What Hides In Darkness (40K)

[White Haven]

Again, the deep thumping of gunfire. More distant this time than the last, but far louder to begin with, and more varied at that. Damon is already breaking into a run as fire fountains into the sky from the wreckage of the shuttle...and with that encouragement, he cuts in his jump boosters, barreling ahead of the retreating forces, steering for the sound of the guns.

[Charon]

Vibius was up the stairs as the other room melted behind him. Then he saw an explosion rise into the sky and the sound of missile and lasgun strikes. "Someone get the Thunderhawk to hit that spot!"

The marine was on the heels of the Zweihander until he turned on his jump booster and fired up into the sky. Looking across the way he saw as two warmachines got trashed and thanked the Emperor, until the next two came out. Cursing the luck, Vibius dropped his bolter to one side, the sling catching it and bringing it about his back where it bounced in pace with his rapid steps, and drew his power sword. Pressing the activation rune the sword lit up in a holy blue light as Vibius charged towards the fray, stopping long enough to press his back against the wreckage of the destroyed shuttle and get a quick glance at the opposition. Too far out to openly charge yet. Pulling out his one Kraken clip he loaded it and peeked back around the corner, taking careful aim he let loose against one of the Dreadnaughts, with some luck it would at least damage it.

[B4UTRUST]

"By the Emperor..." Gravin muttered under his breath as he saw what spewed forth from the cargo door as it rolled up.
"Damien, target the new machines, target the sensors. Lt., your gernades if you would to the other one."

Damien's lascannon lanced out, aiming towards the sensor turrent on the left warmachine. He fired off another blast then moved, hauling his cannon to another spot. Staying in one place was definatly a bad idea at this point. Behind another set of crates Lt. Calad's gernade launcher began to lob a stream of gernades at the machine on the right. After every gernade he would move to fire another set.

Gravin ducked behind the cover of some barrels and looked at the two Arcos standing peacefully by him. As the blasts of energy flashed all around them the pair remained unmoving, unflincing, uncaring. It was time to unleash hell.
"Ezekial, Angelus...," he spoke to the two. Their heads turned in near unison towards the Inquisitor. He stood up, turned and pointed towards the drones that were issuing forth to kill them.
"Damnatus."

It was like a switch thrown. One instant there was calm and peace. The next the two flew into a mindless rage as they flew on wings of hatred at their enemies. The drug rigs they wore did their work, injecting them with an inhuman amount of drug cocktails. 'Slaught, Spur, Psychon, Reflex, Barrage. All were mixed and flooded through the augmented veins of the Arcos. Their reflexes and agility increased exponentially as the drugs too effect. They sped up, moving with the mindlessness that denoted their lack of self-preservation. Electroflails and cutting claws came down, rending the foul xenos. The pair tore into drones as fast as they could get to them, heedless of the damage being inflicted on their body from within and without.

Gravin stared at one of the drones and concentrated, bringing its blood to a boil. The thing went down as its head began to leak precious fluids. He moved to the next target, firing a group of bolter rounds into it before moving and ducking behind another piece of cover.

[White Haven]

At last. Finally, his breakneck charge has brought him to the fight. Teeth bared in a vicious, helmet-hidden grin, Grayson leaves the ground once again, the thunder of his boosters scaling upwards into a scream as he puts them to the test. His flight path corkscrews madly, twisting in mid-air, cutting boost from one side or the other, and jerking in directions that even his clear skill with his armor's jump-boosters can't explain away. In one hand, the figure holds a halberd, wickedly-bladed head facing downwards, in the other a melta-bomb prized free of his stash. "Brothers!" he snarls over the vox network, "Concentrate your attacks to the right. I will deal with the left abomination!" If he can just get through the curtain of defensive fire, if he can just breach the armor on one of the war-machines with the downward-spiking head of his Nemesis halberd, if he can just plant one of his melta-bombs inside...

If, if, if.

[Cynical Cat]

The arcoflagellant designated Ezekial fell in a hail of pulse fire before reaching the drone soldiers. Angelus reached the lines and struck out with a flury of electro flail blows. Three drone soldiers fell before one blew Angelus's head apart.

Damien's lascannon was a power hog, needing to be reloaded with every shot but its power was undeniable. The sensor turret of the combat robot on the left was blown clean off. Data feeds from the xenos tac network kept the warmachine in combat, although with substantially degraded accuracy. It was more than enough to blow open and another shuttle and ignite its fuel.

Bolter, las, and shuriken fire took a heavy toll on the advancing soldier drones. The Imperials had better cover available to them, using vehicles or wreckage to good effect. In ones and twos they fell.

