This was definitely proving harder than it was supposed to be…
The mission had been simple, The Inquisitor or Corvin as most of his acolytes called him, had briefed them himself, and while the briefing itself had lasted more than an hour, the 5 second version was basically…
Go to the Worldspine, find the Ork command location, call in the Talon and extract.
Simple…
Having finally noticed this planet, following Corvin’s dispatch of couriers to the closest planets on the other side of the Null Zone, word had arrived back a few months ago that the Imperium had dispatched the Dark Wolves Space Marine Chapter to bring about Midgard’s compliance with the Imperial Creed.
The Dark Wolves were well known for having a preference for surgical strikes based on complete intelligence rather than the brute force assaults favoured by so many of their brother chapters. As a result they liked to amass as much intelligence as they could on a potential war zone before committing troops to it.
For this reason they were a favoured tool of the Inquisition, as they could be relied upon to make minimal mess whilst still achieving the required result.
Corvin who had been on the planet for the last 2 years studying the strange effects which had kept it out of Imperial sight for so long, wanted to make sure he had as much intelligence as he could to give them when they arrived.
Which they would in just a couple of days.
This was why Midan and his strike team found themselves out in the Worldspine Mountains in such a mess.
As is so often the case, once on the ground, things hadn’t been as simple as they seemed in the briefing room…
The problem itself was straightforward enough to define…
There were bloody Orks everywhere, the place was teeming with them.
Midan and his crew had been stopping every few minutes (or so it seemed) to avoid another group of them and so were well behind schedule.
It also seemed that rather than being a united group as Corvin had hoped, the Orks of the mountains consisted of so many different tribes that finding one central strong hold seemed slightly optimistic. Added to that, what little intel they had been able to gather from an overhead sweep upon insertion, pointed to the probability that the damn thing was underground, so wasn’t exactly obvious to the eye and they could hardly ask anyone for directions.
Or could they?
It actually seemed that the only way they were going to actually achieve this was to capture one of the green skins and do just that…
Just as they’d made the plan however things had gone ploin shaped. They’d been tracking an Ork patrol and were just preparing to ambush when a particularly nasty looking fellow decided to take a leak right on Electra’s position. Her response had been predictable, brief and brutal but the result was they now had god knows how many of the angry, green brutes bearing down on their position.
On the bright side if they could capture a few of them surely one of them would be able to give them some information.
Game played using the Necromunda Solo Rules which can be downloaded here >>
Contact report to Inquisitor Corvus, ref:145987nt.
Sender: Strike Team Talon.
Location: The Worldspine, Midgard.
The Orks advanced, in what would have been a standard sweep and clear pattern, except that I imagine the Orks had no idea what a sweep and clear pattern was, and were simply moving towards where they thought we were. This suited me just fine as they were clearly unaware we were positioning to deliver a powerful left hook.
At this point several things happened at once. One of the Orks obviously tripped a sensor and a Perimeter alarm starting ringing (Joker Flipped – Complication : Perimeter Alarm). We all immediately hit the deck more out of instinct rather than because we perceived any real threat from the alarm.
Upon hearing the wailing alarm the orks suddenly powered forward (King Flipped – Whole Enemy Crew Activates), charging towards our position at a speed which quite belied their huge, ungainly frames.
Despite having seen the brutes move like this on several occasions their agility continues to surprise and scare me in equal measure.
I was picking myself up when Atarine calmly updated me over the noise of the alarms that the Orks numbers had increased (or more likely her scanner had been picking up ghost returns). Her Bio Scanner was now reading one additional Ork out there (Joker Flipped- Complication – Deploy Specialist).
“Great ,” I mumbled to myself, “just what we need.”
Out on our right flank, there was a sound like a grenade going off (Ace flipped : Battlefield Event – Fumbled Grenade) but when I looked over I could see nothing which could have actually caused the noise (blind revealed as a Blind).
Were we being flanked?
I got Electra on the vox, she’d infiltrated forward as soon as it became obvious we were in for a fight (or as soon as she’s brutally taken care of the first Ork and started the fight!) and was taking up position on the old shack in front of us and had much better lines of sight than the rest of us. She confirmed there had been an explosion but likewise could see no movement out there…I put it out of my mind, I was sure we’d find out either way soon enough.
