. Weapon type consistent with turret-strength heavy bolters in a twin-linked formation. Extra caution advised from hereonin. Replaced by Gamma 23, a standard Necron template.

Recently Beta 45 was lost when a indigineous lifeform destroyed his machine-body. Success percentage has remained level due to addition of Mali, a standard Immortal who honours the presence of Ra, and has joined Melenor in a supportive role.

Xenos encounter

Movement detected. This thought passed through the Pariahs' minds at the same time. Instinctively the rest of the team turned to face the new threat.

++Command us, Telios.++

The Flayed Ones waited upon their superior to issue the command to attack. The creatures matched logfiles on the bio-species categorised as Tyranids, a DNA-unstable race who's presence was an abomnation to most other living species. Telios regarded them impassively, privately sharing the sentiments of the weaker, fleshy races. The xenos, sensing the Necrontyr's apparent slowness hissed and moved to fire. Fast as they were Melenor was faster. One of the elite before the Rise of the Necrons, he blew away two of the lesser swarms that faced the metallic warriors. Ripper swarms, they were classified as. Threat level was minimal. Unfortunately the next set of lifeforms were significantly more dangerous. Warrior kin, these creatures were a setback to the Great Work, and as such had to be removed.

++Destroy them all.++ Telios sent the message to his kin, and opened fire with his sacred Warscythe. He still felt honoured to carry this mighty weapon, forged of the flesh of the Great Kaelis Ra himself. The Touch of Death, in the old tongue, Telios named it, and Destroyer Lord Ka Raith had given his approval. Beside him Naranthar opened fire, their combined firepower blasting holes into the hide of one of the Warriors. It emitted a keening screech, which the audio-receptors of the Necron bodies ignored, and fell to the ground, dead.

Writhing from the loss of their mate, the remaining forces charged the Necron team, and Telois watched emotionlessly as Beta 45 and Omega 02 were cut down by the rending scythes of the Warrior-kin. Some spark in his chest cavity urged Telios to action, and, tossing aside the ineffective Rippers, and struck one of the Warriors just as Naranthar did the same. Their holy blades cut through the vile creature and put it out of its misery.

++A waste of energy.++ Telios rebuked Naranthar.

++Next time designate a separate target.++ The team leader sensed his subordinate's agreement, and turned back into the fray just as the remaining Flayed Ones tore into the last Warrior. Despite his soulless trait, Telios still felt some of the repulsion associated with the Flayed Ones' presence. Nevertheless, they were an effective combat unit.

The Rippers left alive refused to flee, not that it mattered as the Necrontyr closed in. Mauling the small symbiote creatures, they were all cut down as they tried to flee. Turning to check on the two fallen members of the team, Telios watched as Beta re-assembled itself in front of him, while Omega got up, the damage done to his form obviously repairable. As Telios watched, the gashes inflicted by the Tyranids sparked, then closed. The leader of Team Telion moved onwards, satisfied that his team had removed the obstruction and was still functioning at 100% efficiency. The thought of some empathy for the damaged members of his team never even crossed his void-filled mind.

Turret encounter

Omega 02 percieved a metal glint in the darkness. Moving forward, the Flayed One contacted Telios to inform the team leader of a possible development. Telios turned to look into the forest. Nothing. Suddenly the sound of weapons fire echoed around the clearing as several powerful weapons opened fire. Omega, his chest obviously weakened from the previous assault, exploded in a series of sparks. Epsilon 07 also fire to the exposive rounds, the shells vaporising most of his head and damaging the chest cavity. A trap. Telios acted instantly.

++Melenor, advance. The rest of the team, follow my path.++

The ancient metal warriors moved behind Telios as he advanced towards the weapons. Turrets, Imperial-grade. Classified as heavy bolters, these machines needed to be put down as soon as possible. the team's efficiency was already reduced by the loss of two Flayed Ones, and Telios was determined not to lose any more. Melenor opened fire with his powerful gauss cannon, knocking one turret out of sync, causing the weapons to temporarily fall silent. Naranthar targetted the next turret, and Telios joined in a second later, deciding that massing firepower against single targets had a greater chance of success than assaulting the machines individually. The second turret sparked and the weapons dropped down, however the unit was still functioning. The remained Flayed Ones managed to reach the third turret, however their claws failed to penetrate the solid shell of the weapons-turret.

Only one machine was able to fire, and the Flayed Ones were blocking its line of sight. The turret attempted to put the warriors down, however the bolts failed to puncture the living-metal that the Necrontyr were blessed with. In return, Melenor continues to pour gauss energy into the stunned turret, ripping the weapons apart and rendering the machine useless. Telios and Naranthar were now in reach of the second turret. With its weapons not functioning, the turret was carved into pieces by the Touch of Death, and Narathar's own Warscythe. The last remaining turret was still firing at the Flayed Ones, with one of the mass-reactive shells managing to hit Alpha 01, but when the smoke cleared the Necron was unaffected, his armour having taken the brunt of the blow.

The kill-team moved in on their last target. The Destroyer opened fire first, the ancient cannon blowing holes into the turret's base and igniting various unstable materiels.

++Retreat out of blast radius, explosion imminent.++ Telios sent to the team. The turret detonated, and Telios watched as Beta 45 was consumed in the explosion. The loss of three Flayed Ones would have serious repercussions on the overall effectiveness of the team, Telios decided. Who was to blame for the catastrophic ambush. Not Omega, for he had served well. The leader of Tactica Telion felt that this encounter was unplanned. Nothing could have prepared them for a trap such as this. Naranthar, who knew his fellow Pariah better than most others, turned to him.

++Leader, Beta and Epsilon have survived, their bodies have been returned to full functionality due to the regenerative effects of the Necrodermis shell. Unfortunately Omega has fallen, his remains have phased out of this universe, though his essence has successfully returned to the pool.++

Telios faced his brother and noticed a new addition to the team. A Necron Warrior with a large wound to his lower body armour stood to attention next to Epsilon 07. As Telios regarded the newcomer, the gash in his armour repaired itself, sparks sealing the tear in the warrior's body. Naranthar spoke again.