The warmachines' armour was able to take hits from Kraken rounds from ordinary bolters and they continued their advance, filling the air with pulse fire and trying to track viable targets with their lascannons. Grayson pushed through the hole left in the drone soldier ranks by his comrades fire and the arcoflagellent's fury to close on the wounded war machine.

[B4UTRUST]

Gravin cursed silently when his two Arcos went down. They were expendable, yes, but they were hard to come by and well worth their weight. Still, they had taken a few down before they bought it which was worthwhile enough at this point, especially if it gave them even the smallest increase in a chance they'd get out of this alive.

Slapping a fresh mag into his bolter he took aim at the heads of the drones and began to unload, taking a few down. Fortunatly he didn't have to worry too much about missing at this point, it was a very target friendly environment. That was also, unfortunatly, the problem. They were severely outnumbered and out gunned.

A blast from one of the drones impacted into his arm, throwing his aim askew as he pulled the trigger again. His shot went wide. A smoldering hole was left in his robe, his armor below absorbing the blast well enough. A few similar holes were decorating his robes in various places, proof of close calls and the value of his armor. He took aim again and pulled the trigger, unleashing another group of rounds into the advancing swarm.

Damien ducked down as a blast scorched the air inches above his head. He scooted around to the side of his cover and set up his cannon again, taking aim at the warmachine he damaged. Aiming for the chest this time he fired again.

Lt. Calad chambered another gernade and sent it flying into an oncoming group of drones. The gernade exploded, doing only minimal damage to them, slowing them down for only the briefest of instances. He looked at his location and realized it wasn't safe. A blast lanced across the ground next to him. He fired another gernade and dropped the empty launcher. Turning he sprinted and dove for cover as another group of laser blasts burned through the air. One of the blasts lanced through his leg, cauterizing the wound instantly. He yelped in pain as he scrambled, crawling behind cover. He pulled out his lasgun and fired a few bursts over the top of his cover randomly, hoping to disuade them from coming towards him. This was not looking good at all. And the Inquisitor had said he'd be safer then with his Penal Legion. That lying son of a grox...

[GeneralTacticus]

Halima and what remained of her retinue contined to add their own firepower to he Imperial side. With Federov's servitors down and their enemies proving infuriatingly Halima and what remained of her retinue continued to add their own firepower to he Imperial side. With Federov's servitors down and their enemies proving infuriatingly resilient, most of their fire was overshadowed by the far greater contributions of the Astartes. However, Federov continued lobbing Krak grenades at the undamaged war machine with uncanny accuracy from behind the still-smoking wreck of the Valkyrie. Halima was crouched next to him, frost steadily thickening around her, hurling telepathic blasts that left knots of drones reeling and confused, firing wildly and hitting little. And the Janissary with the missile launcher was adding Krak missiles to Federov’s bombardment of the undamaged war machine.

[The Necrontyr Messenger]

To say that Crassiros was annoyed when he emerged into the light of day would be an understatement. It seemed the PDF weren’t confident of not turning the entire facility into flaming wreckage with an artillery bombardment. And it appeared that they were so incompetant as to lack lascannons and other accurate weapons trained on the doors – he would have done that from the second he’d started arriving – which was frankly, amazing, given that practically every leman russ in the entire galaxy sported at least one lascannon. And all that wasn’t really an excuse for the Thunderhawk, which he couldn’t quite see at the moment.

It was rather too late for any of that now, of course, so instead, he just opened fire on the closer enemy soldiers, bolts impacting on their shells and exploding with enough force to tear through eight inches of plasteel plate as though it were tissue paper.

[Charon]

Vibius cursed again and leaned back against the wreckage. Pulling out his powersword from it's sheath he placed it next to him for easy access then unloaded his Kraken clip and replaced it with standard ammo again. He was running short now. Turning around from behind his wreckage again he carefully put bursts of two and three into advancing drones.

Taking a shot in the right shoulder Vibius turned away behind cover again and looked over at his powersword. Just a little closer.

[Cynical Cat]

The last of the war machines and soldier drones fell to the relentless Imperial fire. The last drone to fall slipped over the side, tumbling through a kilometer of empty air before splattering all over the ground.

[SirNitram]

Mal slowly powered down his fusion pistol, safety'd the shriuken one, and holstered both. He began picking through the corpses, attempting to make some identification as to what they are.. Or were.. And who made the technology. One of the pulse weapons is hefted, and he experimentally sees if it's even possible to wield it. "That was fun.." He murmured. "So much for not revealing our full strength until we had more time to plan."

