“Well, this is quite an unnatural darkness…and I know a thing or two about unnatural…” the young Rune Priest said. He was right. There was something about to happen on this planet and it’s like the elements knew it and were preparing for it.
Floki Ravenskull was young, yet a veteran of many battles that fought alongside the great Ragnar Blackmane from whom he learnt a great deal, a little bit too much for many of his peers’ opinion. That relentless thirst for battle and glory was inbred in him and his twin brother making them reckless at times for a man in their position and role. His mentor always told him that they were there to support their comrades, but he always rather being in the middle of battle looking for the toughest opponent to write his own saga. His eccentric and anarchic behaviour got him in trouble more than once but his results talked from themselves.
His superiors thought that putting him in charge of a small company would teach him the leadership skills that he was missing, and with the blessing of Ragnar himself they sent him to lead a scouting company to the planet Crematoria.
This planet was full of wildlife and ruins from an older civilization that somehow fascinated Floki. These are the same ruins that were showing on his visions while navigating the storms but that wasn’t the whole picture. During his visions he could see two black ravens flying over a battlefield where 2 warriors were fighting each other surrounded by countless skeletons that once were corpses. One of the warriors was getting weaker, while the other one stronger, but both of them were oblivious to an unnatural green thunderstorm that was coming their way.
Floki had had visions with those storms before and knew exactly what they meant, and that’s what they were hunting for: Orks. But what intrigued him were the 2 faceless warriors and what could they mean…
Floki stood stoically, examining the land in front of him. His force had been dropped 80 kliks to the South West of Urganth, a key city of interest to his superiors, despite looking to Floki like a smoking pile from this distance. Before getting to the city and its all important space-port, Floki knew he’d need to take control of the promethium pumping station to the North, a small ruined building surrounded by plenty of places for enemies to hide. The ground was scarred by innumerous battles and stained dark red with blood. There was no sign of life but Floki knew Orks were near, drawn by the promise of combat. He knew surveying the land for an optimal approach to the pumping station was the tactical choice, but he didn’t have the luxury of time. And despite his training and his superior’s best intentions, he lusted for battle again. He decided to make haste and move ahead. He had to take advantage now that his brother wasn’t around…
His men moved forward swiftly taking cover within the ruins while the thunderous footsteps of Bjorn Hellshammer’s suit would let any hostiles within a 5 kliks radius know that his force had arrived, and that’s exactly what he wanted. Ever alert, Floki sent his Assault Intercessors to investigate the pumping station while the rest of the force kept watch for movement. Suddenly, the sound Floki had been anticipating echoed out among the ruined buildings…
WAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Zogger Loudgob looked at his right arm. The power claw was setting up nicely. Da Boss was kind enough to give him, not just a second chance, but also an augmentation. He chopped his arm off, beat him to a pulp, but Zogger’s resilience and endurance made his boss take pity on him and spare his life. Not just that, he also made him one of his lieutenants and gave him a new shiny Power Claw to replace his lost arm. He wasn’t sure what Da Boss’ endgame was, but he knew that he always did everything for a reason.
He could smell the pinkskinz in the area, and his Kommandos reported a big metal suit walking around. Big and metal. Lots of shiny parts and extra dakka. Just what he was looking for. Da Boss had sent them to this stinking planet with one mission: collect anything that we could salvage to build a Stompa. So far, everything that he and his boyz collected was deemed useless by the Meks, which he didn’t understand because everything look sturdy enough.
This was Zogger’s first mission as a lieutenant and he didn’t want to disappoint Da Boss, so he wanted to make sure that he could smash a lot of pinkskinz and loot lots of trophies from their little corpses. He had fought pinkskinz before in their green little suits with their little lasguns and big tanks. Lots of loot. These guys smelt different but he was sure they wouldn’t be different to squeeze.
There was an unnatural fog covering the field, and between the factory ruined buildings and the fog, they could barely see anything ahead of them. But he heard it, same as all his boyz. He looked at the Deff Dread escorting them on the side and pointed to his right side. His scream was heard in miles: WAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!
