[IC] WARHAMMER 40K: THE TARSON INCURSION

[Eisenhorn]

The presence of the allied psyker and Arbites was rather sudden, though none of the Tech Guard or Skitarii even turned to acknowledge their presence, leveling focused firepower while the four tech guard formed ranks in front of the Rangers, forming a firing line that was protected by the shielded and well armored Guards. They left a position for the Arbites to be able to fire at will while Malig calmly noted the malfunctioning Turret brought down and the sparking shield that was being worn by the Weird Boy. The tutting that she made as she rested the symbol of her office, an Omnissian Power Axe, while pulling the curious chamber clear of her Archaeotech Pistol and slapping a purple one into its place instead, the weapon emitting, to anyone not part of the Mechanicus, a disconcerting and unpleasant whining noise as it charged and she trained the pistol on the Ork Weird Boy. "I predicted Inquisitorial Forces would be better equipped, disappointing. We will stop by the armory and better equip your forces, and access what you couldn't the first time."

Discharging the Archaeotech Pistol, as the Astartes and Sororitas arrived and lended their firepower, the bright blue round literally screaming through the air as it impacted the shield and, for a second, nothing seemed to happen. Then the shield promptly failed, and the generator on the Weird Boy's back exploded, engulfing the Boy in a warp induced hole and tore apart the Weird Boy to pieces, and knocked the surrounding Boyz onto their arses, and Malig calmly replaced the green chamber. The Skitarii advanced behind the Tech Guard, pouring focused and unyielding fire into the remaining Orks, scattered first by the Inquisition and second by the Tech Priestess removing the Weird Boy threat. Speaking to the two Inquisitorial agents, she kept speaking while performing rites over the Archaeotech Pistol. "Uncorrupted sensors report increasing vox failures inside the Forge, unable to raise Staudinger on vox. A pleasure to finally meet most of the Inquisitorial forces assisting."

---

Ansgar glanced at the shifting pressure in the room, the vanishing bodies of the Psyker and Arbites creating momentary vacuums where they had been, alerting him of their departure. Cycling vox channels, he couldn't even raise anyone else on his comms, and he sighed, having continued going over the map and figuring out a point where they could bring down the Titan if need be. There wasn't much else they could do here at this point, and he glanced at the tech heretic as she kept working, going to sling the flamer back on when he saw the destruction of the turret had ruptured the tank, a caustic hole in the ground where the chemical and promethium mix had been leaking. Or the tanks had finally gave out from the mixture eating away at metal, either way, his impromptu modifications had finally given through. "Hmm..."

With perhaps a bit too much relish, he drew his backup las pistol and broke out his entrenching tool, with every intent of caving the skulls of every Ork between them and meeting back up with the rest of the retinue. "There is nothing else to do here, mercenary, and my vox just gave out. Raise the Psyker, and inform them to meet us..." He paused, shifting maps and finding that the nearest way to exit the Forge was a hanger on the ground level, still had vehicles to use if the notes were accurate. "Hanger Twelve. Meet at Hanger Twelve, we will appropriate vehicles and depart to make preparations to bring down that Titan once its finally moving." Waiting for the tech heretic as he stood by the elevator, the commotion caused by the Tech Priestess and others would have cleared their path, coupled with the heavy Turrets still non hostile to the Imperial forces.

[Rithy]

To call the Orks' onslaught into the narrow corridor a bloody mess would be an understatement.

Greenskin fell by the dozen! Most were cut down by the red hot, steaming barrels of the twin-mounted heavy bolter turret in the roof, yet no few fell to the combined fire from the arbites, mechanicus and reinforcing Aviza. Green gobbets, gore and blood painted the exploding hallway. The weirdboy had shouted something in the chaos, the chaos so loud that it even drowned out the brute's angry cry, before the Ork Weirdboy was blown apart in a terrifying warp anomaly that shredded him and three nearby Orks to dust!
Some of the brutes; loaded down with humongous, oversized ork shootas and copious amounts of ammo belts; lurched to the frontline to spray the entire corridor with unrelenting(and poorly aimed!) automatic fire, but they were shot to pieces almost as soon as they had pressed the trigger and started their wild salvos!

Adrianne rested her long, curved power sword behind her back in her left hand as she reached with gloved fingers down for the holster at one of her thighs; pulling out an elongated plasma pistol covered in arcane script that she primed with a muffled whine as the generator on its back shone with an unhealty, unnatural purple light!

"This is like shooting gen-hanced aqua life in a vat!"

