Hey again! I've got a bit of time on my hands and so here follows what you might call the highlights of the last match I played at our meetup (22 January, 2010).
The match was a raiding party from the OI-FU seeking to scrag one "Prince" of the Voodoo Posse. Six Orlock fighters (Seamus, Cillian, Finn, James, Angus, and Michael) had ventured into Delaque territory in pursuit of their target, and finally spotted him atop a five story tower along with another Delaque ganger and heavy Replay standing watch across the way. Their plain gray coats flapped violently in a treacherous gusting wind, threatening to blow away anyone foolish enough to risk crossing a gantry or standing at the top floor of any tower.
The OI-FU raiders dispersed quietly through the ruins, with Finn and James moving up behind Replay to the northwest, Seamus and Angus climbing to the second story of a tower adjoining Prince's perch, and Cillian and Michael sneaking across the second story deck of a central tower. Winds atop the 5-story monstrosity knocked Prince and co. off their feet. While Prince managed to stay atop the tower (thanks to some conveniently-located low walls) but his pal was much less fortunate, slipping off the edge and slamming onto the steel flooring two stories below then bouncing a further three stories to the ground. He would spend the remainder of the game gingerly attempting to remain conscious.
Replay was much more sturdy, living up to his name as he spun in place, planted his feet, and neatly cut down James as the juve attempted to sneak up along a lower-level pipeline. Wincing as James was knocked off his feet by multiple high-calibre rounds, Finn braced against the wind and blasted Replay at center mass with a manstopper round. The Delaque heavy was out of action after the first round.
The game continued with Prince getting unsteadily to his feet only to be blown down time and time again, limiting his effectiveness but also making him a damn unpredictable target. The Orlock raiders worked their way in closer and closer, amidst the arrival of several Delaque reinforcement squads, and just before they could reach the tower in which Prince was taking refuge, Seamus was caught off guard by a particularly nasty gust which snagged his cape and flung him off a catwalk three stories in the air. The loss of their leader caused the other members of the OI-FU to falter, and the Voodoo Posse used the lull to take out juve Michael as he reached the dice tower, and Cillian as he attempted to cross the bridge to Prince's impromptu bunker. This was too much for the Orlocks to bear, and they quickly retreated, losing the day. The Voodoo Posse found themselves bloodied but victorious for the first time in what seemed ages, with a dead Orlock juve to their name and a captive in Cillian.
Rest assured the OI-FU will be out for revenge, as "Stonewall" Michael had been a valued up-and-coming member of the gang, and Cillian would not be allowed to rot in a Delaque shack.
(OOC) Post battle was kind, as Finn got a Rapid Fire skill for shotgunning, and Seamus made sure to find a One in a Million Shotgun with some shiny bolt rounds for the ganger, and Cillian rolled Inventor. Definitely be on the lookout for a rescue mission in the future!
Showing posts with label Report. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Report. Show all posts
01 February 2010
05 October 2009
October Gaming Report!
A quick note: This report was started quite a while ago, but thanks to a lovely seasonal cold/flu thing, I have been unable to finish it until now. Sorry for the delay, and to our group: any errors are due to my increasingly fragile long-term memory. Thanks for some great games!
Hello everyone! The October meetup was yesterday and all things considered went really well. I still haven't gotten my old rosters and such transferred to the new laptop, so I was embarassingly unprepared for the games (and so was Jeff, as I handle rosters for his gang as well) and in fact was entirely unable to field the OI-FU.
The NMI hit the boards for two games, one against Darien's Orlock gang Cold Dawn, the other fighting a dissenting Cawdor sect, the Brotherhood of Sorrow. Steph's Escher went to battle against Jeff's Ash Waste Rifles in a seemingly never-ending game (seriously, more than five turns) that took a brutally heavy toll.
In the first game, Darien and I rolled up a Gang Fight (surprise!) and set up on our respective board edges. I spread the NMI out into four groups. I spread out my fighters with my heavy holding the left flank and various shooting and melee sqauds across to my leader on the right flank. Darien set up with his heavy on the right center of the board and his leader on the left side heading a small squad, with a scattering of gangers in between. I rolled choice for first turn and gave it to Darien.
The Cold Dawn pushed forward, running to cover and taking up positions amongst the towers and buildings, waiting for the NMI to show their masked faces. His heavy (carrying "The Lawnmower") took up a really nice firing position near the gate/tower, ready to stall an advance through most of the right half of the board. The NMI countered by sending several shooters out onto rooftops and catwalks, and their heavy moved up with his flamer, ready to flank from the left side. An assault group moved in support, headed toward cover behind a large tower.
Darien's gang was ready for me, and the Lawnmower took down one of my gangers in the first round of shooting. Thankfully this also resulted in a failed ammo roll for the Cold Dawn heavy, neutralizing the threat of the heavy bolter for the rest of the game. The Orlock leader and several others took some potshots at the NMI assault group, keeping hteir heads down but failing to do any real damage. A prolonged exchange of gunfire erupted as the NMI returned fire, and while many shots struck home, few serious wounds were actually inflicted on either side. On my right flank, Benedictus moved up quickly and quietly, avoiding the attention of Cold Dawn gangers.
The relatively bloodless conflict soon took a turn for the worse, as Benedictus and Callixtus maneuvered into position and opened fire on their unsuspecting opponents. Benedictus's hand flamer stalled a small push from the Orlocks, lighting up a ganger and juve, while Cal's flamer literally rained down fire on an unsuspecting juve below. This, combined with some decent shooting from my other gangers, pinned or downed several more of Darien's gang, enough that he decided to quit the field. In a nice little bit of irony however, the Cold Dawn had suffered fewer injuries overall than the NMI (two Orlocks vs. four Cawdor) In keeping with their illustrious history, two of my Cawdor gangers died (and yes, one of these fell off a building - huzzah).
On the other table throughout this battle, Jeff's 7th Ash Waste Rifles fought Steph's Concrete Chaos Queens in a Bushwhack raid, with the Van Saar gunning for the leader of the Eschers. A massive six-story tower dominated their battleground, and Steph wisely kept his leader screened from fire in the middle levels of that tower. The Rifles and Escher fought tooth and nail throughout the whole of the raid, resulting in brutal casualties and tons of downed and OoA fighters. In an astounding turn of events, Rifles leader Orion managed to keep his nerve this time around, avoding breaking from the fight when his bodyguard got taken down in front of him.
The Escher heavy plasma gun, infamous for incinerating an unwitting Delaque in its previous outing, was decidedly less potent in this game. The Escher heavy eventually found herself in a melee contest with the Van Saar heavy, resulting in a clumsily fierce fight to the death. After all was said and done in the hand-to-hand phase, Jeff's heavy Zeke had earned the nickname "Bitchkiller" after fatally wounding the plasma-gunning Escher with his boot knife. This was only one of many blood-and-guts moments throughout the battle, and finally, after many, many attempts to take out the Escher leader, the Van Saar packed it in and retreated, leaving their vendetta unfinished. This game lasted an inhuman 12+ turns and roughly as many beers between the opponents, and has entered the realm of epic legend in the Underhive for our group.
I played one other game against Mike's Brotherhood of Sorrow. This Cawdor/Cawdor matchup ended up being pretty interesting, not only in premise but in the events of the battle. We rolled up a Gang Fight, with a Treacherous Conditions roll resulting in the ineffectual but amusing Cockroaches (nice crunchy living carpet of bugs!). Mike took advantage of his Tunnels territory, and after the first turn I found my left flank under fire from the rear, crippling the advance I had planned. Despite the tactical advantage afforded him, Mike's fighters proved to be pretty poor shots, and I was able to counterattack with a few shooters on elevated platforms above his infiltrators.
At this point, the NMI seemed to defy their reputation as clumsy melee enthusiasts, as my shooters consistently hit their targets (but didn't wound a whole lot of them) and managed to keep their footing when hit near a platform edge. Both Mike and I were perplexed as each of our shooting phases proved much less effective than we hoped. Antoher odd aspect of this fight was a complete lack of melee combat; my sole remaining juve was pursued through the debris by the BoS leader and a ganger, and all others on both sides were unable to close to charge distance thanks to persistent gunfire. Eventually the NMI took one too many casualties, and I conceded the game when it came time to take my bottle test. I did much better in post game this time around, with no fatalities and very few permanent injuries. The same went for Mike's Cawdor, although he had fewer overall wounded gangers at the end of the game.
This was another good meetup and despite losing a member of our group since last time, we still managed to get a goodly number of games in, and since Steph and myself have multiple gangs we can run (with my Mercs currently under construction as well), it allows for a lot of different matchups to be played. It's looking as if the next meetup will be held at Darien's place, so we'll see how that works out. It will be nice to just focus on getting my gangs ready to play rather than cleaning up the house and moving tables around!
Hello everyone! The October meetup was yesterday and all things considered went really well. I still haven't gotten my old rosters and such transferred to the new laptop, so I was embarassingly unprepared for the games (and so was Jeff, as I handle rosters for his gang as well) and in fact was entirely unable to field the OI-FU.
The NMI hit the boards for two games, one against Darien's Orlock gang Cold Dawn, the other fighting a dissenting Cawdor sect, the Brotherhood of Sorrow. Steph's Escher went to battle against Jeff's Ash Waste Rifles in a seemingly never-ending game (seriously, more than five turns) that took a brutally heavy toll.
In the first game, Darien and I rolled up a Gang Fight (surprise!) and set up on our respective board edges. I spread the NMI out into four groups. I spread out my fighters with my heavy holding the left flank and various shooting and melee sqauds across to my leader on the right flank. Darien set up with his heavy on the right center of the board and his leader on the left side heading a small squad, with a scattering of gangers in between. I rolled choice for first turn and gave it to Darien.
The Cold Dawn pushed forward, running to cover and taking up positions amongst the towers and buildings, waiting for the NMI to show their masked faces. His heavy (carrying "The Lawnmower") took up a really nice firing position near the gate/tower, ready to stall an advance through most of the right half of the board. The NMI countered by sending several shooters out onto rooftops and catwalks, and their heavy moved up with his flamer, ready to flank from the left side. An assault group moved in support, headed toward cover behind a large tower.
Darien's gang was ready for me, and the Lawnmower took down one of my gangers in the first round of shooting. Thankfully this also resulted in a failed ammo roll for the Cold Dawn heavy, neutralizing the threat of the heavy bolter for the rest of the game. The Orlock leader and several others took some potshots at the NMI assault group, keeping hteir heads down but failing to do any real damage. A prolonged exchange of gunfire erupted as the NMI returned fire, and while many shots struck home, few serious wounds were actually inflicted on either side. On my right flank, Benedictus moved up quickly and quietly, avoiding the attention of Cold Dawn gangers.
The relatively bloodless conflict soon took a turn for the worse, as Benedictus and Callixtus maneuvered into position and opened fire on their unsuspecting opponents. Benedictus's hand flamer stalled a small push from the Orlocks, lighting up a ganger and juve, while Cal's flamer literally rained down fire on an unsuspecting juve below. This, combined with some decent shooting from my other gangers, pinned or downed several more of Darien's gang, enough that he decided to quit the field. In a nice little bit of irony however, the Cold Dawn had suffered fewer injuries overall than the NMI (two Orlocks vs. four Cawdor) In keeping with their illustrious history, two of my Cawdor gangers died (and yes, one of these fell off a building - huzzah).
On the other table throughout this battle, Jeff's 7th Ash Waste Rifles fought Steph's Concrete Chaos Queens in a Bushwhack raid, with the Van Saar gunning for the leader of the Eschers. A massive six-story tower dominated their battleground, and Steph wisely kept his leader screened from fire in the middle levels of that tower. The Rifles and Escher fought tooth and nail throughout the whole of the raid, resulting in brutal casualties and tons of downed and OoA fighters. In an astounding turn of events, Rifles leader Orion managed to keep his nerve this time around, avoding breaking from the fight when his bodyguard got taken down in front of him.
The Escher heavy plasma gun, infamous for incinerating an unwitting Delaque in its previous outing, was decidedly less potent in this game. The Escher heavy eventually found herself in a melee contest with the Van Saar heavy, resulting in a clumsily fierce fight to the death. After all was said and done in the hand-to-hand phase, Jeff's heavy Zeke had earned the nickname "Bitchkiller" after fatally wounding the plasma-gunning Escher with his boot knife. This was only one of many blood-and-guts moments throughout the battle, and finally, after many, many attempts to take out the Escher leader, the Van Saar packed it in and retreated, leaving their vendetta unfinished. This game lasted an inhuman 12+ turns and roughly as many beers between the opponents, and has entered the realm of epic legend in the Underhive for our group.
I played one other game against Mike's Brotherhood of Sorrow. This Cawdor/Cawdor matchup ended up being pretty interesting, not only in premise but in the events of the battle. We rolled up a Gang Fight, with a Treacherous Conditions roll resulting in the ineffectual but amusing Cockroaches (nice crunchy living carpet of bugs!). Mike took advantage of his Tunnels territory, and after the first turn I found my left flank under fire from the rear, crippling the advance I had planned. Despite the tactical advantage afforded him, Mike's fighters proved to be pretty poor shots, and I was able to counterattack with a few shooters on elevated platforms above his infiltrators.
At this point, the NMI seemed to defy their reputation as clumsy melee enthusiasts, as my shooters consistently hit their targets (but didn't wound a whole lot of them) and managed to keep their footing when hit near a platform edge. Both Mike and I were perplexed as each of our shooting phases proved much less effective than we hoped. Antoher odd aspect of this fight was a complete lack of melee combat; my sole remaining juve was pursued through the debris by the BoS leader and a ganger, and all others on both sides were unable to close to charge distance thanks to persistent gunfire. Eventually the NMI took one too many casualties, and I conceded the game when it came time to take my bottle test. I did much better in post game this time around, with no fatalities and very few permanent injuries. The same went for Mike's Cawdor, although he had fewer overall wounded gangers at the end of the game.
This was another good meetup and despite losing a member of our group since last time, we still managed to get a goodly number of games in, and since Steph and myself have multiple gangs we can run (with my Mercs currently under construction as well), it allows for a lot of different matchups to be played. It's looking as if the next meetup will be held at Darien's place, so we'll see how that works out. It will be nice to just focus on getting my gangs ready to play rather than cleaning up the house and moving tables around!
31 August 2009
Big Brutal Battles! Part Three
On to the final report from last Sunday, with the Cold Dawn facing the Brotherhood of Sorrow. These gangs are both on the small side, with eight men in each crew, but rest assured they fought like mad. The game started simply enough, a Gang Fight with no Treacherous roll, with Mike's Brotherhood deployed in a dispersed formation with a couple 2-man groups to begin, and Darien's Cold Dawn split roughly in half, with his Heavy and two support gangers on one end, and his leader with four other gang members supporting a push at the opposite flank.