++Designated Gamma 23, this Warrior template should serve the Tactica well. Epsilon found it in a power field behind the turrets and was able to destroy the power supply, releasing Gamma.++

Telios nodded his head in agreement, the fire in his eyes burning brightly.

++So be it. The team has suffered a change, but due to the technology of the great Kaelis Ra, bringer of death, we remain in position to complete our mission.++

Argoshak encounter

Gamma 23, at the head of the formation, stopped suddenly and sent a warning to the rest of Tactica Telion.

++Warning. Tectonic disturbance ahead, unknown origin. Threat level is high.++

With that utterance, the ground erupted in a large spray of dirt, obscuring the unatural vision of the Necrons. A huge grey worm emerged from the ground, seeking warm things to prey on. The Necrontyr were not warm, they were as cold as the grave, and the team remained still as they waited for the predator to retreat. Telios gave orders to the team in case of an attack.

++Melenor, ready your cannon. Alpha, Beta and Epsilon, advance. Gamma, support Melenor. Naranthar, follow me. We need to get close for our weapons to function at maximum efficiency.++

Suddenly the worm lashed out with it's mouth, not sensing heat in the Necrontyr shells, but instead fixing on the gauss weaponry that they carried. Epsilon 07 almost lost his talons to the creature, before reeling backwards and slashing at the creature's hide. Threat level was higher than it had been before. Chances of success were virtually guaranteed, however it was unlikely that the Tactica would escape unscathed.

++Now.++ Telios struck with the Touch of Death, it's arcane energies causing the very air around it to crackle with static. At the same time, Naranthar also struck, however only one blow was landed by Telios, and none by the other Pariah as the worm turned with extraordinary dexterity and avoided the attacks. The Warscythe cut into the hide of the beast, yet failed to do any damage. Telios moved back and awaited the next chance to strike. Melenor and Gamma 23 opened up with their gauss weaponry, however the sacred technology failed to even hit the twisting native.

The dance of death continued for some time, until the jungle creature exhibited another unknown tactic. Lashing out around the combatants, the worm engulfed the form of Gamma 23 and swallowed the machine whole, suffering no obvious discomfort in return. Telios was now having serious doubts about the capabilities of his team. The Warrior and the Destroyer had a much lower hit-ratio than average, and even the combined assault of the Flayed Ones, Naranthar and himself could do no damage to it.

The encounter continued unabated, with the Necron kill-team gradually giving ground before the ferociousness of the creature that confronted them. Finally, one of Telios' attacks hit flesh, drawing a large spurt of grey ichor from the worm, causing it to fall back in disarray.

++Observe. It can be harmed. Press the assault and we will be victorious!++

Morale was not a problem among the emotionless Necrontyr, however Telios felt that the Tactica needed a solid reason to carry on, otherwise they would have retreated and lost ground, which would have cost them valuable time. Telios led the renewed attack, letting Melenor take aim, as the creature was proving highly difficult to shoot. The combat resumed pace, and Telios thought another Flayed One was to be lost when the native attempted to swallow Alpha whole. Taking advantage of this, Naranthar moved forward and sliced into the creature's neck, trying to sever the head. The Pariah failed, although the creature dropped Alpha and retreated further down the jungle path.

Beta was lost when the creature broke into the Flayed One's chest cavity and destroyed the machinery within. Irreparable, Telios could only hope that Beta's essence was transfered back to the spirit-pool. Telios privately disliked the Flayed Ones, and their combat-effectiveness was offset by their tendency to get in the line of fire. That said, he had chosen them for the Tactica, and their losses reflected badly on him. Another salvo from the Destroyer was evaded by the beast with prenatural speed, despite the horrific wounds it had suffered.

Whilst the creature twisted and turned to avoid the Flayed Ones' claws, and the Pariahs saw their chance. Naranthar and Telios struck as one, tearing the worm in half. The two halves fell apart, writhing in its death-throes. Inside of it Gamma and Epsilon emerged, having repaired the damage done to their infrastructures, along with an unknown Immortal. Telios evaluated the damage. Another Flayed One lost, however their ranged support was growing with the addition of the Immortal, a second-cycle template who served Kaelis Ra as well. Satisfied that the team was functioning together well enough to progress with the mission, he led the way further into the jungle. The catacombs had to be nearby, hopefully they wouldn't be too far away. Although the Tactica was gaining new support, they were entirely reliant on chance encounters with damaged Necrontyr. If no more Necrontyr were found, then the team's efficiency would start to suffer.

Catacomb encounter

The artefact, if the information supplied was correct, was in the centre of these catacombs. Finally, and end to this infernal planet. Nothing had gone right, there had been too much enemy movement. Movement. The tunnels moved.

++Alert, brethren. Possible xenos encounter.++ After the last such encounter, with the xenos-worm, the Tactica were taking no chances. Just as the warning was sent, a score of insectoid creatures marched up from the tunnels below.

++Attack.++ Every Necrontyr moved in, behind the supporting fire of the Immortal and Melenor. The insects were taken by surprise. Analysing their movements, Telios could tell that they were operated without a pack-leader, a hive-node, so to speak. They were obviously worker specimens, which would explain why they were so inefficient at combat. The insects were scythed down where they stood, only a few were left. Despite their horrific losses, the creatures massed together and leapt at Epsilon 07, dragging the metallic being to the floor and pulling at his chest cavity. Telios reappraised his interpretation of the workers as ineffective at close-quarters. In large numbers they were a potential threat. No matter. As Telios and Naranthar moved in and finished off the last few workers, aided by the surviving Flayed One, Epsilon returned to his feet, the skins on his torso covered the rapidly repairing necrodermis beneath.