The Psyker thought to herself as she smirked behind her skull mask. Bullets rattled through the corridor, and she slowly raised her pistol and took aim at the Ork mob at the doorway.

With a ravenous shriek from the plasma pistol, it sent a super-heated bolt streaking towards the Ork crowd!

Missed! The first shot passed harmlessly past the head of an Ork shoota boy; only managing to singe the uncaring brute's ear a little; seconds before said Ork's head was blown up by Aviza's incoming fire! With a wince, Adrianne fired again! The second shot hit a moving Ork in the leg, immediately incinerating 80% of the Ork's knee and leaving the brute to stumble onto the floor in a pile of green limbs and ammunition, but missed his torso!
Gritting her teeth, Adrianne fired four more shots in rapid succession, two of which missed; one melted a greenskin's hand off; and only one succeeded in hitting a brute's helmet, turning the primitive metal helmet into molten slag and boring through the brute's skull as it fell to the ground with a silent scream!

Privately cursing her own accuracy, Adrianne quietly powered down her cooling plasma pistol before placing it back into its holster as if nothing had happened.

"Good shooting!" She spoke to Herold as she stood behind the arbites, pretending she had only been spectating the rest of the fight.

The greenskin had been scattered. The entrance to the corridor they had come through was filled with the mutilated remains of more than two dozen dead Orks. The survivors were currently fleeing back the way they had come, some of the running brutes jeering or calling back with taunts as they fled even as some of their numbers were killed or brought down by errant shots!

The Psyker turned to look down at the corridor below from her vantage point; her tattered cloak flowing behind her as she walked to the edge to give a wave down at Aviza!

"The Ork intrusion is dealt with in this corridor! What is the state of the titan?"

[rivaan]

The situation wasn't exactly going the way Vala wished it to. They were rapidly losing control of systems and frankly she couldn't keep everything under control by herself. She needed at least two more people to work with her to combat this level of system infection and even that was a stretch. Frankly though, the Titan was about as hindered and restrained as it could possibly be wihtout destroying it outright. Frankly she would have been happy if they could remove all ordinance from it's munitions storages, but that wasn't exactly something she could gain access or rig to self unload like that. She had made it have to reboot entirely if it tried to come online and what's more she had already removed all fuel. Heck she even locked the system by forcing it in a loop to prevent easy refueling.

"Dammit..." She groaned as Ansgar told her to get moving." Just give me.. a lil..." She mumbled, typing in last commands, before the system went into lockdown mode."01001001, 00100000, 01100001, 01101101, 00100000, 01110100, 01101000, 01100101, 00100000, 01100010, 01100101, 01110011 ,01110100. You accrused thing!" She spat out with a huge grin, before turning around and bolting in the direction of the companion she currently had." I secured the last frequencies for our comms, the one I gave the psycker earlier." She smiled and elevator. " Oi, psycker, Ansgar said we should head for hanger twelve. We are leaving hte control room, I isolated some of hte system before the the infected code took them, including this comm channel." She stated and looked aorund." Tell them the Titan's rendered harmless for the moment. It has no fuel and if it turns online it will go into maintenance."

"Ansgar, Elevator is save for now, but I cannot promise for how long. I didn't secure this system, so pick a floor we can descend earliest and we can walk the rest."

[POOHEAD189]

The Arbites had finished his onslaught on the base floor, having leapt off the rise onto another below, and then stomping hard on the ground with his next leap. He shot another dozen rounds into the scattered mass, causing a rout as the skitarii and the others fired alongside him. "Primary threat, dealt with." He said with a cool satisfaction, his combat shotgun smoking lightly from extended use. He stripped the weapon for a moment, letting it cool down as he reloaded.

Behind him, he would hear the Astartes and Sororitas' telltale voices intermingling with the Psyker's. It seemed the group had finally mostly rejoined one another for the moment. As long as the psyker did not grab him again and transport him through the extradimensional void, all would be well. Unfortunately, the incoming news from Vala about the defenseless Titan caused a stir even among the cold blooded and machinery refined Skitarii.

"We need to move." Herold said, his shotgun making a loud 'clacking' noise as he finished putting it back together, fresh and ready for use yet again. He was not entirely familiar with the facilities hangers, but he knew the general direction of the lowest and highest numbers when he got a look at the overhead map back in the tower.

"This way. 12 should be through these northern corridors."

[Jb]

The White Scar moved along with the group much as he had done for pretty much the entire mission thus far, his HUD highlighting both recently arrived allies as well as potential foes, shielding his eyes from muzzle flashes and psychic flickers of otherworldly powers, and heightening his already considerable senses.