The first turn was pretty quiet as both gangs moved ahead towards a cluster of ruins and old industrial buildings at the center of the board, but Darien found a commanding field of fire for his gang's heavy bolter beneath the arch of a gate watchtower. The Orlock heavy took down several Cawdor gangers through the rest of the game, prompting our group to start calling him "Lawnmower," and much to Mike's chagrin, Darien's first several rolls to hit (as well as his sustained fire and ammo rolls) contained an inordinate number of sixes, while Mike's rolls tended to the lower end of the D6 spectrum.
The Brotherhood's heavy and one juve were taken out before they could get to grips with their Orlock rivals, and the Cold Dawn capitalized on their advantage by sending up some hand-to-hand fighters from the leader's group. Meanwhile, the support fighters alongside the Orlock heavy moved to suppress a team of Brotherhood members picking their way through cover towards the Lawnmower's position. Just as the BoS fireteam moved into sight of their targets, and the flanking team neared the Orlock heavy bolter team, Darien's luck started swinging into the low end of the D6, as ones started popping up with unsettling frequency - shots missed targets or failed to wound, and Mike seemed to have found the perfect opportunity to turn the tables on the Orlocks.
Unfortunately, the Cawdor Brotherhood of Sorrow found their opponents to be much more fierce than they expected. Orlock gunfire cut down the melee team in the ruins near the gate, while the lasgunners were caught out and engaged in hand-to-hand, and subsequently routed after fierce close combat. At this point, Mike decided he'd better run while some of his gangers could still do so, and quit the field. Fortunately though, his casualties were fairly light, and more importantly, the Brotherhood found themselves hosting an unexpected guest! Shivers from the Cold Dawn woke up in shackles at the Brotherhood's home territory, and enjoyed (or endured) some kind hospitality from the Cawdor, until Darien offered a new Infrared Gunsight and Hotshot Power Pack in exchange for his ganger.
The first turn was pretty quiet as both gangs moved ahead towards a cluster of ruins and old industrial buildings at the center of the board, but Darien found a commanding field of fire for his gang's heavy bolter beneath the arch of a gate watchtower. The Orlock heavy took down several Cawdor gangers through the rest of the game, prompting our group to start calling him "Lawnmower," and much to Mike's chagrin, Darien's first several rolls to hit (as well as his sustained fire and ammo rolls) contained an inordinate number of sixes, while Mike's rolls tended to the lower end of the D6 spectrum.
The Brotherhood's heavy and one juve were taken out before they could get to grips with their Orlock rivals, and the Cold Dawn capitalized on their advantage by sending up some hand-to-hand fighters from the leader's group. Meanwhile, the support fighters alongside the Orlock heavy moved to suppress a team of Brotherhood members picking their way through cover towards the Lawnmower's position. Just as the BoS fireteam moved into sight of their targets, and the flanking team neared the Orlock heavy bolter team, Darien's luck started swinging into the low end of the D6, as ones started popping up with unsettling frequency - shots missed targets or failed to wound, and Mike seemed to have found the perfect opportunity to turn the tables on the Orlocks.
Unfortunately, the Cawdor Brotherhood of Sorrow found their opponents to be much more fierce than they expected. Orlock gunfire cut down the melee team in the ruins near the gate, while the lasgunners were caught out and engaged in hand-to-hand, and subsequently routed after fierce close combat. At this point, Mike decided he'd better run while some of his gangers could still do so, and quit the field. Fortunately though, his casualties were fairly light, and more importantly, the Brotherhood found themselves hosting an unexpected guest! Shivers from the Cold Dawn woke up in shackles at the Brotherhood's home territory, and enjoyed (or endured) some kind hospitality from the Cawdor, until Darien offered a new Infrared Gunsight and Hotshot Power Pack in exchange for his ganger.
27 August 2009
Big Brutal Battles! Part Two
The battle between the Concrete Chaos Queens and Delaque gang was no less intense. The Gang Fight was set in an area full of Methane Gas Pockets, which made it risky to fire from cover. Each gang spread out into smaller groups, with the Queens sending a melee team along the right flank, with their plasma cannon set up near the center of the board edge, and a small fire team moving up the right.
To counter, Matt sent his Delaque flamer along with some juves and gangers to push against the fireteam, and his heavy stubber almost immediately proved its worth. As the Queens' melee team led by "The Witch," moved up onto a gantry headed toward the Delaque line, the heavy stubber opened fire, rolling up 4 shots in sustained fire and cutting down three of the four melee girls. The only one left standing wisely judged the situation to be hazardous and dove for cover, sheer terror leaving her incapacitated for the time being.
Unfortunately, the leader of the Delaques was so emboldened by this decisive and nasty counter-flanking measure that he sorely underestimated the remaining Escher force. As he moved from cover, the Queens' heavy hefted a huge plasma cannon, switched the toggle to Max Power, and fired. I got called away from my game to help govern the shooting phase, as Steph hadn't ever brought so much firepower to bear. Next Steph sorted the Damage roll (possible D10 wounds) and ... the whole group sort of groaned as we saw the result. The shot was so powerful it inflicted the FULL TEN WOUNDS possible on the Delaque leader and left him as a smoldering pile of pain. Needless to say he went OoA. Several times over.
Afterwards I am unfortunately a bit lacking with regards to the game's outcome, as I returned to my game which had just started to get bloody. I know for a fact that the Methane pockets had some hilarious results, and that the balance of the game swung a bit to both sides before ending. Matt and Steph's game wrapped up a couple turns ahead of mine and Jeff's, and so I will try to get a bit more information from them about their memorable moments, and I will be editing this report a bit to add in new recollections.
Cheers!
To counter, Matt sent his Delaque flamer along with some juves and gangers to push against the fireteam, and his heavy stubber almost immediately proved its worth. As the Queens' melee team led by "The Witch," moved up onto a gantry headed toward the Delaque line, the heavy stubber opened fire, rolling up 4 shots in sustained fire and cutting down three of the four melee girls. The only one left standing wisely judged the situation to be hazardous and dove for cover, sheer terror leaving her incapacitated for the time being.
Unfortunately, the leader of the Delaques was so emboldened by this decisive and nasty counter-flanking measure that he sorely underestimated the remaining Escher force. As he moved from cover, the Queens' heavy hefted a huge plasma cannon, switched the toggle to Max Power, and fired. I got called away from my game to help govern the shooting phase, as Steph hadn't ever brought so much firepower to bear. Next Steph sorted the Damage roll (possible D10 wounds) and ... the whole group sort of groaned as we saw the result. The shot was so powerful it inflicted the FULL TEN WOUNDS possible on the Delaque leader and left him as a smoldering pile of pain. Needless to say he went OoA. Several times over.
Afterwards I am unfortunately a bit lacking with regards to the game's outcome, as I returned to my game which had just started to get bloody. I know for a fact that the Methane pockets had some hilarious results, and that the balance of the game swung a bit to both sides before ending. Matt and Steph's game wrapped up a couple turns ahead of mine and Jeff's, and so I will try to get a bit more information from them about their memorable moments, and I will be editing this report a bit to add in new recollections.
Cheers!
23 August 2009
Big Brutal Battles! Part One
EDIT: Fixed it!
Woo!
The new campaign started off quite fiercely with three games played between the six players in the group (the seventh apparently decided not to join up after all), and there was a lot of blood shed on this fateful day.
The three matchups were:
Our board setup featured several three-story towers with 12" long catwalks, as well as some secondary towers, wrecked Chimera hulls, and old ruins of habs mingling with ad-hoc fences and guard towers. I deployed the OI-FU in four groups; a static fireteam including my heavy at the edge center, two juve/shotgun ganger teams at center and far left, and a leader/lasgunner/juve team to the right, with a single lasgunner taking to the gantries above the ground as well.
My brother came on strong and moved to very advantageous positions. A team of autogunners and his heavy repelled the OI-FU's right-flank push, while his bolt pistoliers quickly took up position at the central area of the board, and a lasgunner team moved to repel my left flank push. My heavy and his backup found themselves out of visual range for much of the game (damn fog), but eventually made a difference towards the fourth and fifth turns.
Fortunately for me the 7th AWR suffered from some of the worst accuracy and worst firearm maintenance I've ever seen in a Van Saar gang, and I only started suffering bad casualties in the fourth turn. Once we both closed to within the 16" "nucleus" everything got real bad real fast, with gangers and juves going down left and right. Thankfully my Orlocks don't suffer the same klutz factor as my Cawdor, and they almost always kept their footing around platform/gantry edges.
The endgame finally rolled around on my third bottle test. I ran for it, voluntarily, as at that point I had 6 men OoA and 2 more Down, out of 12 total.
Yep, 75% of the gang could not fight anymore, and if I'd left it to chance, it was likely to be a total shutout, with all my gang bleeding on the floor trying not to die. As it was, I only had a couple injuries worth mentioning: a juve with an Arm Wound, a ganger with a Chest Wound, and one man Captured. The 7th AWR had a man Captured, and one man Dead, with a Chest Wounded juve. In his post-game territory rolls, my brother had a Chem Pit incident and ended up with a Horribly Scarred ganger. I could only work three territories, so thank goodness for my two Settlements and Drinking Hole.
I'll be posting up more accounts soon, as well as pictures but to be honest I have had a bit to drink tonight and my camera's gone missing (I hate moving...)!
Cheers all!
Woo!
The new campaign started off quite fiercely with three games played between the six players in the group (the seventh apparently decided not to join up after all), and there was a lot of blood shed on this fateful day.
The three matchups were:
- My Orlock Iron-Forge Union (Orlock) v. Jeff's 7th Ash Waste Rifles (Van Saar)
- Steph's Concrete Chaos Queens (Escher) v. Matt's Delaques
- Mike's The Brotherhood of Sorrow (Cawdor) v. Darien's The Cold Dawn (Orlock)
Our board setup featured several three-story towers with 12" long catwalks, as well as some secondary towers, wrecked Chimera hulls, and old ruins of habs mingling with ad-hoc fences and guard towers. I deployed the OI-FU in four groups; a static fireteam including my heavy at the edge center, two juve/shotgun ganger teams at center and far left, and a leader/lasgunner/juve team to the right, with a single lasgunner taking to the gantries above the ground as well.
My brother came on strong and moved to very advantageous positions. A team of autogunners and his heavy repelled the OI-FU's right-flank push, while his bolt pistoliers quickly took up position at the central area of the board, and a lasgunner team moved to repel my left flank push. My heavy and his backup found themselves out of visual range for much of the game (damn fog), but eventually made a difference towards the fourth and fifth turns.
Fortunately for me the 7th AWR suffered from some of the worst accuracy and worst firearm maintenance I've ever seen in a Van Saar gang, and I only started suffering bad casualties in the fourth turn. Once we both closed to within the 16" "nucleus" everything got real bad real fast, with gangers and juves going down left and right. Thankfully my Orlocks don't suffer the same klutz factor as my Cawdor, and they almost always kept their footing around platform/gantry edges.
The endgame finally rolled around on my third bottle test. I ran for it, voluntarily, as at that point I had 6 men OoA and 2 more Down, out of 12 total.
Yep, 75% of the gang could not fight anymore, and if I'd left it to chance, it was likely to be a total shutout, with all my gang bleeding on the floor trying not to die. As it was, I only had a couple injuries worth mentioning: a juve with an Arm Wound, a ganger with a Chest Wound, and one man Captured. The 7th AWR had a man Captured, and one man Dead, with a Chest Wounded juve. In his post-game territory rolls, my brother had a Chem Pit incident and ended up with a Horribly Scarred ganger. I could only work three territories, so thank goodness for my two Settlements and Drinking Hole.
I'll be posting up more accounts soon, as well as pictures but to be honest I have had a bit to drink tonight and my camera's gone missing (I hate moving...)!
Cheers all!
17 February 2009
++ Raid on Voodoo Posse Turf ++
Spc. Ezekial reporting.
At 1830, daycycle 20090215, Sgt. Orion returned from his negotiations with Benedictus of the Nex Manus Imperator faction (NMI), and ordered me to select five (5) men from our number to form a combat squad. I was to lead said squad in a raid into territory held by KFC's Voodoo Posse (VP), specifically targeting a secure structure believed to contain the credit records for the VP gambling operations. Destroying or capturing this objective would severely damage the operational capability of the Delaque faction.
Sgt. Orion informed me that our squad could expect assistance from the NMI. The Cawdor leader and one other member of that faction would meet us outside the boundaries of the VP territory. This alliance was initially forged before the 20090111 action at Dark Bluff, and although the NMI has honored the truce thus far, the Sarge is convinced there is an alterior motive. Although it is unclear what that motive may be, we have agreed to be civil with these fanatics as it is believed they still hold Old Chester captive within their territory. Until he has been released, Sgt. Orion will not risk double-crossing the NMI.
After the briefing, I spoke with the rest of the Rifles and selected my squad. Tex, Visili, Laertes, Lazarus, and Vincent were chosen, and after making preparations and checking weapons and gear, we moved out at approximately 1900 hrs.
We arrived outside the edges of VP territory in Subsector 19 at 1927 hrs., and linked up with Benedictus and Urbanus of the NMI. The Cawdor were armed for close-quarters fighting, and I ordered Lazarus and Laertes to move with them in a spearhead element along the western flank, avoiding contact with VP elements until support was in place. Vincent and Visili would move up the center, and take firing positions upon visual contact with VP sentries. Tex would move along the eastern flank with his plasma weapon, supported by myself and the squad's stubber. Tex's earlier leg wound had been problematic given his specialist role in the Rifles, but the power of his plasma gun was too important to the mission to leave him at HQ.
With a plan of action established, I ordered the squad to move out. Despite the urgency of our action, Benedictus and Urbanus insisted upon undertaking ritual combat prayer before moving into position. All elements signaled readiness at approximately 1940 hrs. and I gave the order to execute maneuvers.
There was no resistance for several dozen meters. All squad elements and allies advanced across the field, with the NMI operatives moving at the very front of the spearhead, followed by Lazarus and Laertes. Vincent and Visili reported visual contact with two VP sentries, identified as Replay and Rude Boy. Visili further reported having secured two firepoints atop an abandoned hab-structure, several meters apart. I moved up into a derelict freight-elevator tower, having ordered Tex to close on the objective at ground level.
As I moved to the third floor to establish fire support, Benedictus broke from the established plan of action and opened fire with a bolt pistol. Despite his lack of discipline, the NMI operative was able to incapacitate Replay. However, Rude Boy activated an alarm klaxon and two VP reinforcements identified as Grease Job and Tom Tom arrived from the northwest. Benedictus was wounded by fire from Tom Tom. Urbanus took cover as Grease Job fired, then dispatched Tom Tom in melee combat with surprising efficiency and finesse before moving to engage Grease Job.
I opened fire on Rude Boy but failed to wound him, as he attempted to find cover. Laertes similarly failed to wound the target despite emptying his weapon's magazine, but Lazarus lightly wounded the sentry and forced him to take cover. Visili fired on the Delaque position, and finally took Rude Boy down.
