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An Unggoy's Life: Chapter 21: Return of the Beast
Posted By: CrazyGrunt<thomas-hoskins@comcast.net>
Date: 7 September 2005, 12:54 am
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Aboard, Gorka and Morka, bridge
Ghazghkull watched from the Holovid in approval as the Ravagers opened fire at point-blank range. Even if a third of those torpedos were duds, firing at point-blank range would make a dud just as deadly.
One thousand torpedos streaked toward the Triumph. Fifty torpedos struck the shield, and the collapsed under the bombardment on one point. Then three more torpedos broke through the hole in the shield and impacted just above the plasma battery mounted on the nose of the ship, rendering it inoperative due to the fact the control for the plasma battery was located above it. The ship listed to the right, then the other 947 torpedos collided with multiple parts of of the ship's hull as it vainly attempted to escape the trap it had foolishly fallen into.
The Triumph managed to limp out of range from the short-ranged Ravagers and the Gorka and Morka's own torpedo fire, but the Onslaughts kept a heavy rain of fire on the it. The Gorka and Morka gave chase and brought its gunsights of the twenty-four Super MAC cannons on the stern of the Triumph and fired all of them simultaneously.
The Triumph's engines, under the strain of the constant Onslaught fire, exploded as all twenty-four Super MAC rounds penetrated the engines, the slipspace generators, the mess hall, the barracks, and out through where the neck connected with the bow, severing the bow from the rest of the ship. The ship's dentonation could be seen from planetside.
"Begin landing the Roks," Ghazghkull ordered, "Have the Droid Army begin destroying the orbital platforms, and I want three Kill Kroozers on escort duty. Move it you lazy slimeballs!"
"Keep firing!" Thomas shouted over the sound of machinegun fire as he sat in a Scarab control room while it rained large green apocalyptic flame blasts at the Ork warband on the other side of the city's wall.
One hour ago, Orks began landing their huge Roks, the Orks clever use of asteroids by converting them into huge fortesses or orbital platforms, and had been landing them planetside, making teleporting multiple warbands down to the planet's surface a much safer task.
For the last half hour, the 5th platoon had been teaching the warband that had been assaulting the west side of the city to keep their distance. The 22nd Marine division were being ravaged by an expert warband called the Burning Death Speed Freeks, identified by the burning skull emblem on their Waagh banner, who from the Ork clan called the Kult of Speed.
The Orks from the Kult of Speed were known as Speed Freeks, who had an obsession for speed, and almost always used fast vechicles to get to the battle as soon as possible.
The 88th Holy Soldiers battalion were faring better than the 22nd Marines, and were beating back the massive warband that had attacked the eastern section of the city.
The 9th militia platoon was getting hammered by the warband known as the Blackfire tribe, who had breached the southern wall with their Gargants' artillery, the two-legged Ork verison of a Scarab.
"Do we have any more Scarabs in the city," Krystal's voice yelled over the Comm.
"Affirmative," Thomas answered, "But the 9th needs them more than we do. They have to deal with eight Gargants."
"What about the Gauss turrets and the Scorpion tanks," She asked.
"Negative," Thomas yelled to be heard over the increasing noise, "All of our turrets our being used to keep the Orks at bay, and the scorpion tanks were destroyed by Ork rokkits fifteen minutes ago."
"Damn," Krystal swore over the Comm, which wasn't normal, since she didn't like it when people swore, period.
"Leader," the Unggoy pilot called from the movement control part of the room, "You want to see this!"
Thomas walked over to the console and looked at the Holovid. His stomach did a somersault.
Three Gargants strode through the haze in the distance. Thomas could see the captured Super MAC cannon that jutted out of the middle in each one, and that seemed to be what each Gargant was built around.
The stubby right arm bristled with Zzap guns, the Ork version of plasma turrets, except that it used energy instead of plasma. Thomas saw the left arm's two large guns, which Thomas guessed were either MAC cannons or a pair of energy projectors.
The fragile control platform that was made of wood that formed the head of the Gargants was held up by wooden beams and metal bars. A direct hit on the 'neck' of a Gargant would remove its tactical presence from a battle.
Thomas looked at the warband that had been trying to reach the western wall. It had parted for the inevitable sonic discharge of the Super MAC cannon like the Red Sea did before Moses. Thomas knew what was going to happen.
"Zeta One, get out of that Scarab," Thomas said as calmly as possible, then said in a panicky tone, "Those Gargants are going to fire on the Scarabs, and I don't want to risk the chance that it is aiming for either one. I know you don't want to die, either."
"Hell yes!" Krystal whispered over the Comm, "I heading for the Banshee now."
Thomas did the same after he exited the control room of the Scarab. He got in, and took off. He checked to see that Krystal had cleared the Scarab, and saw that her Banshee was just clearing the Scarab's deck.
Something exploded, and Thomas saw Krystal's Banshee get enveloped in the blast, then his was too. Everything went black.
