Only War: Against the Savages

[Darkcomet]

"Several ork vehicles closing on our position, two attack bikes and a truck, others I can't make out. I'd like to get back in the Chimera now." Getting back in the Chimera before the Orks get here, yadda yadda yadda, not gonna try to fight vehicles on foot when one's nastiest gun is a bolt pistol, etc etc. Not much to be done here. Whee.

[Murska]

On one hand, they need to get all the Chimeras out of the lander and providing fire against the Orks. On the other hand, the Commissar needs to get in the vehicle.

Well, luckily it's not Jerry's call. "Sir. Do we wait for the Commissar here, or do we charge with the others to set up a firing line outside and wait for him there?"

[UncleWolf]

"We wait for the Commissar. Leaving one will kill us faster than the Orkz, so don't suggest such again." The Sergeant warns as he racks the bolt back on the stormbolter turret. "That said, Commissar, I advise you to hurry onto the Chimera. I am not one to tempt fate too strongly by waiting here forever."

[Murska]

"Right." Well, sitting pretty then. Jeremy signals the other Chimeras to move if they are ready.

[blackouttwo]

(Apologies for the delay. We now return to your irregularly scheduled warzone shenanigans.)

The first sight of the battlefield is a surprising one. The vast clearing, obviously artificial and clear-cut years ago, is at least several kilometers wide and across. Your lander crashed down near the edge, the cockpit and front of the craft facing the jungle. Your Chimera is the first off the shuttle's loading ramp, and the first greeting you get is that of the roar of multiple Ork vehicles drawing closer.

Directly ahead, about 150 meters away, those of you with a clear line of sight can see the vehicles in question: Three Wartrukks, a pair of Warbuggies, and three Warbikes in what could loosely be called a formation of oncoming vehicles, guns ready to start blazing in proper greenskin fashion.

Over the din of the engines, you can hear a distant cry taken up by maybe several dozen of the Orks, all screaming in unison. It's your first time hearing xenos, let alone a battle-cry by their unclean kind. Even from this far away, in your armored shell, something about it chills you to the bone.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!"

Spoiler: Sergeant Parrish

Show

Between the distance, some dust in your eyes, some smoke from the lander's burning engine clouding your view, and the smoke belching from some of the oncoming Ork vehicles' engines, you can't quite make out some of the armaments on the Ork war machines. You get the impression that the buggies might be mounting large caliber cannons of some kind, or perhaps flamethrowers, and that the trukks might be mounting heavy guns of some kind.

[Darkcomet]

"It looks like these Orks had the foresight to bring their own coffins! They just don't know it yet. And as the Emperor's soldiers, it's our job to inform them! Target the trucks first!" Victrix commands, attempting to inspire the squad to wreak great feats of destruction upon the xenos filth.

And to blow up the trucks before they start drowning in Orks. That'll be nice too.

[Gullara]

There's nothing Wintre can do now but mentally prepare herself for what is coming. It'll only be a matter of moments before the orks close and they're in the thick of it. She looks over her weapon one last time, though she hardly needs to by now. She doesn't feel afraid, per say, but the tension has her sitting stiff and upright, her fingers clenched around her lasgun. Just a few more moments...

[Murska]

All right. Roll out smooth, thirty-degree angle to make space for the rest of the vehicles, ease into a stop and angle towards the enemy. Switch gear to reverse in preparation, and stop without kneeling. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

"Target lead Ork truck, 012, one-fifty. Fire!" The reverbrating thunks of the autocannon loader begin to fill the space within the Chimera as the shells start flying. At this distance, and against such a mass of targets, it is not exactly difficult to hit. But getting those hits where they count fast is more important. Watching the impacts, Jeremiah clicks open the channel to the crew compartment.

"Crew weapons, be ready at the ports in case those bikers try to speed past us. Catch them on the flanks."

[UncleWolf]

The Sergeant ruminated his options quietly, trying to gauge things between his weapon and the strength of the ork vehicles before him. A Stormbolter was a mighty weapon against normal infantry, but against these things it was like blowing lho smoke on a grox. He shakes his head at the effectiveness of their main gun, or rather the overall ineffectiveness, and takes a half-hearted shot at the driver of the same Trukk only to see the two rounds glance off the armor near the Driver's head. "Get us to the side of those things! Their front armor is going to be too thick for us to do anything against! We're anti-infantry, not anti-armour!" He shouts to his Operator. "Our weapons might be better against their flank!"