Further VP reinforcements arrived, identified as Prince and Little Caesar. Both moved past the melee combat to support their wounded comrades. Little Caesar fired at Lazarus, forcing him into cover. Prince eliminated NMI operative Benedictus with blows from a shotgun, and stepped out to fire on the pinned Lazarus. I opened fire with the stubber and took Prince out before he could take a shot, although my stubber's ejection port became jammed by a fouled casing. Vincent and Visili provided covering fire for Lazarus, forcing Little Caesar back. Urbanus easily subdued Grease Job and moved to engage Little Caesar. The Cawdor operative's melee skills allowed him to quickly eliminate yet another of the VP, leaving the field clear for our raiding party to close on the wounded Replay and the objective he had been guarding.
Despite his assurances to the contrary, Tex's lingering wounds had slowed his advance significantly. He was still unable to make visual contact with the objective and as our squad waited for him to close on the objective, one final reinforcing element of the VP arrived. KFC moved into the combat zone, but operative Urbanus reported that the Delaque commander seemed dazed (several reports of varying reliability have been made that KFC has suffered a head wound of some sort, leaving him prone to violent behavior or inhibited mental capacity) and shortly thereafter, KFC stopped in place, making no attempt to defend himself or open fire.
Urbanus engaged KFC in melee combat, but only barely managed to take down the Delaque leader. The Cawdor operative reported that despite his lack of initiative, KFC's reflexive defenses were still unhindered. After KFC was subdued, Urbanus rendered Little Caesar unconscious. At this point, 2008 hrs., all hostile elements in the VP territory had been neutralized, and Tex proceeded to destroy the objective with plasma gun fire. Squad casualties were zero, save for the wounded NMI operative Benedictus.
Operative Urbanus was debriefed following the action and his comments have been added to the preceding report. As I linked back up with the NMI man, I was surprised to see that he had not only carried his unconscious leader to safety, but had also captured one of the VP fighters. Benedictus recovered sufficiently to walk (although he seemed to be suffering from psychological shock), and the two Cawdor agents withdrew from the field, Urbanus hauling the wounded Delaque back to their territory.
Addendum: Due to their devastating wounds in the raid, the Voodoo Posse have apparently reported our actions to the Guild Watchmen. However, during the course of their investigations, the Watchmen have deputized the Rifles, perhaps as thanks for disrupting the VP gambling operations, thereby removing direct competition for settler credits. It is difficult to say what affect this may have on our standing in Subsector 19.
At 1830, daycycle 20090215, Sgt. Orion returned from his negotiations with Benedictus of the Nex Manus Imperator faction (NMI), and ordered me to select five (5) men from our number to form a combat squad. I was to lead said squad in a raid into territory held by KFC's Voodoo Posse (VP), specifically targeting a secure structure believed to contain the credit records for the VP gambling operations. Destroying or capturing this objective would severely damage the operational capability of the Delaque faction.
Sgt. Orion informed me that our squad could expect assistance from the NMI. The Cawdor leader and one other member of that faction would meet us outside the boundaries of the VP territory. This alliance was initially forged before the 20090111 action at Dark Bluff, and although the NMI has honored the truce thus far, the Sarge is convinced there is an alterior motive. Although it is unclear what that motive may be, we have agreed to be civil with these fanatics as it is believed they still hold Old Chester captive within their territory. Until he has been released, Sgt. Orion will not risk double-crossing the NMI.
After the briefing, I spoke with the rest of the Rifles and selected my squad. Tex, Visili, Laertes, Lazarus, and Vincent were chosen, and after making preparations and checking weapons and gear, we moved out at approximately 1900 hrs.
We arrived outside the edges of VP territory in Subsector 19 at 1927 hrs., and linked up with Benedictus and Urbanus of the NMI. The Cawdor were armed for close-quarters fighting, and I ordered Lazarus and Laertes to move with them in a spearhead element along the western flank, avoiding contact with VP elements until support was in place. Vincent and Visili would move up the center, and take firing positions upon visual contact with VP sentries. Tex would move along the eastern flank with his plasma weapon, supported by myself and the squad's stubber. Tex's earlier leg wound had been problematic given his specialist role in the Rifles, but the power of his plasma gun was too important to the mission to leave him at HQ.
With a plan of action established, I ordered the squad to move out. Despite the urgency of our action, Benedictus and Urbanus insisted upon undertaking ritual combat prayer before moving into position. All elements signaled readiness at approximately 1940 hrs. and I gave the order to execute maneuvers.
There was no resistance for several dozen meters. All squad elements and allies advanced across the field, with the NMI operatives moving at the very front of the spearhead, followed by Lazarus and Laertes. Vincent and Visili reported visual contact with two VP sentries, identified as Replay and Rude Boy. Visili further reported having secured two firepoints atop an abandoned hab-structure, several meters apart. I moved up into a derelict freight-elevator tower, having ordered Tex to close on the objective at ground level.
As I moved to the third floor to establish fire support, Benedictus broke from the established plan of action and opened fire with a bolt pistol. Despite his lack of discipline, the NMI operative was able to incapacitate Replay. However, Rude Boy activated an alarm klaxon and two VP reinforcements identified as Grease Job and Tom Tom arrived from the northwest. Benedictus was wounded by fire from Tom Tom. Urbanus took cover as Grease Job fired, then dispatched Tom Tom in melee combat with surprising efficiency and finesse before moving to engage Grease Job.
I opened fire on Rude Boy but failed to wound him, as he attempted to find cover. Laertes similarly failed to wound the target despite emptying his weapon's magazine, but Lazarus lightly wounded the sentry and forced him to take cover. Visili fired on the Delaque position, and finally took Rude Boy down.
Further VP reinforcements arrived, identified as Prince and Little Caesar. Both moved past the melee combat to support their wounded comrades. Little Caesar fired at Lazarus, forcing him into cover. Prince eliminated NMI operative Benedictus with blows from a shotgun, and stepped out to fire on the pinned Lazarus. I opened fire with the stubber and took Prince out before he could take a shot, although my stubber's ejection port became jammed by a fouled casing. Vincent and Visili provided covering fire for Lazarus, forcing Little Caesar back. Urbanus easily subdued Grease Job and moved to engage Little Caesar. The Cawdor operative's melee skills allowed him to quickly eliminate yet another of the VP, leaving the field clear for our raiding party to close on the wounded Replay and the objective he had been guarding.
Despite his assurances to the contrary, Tex's lingering wounds had slowed his advance significantly. He was still unable to make visual contact with the objective and as our squad waited for him to close on the objective, one final reinforcing element of the VP arrived. KFC moved into the combat zone, but operative Urbanus reported that the Delaque commander seemed dazed (several reports of varying reliability have been made that KFC has suffered a head wound of some sort, leaving him prone to violent behavior or inhibited mental capacity) and shortly thereafter, KFC stopped in place, making no attempt to defend himself or open fire.
Urbanus engaged KFC in melee combat, but only barely managed to take down the Delaque leader. The Cawdor operative reported that despite his lack of initiative, KFC's reflexive defenses were still unhindered. After KFC was subdued, Urbanus rendered Little Caesar unconscious. At this point, 2008 hrs., all hostile elements in the VP territory had been neutralized, and Tex proceeded to destroy the objective with plasma gun fire. Squad casualties were zero, save for the wounded NMI operative Benedictus.
Operative Urbanus was debriefed following the action and his comments have been added to the preceding report. As I linked back up with the NMI man, I was surprised to see that he had not only carried his unconscious leader to safety, but had also captured one of the VP fighters. Benedictus recovered sufficiently to walk (although he seemed to be suffering from psychological shock), and the two Cawdor agents withdrew from the field, Urbanus hauling the wounded Delaque back to their territory.
Addendum: Due to their devastating wounds in the raid, the Voodoo Posse have apparently reported our actions to the Guild Watchmen. However, during the course of their investigations, the Watchmen have deputized the Rifles, perhaps as thanks for disrupting the VP gambling operations, thereby removing direct competition for settler credits. It is difficult to say what affect this may have on our standing in Subsector 19.
11 January 2009
++ S19 - Dark Bluff's Last Stand ++
"Scoop" Yurik, freelance News-agent
As we neared Dark Bluff, the bone-chilling moans of plague victims could be heard for dozens of meters beyond the outskirts of town, thanks in large part to the intensely blustery winds blowing against us as we traveled. With Liam and Cillian on point, our party moved quickly to the hastily-built wall surrounding the town's few buildings and entered through a narrow gap just above shoulder level. Once inside, each of us had weapons drawn and ready as we crept through the empty side streets, but there was simply no movement anywhere.
Only the moans of carriers and the howling wind were heard as we scaled ladders to the top of a pipeline-turned-general store. Here Liam spotted figures entering Central Street from both ends - five members of the 7th Ash Waste Rifles at the south, and five crusaders of Nex Manus Imperator at the north. These new arrivals were quickly noticed by the horde, as dozens of hungry moans filled the air. However, much to this reporter's surprise, a handful of figures called out from atop other buildings and old equipment.
From the rooftop, our guides pointed out what appeared to be several mercenaries stranded in the dead town: A bounty hunter with a towering black and white coif, standing atop a two-story building on the west edge of town; a Ratskin waving his rifle on an outcropping of concrete (barely a half-dozen meters from our position); a stoic figure with a long-las and bush hat at the south end of the street; and a gas-masked man in Guard fatigues with a slung hell-gun, standing atop several storage tanks, just barley beyond the reach of the mindless zombies below him. Each called to their would-be rescuers, promising rewards in return for their survival. All had spent any ammunition long ago and they were all out of food and water.
Against all odds, it seemed as if the Rifles and NMI gangs had called for a truce. This reporter has been quite unable to determine what reasons were behind this alliance, nor how long it might last, but it is quite feasible that following their mutual losses to the Voodoo Posse and in the face of more than twenty plague zombies, each gang's leader had realized how beneficial such an agreement could be. Orion's and Benedictus's voiced echoed back and forth across the field, assuring each other of a cease-fire between their groups and a focus on eliminating the undead. Despite their truce, the task set before them would not be easy.
The battle began with the rapid birth and death of a miniature star; a full-powered plasma blast issuing forth from Orion's pistol and harmlessly melting a patch of dirt and rock into a glassy sheet on the ground, the Van Saar's aim spoiled by a nasty gust of wind. The remainder of the Rifles spread out, watching carefully for targets.
To the North, NMI's kill-team began shouting prayers of purity and cleansing, and took aim at their undead adversaries. Callixtus's flamer rasped and belched as a spear of burning fuel engulfed two zombies, sending one tumbling to the ground on fire; the other black and smoldering but largely unharmed. Benedictus sent a bolt round rocketing towards the scorched survivor, the mass-reactive round punching a huge hole in the carrier's ribcage but failing to bring it down. Nearby, Urbanus's autopistol stuttered as another plague victim was riddled with rounds, but this creature was just as resilient at the last, groaning in protest but shuffling on unhindered. Caius and Adrian both leveled their shotguns at the carrier and two manstopper rounds tore huge chunks of flesh and bone from the decomposing frame, calling out in frustration as they too failed to re-kill the abomination.
With a chilling growl, the scorched zombie reached out to grab Benedictus, who quickly pulled his knife from its scabbard. The Cawdor leader jabbed the glinting blade into the zombie's torso, punching through the rotting ribs and forcing it backwards. Benedictus's bolt pistol roared as a round exploded the carrier's head. After pulling his knife free from the corpse, the Cawdor leader leveled his pistol and purged the flamed zombie from the hive with a shouted prayer punctuated by bolter fire.
Urbanus found himself in a similar situation as the carrier he had targeted lurched forward, arms outstretched and teeth snapping. Despite his disbelief at the creature's resilience, Urbanus reached out to grab the zombie by the throat, and stuck the barrel of his pistol directly between it's dead eyes. A quick burst of fire obliterated the slack face, and Urbanus cast the body to the floor as he would any other refuse.
At the South end, Vasili swiftly climbed a ladder to a platform, aimed and fired his lasgun at an undead target. The shot passed cleanly through the torso, punching a cauterized hole in the shoulder without taking the zombie down. Heavy Zeke brought out his autogun and loosed a quick burst at another carrier, but missed altogether as a gust of wind spoiled his aim. Suddenly another plasma blast lit the streets like day-lamps. Tex, standing atop a tower platform over the street, had managed to incinerate a carrier's leg with a large plasma gun (perhaps a reward for his bravery in The Breach), and the now-lopsided figure toppled helplessly over the edge of the catwalk.
Hearing the curses of his men at their failed shooting, Orion quickly drew his chainsword and brought it roaring to life, yelling for Lazarus to support his charge. The two Van Saars rushed the decaying creature that Orion had earlier targeted but as we watched from our perch, Orion's powerful swing brought him off balance. The Zombie grabbed hold of Orion's shoulders, and bent its neck to feed. Lazarus pulled the creature's head back quickly, and shot it through the neck, crippling it instantly. The creature dropped, but as it did, it's claw-like fingers and broken teeth scraped Orion's face, drawing blood. The Van Saar leader began to move, but began to sway on his feet and soon slumped to the ground, the plague affecting his body with surprising speed.
The NMI continued to advance, with Caius and Adrian moving to flank a zombie near the base of a hab-unit. The creature had not spotted them yet, and so the gangers both aimed and fired manstopper rounds at the unwitting undead. Neither man accomplished anything, save announcing their presence to the zombie, and both swore colorfully, cursing the wind and their weapons. Benedictus managed to hit his target, but as before, the bolt shell only removed a large crater's worth of the carrier's dead flesh without ending it's existence. Urbanus stood braced against the wind, and during a lull in the gusts, managed to blast a zombie off its feet with a burst to the torso. The creature still squirmed, growling, on the ground, but it would be simple work to finish it off.
Meanwhile down the street, Vasili shot the knees out of the zombie on the catwalk, and it plummeted over the edge and tackled another walking corpse to the ground. Both of them flailed in confusion, still "alive" but not a threat for the moment. Nearby, Zeke slung his auto, seemingly frustrated at it's light weight in the wind as he brought his heavy stub gun to bear. The huge gun shuddered as the Rifles heavy fired a long burst at his target, but in spite of the improved stability and rate of fire the zombie was not hit even once. Not once in the span of a long career has this reporter heard quite so complex a string of profanity, dear readers. Orion staggered to his feet, grimacing in pain, and growled an order to Lazarus. The ganger fired his bolt pistol at an advancing corpse, and as expected, opened up a horrific wound which did not stop his target.
Father Benedictus dashed forward, revved his chainsword and with a brutal thrust, severed the head of the zombie laying at his feet. Wary of this group's resilience thus far, the Cawdor aimed his bolt pistol and shot the head between the eyes for good measure. At the hab-unit, Adrian loaded a new shell into his shotgun and blasted the zombie with a load of scatter-shot. The scatter-shot shredded the flesh of the carrier's legs but once again failed to bring it down. Caius loaded a scatter-shell as well, and unloaded the pellets into the chest and neck of the zombie, knocking it back and blasting away one of its shoulder blades, but still the thing lived, stumbling toward Caius with one arm hanging limp. Urbanus, in a desperate attempt to defend his brethren, fired his autopistol, hitting the carrier with several shots, to no avail. NMI heavy Callixtus had switched to his shotgun and blasted off a manstopper round. The heavy slug streaked by the zombie and tore a rather large hole in the hab wall.