Behind the carcasses of the dead workers, came some more insectoid aliens. These were larger, stronger, and Telios evaluated them to be a much higher threat priority. There was only 10, however these creatures were bred for fighting. Warriors. They were hissing, nd advancing towards the Necrontyr. Obviously fear was not one of the primary qualities of the warrior-type.

++Down.++ The xenos spat corrosive acid at the Necrons, the bio-acid proving highly effective at countering the regenerative qualities of the necrodermis. Mali fell, the Immortal using it's hands to scrape away the worst of the acid. Telios turned to face the soldiers, the Touch of Death crackling in his hand.

++Cut them down. No quarter. Enemy effectiveness is too high. Let none escape.++ Melenor opened fire with the distinctive boom of his gauss cannon. Naranthar killed a soldier with the blessed energies of his Warscythe. Then combat was upon them. While highly trained and effective fighters, the soldier-kin proved to be weak in close-quarters, with the Flayed Ones killing 4 in the same span of seconds, and the Pariahs cutting down another three. Gamma 23 and the Destroyer trisected the last insect with parallel blows. Telios noted the lack of efficiency, but it did not matter. The artefact was all that mattered. Mali returned to his feet, his armoured casing overcoming the dissolving effect of the bio-acid. The Tactica was whole once more.

Moving with haste now, all thoughts at stealth abandoned, Naranthar and Telios got ahead of the group. Stopping at a cross-roads in the cavern, both Necrons could hear the familiar hissing audio signals of the soldier caste. Telios had to decide. There were several tunnels to go down, all of which could lead to the artefact, or perhaps, only one of them did.

++Naranthar, brother, go west. I will go east. Move with haste, for we are near to the target. Melenor, Mali, go south. We will rejoin once these soldiers are dealt with. Gamma, Epsilon, Alpha, travel north. Search for the artefact. For Ra!++

Telios moved off towards the soldiers. Another ten. The Pariah had seen their ineffectiveness in combat, and moved towards them without hesitation. His Warscythe came smashing down, beheading one of the soldiers. En masse, the insects leapt at Telios, pinning down his arms, his legs, and tearing at his torso. The Touch of Death was unresponsive, seemingly inert. Telios shook, his mind reeling from the injustice that he was suffering. He was among the Nightbringer's Chosen! The world faded away, and the Pariah was reduced to a smoking shell. The soldiers returned to their feet, and moved on. There was still intruders to eliminate.

++Awake. State conscious. Condition repaired.++ Telios returned to his feet, frantic for news. Standing before him were the Tactica. Naranthar walked over to him, and spoke.

++Brother Telios, you are with us. We managed to drive back the xenos, though we thought the mission had been compromised with your destruction. You have survived, however. That is good. We are in a deep pit, and have survived many trials, however our deliverance is upon. The ancient Replicator is here!++ Telios turned to face the artefact. An oblong box, pitch black to the surface, yet strangely reflective.

++Glory to Ra.++ Telios uttered the words in revenance, and moved towards it. Without warning, there was a pitched hissing sound reverberating throughout the cavern. Telios slammed his necrodermic fist onto the Replicator, and the artefact was activated. The box shone with an unearthly green light, causing the horde of advancing soldier forms to retreat momentarily. Minature scarabs burst into existance, and threw themselves at the insectoid xenos. What looked like a glorious success was then marred by the appearance of a large insect creature. The leader. The hive queen. Telios accessed his data banks. Previously they had encountered lifeforms categorised as Tyranids, and insect-based race that depended on hive-nodes to relay commands and issue instructions.

++Kill the queen. If she dies, then this nest will perish. Move forward and engage the queen. We cannot fail.++

Tactica Telion faced off against the most serious threat to the mission so far. Necron weaponry pited itself against the vast armoured bulk of the queen xenos. Telios, his mind burning with determination, managed to hack into the armour plating, causing a spurt of green ichor to escape the wound. The queen screamed in pain, and brought her talons down on Gamma 23, smashing through his faceplate and putting the Warrior out of action. A lone soldier made it past the hordes of scarabs, however Mali moved backwards, and smashed the skull of the insect with the barrel of his gauss blaster. This proved to be his undoing, as the queen took advantage of the tactical retreat to destroy Mali's chest cavity, ripping right through his armour and out the Immortal's back. Another soldier made it to it's queen's side, however it's attacks were insignificant and it landed no damaging blows. The Flayed Ones launched themselves at the queen, claws lashing at the alien axoskeleton, but to no avail.

++This will end here.++ Telios abandoned the restraint he normally kept himself under. +For darkness, and the Bringer of Death!++ Telios hurled his Warscythe at the hive queen. Shrieking, she attmepted to block it with her claws, but the sacred weapon severed the claws at the joint, at speared the insect's neck. Headless, the corpse crashed to the ground. Telios retrieved his Warscythe, and was satisfied. Pariahs were indeed the next generation of the Necrontyr, for they retained some measure of emotions. Emotions, Telios decided, were a positive factor in any engagement, and often contributed to an unexpected success. But the Tactica's victory was short-lived. Although both Gamma 23 and Mali recovered from their terrible wounds, and the hive fled before them, the Replicator was no more. One of the queen's talons had speared it, and by some twist of fate had penetrated the ancient device. Forever ruined, only three swarms of scarabs had survived the confrontation with the soldier caste. The satisfaction in Telios' mind coalesced into fury. They would not leave the planet until a suitable replacement was found. Even if the artefact belonged to a different race, Tactica Telion was claim it for the Nightbringer. Kaelis Ra suffered no failure. Telios ordered the team to move.

++To the surface. We hunt.++

[Dooks Dizzo]

Alright, since we pretty much have everyone here, I would like to openthis thread up for general story critique and discussion.

[ssj4nappa]

I'd like to nudge Sword_Monkey, Gorb and Brian General into updating their stories and encourage anyone, even those not involved in the challenges to come and comment on the stories so far. Although there are limited players, we still want to include the community. So come one come all, tells us what you think.