[blackouttwo]

The Orks in the lead trukk all instinctively lower their heads as the autocannon shells land. A third shell impacts in the field behind them, and as the storm bolter fires, the driver ducks down into his seat, never easing off the throttle, only to squirm his way back into the a proper driving position.

The gunner turned his head back to yell at their leader, a big and burly Ork at least a full head taller than the rest.

"Um, boss?! We'z gettin' sho' up!"

[Vespe Ratavo]

The Orkz in the front trukk suddenly begin to fight among themselves, muscled green arms slapping and swatting at each other, trukkbed rattling from orks crashing down on the metal floor. "Out of my WAY ya half-gitz!" Kicking one of his subordinates to the ground, Nob Flashteef Krashbang steps on top of a pile of prone Orkz, peering out over the battlefield. He considers the situation for a moment, then nods to himself.

He reaches out with a meaty fist, grabbing a Boy and shouting into a radio strapped to his chest. "Listen up! 'Ere's da plan! Bikez go left, trukks go right, an' we shoot 'em up while da buggiez get in an' burn 'em up! Dis gon' be a proppa fight!!"

The vehicles reply with rumbling engines and a steady, rhythmic chant of "ORKZ, ORKZ, ORKZ, ORKZ, ORKZ!" The trukks and bikes veer off to either side as the buggies continue their head-on charge. The air fills with gunsmoke, screaming rockets, and deffgun shells.

A few machine gun rounds strike the hull, to no effect, followed by two rockets - the Chimera weathers the first, but the second sounds bad - there's a crunching lurch coming from the motive systems. (Chimera can only move up to Tactical Speed next turn. 3 damage to SI.)

[Gullara]

Wintre watches as some of the enemy vehicles go wide. This was a good opportunity to make a shot. She focuses on the bikes, thinking she would have a better chance doing some real damage to them. She raises her gun and lines up her sights with the frontmost of the bikers, aiming for the driver. She takes a moment to line up her shot and squeezes the trigger.

"Miss." She says like a curse. The shot went wide and was nowhere near hitting anything. She briefly laments that she can't reach them with her power from this far away. She doesn't dwell on it long, already looking for her next shot...

Until she realizes her gun is jammed. That is met with some actual cursing. She immediately pulls back to let anyone else take a shot from her position. Now she's going to have to clear this jam...

[Murska]

When he hears the Sergeant's order, Gramont turns his head to glance towards the turret in shock. Luckily, the movement isn't exactly visible from the optics. "Uh, sir..." Oh man. Follow the order and die or don't follow the order and be executed? The crunch of an enemy rocket impacting the drive interrupts his thinking.

Oh thank the Emperor. "Um, we took a blast in the treads, gonna be tough to move before I can diagnose it. Hopefully the other cans get out to cover us."

"Target the same truck. Better do some damage now, or we'll have issues. One hundred, 330 and tracking left ten, fire!" The turret turns to track the enemy. Thunk - Thunk - Thunk

The first shell penetrates the ramshackle metal plates on the front of the truck and explodes inside with little visible effect. However, the second passes just a few inches from the first, and suddenly the entire front plating shatters, peeling off in molten chunks of metal as some sort of an internal structure holding it together suffers a catastrophic failure.

And the third shell has little but wood and foil in between it and a pile of ammunition for the Ork guns. The initial explosion immediately triggers a several meter high gushing jet of flame straight upwards from the open top of the vehicle, and the crackle of ammunition cooking off begins to shatter the sides, wrenching the metal supports apart. Finally, the entire thing collapses in a large fireball, throwing out pieces of Ork and metal all around itself.

"Wow." Gramont is quiet for a second, taking in the view. Then he snaps out of it. "Damn, nice shots. New target, 350, one-twenty meters, tracking..."

[Lord Magtok]

Mariya takes aim with her lasgun at the nearest intact trukk (inasmuch as one could call these hideous metal wagons intact), and scowls. She had higher expectations for her first foray into non-simulated combat against the xenos than this. They were supposed to be over here, in meltagun range, not forcing her to plink them from a kilo off with this pitiful standard issue firearm. It's easy to get a good bead on her target, but almost...too easy. Hey, aren't they supposed to be moving or something? Who the hell is responsible for keeping them moving, and why aren't they doing their job? Ugh, bloody southerners...