[Cynical Cat]

The pulse weapon shared elements of construction common to most humanoid projective weapons. The grip, magazine, trigger, and so forth were easy to find.

[B4UTRUST]

Gravin glanced around as the dust settled. They were all dead, or what amounted to dead for this particular race. He bent down to examine the remains of one of them, prying its weapon from its hand. He didn't see anything vaugely familer with it. Great, another new species to bring war upon the Imperium.

He cleared his throat, taking in the amount of dead on both sides.
"Now I would never question the courage or honor of any of us here, but at this juncture I feel that perhaps we should regroup aboard the Burden of Judgement, rearm and assess our situation in a more tactical manner. We, as it stands now, are drastically underequiped to deal with this threat."

[GeneralTacticus]

“I must agree.â€

[SirNitram]

"A fallback to rearm sounds like a sensible move." Mal commented as he finished looting the corpses, stuffing a goodly amount of spare magazines where he can grab them, and grabbing a few more of the weapons to give to the Coggies and other types. "We are now in possession of valuable data in regards to our opposition. The most important, of course, is that the inferior is large enough for heavy vehicle support. I imagine the PDF has some Russ-class battletanks? Anyone remember how you drive those?"

[B4UTRUST]

"I've never had the honor of learning, though I'm sure that it would be a most enlightening experiance. On that note, let us get out of here before they regroup and come back for more."

Gravin waited for the thunderhawk to come down so they could load up.

[White Haven]

As his intended target swells at the seams, then sags into a pile of wreckage, Damon slams into the pile feet-first with a deliberately unvoxed oath at the stolen kill. He gives the hulk a sullen stab, the point of his halberd sinking into the mangled armor, before dismounting the mechanical corpse and stoming over towards the embattled Imperial force. Despite his dissatisfaction over the end of the brief engagement, he's forced to nod in agreement...blitzkrieg-trained he may be, and likeminded, but he's still a Zweihander, and if anyone knows about the need for heavy weapons, it's them. "We must hurry. The Guard will not hold a force so armed and armored for long, not if this is considered a probing attack."

[The Necrontyr Messenger]

Crassiros watched Mal helping himself to loot from the impure with a barely suppressed gagging of revulsion at the deviant behaviour. He sighed, and voxed for immediate thunderhawk pickup. “We can provide transport for any corpses you want brought up, and the prisonerâ€

[Charon]

Vibius stepped out from behind the rubble, he was out of clips. Ah well. He listened as the others talked of a retreat, he simply nodded, his opinion on the matter known simply with that. When Mal spoke up however Vibius looked to him.

"Yes, it is standard for the men of Omega Legion to have spent time in a Leman Russ. I am capable of driving. As for time, Damon is correct. If we stopped this attack a second, larger attack, will be incoming and they will know that the Deathwatch is here."

[B4UTRUST]

As the Thunderhawk flew back over on another pass Gravin waved up at it, signalling it to come down. It circled back around once and came down on one of the pads. The loading ramp opened, the engines still hot and ready to go.

Gravin motioned for his people to follow him as he climbed on board. Once on board he switched over to the ship's frequency, updating the pilot on the plan to return to the Burden of Judgement. As soon as everyone was aboard the pilot would take off to return to the ship. They would have to figure out some way to punch through the shield and establish permanent communications as well.

As he strapped himself in he made a mental note to get in contact with the PDF and see if they couldn't get a few men drafted up to assist in this endevour. They would, he had a feeling, need every body they could get.

[Cynical Cat]

The Thunderhawk flew up through the atmosphere and into the void of space. Above it waited the dark cathedral that was the Burden of Judgement. The gunship slipped through the great ships void shields and entered the gaping maw of a small craft bay. Huge doors slammed shut behind it as the ship coasted into position. A small mob of personel rushed forward to attend to the ship.

[Pcm979]

Siaides unsealed his helmet and looked around to the Inquisitors and Battle-Brother Crassiros, fixing milky blue eyes on his erstwhile superiors.

"Forgive me, I must deliver this sample" he tapped the small flask containing the Xenos blood and gristle quickly, not hiding his disgust, "to the Magos Biologica before it perishes."

He'd also have to utterly scour the mechanisms of his Narcathium, but since there didn't seem to be an imminent need for it's specialised services, he declined to mention it.

[Cynical Cat]

Members of the esteemed Adeptus Mechanicus attended to the samples that were removed from the Thunderhawk of grav pallets. Bodies and broken machinery were sent to operating theatres and workrooms where senior magi supervised underlings under the watchful gaze of recorders. Advanced auspexes and specialized cogitators were beseached with the proper rituals and their full powers invoked and brought to bear on the samples.