The zombie finally reached Caius, dead fingers taking hold of the ganger's red cloak. Caius struggled to reach his knife, but before he could pull it from its sheath, the zombie had bitten his arm and ripped open a deep wound. The shotgun clattered to the ground as Caius tried to shove the carrier away, but the jaws closed again, this time at Caius's throat. Blood soaked the crimson robes, and the NMI ganger fell to the floor, dead. His limbs began to twitch as the zombie turned its attention to Adrian.
Orion's earlier wound seemed to be little hindrance as he took up his chainsword and charged towards another carrier. The growling blade swept up and across, sweeping through a reaching arm and continuing across the scalp of the targeted zombie. The plague victim fell in a heap, and Orion shouted an order to secure the area. Vasili reached the stranded sniper, who appeared to have suffered a badly wrenched ankle, and required assistance to walk. Vasili took aim and shot an approaching carrier as it stepped around from behind the tower, toppling it to the floor, before helping the sniper to his feet. With a snarl of frustration, Zeke leveled his stubber and opened fire once more. This time the volley found its mark and the zombie fell with a cavernous wound in its forehead. Tex fired his new plasma rifle, but the searing full-power blast only succeeded in burning the arm off another advancing zombie.
As the corpse that had killed Caius reached Adrian, the ganger snarled a foul curse and attempted to bash in its head with the butt of his autogun. The corpse's cold hands caught the weapon and held it fast, and a lethal tug-of-war began. Meanwhile, Callixtus holstered his shotgun and climbed to the roof of a nearby building. At the top he advanced with flamer in hand, ready to cleanse any plague zombie that appeared. Meanwhile, Caius had begun to stir and as he clambered to his feet, a deluge of flame engulfed him and the carrier grappling with Adrian. Urbanus's risky shot paid off, as the zombified Caius fell back to the floor and Adrian's opponent staggered back only to catch a skull-crushing blow from the ganger's autogun. Attempting to grant peace to his former crusader, Benedictus fired a bolt round at the former Brother Caius, but the shot was hastily aimed and bounced away into the shadows of an alley.
As yet more carrier closed on the Van Saar kill-team, Vasili slung his lasgun and hustled his wounded charge towards the relative safety of the Southern entrance to Dark Bluff. Like blockers in a game of tackle-ball, Orion and Lazarus met two approaching zombies head-on, screening their comrade. Zeke's autogun fired again, and another zombie fell to the ground where it crazily twitched about in the dirt. Lazarus blasted his opponent at point-blank range, but the bolt shells failed to activate properly; instead of exploding within the carrier, they punched clean through and blew holes in the door of a ratburger stand across the street. Orion's skill with a chainsword proved effective once again, and with another carefull-aimed blow, the head of his undead counterpart was cut free and rolled to a stop at the foot of a refuse bin.
As the reanimated corpse of Caius attempted to regain its footing again, Adrian reached down, pulling back the ganger's smoldering hood, and stabbed his former brother through the eye socket. Caius stopped moving and crumpled lifeless to the ground, his torment ended. Finally, Benedictus was able to reach the Ratskin atop the makeshift watch tower; the tracker was unhurt, and clambered down the ladder. As he reached the ground, a carrier lurched forward from behind the edge of a air-processor unit, and Callixtus's flamer rasped. The sheeting flames engulfed the carrier, and it stumbled around for a few seconds before collpasing. It did not move again.
With that, more than half of the zombies had been eliminated or at the very least rendered immobile by their wounds. Both kill teams quickly departed the street, securing heavy barricade doors behind them. Only Father Benedictus paused, taking a moment to offer a prayer for Caius's soul before using his compact hand flamer to immolate the body.Then the streets were quiet, save for the moans of the remaining carriers. Liam, Cillian, and Ugly Sean methodically fired at any visible zombies, either killing them or crippling legs or feet to prevent their escape, then we too departed the field, seeking the survivors of the undead siege of Dark Bluff.
-Yurik out.
As we neared Dark Bluff, the bone-chilling moans of plague victims could be heard for dozens of meters beyond the outskirts of town, thanks in large part to the intensely blustery winds blowing against us as we traveled. With Liam and Cillian on point, our party moved quickly to the hastily-built wall surrounding the town's few buildings and entered through a narrow gap just above shoulder level. Once inside, each of us had weapons drawn and ready as we crept through the empty side streets, but there was simply no movement anywhere.
Only the moans of carriers and the howling wind were heard as we scaled ladders to the top of a pipeline-turned-general store. Here Liam spotted figures entering Central Street from both ends - five members of the 7th Ash Waste Rifles at the south, and five crusaders of Nex Manus Imperator at the north. These new arrivals were quickly noticed by the horde, as dozens of hungry moans filled the air. However, much to this reporter's surprise, a handful of figures called out from atop other buildings and old equipment.
From the rooftop, our guides pointed out what appeared to be several mercenaries stranded in the dead town: A bounty hunter with a towering black and white coif, standing atop a two-story building on the west edge of town; a Ratskin waving his rifle on an outcropping of concrete (barely a half-dozen meters from our position); a stoic figure with a long-las and bush hat at the south end of the street; and a gas-masked man in Guard fatigues with a slung hell-gun, standing atop several storage tanks, just barley beyond the reach of the mindless zombies below him. Each called to their would-be rescuers, promising rewards in return for their survival. All had spent any ammunition long ago and they were all out of food and water.
Against all odds, it seemed as if the Rifles and NMI gangs had called for a truce. This reporter has been quite unable to determine what reasons were behind this alliance, nor how long it might last, but it is quite feasible that following their mutual losses to the Voodoo Posse and in the face of more than twenty plague zombies, each gang's leader had realized how beneficial such an agreement could be. Orion's and Benedictus's voiced echoed back and forth across the field, assuring each other of a cease-fire between their groups and a focus on eliminating the undead. Despite their truce, the task set before them would not be easy.
The battle began with the rapid birth and death of a miniature star; a full-powered plasma blast issuing forth from Orion's pistol and harmlessly melting a patch of dirt and rock into a glassy sheet on the ground, the Van Saar's aim spoiled by a nasty gust of wind. The remainder of the Rifles spread out, watching carefully for targets.
To the North, NMI's kill-team began shouting prayers of purity and cleansing, and took aim at their undead adversaries. Callixtus's flamer rasped and belched as a spear of burning fuel engulfed two zombies, sending one tumbling to the ground on fire; the other black and smoldering but largely unharmed. Benedictus sent a bolt round rocketing towards the scorched survivor, the mass-reactive round punching a huge hole in the carrier's ribcage but failing to bring it down. Nearby, Urbanus's autopistol stuttered as another plague victim was riddled with rounds, but this creature was just as resilient at the last, groaning in protest but shuffling on unhindered. Caius and Adrian both leveled their shotguns at the carrier and two manstopper rounds tore huge chunks of flesh and bone from the decomposing frame, calling out in frustration as they too failed to re-kill the abomination.
With a chilling growl, the scorched zombie reached out to grab Benedictus, who quickly pulled his knife from its scabbard. The Cawdor leader jabbed the glinting blade into the zombie's torso, punching through the rotting ribs and forcing it backwards. Benedictus's bolt pistol roared as a round exploded the carrier's head. After pulling his knife free from the corpse, the Cawdor leader leveled his pistol and purged the flamed zombie from the hive with a shouted prayer punctuated by bolter fire.
Urbanus found himself in a similar situation as the carrier he had targeted lurched forward, arms outstretched and teeth snapping. Despite his disbelief at the creature's resilience, Urbanus reached out to grab the zombie by the throat, and stuck the barrel of his pistol directly between it's dead eyes. A quick burst of fire obliterated the slack face, and Urbanus cast the body to the floor as he would any other refuse.
At the South end, Vasili swiftly climbed a ladder to a platform, aimed and fired his lasgun at an undead target. The shot passed cleanly through the torso, punching a cauterized hole in the shoulder without taking the zombie down. Heavy Zeke brought out his autogun and loosed a quick burst at another carrier, but missed altogether as a gust of wind spoiled his aim. Suddenly another plasma blast lit the streets like day-lamps. Tex, standing atop a tower platform over the street, had managed to incinerate a carrier's leg with a large plasma gun (perhaps a reward for his bravery in The Breach), and the now-lopsided figure toppled helplessly over the edge of the catwalk.
Hearing the curses of his men at their failed shooting, Orion quickly drew his chainsword and brought it roaring to life, yelling for Lazarus to support his charge. The two Van Saars rushed the decaying creature that Orion had earlier targeted but as we watched from our perch, Orion's powerful swing brought him off balance. The Zombie grabbed hold of Orion's shoulders, and bent its neck to feed. Lazarus pulled the creature's head back quickly, and shot it through the neck, crippling it instantly. The creature dropped, but as it did, it's claw-like fingers and broken teeth scraped Orion's face, drawing blood. The Van Saar leader began to move, but began to sway on his feet and soon slumped to the ground, the plague affecting his body with surprising speed.
The NMI continued to advance, with Caius and Adrian moving to flank a zombie near the base of a hab-unit. The creature had not spotted them yet, and so the gangers both aimed and fired manstopper rounds at the unwitting undead. Neither man accomplished anything, save announcing their presence to the zombie, and both swore colorfully, cursing the wind and their weapons. Benedictus managed to hit his target, but as before, the bolt shell only removed a large crater's worth of the carrier's dead flesh without ending it's existence. Urbanus stood braced against the wind, and during a lull in the gusts, managed to blast a zombie off its feet with a burst to the torso. The creature still squirmed, growling, on the ground, but it would be simple work to finish it off.
Meanwhile down the street, Vasili shot the knees out of the zombie on the catwalk, and it plummeted over the edge and tackled another walking corpse to the ground. Both of them flailed in confusion, still "alive" but not a threat for the moment. Nearby, Zeke slung his auto, seemingly frustrated at it's light weight in the wind as he brought his heavy stub gun to bear. The huge gun shuddered as the Rifles heavy fired a long burst at his target, but in spite of the improved stability and rate of fire the zombie was not hit even once. Not once in the span of a long career has this reporter heard quite so complex a string of profanity, dear readers. Orion staggered to his feet, grimacing in pain, and growled an order to Lazarus. The ganger fired his bolt pistol at an advancing corpse, and as expected, opened up a horrific wound which did not stop his target.
Father Benedictus dashed forward, revved his chainsword and with a brutal thrust, severed the head of the zombie laying at his feet. Wary of this group's resilience thus far, the Cawdor aimed his bolt pistol and shot the head between the eyes for good measure. At the hab-unit, Adrian loaded a new shell into his shotgun and blasted the zombie with a load of scatter-shot. The scatter-shot shredded the flesh of the carrier's legs but once again failed to bring it down. Caius loaded a scatter-shell as well, and unloaded the pellets into the chest and neck of the zombie, knocking it back and blasting away one of its shoulder blades, but still the thing lived, stumbling toward Caius with one arm hanging limp. Urbanus, in a desperate attempt to defend his brethren, fired his autopistol, hitting the carrier with several shots, to no avail. NMI heavy Callixtus had switched to his shotgun and blasted off a manstopper round. The heavy slug streaked by the zombie and tore a rather large hole in the hab wall.
The zombie finally reached Caius, dead fingers taking hold of the ganger's red cloak. Caius struggled to reach his knife, but before he could pull it from its sheath, the zombie had bitten his arm and ripped open a deep wound. The shotgun clattered to the ground as Caius tried to shove the carrier away, but the jaws closed again, this time at Caius's throat. Blood soaked the crimson robes, and the NMI ganger fell to the floor, dead. His limbs began to twitch as the zombie turned its attention to Adrian.
Orion's earlier wound seemed to be little hindrance as he took up his chainsword and charged towards another carrier. The growling blade swept up and across, sweeping through a reaching arm and continuing across the scalp of the targeted zombie. The plague victim fell in a heap, and Orion shouted an order to secure the area. Vasili reached the stranded sniper, who appeared to have suffered a badly wrenched ankle, and required assistance to walk. Vasili took aim and shot an approaching carrier as it stepped around from behind the tower, toppling it to the floor, before helping the sniper to his feet. With a snarl of frustration, Zeke leveled his stubber and opened fire once more. This time the volley found its mark and the zombie fell with a cavernous wound in its forehead. Tex fired his new plasma rifle, but the searing full-power blast only succeeded in burning the arm off another advancing zombie.
As the corpse that had killed Caius reached Adrian, the ganger snarled a foul curse and attempted to bash in its head with the butt of his autogun. The corpse's cold hands caught the weapon and held it fast, and a lethal tug-of-war began. Meanwhile, Callixtus holstered his shotgun and climbed to the roof of a nearby building. At the top he advanced with flamer in hand, ready to cleanse any plague zombie that appeared. Meanwhile, Caius had begun to stir and as he clambered to his feet, a deluge of flame engulfed him and the carrier grappling with Adrian. Urbanus's risky shot paid off, as the zombified Caius fell back to the floor and Adrian's opponent staggered back only to catch a skull-crushing blow from the ganger's autogun. Attempting to grant peace to his former crusader, Benedictus fired a bolt round at the former Brother Caius, but the shot was hastily aimed and bounced away into the shadows of an alley.
As yet more carrier closed on the Van Saar kill-team, Vasili slung his lasgun and hustled his wounded charge towards the relative safety of the Southern entrance to Dark Bluff. Like blockers in a game of tackle-ball, Orion and Lazarus met two approaching zombies head-on, screening their comrade. Zeke's autogun fired again, and another zombie fell to the ground where it crazily twitched about in the dirt. Lazarus blasted his opponent at point-blank range, but the bolt shells failed to activate properly; instead of exploding within the carrier, they punched clean through and blew holes in the door of a ratburger stand across the street. Orion's skill with a chainsword proved effective once again, and with another carefull-aimed blow, the head of his undead counterpart was cut free and rolled to a stop at the foot of a refuse bin.
As the reanimated corpse of Caius attempted to regain its footing again, Adrian reached down, pulling back the ganger's smoldering hood, and stabbed his former brother through the eye socket. Caius stopped moving and crumpled lifeless to the ground, his torment ended. Finally, Benedictus was able to reach the Ratskin atop the makeshift watch tower; the tracker was unhurt, and clambered down the ladder. As he reached the ground, a carrier lurched forward from behind the edge of a air-processor unit, and Callixtus's flamer rasped. The sheeting flames engulfed the carrier, and it stumbled around for a few seconds before collpasing. It did not move again.