[happyturtle]

Having finally treated the pilot, Ngozi turns his attention to the Voidsman with the head wound. "How I'm supposed to see anything through all this fur..." he complains. But of course scalp wounds tend to look worse than they really are, due to heavy bleeding. But despite the head fur, Goz manages to clean and glue the wound shut. Without spotting any lice even! "You have a mild concussion. You need to be horizontal and not moving around too much, the second of which our green welcoming party is not keen to allow. No action for a fortnight. Gramont, drive gently!"

This leaves 3 Voidspersons to treat.

[UncleWolf]

Sergeant Parrish ducks when a piece of shrapnel flies over his head and he takes a quick shot at one of the Buggy drivers in retaliation. The shot misses but maybe he'll have better luck next time when they're closer. "Lieutenant, this is Red-19." He says over the comm. "One Trukk is down but we have two more inbound along with two buggies and two bikes. Things are going to get real hot real fast in a moment but there's still time for everyone to disembark and try to cut through their lines."

[Vespe Ratavo]

Nob Flashteef takes careful aim with his snazzgun (careful in that he is, in fact, pointing it toward the enemy) and pulls the trigger, briefly confused when this results in a massive, searing explosion beneath his feet and not the death of the 'umies in their big shiny box. His limp body tumbles across the ground at 60 kph, gradually bouncing to a halt, leaving him scratching his head in confusion. Another trukk thankfully picks him up (accidentally, on the front bumper) shortly thereafter, and the horde of hooting, rattling vehicles continues their full-speed advance. An Ork rokkit impacts the Chimera's heavy flamer - the weapon's sturdy construction keeps it together, at the cost of sending a massive, concussive shockwave down the controls, into the gunner (if any).

Sorry about the wait

[Lord Magtok]

Mariya's careful aim finally pays off, and a driver is shot, blam! Right in its stupid xenos face. Not enough to kill the ugly bastard, though. Maybe once she lines up her next shot. By then their autocannon might have already totaled the entire trukk, though.

[happyturtle]

"Oh, the Greenies outside are frightful
But the Commie's so delightful
While the Emprah loves us so
Let it glow, let it glow, let it glow!"

Yes, Ngozi is singing. His is a rich baritone voice, nice to listen to, even if the lyrics don't make any sense at all. While he sings, he's using forceps to pull bits of shrapnel out of a wound on a Voidsman's left buttock and flank. This particular Voidsman is trying very hard not to freak out about being in the bottom of a gravity well. This is not his natural habitat.

2 injured Voidsman left

[Murska]

The shock of the rocket impact jolts Gramont in his seat, with small shards of metal spalling into the thankfully empty front gunner seat. He starts reversing smoothly to bring the vehicle farther from the charging Orks and give more time for the other Chimeras to get their act together.

"Track the second truck. I need to concentrate on driving. Fire at will."

"Aye." The autoloader clicks confirmation and Lucretia squeezes the trigger.

Thunk Thunk Thunk

The impacts are in the centre of the hull again, but this time they do little, splashing against the front plates. The ramshackle Ork transport is shaken by the blasts, however, and some pieces fall loose. Poorly drawn electric wiring is exposed and shocks one unfortunate greenskin.

"Come on, eighteen, get down that ramp. We're scratching our paint here."

[UncleWolf]

The Sergeant tracks the closest War Buggy for as it moves before finally letting loose a pair of bolt rounds right at the Orkz' head, dropping it. "Try to take out the other buggy for now." He advises the rest of the squad. "If we get hit by flamers, we're going to have to deal with a hell of a lot more than just a shaken hull or disrupted track."

[Gullara]

Wintre focuses on unjamming her gun as quickly as possible. Maybe too quickly, because the gun gets a rather severe tongue lashing in a few moments. It's safe to say it's not going well, and that the psyker will be out of the fight for another round.

[blackouttwo]

There's some sharp, pained breathing coming from the front-gunner's seat, which isn't actually empty; a female voice. Morganna's been wounded from the Ork rocket that hit the Chimera's flamethrower. The normally quiet Guardswoman's voice is loud and clear as she calls into the back of the troop compartment.

"Goz! Goz, I'm hurt!" She sounds like she's just barely trying to avoid gritting her teeth as she cries out. From anyone else's position inside the tank, it's impossible to see her or the injury unless they move to help her.