He watched silently and somewhat sullenly as the Greenskins were picked apart once more by the surrounding mortals, the only thing surprising him being the presence of the Mechanicus group – this was a Titan however, and therefore their arrival was not entirely unlooked for.

Where would this Titan or indeed facility be without the red-robed protectors?

As he saw the Orks actually withdraw, or die, he felt a pang of disappointment in his blood.

Where to now?

[WardenCelestine]

Once the sound of gunfire had been silenced and the smoke had cleared from the hallway, Aviza took a few steps forward and knelt down next to what little was left of the Weird Boys body. Pulling out a knife that could have been mistaken for a surgical tool, Aviza inspected the wound upon the Xeno. After some poking and prodding, she apparently hit some sort of artery due to the spray of blood that ended up all over the front of Aviza's armor. This of course did not bother her, she was use to having someone elses blood painted upon her armor at the end of a battle.

"Multiple severe burns and lacerations upon the body, this is separate from the damage that Archaeo-technology weapon did." said Aviza before standing up and making her way over to the Tech-Priestess and her troops. With a slight wave of her left hand, Aviza properly introduced herself. "Tech-Priestess Malig I presume? The pleasure is mine, I am Ophelian Celestian of the Order of the Ebon Shroud. As of now, I am the groups active leader untill being relived of my position. I will explain more about the current situation once we have all regrouped."

Behind the Tech-Priestess, Adrianne stood upon her vantage point, yelling down at the group below. Aviza looked over the Tech-Priestesses left shoulder and raised an eyebrow at the ever charismatic Psyker. "Pardon me for a moment, Tech-Priestess Mailg." Moving past Malig, Aviza motioned for Adrianne to join them down upon the first floor of the forge. "Where are the others Adrianne? Are they still inside of the control room for the Titan?" Aviza did not wait for an answer, she quickly switched on her com and spoke into it, hoping to locate the rest of her retinue, which had significantly grown in size. "Vala and Ansgar, regroup at my position immediately for a briefing on what we found and orders on our next move."

[Eisenhorn]

With a curt nod, the Krieger entered the elevator and hit the button that would get them off the elevator as soon as physically possible. Once the tech heretic was on, he would send the elevator down to its earliest possible point to stop that was not the command deck, las pistol raised just in case they would run right into Orks or any other potential trouble. Nothing, it seems the Orks were either dead or just not in their way currently, which was a shame since purging the foul greenskins would be a welcome reprieve from simply sitting in the command deck and simply planning things out. He'd rather be stuck in fighting than simply standing back and planning, sending men to die, and being generally an officer. But he went where the Emperor willed, and would lay his life down wherever that would be. As the two began moving, Vala would get the message from the Celestian and, once informed of the change of destination, altered their course without question. The Krieger was a silent companion, the only noise apparent was the sound of boots on the ground and the quiet breathing through his rebreather as they caught up to the others after a short period of time navigating the Forge.

"Ma'am, reporting for continued operations. Recommend heading for Hanger Twelve and proceeding by land from there." At that point, the Techpriestess Malig stepped in, her voice drowning out the Krieger before he could continue with anything else he was going to say. His response was unreadable, though like most sane people, he would probably not be terribly pleased with the Techpriestess just casually stamping out anything else he had to say. "Optimal way back to the city would be via Cargo Storage Seven-Oh-One. Guard issue vehicles will carry us back from there, and avoid interference of surface side Orks." With that, the Techpriestess and her handful of Skitarii and Tech Guard would, after confirming with the Celestian that the plan was the wisest one for the two groups, lead them down several service tunnels that would bypass malfunctioning Turrets and wandering Orks to shortly arrive in the aforementioned Cargo Storage.

Sure enough, there was a spare Chimera transport, as well as a Rhino which the Techpriestess would head towards. "I will operate the Rhino, the Tech Guard will also ride with me. Apothecary, Celestian, you are welcome to join as well. Recommend the others join the Skitarii in the Chimera." Ansgar had already boarded the Chimera, taking over the drivers seat, much to the potential chagrin of any of those stuck riding with him. "I will operate the Chimera and lead the convoy. It is better armed than the Rhino currently is. Arbites, hull gunner. Mercenary, turret gun. Skitarii, firing ports in the back." The Skitarii, after confirming that the Krieger's orders were valid, took up positions within the firing points within the Chimera's transport space and, once everyone was in place, Ansgar took off in a very aggressive manner, setting the tone for the passenger's ride to the city.