With that, more than half of the zombies had been eliminated or at the very least rendered immobile by their wounds. Both kill teams quickly departed the street, securing heavy barricade doors behind them. Only Father Benedictus paused, taking a moment to offer a prayer for Caius's soul before using his compact hand flamer to immolate the body.Then the streets were quiet, save for the moans of the remaining carriers. Liam, Cillian, and Ugly Sean methodically fired at any visible zombies, either killing them or crippling legs or feet to prevent their escape, then we too departed the field, seeking the survivors of the undead siege of Dark Bluff.
-Yurik out.
20 November 2008
++ S19 - Into The Breach (Part 2) ++
"Scoop" Yurik, freelance News-agent
The conclusion to the account of The Breach follows. -"Scoop"
Wasting no time, Get Right cycled the action on his autopistol and sighted on one of the large vermin below him. The juve loosed a quick burst at the rat, which would have proven quite messy, but the rodent dodged the shot with a burst of speed that seemed impossibly for such a massive animal. Unfortunately for the rat, its speed exceeded its sense of self-preservation, as the quick movement had carried it past the edge of the platform and into the abyss. The plaintive squeals of the rat were drowned out by guffaws from Get Right, who was nearly doubled over with laughter.
Still unhindered by any carriers,Tex
Get Right, determined to explore the air-filtration tower, took aim at the remaining Necromundan Rat, but his aim was off, and the creature defiantly hissed at the trenchcoated juve.
Pius's booted footsteps echoed loudly as the juve continued toward the remains of the central tower, but no targets presented themselves.
Similarly,Tex
Tired of trying to exterminate the final rat, Get Right wheeled about and slid down a nearby ladder, landing at the platform below. He spotted a catwalk as he turned, and jogged quickly along the metal plating only to be smashed to the ground by the rate he had chosen to leave alive. Again, the speed of the huge rats had taken the juve by surprise, but Get Right utterly failed to see the humor in this turn of events. The Delaque juve grabbed the rat by the throat as its snapping jaws flung bits of frothy saliva all around, and moved to draw his knife. For several tense seconds, the man and rodent strained for superiority, when suddenly a flash of sharpened steel signaled the end of the combat. The blade of Get Right's knife had punched up through the rat's maw and out the top of its head. Get Right pulled the knife free and with a grunt, rolled the corpse over the edge of the gantry. Thus freed of the mangy burden, Get Right got to his feet and happened to notice Pius as the NMI juve ran for the central tower platforms. The Delaque juve stealthily followed the crimson figure through the darkness, readying his pistol.
Meanwhile,Tex Tex
As the unwitting Pius made for an access ladder at the base of the central tower, Get Right took aim with his pistol and at nearly point-blank range fired a single shot aimed at the NMI juve's hooded head. Amazingly the shot missed Pius and ricocheted wildly off a rung on the ladder. Pius, surprisingly level-headed under such pressure, shoved the Delaque away from the tower's shaft and scrambled madly up the ladder, climbing up two stories to the top of the tower. As he reached the peak of the shaft, Pius was rewarded with what appeared to be a very solidly-built lockbox, featuring a Spyre crest of some sort.
Get Right had clearly not expected his shot to miss, and so was caught off guard by the Cawdor's defensive moves and sudden burst of speed, and so decided to wait at the very base of the ladder for his quarry to return. The juve could be seen reloading his pistol and unsheathing his knife, preparing to ambush Pius when he descended.
During the altercation at the base of the tower,Tex
The old seals on the storage box were entirely beyond the Cawdor's ability to breach, so Pius tucked the box under one arm and steeled himself for what he knew was to be a dangerous fight. Our group watched with bated breath as he slid down the ladder, attempting to break past Get Right with his prize. As he landed, Pius was surprised to see no sign of his opponent, and he began to run toward his scav-team.
Get Right suddenly and silently emerged from the shadows behind the ladder and in keeping with the Delaque ethos, clamped a hand over Pius's mouth, then expertly stabbed the Cawdor in the back. Get Right dropped the wounded man and sheathed the blade. He paused to retrieve the lockbox, and only after the package was secure did we observe the goggled juve firing three carefully aimed rounds to finish Pius off. With a flutter of coattails, the lockbox was gone and Pius lay dead on the decking.
In the meantime,Tex Tex
Bound by the rules of the parlay, the scav-teams of the 7th Ash Wastes Rifles and Nex Manus Imperator called out several times to their respective juves, and hearing no answer, were permitted (under close watch and at gunpoint) to locate their comrades and take them back to their hideouts, leaving the rest of the loot to the Voodoo Posse. The taunts and jeers of the Delaque gang echoed within the ancient walls of The Breach, only fading as our party emerged from the entry tunnel into the relatively bright lights of the surrounding clearing.
Once again, the cost had been high for Benedictus and his crusading brethren, and despite a strong showing, the Van Saar leader Orion was frustrated by yet another close loss to his rivals. Both gangs made their way back to what they called home, most likely cursing their foes and vowing revenge.
As I said before dear readers, the Underhive houses incredible wonder alongside terrible violence. By the end of this day-cycle, this reporter had begun to feel the strain of witnessing the seemingly endless clashes. I do not know how much more I wish to know about this place.
-Yurik out.
The conclusion to the account of The Breach follows. -"Scoop"
Wasting no time, Get Right cycled the action on his autopistol and sighted on one of the large vermin below him. The juve loosed a quick burst at the rat, which would have proven quite messy, but the rodent dodged the shot with a burst of speed that seemed impossibly for such a massive animal. Unfortunately for the rat, its speed exceeded its sense of self-preservation, as the quick movement had carried it past the edge of the platform and into the abyss. The plaintive squeals of the rat were drowned out by guffaws from Get Right, who was nearly doubled over with laughter.
Still unhindered by any carriers,
Get Right, determined to explore the air-filtration tower, took aim at the remaining Necromundan Rat, but his aim was off, and the creature defiantly hissed at the trenchcoated juve.
Pius's booted footsteps echoed loudly as the juve continued toward the remains of the central tower, but no targets presented themselves.
Similarly,
Tired of trying to exterminate the final rat, Get Right wheeled about and slid down a nearby ladder, landing at the platform below. He spotted a catwalk as he turned, and jogged quickly along the metal plating only to be smashed to the ground by the rate he had chosen to leave alive. Again, the speed of the huge rats had taken the juve by surprise, but Get Right utterly failed to see the humor in this turn of events. The Delaque juve grabbed the rat by the throat as its snapping jaws flung bits of frothy saliva all around, and moved to draw his knife. For several tense seconds, the man and rodent strained for superiority, when suddenly a flash of sharpened steel signaled the end of the combat. The blade of Get Right's knife had punched up through the rat's maw and out the top of its head. Get Right pulled the knife free and with a grunt, rolled the corpse over the edge of the gantry. Thus freed of the mangy burden, Get Right got to his feet and happened to notice Pius as the NMI juve ran for the central tower platforms. The Delaque juve stealthily followed the crimson figure through the darkness, readying his pistol.
Meanwhile,
As the unwitting Pius made for an access ladder at the base of the central tower, Get Right took aim with his pistol and at nearly point-blank range fired a single shot aimed at the NMI juve's hooded head. Amazingly the shot missed Pius and ricocheted wildly off a rung on the ladder. Pius, surprisingly level-headed under such pressure, shoved the Delaque away from the tower's shaft and scrambled madly up the ladder, climbing up two stories to the top of the tower. As he reached the peak of the shaft, Pius was rewarded with what appeared to be a very solidly-built lockbox, featuring a Spyre crest of some sort.
Get Right had clearly not expected his shot to miss, and so was caught off guard by the Cawdor's defensive moves and sudden burst of speed, and so decided to wait at the very base of the ladder for his quarry to return. The juve could be seen reloading his pistol and unsheathing his knife, preparing to ambush Pius when he descended.
During the altercation at the base of the tower,
The old seals on the storage box were entirely beyond the Cawdor's ability to breach, so Pius tucked the box under one arm and steeled himself for what he knew was to be a dangerous fight. Our group watched with bated breath as he slid down the ladder, attempting to break past Get Right with his prize. As he landed, Pius was surprised to see no sign of his opponent, and he began to run toward his scav-team.
Get Right suddenly and silently emerged from the shadows behind the ladder and in keeping with the Delaque ethos, clamped a hand over Pius's mouth, then expertly stabbed the Cawdor in the back. Get Right dropped the wounded man and sheathed the blade. He paused to retrieve the lockbox, and only after the package was secure did we observe the goggled juve firing three carefully aimed rounds to finish Pius off. With a flutter of coattails, the lockbox was gone and Pius lay dead on the decking.
In the meantime,
Bound by the rules of the parlay, the scav-teams of the 7th Ash Wastes Rifles and Nex Manus Imperator called out several times to their respective juves, and hearing no answer, were permitted (under close watch and at gunpoint) to locate their comrades and take them back to their hideouts, leaving the rest of the loot to the Voodoo Posse. The taunts and jeers of the Delaque gang echoed within the ancient walls of The Breach, only fading as our party emerged from the entry tunnel into the relatively bright lights of the surrounding clearing.
Once again, the cost had been high for Benedictus and his crusading brethren, and despite a strong showing, the Van Saar leader Orion was frustrated by yet another close loss to his rivals. Both gangs made their way back to what they called home, most likely cursing their foes and vowing revenge.
As I said before dear readers, the Underhive houses incredible wonder alongside terrible violence. By the end of this day-cycle, this reporter had begun to feel the strain of witnessing the seemingly endless clashes. I do not know how much more I wish to know about this place.
-Yurik out.
++ S19 - Into The Breach ++
"Scoop" Yurik, freelance News-agent
I humbly present my second part of the story of The Breach. -"Scoop"
The three days leading up to the return of the gangs' scav-teams passed without major incident. I say "major incident" as there was a particularly spirited (and inebriated) display of ignited flatulence that resulted in superficial burns to the posterior regions of juve Angus, but I digress.
It will suffice to say that before we knew it, Liam's keen eye had spotted the three parties on approach to the gates of The Breach. The groups clustered together at Parlay Crossing and quickly drew their lot to determine who had first choice among the four entry portals. The Voodoo Posse scav-team drew the fortunes of the first choice, and set out to the portal on the northwest quarter of the former hab dome. The second choice went to the 7th Ash Waste Rifles, who moved to the southwest door, and finally the Nex Manus Imperator gangers headed to the northeast entry. Such was our luck that the door nearest to our observation point, and camp, was the door passed over by each gang's scav-team!
The agreed-upon signal from each party was shown; a member from each team set alight a signal flare and allowed its smoke to drift above the dome, and then the teams disappeared into the yawning mouths of the portals. This reporter quickly gathered my pictographist along with Liam, Cillian, and Ugly Sean of the OI-FU, and we moved quickly from our camp to the unused southeast door of the hab dome.
Both my pictographist and I have procured a firearm during our travels (at the insistence of our bodyguard), and now we carried them in shoulder holsters as we entered The Breach. The unfamiliar weight of my Necromunda-pattern laspistol was admittedly welcome as the light quickly faded away and the sounds of creaking metal and scrambling feet echoed in the treacherous darkness. As we emerged into the dome, our progress was halted suddenly by Liam, on point at the front of our train. He whispered quickly for the group to move up and as we did, I was astonished to see just how this place had gotten its name.
The Breach was once a fairly typical hab-dome, as I mentioned, but one thing had set this place apart from so many thousands like it; the utility systems (power, water, air-handling) were all contained in heavily reinforced and shielded conduit housings roughly 4.5 meters in diameter with ceramite walls nearly 90 centimeters thick. It is not known exactly why such extensive structural reinforcement was provided to the utility systems, but it had obviously been done with great care of craftsmanship. These shielded system conduits still link the various towers and buildings within the dome below what had once been the ground floor, and remain there, suspending the structures in midair, over what appears to be a very long drop indeed. This "floating city" is apparently a unique occurrence in this sector at least, and indeed none of our escort from the OI-FU (emigrants from Sector N-UH-847) could recall a similar encounter
during their escapades.
However, our speculation and wonder was soon forgotten as the sound of shouts and stomping boots echoed through the still air of the darkened hab-dome. My pictographist's night-filter lenses were employed once more, and ultimately showed the flared tails of a trench coat, as Posse juve Get Right, via low-burning flare light, made his way quickly across a catwalk, unfazed by the immense depth of the drop below him. His sure-footed progress seemed unlikely until this reporter considered his heritage in House Delaque; his sensitive eyes must have been a boon in such ghastly darkness.
In the adjacent corner, Rifles juve Tex advanced at a noticeably slower pace, due partially to the darkness, but also the presence of two plague carriers, which lurched out of the shadows just at the edge of the circle of flickering flare-light. Thankfully for the young fighter, his more experienced team-mates quickly spotted the ambulatory corpses. An intensely bright ball of energy lit up the dome like a day-cycle as leader Orion took a full-power shot with his plasma pistol, but the blast went wide, slagging a length of handrail nearby. Orion's pistol vented steam as the older Van Saar cursed his poor luck, but this did not stop ganger Lazarus from taking aim at the carrier. The las-bolt zipped across the gap and impacted the carrier in the shoulder, spinning it like a child's top back and off the edge of the platform. The zombie disappeared instantly from view as it plunged to its doom. Forewarned by his team, young Tex raised his autopistol and opened fire on the remaining carrier. Several shots struck the zombie and carried it backwards off the ledge, trailing bits of flesh and thick threads of coagulated blood. Tex's victory cry was cut short as he realized he had entirely used up his ammunition whilst dispatching the creature, and the juve quietly holstered his useless firearm, drawing his knife in its place.
At the opposite end of The Breach, NMI juve Pius set out, running along a catwalk towards what was hoped to be the central tower of the former hab-dome. As the juve carried his home-made torch deeper into the dome, another carrier was revealed by the light. Ganger Urbanus quickly took aim and fired off a burst from his autopistol, missing the zombie completely, earning only a seemingly-irritated moan from the undead abomination.
Posse heavy Replay suddenly opened fire with his massive stubber with an uncharacteristic yelp of surprise: a movement in the shadows had spooked the normally stoic man. Much to Replay's embarrassment (and to the great amusement of both the Rifles's and the NMI's teams), his long burst of fire yielded no kills of any sort, and the heavy could be overheard muttering about "...a fraggin' sticky trigger needs lookin' at."
After verifying the cease-fire from Replay, Get Right ran ahead once more, moving onto the upper platform of an air-filtration tower and spotting two massive rats on the story below. The rodents had caught the juve's scent and snuffled hungrily at the air as they turned toward the walking meal above.
Despite his desperate ammo situation, Rifles juve Tex found himself snickering at the panicked reflexes of the Posse team. As he advanced, text found himself utterly without opposition, and quickly made his way across a connecting platform and onto another dark catwalk, heading toward what appeared to be a stash of supplies in a crumbling hab-unit.