[moleytov]

I'm enjoying everyones submissons, but what Rastani is doing for the tyranids is superb. For such a force, so alien in composition and mechanics to humanity - to describe it the way he does is great. Props to all of you involved in this. I'm enjoying it muchly.

just a passing thought, I'm browsing this using mozilla firefox and some people's spoiler tags (MooFreaky, Rastani, and aun_shi's 1st tag) are just boxes which vanish upon clicking, the text is visible anyway. They do however - work fine in Internet Explorer.

[Rastani Helios]

I'm enjoying everyones submissons, but what Rastani is doing for the tyranids is superb. For such a force, so alien in composition and mechanics to humanity - to describe it the way he does is great. Props to all of you involved in this. I'm enjoying it muchly.

just a passing thought, I'm browsing this using mozilla firefox and some people's spoiler tags (MooFreaky, Rastani, and aun_shi's 1st tag) are just boxes which vanish upon clicking, the text is visible anyway. They do however - work fine in Internet Explorer.

Thankyou very much =P
I use Internet Explorer, so I haven't noticed any problems. As long as all the text is visible though, it's ok, right?

[Dooks Dizzo]

I love what everyone is doing so far. Will go into further detail after I score some sleep.

[BrianGeneral]

The main problem is that I don't get my second round results, so how can I write?:P

Edit: Overlooked. Will update soon when I have time.

[Gorb]

Updated, sorry for the wait.

I hate heavy bolters.

[Worsle]

Round 3 is up, having been told what to expect a little while back I have had it all nice and ready.

[ssj4nappa]

The battle was planned well in advance and quite a big one, so that's why Worsle got a heads up incase anyone was wondering why.

[nareik123]

Missing: Inquisitor Von Heir.
The Search Party: Witch Hunters

The Search Party

Landed Inquisitorial Storm Trooper Sergeant Jazk
Storm Bolter, Carapace Armour, Targeter

Landed Inquisitorial Storm Trooper Kane
Flamer, Carapace Armour, Targeter

Detailed Inquisitorial Storm Trooper Gladuis
Plasma gun, Carapace Armour, Targeter

Detailed Inquisitorial Storm Trooper Taruis
Melta gun, Carapace Armour, Targeter

Detailed Inquisitorial Storm Trooper Markor
Hellgun, Carapace Armour, Targeter

Detailed Inquisitorial Storm Trooper Malker
Hellgun, Carapace Armour, Targeter

Detailed Inquisitorial Storm Trooper Largot
Hellgun, Carapace Armour, Targeter

Detailed Inquisitorial Storm Trooper Mosk
Hellgun, Carapace Armour, Targeter

Detailed Inquisitorial Storm Trooper Sart
Hellgun, Carapace Armour, Targeter

Detailed Inquisitorial Storm Trooper Hark
Hellgun, Carapace Armour, Targeter

Crusader Heda
Supression Shield, Power Sword, Carapace Armour.

Acolyte Malt
Carapace Armour, Storm Bolter

Von Heir's Bodyguard Bast
Storm Bolter, Carapace Armour, Targeter

Acolyte Nare
Brazier of Holy Fire, Carapace Armour

Prologue

Acolyte Nare spat out mud as his head swam dizzily from the wreckage of his transport. What happened? Why did the planets orbital defence weapons open fire on a witch hunter vessel? Such questions had yet to be answered. Finally, his head had stopped swimming and Nare pulled himself up from the wreckage.
"Our masster rewards us" came a delirous voice above and Nare groaned. He didn't want to die by a heretic.
"Does he?" came a gruff voice behind Nare and a sick rippling sound was heard. Nare looked up, to see the a cultist's chest producing a shimmering blade. He also noticed that a man was behind the cultist.
"Ah, Crusader Heta, perfect timing again i see" thanked Nare as he picked himself up.
"No time to thank me, the storm troopers are holding off the cultists at the east and west flank, with the other acolyte and Von Heir's bodyguard respectively. Von Heir himself is nowhere to be found" Heda reported.
"Alright, um, Heda, reinforce the eastern flank, i'm going to support the western flank" Nare ordered.
"Yes Acoylte" Heda obeyed and they split, needing to defend their crash site.

Round One: Defend The Wreckage

"Nare, Heda, you still alive?" Malt yelled down his comm as he unleashed storm bolter fire. The storm troopers Von Heir had brought along with him were damn useful as they unleashed disciplined volleys of hellgun fire at the choas filth that ran towards him and his men.
"This is sergeant Jazk. Kane, Flavious and Xaw are down. I think they're gonna come through this alive though" yelled a voice down Malt's vox.
"Hahaha, this is Bast. We are slaughtering these scum over here. Sarge is a figure from their worst nightmares, but maybe their flimsy armour needs upgrading?" whooped Bast down the vox, before the unmistakenable sound of explosions from the storm bolter reached Malt's ears.
"Look out sir" yelled a storm trooper and Malt found himself tackled to the ground. He was about to shoot the trooper for doing that and ruining his firing position when he noticed the trooper had taken a chainsword slash in the back, which would have killed Malt if it had hit him. The situation had worsened. The storm troopers were not the most skilled in hand to hand and lacked the feriocity and impact the cultist's had benefitted from. Then the cultist bared down on Malt, laughing insanely as he revved his chainsword, raising it...

The blow never struck, as a gleaming sword intercepted it. Then the unmistakenable figure of Crusader Heda stood over Malt. The cultist recovered quickly and lunged at Heda, but ended up recieving a blow from Heda's suppression shield. Malt regained his footing and fired a round from his storm bolter, blowing apart the cultist's skull. The armoured monster of Heda managed to convinced the cultists that they couldn't win, or so it seemed, as their morale dissappeared and they fled, never to return. Just to make sure, the remaining storm troopers ripped the slower ones apart with hellgun fire.