The driver of the leading Warbuggy's head has exploded into a fine pink mist, leaving the vehicle spontaneously motionless. The warbuggy's gunner looks down at his dead partner with a look of puzzlement, visibly scratching his head, as if to ask 'wot, dis ain't roight.' In response to this, the Warbuggy directly behind it jinks slightly to one side in an attempt to go around, and continues its relentless advance at top speed towards Red 19.

The second and third trukks actually halts in its advance as their turrets traverse to face Red 19's Chimera, and let loose with rokkits. Both rokkits strike home, their gunners screaming over the constant din of the battle; the first impact is just loud. The warhead seems to be a dud, shattering on the tank's hull and doing nothing of note but scratching the paint. The second rokkit is much louder, a dead-on hit to the same spot that got a piercing shot. The entire vehicle shudders from the second impact, and a brief shriek of tearing metal can be heard.

Meanwhile, Red 18's Chimera can be seen through the clearing smoke, rolling down the lander's loading ramp, autocannon turret traversing to track one of the Ork warbikes. Immediately behind it, the Lieutenant's command vehicle, a Chimera with a noticeable, large set of advanced, long-range vox equipment on top, follows Red 18's vehicle, its own autocannon traversing to target the other Warbuggy with a flamer.

"Red 18 has disembarked! Have a visual, we are engaging the enemy!"

"17 right behind you, 18! Engage and destroy the Orks! Clear the field!"

The two Chimeras fan out on Red 19's left side, moving to engage the enemy and cover 19's flank, with 18 covering the second trukk, and 17 traversing its turret towards the second, oncoming Warbuggy. The two autocannons' collective racket is deafening, even inside the tank. The Chimera targeting the Warbuggy fires three solid shots into the vehicle's turret, the turret's armor being shorn apart under the shells' impact, and the gunner being reduced to a fine red paste immediately. The trukk, meanwhile, takes three solid impacts to its front, the armor crumpling slowly but surely under steady blows.

The Ork Warbikes, seeing this, seem to...divert. The thick clouds of smoke around them begin to move away, back towards the edge of the clearing, as the bikes retreat.

"The bikes are turning back! We have the greenskins on the run!" The Lieutenant's triumphant tone is a rather dubious one, considering Red 19's been doing the lion's share of the work since landing. At any rate, the Warbuggies are effectively out of action, the bikes are retreating and the trukks are at risk of being overrun.

And you still have wounded inside the tank.

[Murska]

"Oh..." Bloody hell. Why had she made her way to the flamer? There was nothing to shoot at yet, and the cargo compartment had superior protection. Plus the passengers could actually get out if the vehicle got killed, unlike the crew.

Acting on instinct, one hand locks the treads while another grips on the tangent to transmit to the entire vehicle.

Sir, Mor's been hit, vehicle slightly damaged but operational. I'll drag her out while Luc provides covering fire for the platoon. If possible, direct the Lieutenant to pursue the Orks - we don't need them bringing more company our way while we gather ourselves, and we need space for the damaged vehicles and wounded personnel to leave the lander.

Not waiting for a response, Gramont releases the straps on the seat and dives into the front gunner's compartment to drag Morganna out and through the hatch to the back.

[happyturtle]

Ngozi stiffens up when he hears his name called. He does his best for every patient, but it's different when it's one of their own. By the time Gramont has her out of the gunner's compartment, Goz is there. "Just stay with me, Mor. It's all going to be okay. Just hold on like a snapper." And while he works, he starts singing a nonsense bit of song about a tortoise - a nursery rhyme long since converted into filthy soldier lyrics.

1 injured Tortoise
2 injured Voidsmen

[Lord Magtok]

****ing greenskins. ****ing animals, like ogryn but green and twice as stupid, Mariya screams in her head, grabbing her melta as she rushes right out the back of the Chimera. For Emperor's sake, she's had this gun just sitting here the whole time, perfect for the occasion, if only those ****ing stupid green bastards got closer. Now is not the time for them to just up and leave, dammit!

Mariya opens fire on the closest viable target with her Melta, not even seeming to notice that she's left the relative safety of the tank. Now who's useless and plinking helplessly at armor with a flashlight, huh?

[UncleWolf]

The Sergeant curses audibly and clambers down from his seat at the stormbolter to assist in moving Morganna from the front. "Commissar, the storm bolter is yours. Gramont, get back into the driver's seat and don't abandon it again." He commands the Operator. "The Lt. won't listen to me again, we all know that, so get your ass back in the seat and get us ready to move. And Throne damn it! Mariya! Get back in here NOW!. We're on the Throne-Damned Move and I did not give you orders to disembark! Take whatever shot you're looking for then get back in here before I leave you two for the Orkz!" He shouts, obviously angry but unable to put his heart into it at the moment.