Turn 2
“Boss they’re really close…” said Atarine, the ping of her bio scanner clearly audible over the vox.
“I know” I replied,
“I mean it…”
“I know.”
And I did, the Orks were really close to us and we still hadn’t managed to spot a single one. This didn’t bode well.
I enjoy shooting Orcs as much as the next guy but usually like to do it from a distance, getting up close and personal with them wasn’t my idea of fun.
Well, it wasn’t going to be my day.
Just as the vox bead clicked off in my ear an ear splitting howl rent the air and three orks emerged from the bushes right in front of me. Again moving at that impossible speed they caught me completely flat footed and before I even had a chance to react they were upon me, snarling and biting.
One brute armed with a massive stubber type weapon swung it at me as if it were an axe. I twisted at the last minute and it deflected off my armour. His mate, another pig ugly brute, dropped the ridiculously oversized gun on his shoulder instead coming at me with his teeth and claws. Luckily for me he was in such a rage he forgot to draw the knife at his belt as if he had I’d be dead. As it was my armour was more than proof against his teeth.
As he bit into the armour on my arm, I brought my bolt gun up one handed and blew his guts out even as his jaws remained closed about my vambrace….I had to shake the damn thing off even after it was good and dead.
There was still one boy left, slower than his 2 mates, but with the greenskin still stubbornly refusing to let go of my arm no matter how hard I tried to shake off his dead form, I couldn’t get out of his way.
I heard Liwanu on the vox, “Werowance…down” I threw myself to the ground again and the third Ork boy suddenly disappeared in a hail of las rounds.
Despite following our chief scouts instructions to the word many of the las bolts passed just a few inches over my prone form. I decided to have a few words with Liwanu after we got out of this mess and just double check his sights were properly zeroed.
When I looked up I saw the boy hideously wounded, rolling around on the floor in agony. However I knew from bitter experience how quickly these brutes recovered and put all my focus back into finishing off the one still looming over me.
The momentary distraction of seeing his two mates felled at his side gave me all the opportunity I needed. My earlier movement avoiding the fire of Liwanu had fouled his incoming attack and once again my armour saved me. This allowed me the opportunity I needed and, springing up once more, I managed to put a metre or two between us…it was more than enough.
I swung up my weapon and unloaded the rest of the clip into the beasts midriff. Despite the incredible stopping power of the self propelled bolts I succeeding only in blowing chunks out of the green skin and forcing it back into cover, but it remained breathing and a threat.
Still, at least there was now some distance between myself and it.
Atarine came onto the vox again and said in her clipped ganger accent, “Seems our flanks are secure, I’ve just cleaned up the signal on this piece of crap scanner and it was just signal interference.” (2 blinds revealed as Blinds).
“What the…”
The transmission ended abruptly in a hail of gunfire and another mass of howls as another mob of orcs even bigger than the brutes who had just charged at me, burst out of cover. At almost point blank range they emptied their rapid fire pistols into a horribly exposed Atarine.
She stood shocked and looked down at herself in surprise.
Not a single shot had found its mark. Whilst Atarine was still trying to comprehend the fact she was still alive, a single shot rang out from behind her and one of the boys who was charging down on her was blown backwards with a gaping hole in his chest.
“Velcome you are, little one”, came Electra’s voice over the vox.
Rather than slowing the orks down, this simply seemed to enrage the other 2 and they put on a sudden burst of speed bringing them even closer to the stunned hackers position.
Turn 3
Atarine finally came to her senses and looking up at the approaching orcs, did the most sensible thing she could in my opinion…she legged it. Firing a few shots over her shoulder as she went but more for effect than because she had any chance of hitting anything.
Denied their first target the orks spied Coranna nestled behind a rock in front of them and spurred forward desperate to engage something. Leaving themselves dangerously exposed to enfilade fire as they did. As they did so the ork to Coranna’s right emerged from his hiding position desperate to trap the Eldar in a deadly crossfire.
Coranna simply rose up from behind the rock majestically, his two pistols held out at right angles.