Nare was struggling on the other side. The combined firepower of Bast, Jazk and the stormtroopers was devistating, but their melee skills weren't as good. Only Sarge and Bast were the exception as they proved they lived up to their positions. Nare pulled out his sword.
"Bast, you know what to do" Nare yelled down the vox and Bast turned before he quickly snapped of a shot. The las shot his Nares blade, which instantly light on fire!

What actually happened was Nare coats his blade with flammable liquids, which las fire lights on impact. Suddenly Nare leapt into combat with a flaming sword. He swung his blade, catching a cultist unaware and decaptitating him whilst setting him on fire. Then Heda, Malt and the rest of the stormtroopers jumped into the fray. The last cultist's turned to flee, but they were surrounded and the weight of men attacking them, plus the powerhouses of Sarge, Bast and Heda quickly ended their life.

Jazk was cycling through each of his men's vox frequencies. After three reports, it was grim. Whilst Kane was fine, Huss and Trax were not responding. He handed out the co-ordinates to his men and Bast so they could bring them to him.
"Just bring them all to me" Jazk ordered and they left.

Meanwhile, Malt and Nare were hugging each other. It was a little known fact that they were brothers, but both had talent, otherwise they would not have been picked by Von Heir to join him, and then take the part of interrigators.
"Emperor's blood, I knew you couldn't die" Nare yelled happily.
"Bloody hell, cool it. I'm happy we're alive, but i want to know why were we shot down?" Malt replied louder.
"No, i want to know what happened to Von Heir" Nare countered.
"He isn't among the dead" Jazk reported as he stepped over the body of a cultist.
"We need more warriors. I have lost 3 men. Thats a third of my squad! I suggest we try and get in contact with the Arbites as soon as possible" Jazk also suggested.
"I agree, but, loathe as i am to suggest this course of action, i suggest we employ gangers. As much as we can't trust them, they know the local area" Nare replied.

Heda came stomping towards them.
"It is confirmed, Von Heir is missing. However, i have managed to find a torn sample of his cape. It is outside a wrecked mechanicus building. I suggest we take as much stuff as possible from the wreck and camp out the night in the building" Heda reported, handing over the evidence to Malt.
"Well done and yes i agree with you. We can think about this in the morning" Malt agreed.
"Alright then. Heda, you're on point, Malt, you're second. The troopers and Bast are going in loose formation. I'm next and Nare, bring up the rear" Jazk ordered and the group lead off into the building.

Onto the mission... (Round 1 Aftermath)

The rag-tag band of Witch Hunters had crashed out in an abandoned building. From icon's and effigies it looked like the Mechanicus had used this building for a reason.
"Well, it looks clear to me" Nare needlessly pointed out.
"The enemy are everywhere, i know it" Jazk contradicted, having activated his shoulder mounted flashlight (no, not a lasgun ) and searching the area for hostiles.
"Look, we can't go on being hunted for much longer. What we fought was only a fraction of their power and we lost three faithful men" Malt growled.
"A fraction? Emperor's blood you sure?" Jazk shot at Malt.
"What Von Heir says anyway" Malt mildly replied.
"Heda, whats your opinion?" Nare asked his hulking bodyguard.
"I am better at solving problems through combat, not through logic" Heda argued back.
"I value everybodies opinion, even yours" Nare countered.
"Well...um...I say that we...um...oh yes, we should get in contact with assistance. Loath as i am to say this but seeing as we lost three good men, i suggest it's better if we don't attract their intentions, like moving sneakly" Heda stuttered.
"See? Heda's good" Nare smiled, clapping him on the back.
"Alright people, enough chatter. We all need to rest, even if we're the planets most wanted" Jazk summarized.
"Emperor protects" Kane prayed. Everyone looked at him in surprise, nobody had heard him speak before, not even his sergeant Jazk.
"Kane! This must be desperate as you're bloody speaking" Jazk yelled.
"What? I had no need to speak in public before now" Kane argued simply.
"Um, Jazk, could you keep it down?" Nare asked him.
Jazk nodded in submission, knowing that he wasn't going to fail everybody by speaking.
"Come on, i require resting" Malt reported.
"I can help you there" Bast yelled as he appeared, Hellgun in one hand, almost destroyed parchment. "Quite simply, i have found the remains of a map of this place. Apperantly there is a room with only one way in. The Mechanicus must have used it for an armoury or a defensive position. Whatever it was, it probably wasn't used."
Nare thought of this new bit of evidence and was about to order the party to pull back into the room when a cry came from a storm trooper.
"Sarge, you better look at this" he yelled.

The party raced towards the trooper, who was pointing out of the window. It was hard to make out anything, but it seems 5 figures were making their way towards the party at sprinting speed.
"Orders?" asked Kane, the only storm trooper who was with the party.
"Wait" beckoned Malt.
"Chaos" spat Jazk.
"Are you sure?" stabbed Nare, eyebrows rasied.
"Yep, i say they're around some sort of pit" Jazk confirmed.
"Pit you say? Whats in this pit?" Bast asked pointlessly.
"Well, lets just say we could have friends or something useful in this pit" Jazk replied.
"Good point" Bast nodded.
"Malt and Bast, gather up the men thats left, we're going to take the pit by force" Nare ordered.
"Is that wise?" Jazk asked.
"We'll find out, won't we?" Nare mildly replied.