Moving along at a brisk pace, Ansgar was scanning ahead of them as the tunnel lights snapped on ahead of them, illuminating the stark cargo tunnel that was used to ferry goods and materials between the Forge and the city itself. Empty and abandoned, which when there was several abandoned vehicles around a service off shoot, Ansgar brought the Chimera to a halt, using the Chimera's built in vox to communicate with the rest of the assembled Imperials. "Ma'am, several civilian vehicles are encircling a service tunnel, recently abandoned from what I can tell from here." The Techpriestess, from her position in the Rhino, chimed in to add to the confusion of the situation at hand. "After the Ork arrival, the tunnel was banned to use outside of vital need. No civilian craft should be here. It would warrant further investigation, given the situation at the Forge." At that point, several shadowy figures could be seen moving behind the vehicles, which would register on the auspex's available in both vehicles, something that would be relayed by both the Techpriestess and Krieger at the same time.

[Rithy]

"Well this is not awkward at all... "

Adrianne privately thought to herself as she sat in the back of the shaking Chimera as it was driven by the Krieger of all things, as the Psyker was surrounded on all sides by the red robed Skitarii.

The Skitarii filled the seats and the aiming ports, yet all of them stood still as statues; as if they had been part of the Chimera itself. About the only indications that they were even active were the blinking lights from under their hoods coupled with the occasional binary chatter between them, and the perfect, steady sweeping motions of their weapons pointing out the viewports.

Adrianne, towering over the rest of them; for as much as it was worth in the cramped confines; let out a sigh, just before a bump in the road caused the top of helmet to bonk into the roof of the Chimera as it came to a stop!

"Owh! ... ~"

"After the Ork arrival, the tunnel was banned to use outside of vital need. No civilian craft should be here. It would warrant further investigation, given the situation at the Forge."

"If there are any Orks, it should be easy for me to tell. Give me but a moment, and I will scry our surroundings." Adrianne said over the communications; eager to do something to take her mind off her uncomfortable space; before closing her eyes behind her skeletal mask and reaching out with her mind in the confines of the tunnel, searching of auras other than their own.

Given the great amount of mechanics elements with them and how dimly their souls burned, it proved surprisngly easy for her to ignore them and reach out to their surroundings...

[POOHEAD189]

Herold had no recollection of the Krieger Trooper having any authority over him or anyone else. At first he merely looked at the trooper when he ordered him to the hull gun, his face granite and his powerful, hulking body unmoving until he decided it was not the time to argue over such things. Slowly he turned and headed toward the Chimera, holstering his shotgun as he moved after he had sufficiently reloaded the weapon.

He stepped into the vehicle and motioned for the Skitarii to file past him to enter their seats. The mechanical cultists had always been an oddity to him he didn't quite understand, but their support was welcome at least. He soon stepped over to the gun, and latched his fists onto the handles as the Chimera was fired up.

You would think by now he would be tired of mowing down Orkoids, but the fact of the matter was, it was still satisfying. The old low gothic primer of the Guardsmen sprang into his mind. "Fear The Alien. Hate The Alien. Kill The Alien." As the Chimera and the Rhino began moving, his now jittering body was perfectly honed to gun down any Xenos greenskin that had the misfortune of showing itself within his iron sights.

[rivaan]

Vala wasn't finding the whole situation fun. Actually the entire place was a death trap, they were just some mince caught in the maze of dangers, waiting for htem to be swallowed by a snake waiting somewhere in the maze or something. Afterall there was a possibily compromised Titan which at least hasn't started to go berserk yet. Maybe it was the fact she rendered it ineffectual without serious start up operations like refueling and the like, but hse wouldn't scratch it from hte list of dangers just yet.

"Fine." she mumbled as she borded the Chimera with hte rest. At least the chimera rode better than some of the crafts she had been on in the past. Old shuttles, damaged land vehicles, generally non vit for service vehicles of any kind that she had to keep working, return to working order or anything else a rogue mechanic might have to do out in lawless space with any ancient barely working tech the outlaws, mercs and others unsavory elements of the imperium got. She even had to try to put an ork weapon in working condition once... she gave it up. It was impossible task.

As the treck in the Chimera continued, she used the chance to try to understand what the Skitarii were telling each other in binary. Not quite easy to make out among the noise in the chimera, but she got a few sets of binary here and there, traslating it in symbols as she went. Was a good side chore to do while tinkering with her gun. She had relaxed quite a lot in the Chimera actually and since she wasn't quite as tall as the psyker, she didn't get her head hit in the roof of it. When the vehicle stopped, she quickly prepared her gun, in case she had to use it.