[Darkcomet]

"Confirmed." The Commissar elects to deal with the clear lack of discipline later, instead doing the obvious: getting on the storm bolter and firing on the already heavily damaged ork trukk, riddling it with bolt shells.

[Murska]

Gramont helps the Sergeant to push Morganna through into the passenger compartment and then slips back into his chair. For a tiny moment, his generally carefree facade cracks to show a hint of barely contained anger, but he's already turned around and by the time he's handling the controls again, his voice is smooth as ever.

"Yes, sir. Medic, be careful with the patients - looks like we're going to have to roll out, and there's no roads here."

After voicing his concern for the wounded in a way that hopefully won't get him shot for insubordination, he shifts the engine into gear again and switches his comms back to the crew net.

"If we're moving, aim at the bikes before they escape and try to move in the shadow of Red 18 so the third Trukk doesn't have a clear shot. It might be that the hit we took to the tracks earlier slows us down a bit, in case there's cracks in the wheels."

[blackouttwo]

The Commissar's concentrated bolter-fire has a peculiar effect on the trukk she focuses on.

Of course, by 'peculiar', this narrator means 'she triggers an explosion large enough to kill every Ork within a seventeen meter radius, including the all of the crew and passengers of the trukk next to it.' The damaged trukk explodes in a shriek of tearing metal and a fireball that flings a massive plume of smoke and burning promethium fuel into the air as scrap is flung across a seventeen-meter radius. The trukk next to it tips over, it's passengers and crew spilling out, roaring in a combined frenzy as they burn to death. The nob can be seen pawing at his own scorched skin trying to put the fire out, before finally collapsing to the burnt earth.

The remaining two Chimeras in the lander roll off the ramp and shift their fire to the fleeing attack bikes. The warbuggy with the destroyed flamethrower turns and tries to flee, following the warbikes. Observers can see the Ork in the other warbuggy shoving the body of his dead driver aside to seize the driver's seat himself. His warbuggy then turns to follow the rest of the fleeing Ork vehicles.

"Excellent work, Red 19! The trukks are destroyed and the remaining Orks are pulling back!" Lieutenant Bennaio shouts over the vox channel. "All remaining units, hold position! Shift cannon-fire, concentrate on the buggies and move onto the attack bikes! Do not pursue!"

"Copy, shifting fire. Red 17 acknowledges."

"16 here, order's acknowledged, shifting fire and holding.

"Red 15 has two wounded we need to get someplace secure, Lieutenant. We might not be able to sit here and take potshots at the Orks' asses. One of our boys is starting to breathe real shallow-"

"I said to hold position and hit them with your cannon, McNash."

McNash's reply is a quiet and reluctant one. "...Orders acknowledged, Lieutenant. Holding position, shifting fire."

"Erickson, Red 18, here. Judging from what I'm seeing, looks like the Ork assault is faltering against that outpost. I think they know we're about to hit their main assault force from behind and I'm not seeing anymore armor. We could cut the bastards up and roll right in if we felt so inclined. Flamers could use a test run, I think." Anyone looking out a hatch or viewport at the assault against the Brontian outpost in the distance can clearly see large mobs of Orks attempting to break off and retreat back into the jungle. The Brontians, from the look of it, aren't trying to pursue, instead shooting the Orks from their fortifications and cutting the infantry down as they try to retreat.

Meanwhile, the Chimeras of 8th Platoon, Red Company uniformly shift their fire to concentrate on the fleeing vehicles. Most of the shots fail to impact on the vehicles, landing in the field or impacting against the foliage of the tree-line beyond as the turrets attempt to track the fast-moving Ork vehicles through the acrid smoke thrown off by the engines of the warbikes; the two Warbuggies, at least, are blown apart with lucky shots to their rear armor.

Spoiler: Goz

Show

Medicae for Diagnosis: The Diagnosticator isn't giving you positive readings. Morganna was cut pretty deep along the thigh by a shard of metal that cut right through her flak armor when some of the tank's hull burst inward up near the flamethrower at the front of the vehicle, and it nearly split her open along the stomach. What saved her was her turning to one side and twisting a bit in her chair at just the right moment.

She's bleeding, and hurt badly. She needs medical attention quickly, or she might not survive the next hour.