His las pistol sent a beam of super heated light towards the emerging ork boy on his right sending him scrambling for cover and the Ork boss, a huge example of his species, simply crumpled as the toxins from the needle pistol in Coranna’s left hand got to work. Out of ammo on the needle pistol he smoothly holstered it, drawing his other las pistol before stalking off in the direction of the madly thrashing ork boss. Determined to finish him off before he could recover from the toxins flowing around his system.
He would be denied his prize however by an orc boy moving in from his right under the escarpment, who unleashed an incredible amount of surprisingly accurate firepower in his direction and forced our xenos back into cover.
Back on our left flank, Vor saw the ork Liwanu had winged earlier and moved into finish him off, the last I saw of him he was charging in, his sword raised high, berserker expression on his face, after that I heard a grunt and no more.
“Vor” I barked, “Vor answer me,”
Silence…
Shit…
Unfortunately I didn’t have time to check what was going on as there was an ork boy still skulking behind the escarpment, readying himself to rush in on our close to overloaded right flank. I swung around the shack and took him completely by surprise, again my bolt gun barked and the ork literally disintegrated in front of me as the explosive bolts got to work.
Before I had time to feel satisfaction, from behind me I heard a dismayed yelp and turned to see the ork which Vor had just charged down running for the hills, having just witnessed his companions grisly fate. What had become of Vor himself, I still had no idea.
Over the roar of the firefight I heard Electra gasp and wild cheers erupt from the Orc boy behind the bush to my left as she went down hard under a lucky shot from his pistol.
Turn 4
From here things really started getting interesting…
Vor suddenly announced his presence on the left flank, enraged by the injury to Electra and despite bleeding profusely from a wound in his midriff. The target of his ire, the ork by who just a moment ago had been cheering, was now looking distinctly worried as the Feral world barbarian charged him down.
The ork managed a few hapless shots in Vor’s direction but due to his panic (and the fact he was an ork) they all went wide…
The ork turned to flee and ran headfirst into the tree behind it, knocking itself clean out. The impact dislodged one of the hard fruit in the trees branches which came sailing down and cracked Vor hard on the top of the head, felling him as if he were a puppet who’s strings had been cut. Both bodies lay there totally unconscious locked in a diabolical lovers embrace covered in juice from whatever fruit it was.
I just hoped the ork stayed in that state long enough for us to finish this mess and capture him and that the juice covering Vors head was from the fruit and not his own broken melon.
This did however leave our left flank empty of any threat and so we were free to concentrate entirely on the few orks remaining on the right. Few but stubborn, these would prove difficult to shift.
We poured a hail of fire into the crawling ork boss and the remaining boy left in the open under the archway of the escarpment…killing the ork boy in a matter of seconds but doing no appreciable damage to the boss, who was a tough brute if ever there was one.
Turn 5
“There’s one still hiding behind the Rocks”, Atarine cried out, as the remaining ork boy, having just witnessed the last of his band wiped out in front of his eyes and now watching his boss crawl numbly towards him, threw caution to the wind and charged howling out of cover, autopistols firing…
If I’m honest I’d not been aware of this boys presence and it was only Atarine’s warning which drew my attention to him at all, so busy raking fire into the ork boss was I.
Coranna who was just standing up, recovering from the wound done to him earlier was caught in the charging orks barrage of fire and went down again, this time to a nasty looking wound in the thigh.
By this point we were all running low on ammo and I could see the crew were starting to tire. I ordered Liwanu and Atarine to resupply and they started tossing out ammo to the rest of us. We reloaded and levelled our guns.
The ork boy charged…
The ork boss looked up, the haze of toxin clearing from his eyes,
The bolter spoke, and from over my shoulder Electra’s long rifle rang out,
Both orks lay dead.
That eerie silence hung in the air as the light breeze slowly cleared the smoke from the scene in front of us.
Atarine ran over to check Coranna’s wounds and despite my misgivings quickly confirmed that both wounds had merely grazed him. With a bit of attention our xenos companion would be back on his feet in no time.
From behind me I heard a rumbling laugh, and I turned to see Vor, unconscious ork dragging behind him, face covered in the juice of whatever fruit it was,
“At least we’re not going to go hungry in these mountains,” he chuckled, “this stuffs really good.” Levering a large piece of the fruit into his mouth and spilling juice from his smiling face everywhere as he did so.
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