[Jb]

If this 'Malig' thought that she would be driving the Rhino transport when Nergüi had the possibility to do the most exciting thing he had done this mission, she would soon be gravely mistaken; the White Scar used his considerable bulk to half-force his way past the Techpriestess and lump himself into the drivers seat in a matter of moments.

Oh yes, he thought to himself, accessing information within his mind that as an Apothecary one generally did not need, this will do nicely.

Large fingers tapped a number of buttons, while a heavy foot gunned the accelerator in anticipation, Nergüi turning to Malig and requesting that she direct him. He could just as easily have followed on the til of the Chimera, but politeness was a virtue after all.

They had not been moving long when the monotone vocalisations of the Krieger made themselves heard in the APCs interior – he sounded even more bored than usual over the vox, meanwhile Nergüi had been grinning beneath his helmet for the entire ride.

"After the Ork arrival, the tunnel was banned to use outside of vital need. No civilian craft should be here. It would warrant further investigation, given the situation at the Forge."

The Astartes shifted in his seat as the Techpriestess spoke up...then the auspex began to flicker.

Now turning to their apparent leader, the Deathwatch marine gave a small nod to Aviza, “would you like me to check this out? The Martian can take over driving if needs be.” He was already flicking the safety off of his bolter as he spoke, but would not emerge from the vehicle unless he got the go-ahead.

[Rithy]

"I sense... "

Adrianne began; closing her eyes as she reached with her hand past Vala's face.

Reaching out with her aura to touch the tunnels with her ethereal senses, Adrianne found flickers of light; small embers of weak souls littering the tunnels around them beyond the vision of mortal eyes or mechanical sensors.

But these souls were incomplete, bisected. As if something had severed their mortal bodies, just as the mechanicum Skitarii all around them. But it was more; what little spattering of souls still burned in the abused bodies was twisted, constrained by a malignant presence; relatively weak but there nonetheless, binding the soul in a twisted lifeless cage. And the weak lights were many, all converging towards their position in the tunnel; coming closer with every second!

A horde of tech slaves, barely even human before whatever demonic corruption changed them even further!

"The damned... " Adrianne muttered, the Psyker opening her eyes behind the dark visors of her skull mask to look at the ironic sight of the large number of Skitarii and lone tech-heretic accompanying her in the chimera; which would have looked like a prison escort if she hadn't known better.

"There is a horde of possessed in these tunnels. Weak but numerous, the industrial working caste; industrial augmentations in addition to heavy demonic corruption. If we stay here the horde will come upon us at any minute now!"

Adrianne said over the comms, as she suddenly didn't feel so safe anymore in the Chimera!

One thing was a mindless warp abomination slapping the armoured hull of the Chimera with its tentacles, which was only an uncomfortable experience for the most part. Yet a mindless warp abomination with corrupted jackhammers for arms was an entirely different experience of both uncomfortable and dangerous, and Adrianne did not trust in the Chimera's armor against both industrial equipment and demonic strength combined!

[WardenCelestine]

Techpriestess Malig was giving out orders to her squad, where she thought she had the right to do such a thing was beyond Aviza and should have been common sense but in truth, the Celestian gave it very little thought. When the Krieger Ansgar protested that the more well armed Chimera take the lead of their convoy, Aviza was in agreement with the statement and had climbed into the Rhino tank, taking the gunners seat of the still quite deadly vehicle before anyone else could. Many would find the gunners seating uncomfortable but Aviza found a strange comfort in its small quarters, surrounded by panels that had buttons, switches and screens covering them. Using the viewing sight that was positioned directly in front of her, Aviza pointed Rhino tanks main cannon forward and manually loaded some explosive shells into it, just in case they ran into any trouble on the way back to the Imperial Guardsmen headquarters.

As soon as the Chimera and Rhino tank had started off down through the civilian access tunnels, Aviza opened her com not only to her squad but also everyone else that was inside both armored vehicles. "While the White Scar and myself were investigating the Titan, we ran into the forces of Chaos, while they were only Tech-Priests of the The Dark Mechanicus, this has very troublesome implications for this world and needs to be reported back to the Imperial Guardsmen headquarters and inquisition as soon as possible. I feel that the Orks were being used by the forces of Chaos to distract all of us from what is really actually happening upon this world. The Titan is thankfully secure now and will not be of any use to the heretics, we can thank the emperor for that."