Round 2: Discovery in the Pit

Jazk was like a ghost, or so he thought as he, his surviving squadmates and the inquisitorial representatives ghosted around the wreckage of buildings.
"Sarge, this is Heda. I have got a major concentration of traitors here. Approximately 25, no wait, 30" a whispering voice said over his comm.
"Confirmed Sarge" another voice said over his vox. Jazk had no idea who it was.
"For the love of...Sarge, i think traitor marines are also present" Heda said over the vox. This chilled Jazk's spine. He knew chaos marines were extremly difficult to kill, even with hellguns.
"Nare, still thinking of force?" Jazk whispeed down his vox as he quickly darted forward, back against a wall. He breathed a sigh of relief. He made it to his ordered point, surely everyone else must have. The tension was huge, it was nerve shattering.
"We need that pit under our control" Nare voxed back and Jazk sighed. He wasn't going to win an argument with a trainee inquisitor, evn if he was only trainee.
"All units in position" Bast confirmed.
"All men, fire!" Jazk yelled down his vox before he span around and opened fire.

He had forgotten he had no hellgun anymore, as his storm bolter opened fire. He distinctly saw one cultist's torso exploding before diving back behind ruins, as lasgun fire splattered his previous location. He took a peak, to see Bast loosening off a shot. He followed the shot till it hit the torso of another traitor cultist. He scanned their status. The cultist were dillusional. Despite their requests for great power, they weren't exactly great at fighting. At the moment, there were four bodies. Two had smoking holes in their stomachs, two had burn marks in vital spots. Jazk knew the other hole was from Malts storm bolter. Then a great force struck his chest plate and Jazk fell backwards. He looked down to see a bolter round.
"Emperors blood, that was close" Jazk breathed in shock. He knew only a bolter could fire a wound like that, so he tried to locate the assailant, bu no luck. Jazk span round and unleashed a short burst, but none of them actually killed any foul traitors. Cursing himself for wasting ammo, Jazk surveyed the field again from his peep hole. He saw the cultists laughing as they all shot at one storm trooper. The trooper was pierced in many different places, but the head shot confirmed the death. Malt was busy tryig not to get shot, as two bolter wielding chaos marines were both firing at him. Thankfully, the storm troopers took vengence as Jazk clearly saw Kane down one and someone else drop another as well.

"Now, we press our advantage! FOR THE EMPEROR!" screamed a voice over his vox.
"He is not..." muttered Jazk, but Nare was running out of cover towards the cultists. His sword was ablaze, meaning Bast had done that thing. Then suddenly Nare pointed it at the cultists and the sword emmited flame like a flamer!
Clever, emits flammable gas from the tip Jazk thought and he jumped out of cover. He saw the flamer-sword had tipped the ensuring combat in their favour, as five cultists had been reduced to charred corpses. Malt helped by a well placed storm bolter round, blowing up another cultists head.
The storm troopers were also running, screaming. Jazk grinned at the cultists face. Naturally, they broke. Probably they didn't know that Nare had no more promethuim in his sword as Jazk knew Nare needed a lot for the flamer thing in the first place and he had to have a sturdy sword.

However, they appeared. Like Gods of war came three spike ridden figures that only existed in nightmares. Well, Jazk knew these things killed for real as one unfortunate storm trooper found out, his head exploding from a bolter round from these terrifying monsters. At their shadow, the cultists stopped running and turned around before firing their pistols, dropping another storm trooper. Jazk noticed the amount of missing storm troopers for the first time and almost baulked at the threat. They were going to take on the cultists and traitor marines with three storm troopers and inquisitorial guys. But then, when hope seemed gone, Heda came running out of nowhere, screaming oaths and vows as he deflected shot after shot with his shield. The battle had swung once again.

Heda slammed into the cultists with the force of shell fired from a venerable Leman Russ. He cracked a traitorous skull with a shield bash before seperating the top and the bottem part of the torso, severing the lungs. He then impaled another cultist with another sweep of his mighty blade as the others joined in. Heda watched a chainsword get driven through a storm troopers back and out through his stomach before the flaming sword of Nare came scything down, incinerating the murderers insides in a gory fasion. The rest of the men were slamming rifle (and in some cases bolter) butt into troopers. Heda clearly saw Kane tossing a cultist over his shoulder. Overall, he knew the cultist were dieing in droves and helped by kicking a cultist in the face before sweeping low with his blade, finalling rising in a 45 degree angle. The cultist had two unevenly matched half torsos as Hda kicked them away from him. However, Heda saw another storm trooper on the floor. The only combat capable storm troopers left were Kane and Jazk, and Heda hoped Nare's decision didn't cost the lives of all of Jazks men. He then noticed that no longer did he need to deflect any chainswords. It seemed the cultists had broken. Indeed, as Jazk, Kane, Malt and Bast switched to full automatic and slaughtered every cultist left alive. Now for the actual fight Heda thought as he turned and started sprinting across towards the chaotic traitors.

Malt, having finished dealing justice, turned his attentions towards the larger problem of Chaos marines. Jazk had already fired a shot off, but Malts hopes were dashed as the bullet pinged off the traitors extremly large armour.
He groaned as Heda decided to take one on, but then remembered of Heda's power sword. It was capable of slicing through terminator armour, as Malt found out in another battle against chaotic terminators. He held his breath as the marine attempted to ram his spike ridden fist into Heda's torso, but Heda used his shield effectively, driving away the attacker before decaptating the offender. Malts courage bolstered and he found himself running at a giant, screaming profanities at the top of his lungs. He watched Kane and Bast double teaming to take down one, namely Kane jumping on top of the foul traitor and firing at the weak point on it's neck whilst Bast distracted it. Nare was scything at the marine with his flaming sword, but the marine dodged the attacks. As the marine raised his hand to strike, Malt fired. As if his shot was guided by destiny, Malt watched the bullet penetrate the helmet and detonate inside.

"Victory" yelled Malt.

"Victory" screamed everyone.

Lucky Findings (Round 2 Aftermath)

Bast spat out blood from a minor wound a heretic cultist had caused him. He surveyed the post battle scene. Apparently half the storm trooper squad remained alive. Jazk was shouting colourful words at his squads losses but Bast wasn't concerned. He was concerned about the squads new arrivals. He knew Nare and Malt were trying to grill them, but Bast was half likely to tell them to stop. Having marine scouts was a major benefit for their mission.
"Bast, looks like you're not busy" yelled Heda and Bast turned to see Heda waving a hand, indicating Bast should go to him.
Bast sighed and jogged towards Heda at reasonable speed.