Determined to shame the other scav teams, Pius scrambled up a nearby ladder, glancing at the plague zombie staggering about on a nearby tower. Fortunately for the Cawdor juve, the creature was entirely too stupid to find a connecting walkway and was forced to merely moan hungrily as his intended quarry scampered past. Taking advantage of the zombie's distracted attentions, Urbanus opened fire and once again missed his target with a growling curse. Encouraging his fellow crusader to remain faithful, ganger Vigilius raised his trusty autogun and snapped off two quick bursts at the undead creature. Nearly all the rounds punched into the zombie's chest and neck, bursting out its back and tumbling the creature to the floor with a wheezing gurgle. The walking corpse was dead once again.
Due to the complicated nature of this particular battle, I will present the third and final part of this account in a separate report. Thanks for your patience, dear readers.
-Yurik out.
I humbly present my second part of the story of The Breach. -"Scoop"
The three days leading up to the return of the gangs' scav-teams passed without major incident. I say "major incident" as there was a particularly spirited (and inebriated) display of ignited flatulence that resulted in superficial burns to the posterior regions of juve Angus, but I digress.
It will suffice to say that before we knew it, Liam's keen eye had spotted the three parties on approach to the gates of The Breach. The groups clustered together at Parlay Crossing and quickly drew their lot to determine who had first choice among the four entry portals. The Voodoo Posse scav-team drew the fortunes of the first choice, and set out to the portal on the northwest quarter of the former hab dome. The second choice went to the 7th Ash Waste Rifles, who moved to the southwest door, and finally the Nex Manus Imperator gangers headed to the northeast entry. Such was our luck that the door nearest to our observation point, and camp, was the door passed over by each gang's scav-team!
The agreed-upon signal from each party was shown; a member from each team set alight a signal flare and allowed its smoke to drift above the dome, and then the teams disappeared into the yawning mouths of the portals. This reporter quickly gathered my pictographist along with Liam, Cillian, and Ugly Sean of the OI-FU, and we moved quickly from our camp to the unused southeast door of the hab dome.
Both my pictographist and I have procured a firearm during our travels (at the insistence of our bodyguard), and now we carried them in shoulder holsters as we entered The Breach. The unfamiliar weight of my Necromunda-pattern laspistol was admittedly welcome as the light quickly faded away and the sounds of creaking metal and scrambling feet echoed in the treacherous darkness. As we emerged into the dome, our progress was halted suddenly by Liam, on point at the front of our train. He whispered quickly for the group to move up and as we did, I was astonished to see just how this place had gotten its name.
The Breach was once a fairly typical hab-dome, as I mentioned, but one thing had set this place apart from so many thousands like it; the utility systems (power, water, air-handling) were all contained in heavily reinforced and shielded conduit housings roughly 4.5 meters in diameter with ceramite walls nearly 90 centimeters thick. It is not known exactly why such extensive structural reinforcement was provided to the utility systems, but it had obviously been done with great care of craftsmanship. These shielded system conduits still link the various towers and buildings within the dome below what had once been the ground floor, and remain there, suspending the structures in midair, over what appears to be a very long drop indeed. This "floating city" is apparently a unique occurrence in this sector at least, and indeed none of our escort from the OI-FU (emigrants from Sector N-UH-847) could recall a similar encounter
during their escapades.
However, our speculation and wonder was soon forgotten as the sound of shouts and stomping boots echoed through the still air of the darkened hab-dome. My pictographist's night-filter lenses were employed once more, and ultimately showed the flared tails of a trench coat, as Posse juve Get Right, via low-burning flare light, made his way quickly across a catwalk, unfazed by the immense depth of the drop below him. His sure-footed progress seemed unlikely until this reporter considered his heritage in House Delaque; his sensitive eyes must have been a boon in such ghastly darkness.
In the adjacent corner, Rifles juve Tex advanced at a noticeably slower pace, due partially to the darkness, but also the presence of two plague carriers, which lurched out of the shadows just at the edge of the circle of flickering flare-light. Thankfully for the young fighter, his more experienced team-mates quickly spotted the ambulatory corpses. An intensely bright ball of energy lit up the dome like a day-cycle as leader Orion took a full-power shot with his plasma pistol, but the blast went wide, slagging a length of handrail nearby. Orion's pistol vented steam as the older Van Saar cursed his poor luck, but this did not stop ganger Lazarus from taking aim at the carrier. The las-bolt zipped across the gap and impacted the carrier in the shoulder, spinning it like a child's top back and off the edge of the platform. The zombie disappeared instantly from view as it plunged to its doom. Forewarned by his team, young Tex raised his autopistol and opened fire on the remaining carrier. Several shots struck the zombie and carried it backwards off the ledge, trailing bits of flesh and thick threads of coagulated blood. Tex's victory cry was cut short as he realized he had entirely used up his ammunition whilst dispatching the creature, and the juve quietly holstered his useless firearm, drawing his knife in its place.
At the opposite end of The Breach, NMI juve Pius set out, running along a catwalk towards what was hoped to be the central tower of the former hab-dome. As the juve carried his home-made torch deeper into the dome, another carrier was revealed by the light. Ganger Urbanus quickly took aim and fired off a burst from his autopistol, missing the zombie completely, earning only a seemingly-irritated moan from the undead abomination.
Posse heavy Replay suddenly opened fire with his massive stubber with an uncharacteristic yelp of surprise: a movement in the shadows had spooked the normally stoic man. Much to Replay's embarrassment (and to the great amusement of both the Rifles's and the NMI's teams), his long burst of fire yielded no kills of any sort, and the heavy could be overheard muttering about "...a fraggin' sticky trigger needs lookin' at."
After verifying the cease-fire from Replay, Get Right ran ahead once more, moving onto the upper platform of an air-filtration tower and spotting two massive rats on the story below. The rodents had caught the juve's scent and snuffled hungrily at the air as they turned toward the walking meal above.
Despite his desperate ammo situation, Rifles juve Tex found himself snickering at the panicked reflexes of the Posse team. As he advanced, text found himself utterly without opposition, and quickly made his way across a connecting platform and onto another dark catwalk, heading toward what appeared to be a stash of supplies in a crumbling hab-unit.
Determined to shame the other scav teams, Pius scrambled up a nearby ladder, glancing at the plague zombie staggering about on a nearby tower. Fortunately for the Cawdor juve, the creature was entirely too stupid to find a connecting walkway and was forced to merely moan hungrily as his intended quarry scampered past. Taking advantage of the zombie's distracted attentions, Urbanus opened fire and once again missed his target with a growling curse. Encouraging his fellow crusader to remain faithful, ganger Vigilius raised his trusty autogun and snapped off two quick bursts at the undead creature. Nearly all the rounds punched into the zombie's chest and neck, bursting out its back and tumbling the creature to the floor with a wheezing gurgle. The walking corpse was dead once again.
Due to the complicated nature of this particular battle, I will present the third and final part of this account in a separate report. Thanks for your patience, dear readers.
-Yurik out.
21 October 2008
++ S19 - New Conflict ++
"Scoop" Yurik, Freelance News-agent
Please note, dear readers, that our pict-link is experiencing interference. We will supply picts when possible. - "Scoop"
As we trudged along a catwalk several meters above the grasping hands of several carriers, we were surprised to find the air becoming dark with small flakes of sooty ash. A quick glance towards the dome roof revealed an old forge-waste duct that had long ago ruptured in catastrophic fashion. The hole in this waste duct now deposited forge-waste directly into an air supply, distributing a thick layer of gray-black ash across the floor of the dome and further impeding the clumsy pursuit of the carriers. Fortunately the path ahead of our caravan had been kept clear thanks to the stronger air currents through the various gantries and structures.
Suddenly my pictographist, who had been snapping picts of the phenomenon, called out that he had seen movement far below in the drifting ash. Almost as one, our group dropped to the deck and I edged forward, spying the distinctive violet fatigues of the 7th Ash Waste Rifles gang. Seamus nudged my shoulder and pointed out another group, clad in long white coats, struggling through the waist-deep soot - KFC's Voodoo Posse.
Lending credence to the rumors of their past as ash wastes reconnaissance soldiers, the Rifles seemed less affected by the ash. Several members managed to find a way through the black drifts and onto the cleared platforms above the floor. This attracted the attention of nine carriers that had followed us to the dome, and they moaned hungrily as they traipsed towards the bright purple figures.
The distinctive sound of bolt weapons ripped through the air as Rifles members Laertes and Lazarus attempted to remove a carrier from their path. Perhaps unnerved by the sight of the shambling creature, Lazarus' aim was off, and the bolt round scythed through the ash and blew up a plume of black dust. Laertes carefully braced his arms in a firing stance and his pistol bucked in his grip. Heedless of the smoking ruin that had been its ribcage, the corpse continued to advance with a disturbing groan of hunger. Spotting another shuffling form in the midst of a black drift, Rifles heavy Zeke unslung his autogun from his back, preferring mobility to firepower as he made his way through the shifting ash and scrambled up a ladder to the platform above. Shots rang out and the carrier's moan cut off midway, the diseased form dropping in a cloud of swirling black.
Several meters across the dome, KFC's Voodoo Posse struggled to make headway against the thick layer of soot, the pockets and pouches of their long coats filling with ash and greatly hindering their progress. Despite their handicap, Posse gangers Bad Mojo and Prince both managed a shot at a pair of carriers, but to no avail. Their shots ricocheted harmlessly away into the ash and their intended targets lurched forward.
Suddenly a bright burst of blue-white fire lit the dome's ceiling and the stink of ozone was heavy in the air, as Orion, the leader of the Rifles, let fly with a fully-charged shot from his plasma pistol. The shot ripped savagely across the torso of a nearby carrier, tumbling the foul creature into the dust with its left arm missing below the shoulder. Seeing this, Laertes attempted once again to put down his target, this time deciding that quantity superseded quality when it came to the undead. This time the carrier fell, and despite the distance between us, this reporter could clearly hear the CLICK of a dry chamber. Laertes was out of ammo and now had only his blade to defend himself from the teeth of the relentless carriers. Nearby, Zeke swapped his autogun for his trusty stubber as he spotted the flash of a Posse member's bright coat near a tower. The Rifles heavy let fly with an impressive burst of fire, forcing the Delaque to scramble for cover, but suddenly the barrage was cut short with an extensive outpouring of profanity from Zeke - it would seem some inner mechanism of the weapon had failed, rendering it useless for at least this fight.
Burning promethium flared near the base of a refinery tower - a sign of KFC's entry into the fracas. The spear of flame reached up to a catwalk, engulfing a carrier plodding towards several Posse members. The uniform of a former Necromundan PDF sergeant caught alight, but the carrier showed no sign that it was aware of the flames, as it continued relentlessly across the catwalk. Fortunately for the Voodoo Posse, heavy Replay braced himself against the recoil and opened fire with his heavy stubber, messily punching the undead PDF man into several burning bits. Despite his ruthless domination of the ghoul, the heavy’s mood was sour – his heavy stubber had overheated during the long burst and fouled the action of the massive weapon.
In cover atop an adjacent tower, Visili, one of the Van Saar lasgunners neatly obliterated the knee of a plague carrier, toppling it comically onto its face. A path thus cleared, his fellow lasgunner Vincent sprinted out across a catwalk to scoop up a glittering hunk of metal. It seemed this was indeed another battle over forgotten archeotech, as multi-colored wires and myriad buttons could be seen protruding from the object as it was tucked into a pocket on the ganger's tunic. Meanwhile at the base of a distant filtration structure, juve
A brief instance of quiet settled over the field as the Delaque struggled through ash drifts towards the open ground of the gantries and catwalks overhead. A few of the goggled fighters had already made it to high ground, and now warily advanced across catwalks with eyes peeled for carriers or members of the Rifles amongst the rusting buildings and equipment. Taking advantage of the quiet, Rifles autogunner Judd seated his weapon against his shoulder - readying himself for a quick shot should any of the Delaques be foolish enough to cross his path. Similarly, Zeke cycled the action of his backup autogun and pushed his senses to their limit, waiting for the opportune moment to cut down an unsuspecting trench-coated figure.
The lull in combat did not last long, however; Orion once more unleashed a full charge from his pistol and cursed as the targeted zombie continued towards him, its dead nerves impervious to the otherwise searing pain of plasma burns in its flesh. Nearby,
Further from our position, another of the Voodoo Posse was in motion. Get Right ran across a gantry towards a pile of ancient knick-knacks and scraps of paper; the white square shapes brilliant amongst the small piles of ash. While he ran, his fellow gangers opened fire to cover the movement. Little Caesar took aim at Rifles member Judd, but the shot went wild, sparking harmlessly off the structure above the purple-clad man. Nearby, Bad Mojo fantastically lived up to his name by firing a blistering fusillade of shots, none of which found their way to the shambling plague carriers that were the intended targets. Fortunately for the Voodoo Posse, Grease Job's aim proved true and the cold body of one carrier slumped below the ash drifts with a series of large-caliber holes in its rotting frame.
Voodoo Posse leader KFC made a move out from the relative shelter of the tower, searching either for new targets or for the precious loot sought on both sides of the conflict. The fluttering of the leader's coat did not go unnoticed, however. Determined to make up for his previously poor marksmanship, Rifles heavy Zeke tucked the battered stock of his autogun into his shoulder and carefully loosed a tight burst of shots that connected solidly with KFC's arm and torso. With a defiant growl, the Delaque slumped to the ground, then rolled onto his back as the pain of his wounds overtook his consciousness.
From a raised vantage point not far from his comrade, Van Saar ganger Judas had carefully tracked the Voodoo Posse's shots, watching the muzzle flashes. His patience paid off with a clean shot at Little Caesar, which took the Delaque in the leg and flung him against a bulkhead. The trench-coated man shouted a curse at his assailant, but fell on his face as his wounded leg gave out. Taken completely by surprise as his fellow ganger was hit, Bad Mojo's unfortunate moniker came true once more; the second ganger's nerve fled and he bolted for cover. Less fortunate still for Bad Mojo, his hasty retreat was taken up by the rest of his gang. Flurries of soot marked the paths of the retiring Delaque gang. The field of battle and the victory belonged to the 7th Ash Wastes Rifles, along with perhaps a couple of plague zombies.
As we left the blackened field behind us, this reporter could not help but wonder what this new rivalry between the 7th AWR and KFC's Voodoo Posse might mean. Between this new battle and those fought against their common enemy of the Cawdor gang Nex Manus Imperator, perhaps new alliances might soon take shape. More likely, no such allegiances might take form and the spoils of Subsector 19 would only be claimed by the last gang standing.
29 September 2008
++ S19 - Death and Undeath ++
"Scoop" Yurik, Freelance News-Agent
Once again, I must apologize for my lengthy absence from the news-channels. The subsectors below Sump's Drift have been treacherous. We have made our way deep into the immediate vicinity of The Collapse, and our caravan have been forced to slow our pace due to a significant threat of plague carriers, unimaginable creatures, and the incredible instability of the structures that surround us.
Nevertheless, I humbly submit this reporter's account of the events of day-cycle 20080906.