When they had arrived at the barricade of civilian vehicles near the middle of the tunnel, Aviza flipped a swtich and the gunners sight changed to thermal and night vision view. The lights in the tunnel where they were current barred from going any further, were now out and the only source of light was from the two vehicles. When the White Scar inquired about investigating the vehicles, Aviza quickly spoke, "Stay where you are, that goes for all of you, I do not want any of use leaving our vehicles untill we know what's out there." That question was quickly answered when Adrianne informed them that a horde of possessed was in the tunnels, the mindless warp abomination made itself known by knocking civilian vehicles out of the way and letting forth an unearthly roar of bloodlust before attacking the Chimera.

The sensors inside of the Rhino started to flash, informing her that a very large group of hostiles were moving up from behind them. The horde of possessed were more than a couple thousand at least, and that was just the very start of their numbers. Aviza aimed the cannon behind the Rhino tank and started to dump rounds into the endless wall of chaos that flooded from every entrance into the tunnel. If and when they got to close to the Rhino, she would open up on them with the Rhino's built in heavy flamers. A close eye was kept on the amount of ammo the Rhino tank had and each burst of shots was carefully placed to make them as effective as possible. All of the friendly forces had now opened fire and the tunnel was ablaze with multi-color bursts of gunfire.

[Eisenhorn]

"There is a horde of possessed in these tunnels. Weak but numerous, the industrial working caste; industrial augmentations in addition to heavy demonic corruption. If we stay here the horde will come upon us at any minute now!"

@Rithy

"Too late, brace for impact." The matter of fact tone from the Krieger betrayed nothing of his actions, the sound of the Chimera slamming into reverse, and throwing the non Skitarii about violently as he avoided a crude, improvised rocket hurtling by. It seemed someone, or something, had instructed the heretical forces how to construct crude anti tank weapons, though by evading the incoming crude ordinance he had no room to avoid the charging heretical forces. The sound at the front end of the Chimera prompted Ansgar to slam the thing back forward, dragging the warp tainted assailant under the front treads, a heavy bump, screeching, and crunch announcing the fate of the would be boarder. "We don't have room to maneuver clear of further explosive attacks where we are, we ram through the fortifications and take them in close assault."

The idea of engaging corrupted industrial workers would be mad to most, but between the Skitarii who literally had no programming for fear nor any left in the organic components, and a Death Korp of Krieg Grenadier who saw a suicidal frontal assault as another day in service to the Emperor, and said Krieger was driving, there was little recourse for the more reasonable members inside the Chimera except be along for the ride. Not bothering to slow down, the Chimera's engine roared in defiance to the incoming clatter of stub weapons, stolen or inducted from local gangs or smuggled from offworld, as well as another volley of crude explosives attempting to disable the Chimera. The Skitarii, despite the chaos of the ramming attack, were firing at maximum efficiency, picking targets as the Chimera smashed open the crude semi circle of fortifications the heretics had attempted to make proof against assaults.

"In life, war. In death, peace. In life, shame. In death, atonement."

Grim were the words that the Krieger intoned as a heretic took a massive pair of industrial sheers, designed for cutting armor plates to size, to the front of the hull, opening a man sized gap in front of Ansgar as he intoned the last line of the Litany of Sacrifice. Without a sound, the Krieger leapt forward, slamming into the heretic and, despite its augmentations, sent it hurtling to the ground. In its forehead was a bayonet, which Ansgar ripped from the bloody mess he had left of the heretic as he produced, in his dominant hand, an entrenching tool. The Skitarii kept up their withering rate of fire, and the tech heretic had a perfect line of fire into the tunnel where more heretics could pour in from. Despite the gaping hole over the driver's seat, the hull gun was undamaged and the Arbites would also find he had a fine view of the incoming heretics. Ansgar was standing over the corpse of the heretic, covering the only blind spot left outside of the rear of the Chimera, which was facing the Rhino.

---

"That is why Techpriests assigned to the Death Korp loath their vehicle operators..." Clearly Malig was disgusted with how the venerable Machine Spirit in the chimera had been treated, though she had little recourse to act in preventing such actions. She had not argued, or even begrudged, the Apothecary after she saw what Chapter the Astartes hailed from, and knew full well not to stand between the White Scar and a vehicle. She had instead provided navigational assistance while maintaining a connection to the remote operated Storm Bolter on the top of the vehicle. The weapon came to life, keeping the heretics from being able to get into the blind spot behind the Chimera, ramp still raised to prevent friendly fire, though anyone inside the transport could drop the ramp at any moment, even if the driver had already left through the new hole in its front.