What had happened was this. The gargant had fired the Super MAC cannon at the Scarab Krystal had been in, but the sonic discharged had caused a chain reaction in the second Scarab, this the explosion caught Thomas and Krystal.
Nugga fired into the massive army of Super Battle droids that marched up the steep sides of Volcanus Mt in their neat rows, which had been wrongly named because the early explorers of Armageddon that Volcanus Mt was a volcano.
Suddenly, Droid Speeder Bikes flew past the Super Battle Droids, the lead one carrying someone Nugga knew should be dead.
Durge had returned.
"Leader, Volcanus is lost," Nugga protested, "We must begin airlifting troops out of the city now!"
"And let the Orks capture this city with their vile friends?" The garrison commander snorted, "I think NOT!"
They won't get the city if we destroy it with them inside," Nugga suggested, "You have a large enough ammo dump to level the city."
"I guess your right," The garrison commander nodded in defeat, "Send the order to disengage the enemy and make best speed to the spaceport."
All over the city, Marines, Holy Soldiers, militia units, and ODSTs broke contact with the Orks and Battle Droid forces. Once at the spaceport, they waited for the next Phantom or Pelican to arrive. Orks and Battle Droids poured into the city, slaughtering any straggler units that couldn't keep up with the others.
As Nugga scrambled into the last Pelican, Orks breached the spaceport wall. Nugga grabbed the rear mounted chaingun and opened fire on the charging Orks. As the Pelican rose, crude rockets whizzed past it, the Orks who had fired the shots desperately reloading their guns as quickly as they could.
The Pelican cleared the city wall. Once it was a hundred yards away, Nugga pressed the detonator.
The resulting explosion leveled Volcanus Mountain. Nugga prayed Durge was dead.
"Pilot," Nugga called from the back, "Head for Helsreach."
When Thomas woke up, he was lying in a medical hut inside the sandstone walls of the city Tartarus. He looked over to his left and saw Roni Guman lying on the ground two feet away. His left leg was in a cast. Thomas also saw Vicky Kobbels sitting up, her right arm in a makeshift sling.
Thomas looked over to his right and saw Krystal was lying right next to him. She was fine except for a few minor injuries.
Thomas looked down at his own body. Other than a few cuts and bruises, he was in perfect health.
Suddenly realization dawned upon him. Infernus had been lost. They had lost the battle. The pain of defeat injured his pride tremendously.
Grievous walked down the hall of the Droid Army's capital ship, the Armageddon Flame. As he walked toward the tactical room, he noticed how clean the decks were compared to the decks on the Gorka and Morka.
When he reached the tactical room, he saw four of the skeletal Battle Droids standing guard. As he approached, they straightened. Grievous nodded to the Droid captain, and walked inside.
The tactical room was ten yards long and fifteen yards wide, and electrical equipment covered all of the gray walls. Computer consoles were secured to the walls and were being manned by more of the skeletal Battle Droids.
In the center of the room, there was a neon green Holomap of the planet eight yards long and five yards wide, with each city colored in either red, gray, or blue. Blue meant it was occupied by the Orks, red meant it was held by the enemy, and gray meant it had been destroyed.
The cities Hades and Volcanus were gray. Hades was gray because the last war Ghazghkull had waged here he lost because of that city. So in an act of terrible vengance, Ghazghkull literally threw rocks at it. The rock came in the form of a huge asteroid that flattened the entire city, civilians and all. Two other cities were blue, and the rest of the cities were red.
The planet's landmass was made of three separate continents, which were colored in yellow or blue. Yellow meant ally controlled, and blue meant enemy controlled. The northern continent, the one that the humans called the Fire Wastes, was yellow, including the three human ore mining colonies. The southern continent, the one known as the Deadlands, was also yellow, along with all of the human water processing plants under Ork control. The third continent, which was located between the Fire Wastes and the Deadlands, was a different story.
The habitable continent was divided into two sectors by a huge equatorial jungle. The sectors, including the jungle, were colored in either dark green, white, or orange. Dark green meant Ork-controlled, white meant neutral, and orange meant enemy-controlled. The western sector, the one called Armageddon Prime, which only had three cities, and the equatorial jungle were easily controlled by the Orks, minus one city. The eastern section, known as Armageddon Secundus, was enemy-controlled.
However, the Orks had made a foothold in that sector by capturing the city called Infernus. The city that the Orks controlled in the western sector was called Tempestora. The Orks had been unable to capture the sector's southern city, Volcanus, because the UWSC flattened it with a nuke, rather than let the Orks capture the city. The other city in that sector was Death Mire, which Ghazghkull had given the Blackfire Tribe with the task of capturing it.
Grievous walked around the Holomap. In about a week, if progress kept moving so fast, the Orks would control Armageddon.
Underneath five miles of ice on the Deadlands, after six billion years of slumber, they awoke.
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