"Bast, Malt and Nare have finished, but the scouts resisted all their attempts. The only info we have is that they're from a chapter known as the silver skulls, which are on this planet as well. They say that they need to report to their base. I'm half in mind to follow them. They can't travel alone and we need a secure place to stay" Heda reported.
"My Bloody squad his half dead" shouted Jazk, appearing round a corner. "Even with our new rescued marines, i doubt we can take more punishment. I need bloody reinforcements."
"Jazk, shut up" Bast sighed impatiently.
"Bast, don't you tell me what to bloody do" Jazk yelled back in anger.
"Both of you cool it. We need clear heads and soldiers for our mission. You argue once more and i'll smash your face with my suppresion shield. Lightly, but it'll still flippen hurt" Heda threatened. That shut both of them up, as they both knew that Heda would carry out his threat.

"Men, can you all hush for a minute" asked a new voice and they turned to see both Nare and Malt walking towards them.
"Aye sir" Heda answered quickly. Bast and Jazk just nodded.
"Alright, heres our new objective. At the moment, we have no information on Von Heir at all, bar a bit of his cape. I have come to a decision to put Von Heir on hold and..." Nare started.
"What do you mean "on hold"?" yelled Bast.
"I mean that we won't do any good getting ourselves killed. Anyway, i have decided that we will go searching for our marine friends fortress monastery. Brother Creed?" Malt informed before standing away, allowing a clean shaven dark skinned giant into their temporary base.
"Thank you" the scout named Creed thanked before he faced his audience.

"As you most probably know, we are scout's of the 10th company of the Silver Skulls. However, on a recon mission we were attacked by the alien race known as tyranids s-."
"Nids? Here? Gets better and better doesn't it" spits Jazk.
"If i may finish?" Creed growled and Jazk nodded.
"Anyway, we were wounded and cut off. Then our commander, Captain Baruis, managed to get a vox message to us. It detailed how a ship in orbit was attacked and a single landing craft made it to the surface. We knew the craft would be attacked on the ground as soon as it landed and so we were ordered to rescue it's occupants. Unfortunately, traitor marines attacked us and captured us. My brothers and I thank you for rescuing us" finished Creed before two more scouts walked in.
"Brother, will the tyranids remain in that location?" asked Malt.
"Unknown, the Hive mind is unpredictable otherwise the Tyranids would have been defeated many more times" Creed replied.

Bast walked in front of the party.
"I know my opinion carries little weight, but i say we leave now and get to the base as soon as possible" he suggested.
"I agree" Malt agreed.
"Jazk, tell your squad to get ready to move. We leave in half an hour" Nare ordered.

Round 3: Bug Hunt

It was quiet, too quiet for Kanes liking. The rest of the troopers alive were on edge. He knew that each one of them was on breaking point, as they speak about things over their vox. He hoped to the Emperor they reached the base, a fortress monastery or whatever it was called before attacked.
Morale didn't improve seeing that the scouts had did their job and scouted ahead, leaving the remains to walk behind.
"Jazk, this is Xaw, i swear i saw the bushes move" came a panicky voice over the comm.
"Jeez, Xaw it's your freaking imagination" Jazk yelled down the comm. "Look, if it makes you better go and check them."
"Aye sir" Xaw replied shakily as he left. A few minutes later.
"Holy shi...argh" screamed Xaw in pain.
"Xaw, Xaw, XAW ANSWER YOU SHITHOLE" Jazk bellowed down the comm, but no answer, it was deathly silent.
"All men, loose formation. Keep your eyes on the fucking bushes" Jazk ordered.
"Contact" screamed Kane before the tell-tale hellgun fire opened up.
"Holy shit, they're everywhere" moaned another trooper.
"They're everywhere, they're...argh!"

Jazk was stunned as he watched his squad firing, killing a couple of the bugs before themselves being killed. He recovered in time to aim a high kick at a 'nid fying towards him. The 'nid went sailing overhead, only to land on the Barrel of Bast's hellgun. The 'nid was shot repeatedly before dieing.
"Fall back, fall back" Nar ordered, his flaming sword alight. The squad eagerly fell back, but they were stoppd by a cliff face. They were trapped, and only Kane and Jazk were left of the troopers.
"It was nice being with you guys" Bast muttered, before...
"Die, xenos scum" spat Creed and a tyranid took a bolt round in the chest, exploding in a gory fasion. Jazk saw his chance and took it, spraying storm bolter fire into the mass of gaunts. He whooped the air as his shots struck true, killing three gaunts. Bast and Kane double teamed on one gaunt, frying it with well placed hellgun shots. Malt blazed away on full auto, missing every shot. Somehow, Jazk managed to smile. If they got off this Emperor cursed place, he would have to teach Malt how to shoot. Nobody missed as many times as he did against tyranids, not even civilians. His concentration returned, and his face dropped in horror.

The three scouts had stopped firing. Jazk saw why as he caught three gigantic bodies on the floor. They did take out 8 gaunts, but three still remained. Jazk's horror turned to anger and he switched his storm bolter to full auto, firing and suceeding in blowing two more to pieces. He watched in agony as Kane, Bast and Malt missed. However, the emperor smiled on them. The last Gaunt, out of synapse range, got distracted. Then a chainsword ripped through it's puny body, ripping it's organs into suitable shreds.
"The Emperor protects" Creed roared, throwing the body to the floor and crushed it.

Flight (Round 3 aftermath)

The sun beated down on the remains of the kill team. Dehydrated and little ammo for storm bolters, they could not have been in worse shape. This is exactly what Heda thought as he wearily trudged down the seemingly endless plain. Nothing for sight to see other than the remains of the team. Heda regretfully turned his head around to see Jazk and Kane, the only storm troopers left. <i>Maybe we shouldn't have chased after Von Heir</i> Heda thought. <i>Maybe we shold have stayed, gathered up more equipment from the dead</i>.