"So long as the Rhino keeps clear of disabling fire, the remote Storm Bolter I am interfacing with will keep any infantry assaults to the Chimera's blind spot clear." The Techpriestess reported calmly to the Celestian, having accepted her position within the current hierarchy of command and not intending to create unnecessary disruptions. She would follow the Celestian's, or the Apothecary's if the Sister of Battle was unavailable, orders without delay, even if she would have choice words to say about the matter. In the pitch of a firefight was not the time to argue, after all, and if there was heresy spreading outside of the Dark Mechanicus presence, things were not boding well indeed.

[Rithy]

"I hate this!"

Adrianne said where she sat in the tight confines of the chimera as hell itself fell upon them on the outside. She had already unbuckled her seatbelt for what little extra mobility it gave her in the chimera and was cradling her large staff; both her and it being a few sizes too large for the chimera!

Loud banging, mindless screaming, bolter and las fire coupled with the roars of industrial tools turned into weapons sounded from the outside.

And there was nothing that she could do from inside the vehicle!

"Who let a guardsman; and of krieg of all things; drive in the first place!?!"

Brief thoughts of mutiny were replaced by a yelp from Adrianne as the inside of the chimera was suddenly filled with a roaring screech and a shower of sparks as the spinning head of a buzz-saw penetrated one of the walls! Adrianne made a quick gesture with her gloved fingers, pointing at the buzz-saw, before an invisible kinetic force grabbed the spinning tool and pushed it back out with the force of a cannonball; the sound of a heavy thud and scream as the tool was slammed back into its operator on the outside; and likely slamming the heretic a long way away as well!

"We are going to run out of ammunition long before they run out of heresy at this rate... !" Adrianne shouted over the noise inside the chimera as she turned to peer at Vala through the flowing dance of red robes of the Skitarii manning the gunports around them.

[rivaan]

"You've got to be kidding me..." She mumbled as they rammed the damned chimera into the chaos baricade!!! What's with those people!? Going on the breach assault with so little people!? The chaos possessed could easily swarm them and one opened gap and it would be over dammit! That's why she hated the warriors of this fucking imperioum... mostly the men. YEah all these mens, guardsmen, space marines and so on... they all were under the brainwashing that to dive in and possibly die was the best possible course of action!!! Sure if you had a full squad of near immortal space marines sure, but htey didn't!!!

"Fuuuuu...." She roared as a chainsaw her breached the hull. Luckily the psyker dealt with it." For once I agree with you, psyker." Vala rorared as she pulled her." Next time either you or I drive dammit!" Vala added as she pulled her gun just in time to fire into the hole that was opened by some kind of heavy industrial drill. It wouldn't be surprising if the Skitarii were to start being picked off any moment now.

What's the plan now? She had no idea, plan went out hte window the moment the moron rammed the baricade." Psycker, can you cave the tunnel somewhere in front of us?! We will be dead if the swarm continues anymore than it is right now!" Vala asked, as she fired her gun a few more time through the few holes that were now opened, so she was getting more and more openings to fire from." Boss, I suggest we attempt to cave the tunnel! The numbers are not in our favor!!!" Vala called over the comms, hoping they would be given green light about it.

[Rithy]

" Psycker, can you cave the tunnel somewhere in front of us?! We will be dead if the swarm continues anymore than it is right now!"

"I can't do anything from within this tin-can!" Adrianne called back in the noisy chaos from within the chimera.
" ... I can probably burst a few hearts or so without needing sight, but in order to cave the tunnel I'd need to be outside. The problem with that however is that there is a literal tide of mutants, cyborgs and mutant cyborgs outside waiting to swamp me!"

Although the insides of the chimera would have been a complete and utter horror for anyone with the slightest degree of claustrophobia, given the intense noise, screaming and hammering from the outside all around them; Adrianne could at least appreciate the (temporary) protection from certain doom offered by the chimera's armor.

"If worst comes to worst, I have my powers of teleportation; but I have no guarantee that I'll be able to get everyone out, nor with all their pieces in the right places!"

[Jb]

"Stay where you are, that goes for all of you, I do not want any of use leaving our vehicles until we know what's out there."

The Apothecary was by design a medic, one used to dealing with his fallen or wounded battle-brothers, but even further down...deeper...right down in his very bone marrow, he was a living and breathing weapon. He held himself from leaping out of the APCs hatch, instead placing one hand against the cold metal of the Rhinos hull - like a nomad calming his mount - and mouthed a few Chogorian words within his helmet. They could not hole up here forever though, the Chimera already being assailed from multiple sides by the crude daemon-machine fusions of the Dark Mechanicum, the Hereteks as they were commonly known, and only the ferocious weapon of the Rhino keeping them from being blindsided.