+++ARCHIVAL ENTRY FOLLOWS+++
Our party's travels into the depths of Subsector 19 were once more punctuated by violence as the OI-FU led us into an exceptionally gloomy dome. As we started into the darkened ruins of the Underhive, we noticed that almost without exception the light-panels in the area had failed from what seemed to be an electrical fire of some sort. We had little time to discern the true cause of the light-system failure, however, because within moments of our arrival, ganger "Ugly" Sean emerged from the murky shadows with grim news. The scars on his face twitched as he spoke.
"Mínádúrtha. In the ruins ahead."
Although this reporter had seen no evidence of plague carriers in the area, the last weeks have served as an intensive education in the true nature of the Underhive, and our party quickly moved to high ground, picking our way across gantry and platform to avoid the majority of the carriers. Despite the rather arduous task of climbing and descending various ladders and stairs, the moans of the plague victims were enough to remind this reporter that it was all indeed worth the effort.
Finally locating a suitably defensible location atop a series of mechanical platforms, our group began to make camp. As portable shelters were opened and cooking coils lit, we heard shots ring out in the darkness.
Without pause, the carriers below us began to lurch into the deep shadows of the hive, heading for easier prey. As the threat of the mínádúrtha eased, this reporter made ready to seek out the nearby battle. In spite of the relative safety afforded us by the sudden absence of undead, my pictographist was exceptionally reluctant to leave camp; his sentiment was shared by the OI-FU. Indeed, Seamus expressed his incredulity at my proposal in words that are quite unfit to report here.
After a great deal of negotiation and a few harsh words from both sides, this reporter was able to convince not only my pictographist, but gangers Liam and Murphy and even stalwart juve Michael from the OI-FU to brave the dark and fulfill our role as journalists (and mercenary bodyguards) by reporting the events unfolding below the Drift.
Thankfully, we observed the strobing effect of multiple muzzle flash-patterns in the gloom, and moved quickly across the dome towards the light-show. Where we could not negotiate a high road, we hastened across rubble-strewn floors in what the OI-FU call the "roadie run" - essentially a crouching trot named after the sound technicians of synth-grind musical groups. The undertaking of this method of motion would be utterly ridiculous were it not so effective in avoiding incoming fire (or in this case the attentions of any lurking mínádúrtha). But I digress.
Liam led us to the base of a large refinery tower that had long ago suffered a cataclysmic explosion, and we clambered up after him to a steel deck nearly ten meters above the dome floor. From here we could easily follow the pict-bulb flashes of gunfire and the streaking sparks of richoceting solid-stub rounds back and forth across the battlegrounds.
Thanks to the light-sensitive night-cycle lenses provided by my pictographist was this reporter and able to determine that the Delaque leader King and his crew had once more found themselves in conflict with the notorious Nex Manus Imperator of House Cawdor. As we clambered up to a suitable observation post, we were greeted by the sharp report of a shotgun blast, fired from a bridge by one Caius of the NMI. The shot narrowly missed its target as it staggered through the dusky gloom of the hive. While the Cawdor ganger’s missed shot drew the attention of the undead in the area, sneaky Delaque fighters took the opportunity to advance quickly through the dark shadows of the ruins, holding fire until valid targets presented themselves in the piercing blackness.
The members of Nex Manus Imperator matched this advance, although their movements were joined with a great deal of devout battle cries and gunfire. Caius, seemingly unfazed by his previous miss, bellowed an oath of “Purgatus!” and let fly with a Man-stopper round, taking down his target in a spray of coagulated blood. Nearby, heavy Callixtus drew his batterd shotgun from its carrying straps on his pack, and blasted the legs out from beneath another of the carriers, howling a victory cry as the miserable creature flailed in confusion on the ground.
However, it would seem that these cries of celebration were premature, as a sudden scream of terror pierced the air. My pictographist panned his lens across the battlefield just in time to capture the last mortal moments of Cawdor ganger Conon as he was dragged to the ground by a carrier, its jaws locked on his neck. The cry of pain and fear was suddenly cut off in a gurgling rasp, and the red-robed ganger ceased his struggles. Once more the Voodoo Posse took advantage of their adversaries’ misfortunes; their gray coats could be spotted flitting between cover, across gantry and gravel alike. Their weapons stayed silent; only the occasional crunch of grit under running boots could be heard as they moved forward.
This graceful advance was further aided by Urbanus, his autopistol illuminating his cowled face along with the decaying features of yet another odorous carrier. The numerous auto-rounds ripped gaping wounds into the creature’s torso and dropped it to the ground as bones shattered beneath the fusillade. Before any other members of the Cawdor gang found other targets, Delaque weapons fired for the first time, a burst of fire from an autogun driving Caius into cover. A burst of heavy stubber fire from Posse heavy Replay found a target, but unfortunately for the Delaques, said target was not in fact a carrier, but Posse juve Sweet Tooth, who was shot several times before staggering in pain off of a platform edge to the ground several stories below. The young man lay still, quickly soaking the floor with his blood. Las- and auto-fire also clipped Cawdor Juves Pius and Innocent, sending the former sprawling at the base of a processing tower and the latter tumbling into the dirt mid-stride. Both promised retribution in terms that would have seemed incredibly vulgar for supposed holy men, had they not been uttered by members of the NMI “crusade.”
Seeing the juves of his brotherhood wounded by the brazen Delaques, Caius steeled his nerves and sprang up from cover, leveling his shotgun at Replay and letting fly with a shot that wounded the heavy and knocked him to the floor in pain and confusion. Unfortunately, this last spectacular shot not only wounded his opponent but spectacularly backfired, wounding Caius and blasting him off his perch to the floor below and rendering the crusader unconscious in the dust. Above the battlefield, Father Benedictus opened fire for the first time in the engagement, using his elevated position to his advantage as his bolt pistol sent a powerful round streaking into the trenchcoated form of Posse ganger Tom Tom, taking the man down hard.
Meanwhile, Posse ganger Prince took careful aim with his trusty shotgun and caught NMI ganger Urbanus full in the center of mass with what must have been a Man-stopper; the crimson-clad man dropped like a slag deposit and laid still as a stone. Nearby, NMI ganger Vigilius spotted one of the vile mínádúrtha moving hungrily towards his downed comrade. The ganger raised his autogun and neatly put a round through the walking corpse’s head, ending its unlife. Unfortunately, as this threat to Urbanus was dispatched, another plague zombie had fallen upon juve Innocent, wounding the young man severely before it wandered back into the shadows.
As the Voodoo Posse positioned themselves for a final assault, Father Benedictus’s voice rang out, reciting a chant which called for, and I quote, the “…most valiant of the Emperor’s servants to praise His name in the act of humble retreat…” The Cawdor pulled their wounded to safety and faded quickly into the darkness, leaving the Voodoo Posse victorious.
Immediately before our group made to leave for camp, Liam grabbed hold of my sleeve and pointed to Conon’s corpse. The ganger was on his feet, his bolter forgotten. The mínádúrtha groaned plaintively as its dead eyes met mine, and then it turned and staggered clumsily into the darkness.
25 August 2008
++ S19 - Fierce Gunfight in the Ruins ++
"Scoop" Yurik, Freelance News-agent
At around mid-day-cycle, as our party emerged from yet another dank and odorous access tunnel into another gloomy and cavernous dome, we were greeted by shouts and the unmistakable sounds of gunfire. Under the watchful protection of both Liam and Seamus himself, this reporter and his pictographist moved within sight of the fierce battle. Once more we were able to make out the regal violet uniform of the 7th Ash Waste Rifles moving into cover amongst the seemingly skeletal remnants of clustered hab-units and air-processing systems. Not surprisingly given their rather enthusiastic approach to "exploration," the Nex Manus Imperator were spotted across the ad-hoc battlefield, their crimson robes standing out against dull, gray and brown debris.
Father Benedictus and juve Pius run toward their opponents
It seemed that the infamous Cawdor gang had once more seized the initiative, as several of their fighters moved swiftly towards the Rifles' positions, shouting battle-prayers and promises of retribution. Only a select few of the NMI elected to stay behind, selecting elevated positions. Not to be outdone, the Rifles moved carefully across the ground upon sighting the NMI advances, dispersing their numbers laterally and vertically, with several fighters scrambling up ladders to obtain superior firing positions. Most notably, 7th AWR heavy "Zeke" was spotted lugging a rather large stubber to the top of an air-filtration tower, scanning the field below for targets.
Nex Manus Imperator fighters were quick to take cover from the potentially lethal heavy stubber, but in doing so were forced to halt their advances, leaving NMI heavy Callixtus exposed along a catwalk. While other members of the Cawdor gang moved beneath catwalks and through cover to flank the Rifles' firing positions, Callixtus was cut down by a burst of stubber fire and sprawled awkwardly on the metal decking before his flamer could flush out the Van Saar fighters in the lower levels of the air-filtration tower.
Despite the loss of their heavy, the NMI returned fire from cover, forcing several purple-clad Rifles to dive for cover and wounding a few others. NMI ganger Donus fired on Rifles juve Tex, resulting in a display of violence so spectacular it forced Rifles leader Orion to flee whilst wiping his face clean of the juve's blood. Unfortunately, as Donus took aim for this shot, it allowed Zeke sufficient time to unleash a long burst of stubber fire, punching into the Cawdor ganger and throwing him bodily off the platform to the ground below.
Rifles heavy Zeke takes aim as ganger Visili looks on
Father Benedictus' considerable skill with threats of "PURGATUS!!!" inspired the NMI to fight on, even as juve Innocent was wounded by autogun fire from the 7th AWR. The Cawdor zealots leapt forth from cover, with a small assault element flanking right, hoping to scale the tower and silence the Van Saar heavy stubber for good. Before the group could reach the tower, they spotted Rifles ganger Old Chester and opened fire, and allowing Cawdor ganger Caius to subdue the Van Saar in a swift melee action. As the other NMI fighters prepared to open fire once more, the panicked Orion ordered the 7th Ash Waste rifles to retreat.
The Nex Manus Imperator had brutally fought their way to another victory, but the cost this time was indeed high - Donus, who might otherwise have survived his light stubber wound, had broken his neck as he struck the concrete floor of the dome. In an unusually somber act, the other members of Nex Manus Imperator prepared a pyre for the body of their fallen comrade, and after a brief ceremony, Father Benedictus set the platform alight with his own hand flamer, and led the Cawdor gang away into the shadows in silence. As the group departed, our party spotted a flash of purple amongst the crimson robes - Old Chester was now a captive of the Nex Manus Imperator.
Yurik out.
At around mid-day-cycle, as our party emerged from yet another dank and odorous access tunnel into another gloomy and cavernous dome, we were greeted by shouts and the unmistakable sounds of gunfire. Under the watchful protection of both Liam and Seamus himself, this reporter and his pictographist moved within sight of the fierce battle. Once more we were able to make out the regal violet uniform of the 7th Ash Waste Rifles moving into cover amongst the seemingly skeletal remnants of clustered hab-units and air-processing systems. Not surprisingly given their rather enthusiastic approach to "exploration," the Nex Manus Imperator were spotted across the ad-hoc battlefield, their crimson robes standing out against dull, gray and brown debris.
Father Benedictus and juve Pius run toward their opponents
It seemed that the infamous Cawdor gang had once more seized the initiative, as several of their fighters moved swiftly towards the Rifles' positions, shouting battle-prayers and promises of retribution. Only a select few of the NMI elected to stay behind, selecting elevated positions. Not to be outdone, the Rifles moved carefully across the ground upon sighting the NMI advances, dispersing their numbers laterally and vertically, with several fighters scrambling up ladders to obtain superior firing positions. Most notably, 7th AWR heavy "Zeke" was spotted lugging a rather large stubber to the top of an air-filtration tower, scanning the field below for targets.
Nex Manus Imperator fighters were quick to take cover from the potentially lethal heavy stubber, but in doing so were forced to halt their advances, leaving NMI heavy Callixtus exposed along a catwalk. While other members of the Cawdor gang moved beneath catwalks and through cover to flank the Rifles' firing positions, Callixtus was cut down by a burst of stubber fire and sprawled awkwardly on the metal decking before his flamer could flush out the Van Saar fighters in the lower levels of the air-filtration tower.
Despite the loss of their heavy, the NMI returned fire from cover, forcing several purple-clad Rifles to dive for cover and wounding a few others. NMI ganger Donus fired on Rifles juve Tex, resulting in a display of violence so spectacular it forced Rifles leader Orion to flee whilst wiping his face clean of the juve's blood. Unfortunately, as Donus took aim for this shot, it allowed Zeke sufficient time to unleash a long burst of stubber fire, punching into the Cawdor ganger and throwing him bodily off the platform to the ground below.
Rifles heavy Zeke takes aim as ganger Visili looks on
Father Benedictus' considerable skill with threats of "PURGATUS!!!" inspired the NMI to fight on, even as juve Innocent was wounded by autogun fire from the 7th AWR. The Cawdor zealots leapt forth from cover, with a small assault element flanking right, hoping to scale the tower and silence the Van Saar heavy stubber for good. Before the group could reach the tower, they spotted Rifles ganger Old Chester and opened fire, and allowing Cawdor ganger Caius to subdue the Van Saar in a swift melee action. As the other NMI fighters prepared to open fire once more, the panicked Orion ordered the 7th Ash Waste rifles to retreat.
The Nex Manus Imperator had brutally fought their way to another victory, but the cost this time was indeed high - Donus, who might otherwise have survived his light stubber wound, had broken his neck as he struck the concrete floor of the dome. In an unusually somber act, the other members of Nex Manus Imperator prepared a pyre for the body of their fallen comrade, and after a brief ceremony, Father Benedictus set the platform alight with his own hand flamer, and led the Cawdor gang away into the shadows in silence. As the group departed, our party spotted a flash of purple amongst the crimson robes - Old Chester was now a captive of the Nex Manus Imperator.
Yurik out.
16 August 2008
++ S19 - Blood for Tech ++
Members of King's Voodoo Posse take aim at Cawdor fighters
"Scoop" Yurik, Freelance News-agent
Since arriving in the largely anarchic zones of Subsector 19 only two day-cycles ago, our party has been on alert as the unmistakable sounds of gunfire and battlecries echo in the dusty gloom. We made camp in the runs of an old Imperial chapel - our guides, the gang representatives of the Orlock Iron-Forge Union, are a superstitious lot - and until this evening we had found little of note to report.
All that changed in a matter of seconds, as an autogun round ricocheted off of the chapel's old stonework and neatly disintegrated this reporter's bottle of prized amasec as it sat upon a camp stool. Our Orlock protectors immediately moved to the perimeter of the camp, where their guard, one Liam "the Shootist," a former PDF trooper, announced the beginnings of a major skirmish amongst nearby industrial ruins.
Against the urging of our guides, this reporter and over-eager pictographist picked our way through dozens of meters of rubble-strewn dome floor until we emerged into the midst of a pitched firefight. Through further creeping and careful navigation, we were able to work our way along the outer edges of the conflict, where we discerned the identity of the combatants.