All his Boyz knew what to do. Rush forward to meet the enemy face to face and teach them a little bit of Ork diplomacy. The Warbikes roar on the flank while the Deff Dread covered the opposite side. His Kommandos were scouting the area, while he advanced with all his Boyz to show the enemy some Dakka.
The first ones to unleash fire were the Warbikes. They must have met the Shiny Pinkskin Deff Dread. “Break it quickly, but don’t break it too much!” Zogger yelled while keeping his pace rushing towards an invisible enemy. But as soon as he finished his sentence, all the Warbikes blew up in a big explosion. He saw some of the drivers running away and he tried to remember his faces to smash them later. Some of his Boyz seemed to be shooting aimlessly at something that he couldn’t see while Zogger kept yelling “Ruzz towarz the walker! Daz our prize!!”
The plan in his head was solid until they had any further information. By the smell and sound of it, it looked like they were outnumbered at least 3 to 1 but Floki wouldn’t know for sure until they had visual contact with the charging Orks.
He saw Bjorn unleashing hell on something that he couldn’t see, until he saw a big explosion and parts of what look like a rudimentary vehicle. That was surprising since, unlike most Invicor pilots, Bjorn was an average shooter, but a master in close combat.
As soon as that happened, they saw some Orks with shootas coming out of the fog shooting at Bjorn. In the back of that mob, he could distinguish a much bigger Ork that the others shouting orders or threats, he couldn’t tell. Next to them, a massive walking can with blades and claws started rushing towards Bjorn’s position. “Freya, fly over. They took the bait”
The walking suit was by himself in the open. They saw him hesitating moving towards them when he saw his numbers, as if he was about to retreat, but they couldn’t let that happen. “Hurry up! Don’t let that get away!” As he screamed his order, he saw a Pinkskin coming out of some ruins with a hood covering his head and not wielding any weapons in his hands. Barely a threat, or so he thought… before he could look away, a surge of lighting came out of him, straight into his unit, instantly killing several of his Boyz, and even hurting him on his leg. As he was recovering from the shock, he could see the masked guy gathering more power, and before he could give any orders, a huge lightning Wolf appeared in the sky above them and impacted his unit. Half of his unit was gone in the blink of an eye.
He looked at his side and saw the Kommandos fighting the Suit in close combat, or at least what was left of the unit as one of the guys had all his bones shattered by a punch of that hulking thing. The rest of the Boyz were still rushing towards the Invictor suit, escorted by the Deff Dread when he realised that the Hooded stranger was charging towards them by himself with a shiny sword on his hand.
As soon as he started brazing himself for the incoming enemy, he heard a roaring noisy flying above his head. 3 armoured guys in a jet pack were flew past his unit, landing right behind them. They were carrying big weapons on them, and the last thing he saw was them unleashing them on him.
The trap couldn’t have worked any better. The green skins were dropping like flies and they haven’t had any casualties yet. Floki invoqued the storm one more time before releasing another living lightning on their enemies and charge them. At this point Bjorn had already engaged the Boyz himself and was doing what he did best. The Ork Walker attacked Bjorn spinning all its blades and weapons at him, but Bjorn evade them with ease and wrecked the charging walker before he could attack again.
The Inceptors were thinning out the ranks from the rear and stopping any fleeing Ork, while Floki charged the remaining Orks with his Runic Blade shinning like Fenris’ ice in the morning. The battle was over before they even knew it and victory was theirs.
While Freya’s Bane and the Assault intercessors were making sure that there were no more Orks in the area, Floki examined the bodies in search for any clues on why the Orks were in this wretched planet. While doing so, a vision hit his mind. A wounded raven was falling from the sky into the abyss, while the Green Storm was getting closer. “Eivor…”
“Sir, we haven’t found any trace of the Ork Leader in the field. By the looks of it, he escaped the battle wounded. We should be able to trace him, but he could be leading us to a trap”
“Gather your troops and contact base. Get the Scout squad to trace the area and follow the trail in search of an Ork encampment or base. Do not engage until you receive my orders. We need more intel in the enemy and the area. And let me know as soon as you make contact with Captain Eivor or his unit. I have a bad feeling about this”
40K WarZone 