"So long as the Rhino keeps clear of disabling fire, the remote Storm Bolter I am interfacing with will keep any infantry assaults to the Chimera's blind spot clear."

Nergüi was not known even among his own as a patient warrior, not when his blood was hot and his hackles were up, and although his beaked helmet was as impassive as a statue the deep and robotised tone that came from within it quite clearly showed his displeasure.

“What would you have us do, Celestian?” He half-grunted at Aviza, allowing the Machine Spirit of the vehicle to calm him as he hoped he was calming it, his hand never leaving the hulls interior, “we are now caught in this trap, numbers are against us, and our options are limited; I for one am happy to give my life for Him on Terra, but I would rather do it face-to-face alongside my comrades.”

[POOHEAD189]

To most Arbites on lesser worlds, they would claim this would be above their pay grade. Herold however, would have no qualms about shooting those men for dishonoring the rank of the Adeptus Arbites. It was his duty as the keeper of law and peace that these Chaos filth be undone by his hand. As the Chimera opened up, the Krieger was kind enough to give him ample room to wrought the Emperor's will.

The spawn of Chaos, a writhing tentacle monstrosity of terror, muscle, and warp-curse. It tore at the chunks of the Rhino with a mutated strength that could only be unholy in nature. Luckily, the high velocity guns and the psyker had it handled, it seemed. The teeming hordes of filth were another matter, a tide he and the Death Trooper were happy to stem.

Herold took a fragmentation grenade and flung it past the initial mass of heretic turned troops. Seconds before the shrapnel tore through the horde, he bore his shield and unslung his shock maul. The weapon's power meter sang in its highest setting, the maul head glowing with power. With a grimace the likes of which appeared before bloody work was to be done, he advanced.

His shield held aloft, he shove-jerked forward and knocked back a tide of the vermin, before sweeping his shock maul before him. The shock-enhanced melee weapon blew apart heads and limbs. His shield was then held before him before any counter attack could be made. Yet again he pressed forward and ended lives, causing a rift in whatever 'ranks' the foe might have.

[WardenCelestine]

From within the heavily armored Rhino, the sound of gunfire could still be heard through the vehicles thickly armored exterior. The shots that were fired from the damned were muffled to the point of where they sounded like distant pops. Thankfully, they did not currently have the firepower to actually do any significant damage to the Rhino. Remotely manning the duel heavy assault cannons that were mounted on top of the Rhino, Aviza carefully picked off hostile targets around both of the vehicles while avoiding friendly friend.

The low thundering hum of the duel heavy assault cannons filled the area around them with bright flashes of ember light. Red hot bullet shells rolled down either side of the vehicle and eventually found their way to the floor below the Rhino, forming an oddly neat pile of metal. Aviza's HUD showed the Rhinos ammunition count drop as she continued to cut down the heretics, there was still quite a bit of it left and the thought about running out did not cross the Sister of Battles mind.

After cutting down a group of the heretics in a shower of shredded viscera, the sound of Vala's voice came through her helmets com, recommending that they bring down part of the tunnel on top of the seemingly endless mass of the possessed civilians. "Negative, that could cause the whole tunnel to collapse or worse, hold your position and keep firing." said Aviza in a calm, steady voice. It was not a bad idea, Aviza gave her that, but there was a chance that the whole tunnel could collapse and bury them alive, along with a number of other issues that were highly plausible. It was at that moment that part of her HUD informed her that two of her squad mates had moved away from their vehicle, the Chimera.

Upon investigation, the vehicle showed heavy damage to the front of it, and would undoubtedly no longer move forward on its own. Opening her coms for her whole squad, Aviza now gave new orders to everyone. "The Rhino has enough power to push the Chimera into and through the wall of civilian vehicles in front of us. Second squad is ordered to leave the Chimera and filter into the Rhino immediately, squad one will provide cover fire until everyone is inside and safe. I am in control of the duel heavy assault cannons on the Rhino and will also provide heavy covering fire to insure everyone makes it. You have your orders, move immediately."

The heavy assault cannons opened up once more as another wave of heretics came around the corner behind the the group. The heavy buzz of their 12 combined barrels unleashing explosive rounds in a frenzy of fire and chaos cut through them with no effort. For now, there was a moment of silence, but Aviza knew that was going to be all to brief.