Initial observation via a tele-pict lens revealed that the persistent crusade of Nex Manus Imperator, the Cawdor gang, was still in full swing, and their most recent "infidel heretic" opponents were identified as members of King's Voodoo Posse, a group of Delaque agents with unusually dark complexion. Observations were rudely interrupted as King, the leader of the Delaque gang, was struck directly in the center of mass by a speeding bolt round and collapsed, plunging several meters to the ground. As the bald man fell it was all too apparent that this wound would claim his life, and indeed before this reporter quit the field, the Voodoo Posse had become leaderless.
Despite their loss (or perhaps because their leader had fallen so suddenly) the Voodoo Posse fighters were quick to react, swiftly moving across gantries and amongst ancient metal bulkheads, until they were able to close with their red-hooded antagonists.
Nex Manus Imperator heavy advances through the ruins of a factory yard.
One of the Cawdor, a grim figure clutching an assault-pattern lasgun and perched atop a staggeringly-tall tower, was caught in a burst of stubber fire and plunged, howling in fury and pain, a full three stories to the hard concrete floor of the dome. His moaned prayers of retribution were quickly swallowed up in a rasp of flamer fire courtesy of the second Delaque heavy.
As the struggle continued, the Nex Manus Imperator warriors seemed to gain the upper hand, gradually dispatching no less than three more of the gray-trench-coated Posse. An attempted flanking maneuver by King's Voodoo Posse was thwarted by none other than the Cawdor leader Father Benedictus and juve Pius. In the aftermath of the truly brutal close-quarters melee, Posse juve Get Right was lightly wounded, and Posse ganger Bad Mojo lived up to his moniker as he was expertly downed by Benedictus.
Finally, despite a truly grueling attempt to stand their ground, the Delaques melted into the shadows, leaving behind only spent ammunition casings and the body of their former leader.
Carefully avoiding the attentions of the chanting, victorious Cawdor, this reporter was shocked to realize that this monumental, callous brutality had been exacted for the sake of only a few technological trinkets.
We returned to our camp with Liam, and I soon retired for the evening in the grip of a strange depression at that days events.
Yurik out.
15 August 2008
++ Chiggins to Explore Downhive ++
++ For Immediate Release ++
"Scoop" Yurik, Staff Writer
In the wake of recent events in Sump's Drift, many Underhivers have been left feeling quite uneasy, including a rather familiar character by the name of "Old Prospector" Gus Chiggins. The grizzled old drunk was observed following this reporter on the journey to Subsector 19, and only after being supplied a rather copious amount of liquor did he offer any reason for his sudden departure from his longtime haunt, the Last Stop Inn.
"Them dere Red Ridin' 'oods and dem Seb'n Wasted Rifles showed up at th'Las'Stop a couple days 'go, and let me tell you there, news-man, they raised some 'ell." Chiggins reported amidst a flow of ramblings and stories about "cinnamon an' gravy," telling a tale of violence, retribution, and much broken furniture.
"Seein' them stupid young'ns tearin' up that bar was 'bout all a man kin bear,"said Gus, sliding a battered shotgun from his substantial collection of jangling accoutrements. "I din't see no choice but ta show dem boys a fella means business when it come ta his booze."
Chiggins went on to verify previously sketchy witness reports stating that the cantankerous old man attempted a defense of the bar. His first shot managed to clip one "Tex," a juve from the 7th AWR gang, rendering the youth unconscious and tumbling across the bar floor where he remained for the duration of the battle.
Unfortunately for the Last Stop Inn's stalwart defender, whilst attempting to reload his old shotgun, Chiggins suffered a minor setback.
"Well, I was standin' up on the bar after one'a dem bastards put some buckshot inta me shoulder and knocked me about a meter back trew th'air. I broke the breech open and load a'coupla shells up in it, slam it shut and I'll be a sump-rat's next-door neighbor if'n BOTH'a them dam-ned shells didn't go off."
Chiggins said that although he was rendered unconscious by his wounds, he was astonished to wake up and find his right leg and foot still largely undamaged. This reporter suspects Chiggins's home-made ammunition to be the only reason that the "Old Prospector" is still drawing breath, but Gus swears upon the God-Emperor's Holy Throne that he was blessed with a miracle that day, and has made it his mission to pursue the area's feuding gangs into Subsector 19 and administer the "workin' man's justice unto them stupid, air-ra-gint boys."
Out of concern for Mr. Chiggins's well-being (and quite honestly the safety of our party), the OI-FU have taken on the old character as a fellow traveler as we wind our way down to The Collapse. As always, this reporter will bring you up-to-the-minute developments in this story as they take place.
"Scoop" Yurik, Staff Writer
In the wake of recent events in Sump's Drift, many Underhivers have been left feeling quite uneasy, including a rather familiar character by the name of "Old Prospector" Gus Chiggins. The grizzled old drunk was observed following this reporter on the journey to Subsector 19, and only after being supplied a rather copious amount of liquor did he offer any reason for his sudden departure from his longtime haunt, the Last Stop Inn.
"Them dere Red Ridin' 'oods and dem Seb'n Wasted Rifles showed up at th'Las'Stop a couple days 'go, and let me tell you there, news-man, they raised some 'ell." Chiggins reported amidst a flow of ramblings and stories about "cinnamon an' gravy," telling a tale of violence, retribution, and much broken furniture.
"Seein' them stupid young'ns tearin' up that bar was 'bout all a man kin bear,"said Gus, sliding a battered shotgun from his substantial collection of jangling accoutrements. "I din't see no choice but ta show dem boys a fella means business when it come ta his booze."
Chiggins went on to verify previously sketchy witness reports stating that the cantankerous old man attempted a defense of the bar. His first shot managed to clip one "Tex," a juve from the 7th AWR gang, rendering the youth unconscious and tumbling across the bar floor where he remained for the duration of the battle.
Unfortunately for the Last Stop Inn's stalwart defender, whilst attempting to reload his old shotgun, Chiggins suffered a minor setback.
"Well, I was standin' up on the bar after one'a dem bastards put some buckshot inta me shoulder and knocked me about a meter back trew th'air. I broke the breech open and load a'coupla shells up in it, slam it shut and I'll be a sump-rat's next-door neighbor if'n BOTH'a them dam-ned shells didn't go off."
Chiggins said that although he was rendered unconscious by his wounds, he was astonished to wake up and find his right leg and foot still largely undamaged. This reporter suspects Chiggins's home-made ammunition to be the only reason that the "Old Prospector" is still drawing breath, but Gus swears upon the God-Emperor's Holy Throne that he was blessed with a miracle that day, and has made it his mission to pursue the area's feuding gangs into Subsector 19 and administer the "workin' man's justice unto them stupid, air-ra-gint boys."
Out of concern for Mr. Chiggins's well-being (and quite honestly the safety of our party), the OI-FU have taken on the old character as a fellow traveler as we wind our way down to The Collapse. As always, this reporter will bring you up-to-the-minute developments in this story as they take place.
12 August 2008
++ NMI Clashes with Unknown Opponents ++
++ For Immediate Release ++
"Scoop" Yurik, staff writer
Once again the Nex Manus Imperator has made bold moves toward fulfilling their self-proclaimed crusade, as they engaged their purple-clad adversaries in combat. This skirmish was ended with another brutally hard-fought defeat for the group, alleged to be the 7th Ash Waste Rifles, a gang composed primarily of remnants of the eponymous Necromunda Planetary Defense Force regiment. These former soldiers, recruited from House Van Saar, have been hell-bent on enacting justice against the hive for the events of more than five planetary cycles ago, when an unusually hellish ash storm claimed the lives of nearly 80 percent of the regiment.
This grim determination has so far served the 7th AWR quite well in their battles in Sump's Drift, and despite their losses to the Cawdor zealots they remain a truly intimidating force.
Many Drifters have expressed their concern over the escalating feud between the two houses. Among their concerns was the very real fear that the already-strained Enforcer patrols could easily be over-powered or eliminated by an ambitious gang, leaving Sump's Drift as easy prey for Scavvies or other undesirables. Marshal Hadrian Turterra of Enforcer Precinct 08 was unavailable for comment, but his previous statements leave little doubt that all efforts are being made to protect the citizens of Sector 855.
In related news, this reporter has managed to find a security detail for a journey into Subsector 19 and The Collapse. The Orlock Iron-Forge Union has offered their services as bodyguards to myself and my pictographist for the duration of our in-depth reports from The Collapse. Rest assured we will do our utmost to provide you, the citizens of Sump's Drift (and indeed all of Necromunda), with the latest details of what may prove to be the greatest saga to emerge from Sector N-UH-855.
May the Emperor protect us. "Scoop" Yurik out.
"Scoop" Yurik, staff writer
Once again the Nex Manus Imperator has made bold moves toward fulfilling their self-proclaimed crusade, as they engaged their purple-clad adversaries in combat. This skirmish was ended with another brutally hard-fought defeat for the group, alleged to be the 7th Ash Waste Rifles, a gang composed primarily of remnants of the eponymous Necromunda Planetary Defense Force regiment. These former soldiers, recruited from House Van Saar, have been hell-bent on enacting justice against the hive for the events of more than five planetary cycles ago, when an unusually hellish ash storm claimed the lives of nearly 80 percent of the regiment.
This grim determination has so far served the 7th AWR quite well in their battles in Sump's Drift, and despite their losses to the Cawdor zealots they remain a truly intimidating force.
Many Drifters have expressed their concern over the escalating feud between the two houses. Among their concerns was the very real fear that the already-strained Enforcer patrols could easily be over-powered or eliminated by an ambitious gang, leaving Sump's Drift as easy prey for Scavvies or other undesirables. Marshal Hadrian Turterra of Enforcer Precinct 08 was unavailable for comment, but his previous statements leave little doubt that all efforts are being made to protect the citizens of Sector 855.
In related news, this reporter has managed to find a security detail for a journey into Subsector 19 and The Collapse. The Orlock Iron-Forge Union has offered their services as bodyguards to myself and my pictographist for the duration of our in-depth reports from The Collapse. Rest assured we will do our utmost to provide you, the citizens of Sump's Drift (and indeed all of Necromunda), with the latest details of what may prove to be the greatest saga to emerge from Sector N-UH-855.
May the Emperor protect us. "Scoop" Yurik out.
06 August 2008
++ Local Inebriate: 'dem Boys Shot m'Bottle! ++
Breaking news:
"Scoop" Yurik, staff writer
The quiet night-cycle air of Sump's Drift was rudely disturbed by gunfire as two local gangs met up in the ruins of an old algae-processing plant at the edge of town. Earlier that evening on my way to the Last Stop Inn, I was accosted by "Ol' Prospector" Gus Chiggins, a well-known drinking enthusiast, who had this to say:
"Hey there, mister newsman, there - I seen sommat you might'a wanna seen! Them gangers is havin' themselves a tussle an' I only juss' got out after they shot my bottl'a'Wildsnake clean outta my 'and! They're goin' plain crazy at each other! C'mon, c'mon! Yer' gon' miss the whol' thing!"
Indeed. It seemed that Mr. Chiggins had scarcely avoided becoming collateral damage in the savage skirmish, and this reporter had little choice but to follow the source's weaving footsteps back to the fracas.
At the plant, the fighting was indeed just as fierce as described, and the air was criss-crossed with fire from all manner of weapons. Though the field was liberally covered in gun-smoke, two distinct parties could be made out, and while their militaristic, violet-clad opponents remain unidentified, this reporter conclusively witnessed the brethren of the Nex Manus Imperator enacting their "holy war."
While most events of the skirmish were difficult to perceive from a safe distance, the fighting was prolonged, brutal, and decidedly loud. In the end, red-swathed forms emerged from the haze, an eerie chant of victory issuing from the Cawdor gang as this reporter made his way back to civilization. While their opponents were unquestionably tenacious, Nex Manus Imperator has certainly forged a dangerous reputation for themselves.
"Scoop" Yurik, staff writer
The quiet night-cycle air of Sump's Drift was rudely disturbed by gunfire as two local gangs met up in the ruins of an old algae-processing plant at the edge of town. Earlier that evening on my way to the Last Stop Inn, I was accosted by "Ol' Prospector" Gus Chiggins, a well-known drinking enthusiast, who had this to say:
"Hey there, mister newsman, there - I seen sommat you might'a wanna seen! Them gangers is havin' themselves a tussle an' I only juss' got out after they shot my bottl'a'Wildsnake clean outta my 'and! They're goin' plain crazy at each other! C'mon, c'mon! Yer' gon' miss the whol' thing!"
Indeed. It seemed that Mr. Chiggins had scarcely avoided becoming collateral damage in the savage skirmish, and this reporter had little choice but to follow the source's weaving footsteps back to the fracas.
At the plant, the fighting was indeed just as fierce as described, and the air was criss-crossed with fire from all manner of weapons. Though the field was liberally covered in gun-smoke, two distinct parties could be made out, and while their militaristic, violet-clad opponents remain unidentified, this reporter conclusively witnessed the brethren of the Nex Manus Imperator enacting their "holy war."
While most events of the skirmish were difficult to perceive from a safe distance, the fighting was prolonged, brutal, and decidedly loud. In the end, red-swathed forms emerged from the haze, an eerie chant of victory issuing from the Cawdor gang as this reporter made his way back to civilization. While their opponents were unquestionably tenacious, Nex Manus Imperator has certainly forged a dangerous reputation for themselves.
03 August 2008
++ Benso: "Guilder shot in Gang Fight" ++
*******UNCONFIRMED REPORT*******
For Immediate Release:
Stehfan R., staff writer
Hiver Benso Felohm reports that while on a routine harvesting expedition for Sump consumables for his bio-recycling restaurant "Benso's Second-Hand Pizza" he encountered a minor skirmish between rival Cawdor and Delaque gangs. Gang markings were unclear and the fighting fierce with at least one ganger reported dead. Benso claims to have seen Kurt Gupta caught in the firefight while trying to loot a fallen Cawdor. Gupta may have taken a round from stray crossfire and fled the scene. Benso soon followed but reported that the gang fight was likely a draw and that the Cawdor Juves were "the bravest, dumbest bastards in the Hive."
This reporter feels that, given Benso's reputation, this information should be considered reliable.
For Immediate Release:
Stehfan R., staff writer
Hiver Benso Felohm reports that while on a routine harvesting expedition for Sump consumables for his bio-recycling restaurant "Benso's Second-Hand Pizza" he encountered a minor skirmish between rival Cawdor and Delaque gangs. Gang markings were unclear and the fighting fierce with at least one ganger reported dead. Benso claims to have seen Kurt Gupta caught in the firefight while trying to loot a fallen Cawdor. Gupta may have taken a round from stray crossfire and fled the scene. Benso soon followed but reported that the gang fight was likely a draw and that the Cawdor Juves were "the bravest, dumbest bastards in the Hive."
This reporter feels that, given Benso's reputation, this information should be considered reliable.
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