Scanning beams swept the chassis of the xeno combat robot. "Analysis proceeding," intoned Senior Magos Arnarenal. "Spectographic analysis and deep scan of xeno combat robot armour indicates it is composed of of bonded ceramite and a high density steel alloy. Analysis of armour thickness indicates that it can be breached with Kraken pattern penatrators from heavy bolters as well as heavier anti-armour weapons. Areas of vulnerability to lighter weapons are the primary sensor array and joints. Use of multilasers and assault cannons is not advised due to the armour's thickness and broad coverage. Specialist anti-vehicle weapons are advised. Sustain fire from plasma weapons or close range melta blasts should also prove effacious."

The magos turned to the weapons. "Primary weapon appears to be high powered laser weapon. Housing takes up most of the right armature. Preliminary reports of damage inflicted on shuttles and Valkyrie assault craft is indicative of performance near the range of standard pattern Imperial lascannons. Weapon is powered by capacitors which are charged from central power source. Fire rate, based on battle feeds, is slow.

"Secondary weapons consist of crushing claw. Strength is tremendous for a design of its sign, but there is no sign of powerfield generators, making the claw inferior in performance to powerfist equipped Astartes. Shoulder mounted triple pulse guns for anti-infantry roll. Analysis indicates while aesthetics are different from Tau design, basic principles are not. Logs of weapon damage indicates pulse weapons are between ten to twenty percent less powerful than Tau equivalents.

"Overall analysis: Xenos combat robot is a product of a sophisticated, non Imperial technology. There is no sign of adamantine being used in any part of the construction process, making the machine less durable than its Imperial equivalents. All analyzed equipments appear to be near equals to Imperial or Tau equivalents."

[Cynical Cat]

Corpses floated into autopsy rooms suspended on antigrav pallets. The red robed Magi Biologici supervised their transfer to autopsy tables while auspexes and pict recorders were focused on the bodies. Trays full of instruments were held by servitors as the masters went to work.

Saw whined as they cut open the carapaces in sections. Junior tech priests carefully removed them as their masters poked an prodded the exposed inards. Recording devices watched everything.

"Subject is incased in a shell of that appears to be composed of resin armoured in ceramite. Mucus layer on the inside of the shell hardens when exposed to open air, creating self sealing mechanism. Armour performance should be inferior to that of Imperial carapace armour. Confirm theory with weapon logs if possible."

"Subject possesses a skeletal system inside the carapace. Muscle attachements are primarily to bone, but there are also carapace attachments. Skeletal system is arranged with intent of forming strong supporting structures and secondary armour system for important components. Muscle tissue is similar to vat grown tissue, Index MX-7. Bones appear to be calcium, strengthened with metal rods and reinforced by carbon fiber lacing.

"Subject has rudimentary digestive system, probably unable to digest anything other than special prepared nutrient pasts. Distributed organ system and cybernetic implants. Clamps are located on all major arterties and tied to heavily armoured spine/central nerve trunk. Brain is rudimentary and cyber modified.

"Conclusions: Subject is vat grown combat servitor. Cybernetic implants capable of minimizing blood loss and controlling pain and shock mean even penetration of armour shell is not enough to disable unit unless massive damage is inflicted. Extensive cybernetics at central nerve trunk/spine suggest the possibility of machine spirit control even if brain damaged, although extensive cranial injury may eventually prove fatal to unit.

"Notable deficiencies: Unit is fast and durable, but not particularily flexible. Limited range of motion with all limbs. This limiting factors may be a disadvantage in hand to hand combat. Subject should also be vulnerable to Hellfire rounds as carapace is unable to repel bolter fire at close and medium range, its biological components are vulnerable to Hellfire chemicals, cybernetic augmentations appear to be susceptible to corrosive Hellfire chemicals as well as be unable to function when biological organs and material have been dissolved."

[Charon]

Vibius sat in his armor, reading the report of the capabilities of the creatures they had faced. As he read the weaknesses of the machines he began his meditation of strength and virtue against his own weaknesses. The chants were taught to all of Omega Legion, Vibius took them to heart, knowing the evil which lay in his soul.

A part of Vibius's mind continued to upload the data as it came in. The creatures died without their organic parts. That meant they should virus bomb the area with something that ate organic materials before they entered. Let the gas seep down the tunnels and thin their numbers some. Two thousand of those creatures would mean he would run out of bolts and those creatures seemed the type to destroy a hundred of their own if it meant the death of their enemy. As the report finished Vibius returned to his meditation, the muttering under his helmet unable to be heard under the thick armor of the Adeptus Astartes.