Ahead of Heda, Nare and Malt were the only ones who were not dying slowly. Nare was capable of this taking this killing heat, having been born on Tallarn, that was after the curses. Nare had kept his vox channel open so the space marine scouts could report their position. He looked at his brother, also born on Tallarn.
"Any news" Malt asked.
"My voxs dead" Nare replied, "dead as in nothing."
"My vox is open to our team, well, whats left of it. If anybody says something, i'll know" Malt replied in a bored tone.

However, Jazk and Kane weren't happy.
"Kane my friend, do you know how much bloody paperwork i'm going to have to go through when i get off this death trap" Jazk moaned.
"If you get off sir" Kane unenthusiasticly replied.
"No, i plan to get off this planet. Besides, if i die, chances are the paperworks gonna follow me to where ever i go" Jazk joked weakly.
"Don't joke again Jazk, this isn't the time or place" Bast slurred, stumbling past them both.
"As for you, mr i-bodyguard-somebody-who-isn't-here, i don't need you to piss me off now" Jazk groaned back, uncapable of yelling.

[MooFreaky]

Updated... yayness in a box

[TS_ahriman]

Sorry it took so long, but part 3 is finally up. My internet got killed, so I had to bounce back and forth between a couple pc's to get it done.

[AHH! MOTHERLAND]

If I may make a comment, I like the epilogues as in the intermediate filler between rounds. I also think that everyone is writing excellent stories. Good job!

[Sword_Monkey]

I like my latest section, a shame the twins had to die at the same time but I dealt with it nonetheless. Now I just have to find time to read the rest, and remember where I got upto last reading spree.

[Gorb]

Updated, longest one yet! Darn that encounter took a long time

[Sword_Monkey]

Round 4 up, but my most important message is that MooFreaky sucks at spoiler tags, I'm not complaining about the stories not being in spoilers, I don't mind, I am just complaining that having spoiler tags floating around, above the stories doing little or nothing is a bit wierd.

[MooFreaky]

It's not that I suck with them, it's that you have a crap Internet browser...

EDIT : I will post mine tomorrow night, when I have time to get it all done

[Sword_Monkey]

!! Now you've confused me, nearly everyone else's works fine, including my own spoiler tags, my browser (Firefox) doesn't appear to be anything to do with it.

If you could explain it would be much appreciated, if I can change something to make the spoilers work (if they're broken, not just done wrong) then that'd be great, don't leave me hanging like that.

[MooFreaky]

My spoilers are fine. Someone else was having problems with them earlier too.
If you were using IE it would be fine

[ssj4nappa]

Moo's spoilers work just fine for me, so I'm guessing that it's something your end. Just like to congratulate everyone on the quality of their write up. This is the reason that I look to do new inventive battles so that you can have something good to write up.

[Worsle]

I have a propblem with them too, no idea what casues it and I am using firefox too. I will try and get my update up as soon as I can, though I am suffering a little from a mental block hopeful I will have it done today or tomorrow.

[nareik123]

More updating. Finished Aftermath of round one and Round 2.

[TS_ahriman]

Finished up part 4, finally. I've got plenty of excuses though....just try me.

[ssj4nappa]

Just Gorb and aun_shi to go. I've spoken to Worsle and real life issues have prevented him from updating, but he has agreed for me to carry on and he'll catch up as soon as he can.

[nareik123]

More updatyness. Editted the search party to show the new stuff. For anybody wanting to know Kane and Jazk are the only ones left of the original landing storm troopers. Also completed Aftermath of round 2 and round 3.

[BrianGeneral]

Updated. It's up to you to write anything in the mine Nappa, but I hope I can find an Ork settlement for some reinforcements. You know, Orks' strength are in numbers=P

[ssj4nappa]

Now that's more like it Brain, a quality write up. You can most certainly find an Orky settelment, though the new boyz wont be able to match up to your now elite ladz. WS5 Orks, a scary thought.

[Worsle]

Round 4 is up at last, sorry for the delay.

[AHH! MOTHERLAND]

I finished editing my round 5 write up, so for those who have read it, read about half way down again as there is about 2 new paragraphs in it. I like all of the write ups done so far as each one has it's own inidividual style.

[Rastani Helios]

Updated my story post with round 5, and the hunter-killer force spoiler.

For the Genestealers I chose Scything Talons and Toxin Sacs.

[Gorb]

Done, finally

Stupid filters.

[MooFreaky]

Updated with Dark Eldary goodness.

[ssj4nappa]

As an extra reminder, sunday noon (GMT) is the deadline. Hopefully the 3 outstanding will be done by then, and we can progress to round 6.

[Worsle]

Well I am in before the update. Nappa will see the product of our little bit in there, with alterations praising the silver skulls no end.

[Gorb]

Updated, finally. Can't wait for the final rounds!

[Dooks Dizzo]

Hey everyone, I will be voting this thread into the Archives once all is said and done. We have some pretty cool stories here and I think they are worth saving. So remember to vote!

[ssj4nappa]

Gorb, I can't see your update, and so can't do your next round. Try posting it in a seperate post, just until you can figure out a way to get it seen.

[queztacoatl]

I would firstly like to say that this challenge has been great fun to do and I really aprecitate the work that has been put into it.

However, with all the schoolwork I am having at the moment (and exams next week!) I have not been able to put as much of the time into it as i would like to, and it that is really shoing in how bad my writong it is. To stop it getting worse I would like to announce my defeat in this challenge. I have posted up my last story, as it would be a shame to waste all of ssj4mappa's hard work to not write it up.

I wish everybody else good luck in writing thier stories

[ssj4nappa]

A shame to see you go queztacoatl, I liked your team and your write ups. But, I can understand that real life comes first and foremost.