ordomalleusviktoria:

One of the few members of the 4th peeked out of his heavy bolter dugout.

“More friendlies? Huh. We thought we picked up traces of friendly Valkyries dancing about but couldnt be sure. The day’s been a bit crazier than anyone expected.”

At that, the trooper nodded at the burning wreck filling the sky.

“Beats me as to what that thing is, but its dead and we killed it. Good enough for me. Come on, follow one of the guides back at camp, he should be able to get you to where the main group is located. Apparently they havent made it into the local city yet.”

…

Elsewhere, in high orbit over Ullianor

“You said it would work you useless whelp!”

A hulking chaos lord, clad in the armor of the word bearers traitor legion gripped the neck of a frail looking psyker.

“You said you would have found it by now! WHERE IS IT? WHERE is the Maledictum? We have floated over this dustbin of a planet for weeks, and now when we are discovered you come to me with excuses!”

Not waiting for a response, the lord snapped the psykers neck and tossed his body across the bridge.

“Your trick with that posessed capitol ship failed as well. The dark gods grow furious at our wanton waste of their gifts.”

He turned to address a silent group of psykers.

“Khorne would have my head of a pike for consorting you scum, but the Maledictum is worth the risk. Find me it, use all of your resources, and get me my prize!”

One cultist shambled forward, covered in carvings.

“Oh g-great lord Umagon, there is a way, the other desert men of Dune, they have long summoned the dark gods, we could-“

“Explain to me why you have not already used such readily available resources, or you will die too. I was told the Maledictum was on this world by my lords, it is written. It should have been a simple matter to simply find the device!”

Another word bearer, at the helm of the command ship, sounded an alarm.

“Incomming loyalist vessel. Very, very large. Even with the Seers illusions we wont be able to fool them for long. Whats your order?”

Lord Umagon took a deep breath.

“It appears that things have escalated. Call the ships off, but not before you and all your kin get off of my ship, get on that planet, and bring these Dune men into line. When I return I will bring the full force of my warband. More than enough to turn the deserts of this world into glass. Pray that you have found the Maledictum by then, or you will be obliterated along with this world.”

“Oh, and one more thing, dont let any of the imperials get off that planet alive. Summon your warp energies and let the Eyes gaze fall on this world. I refuse to let the inquisitor steal away another of our relics!”

The fleet of damaged chaos vessels began pulling away as a few carefully hidden drop pods shot through the atmosphere, which was becoming stormy and warp-ridden. It was clear that this would be the last chance to land on Ulianor.

“Admiral, message coming in from a mechanicus ship. Patching it through.”

Karel gave a swift salute to the incoming Mechanicus ships. “Send over the targeting data. Your boys can put down with the Ulimbic, nice open dunes around that area should be good for your tanks. Emperor bless us all, and Omnissiah bless our ships!”

Meanwhile, the 4th company was preparing to move, using what few transport vehicles they had. Some guardsmen elected to ride on top of the tanks and transports rather than sit cramped inside the things. Jacobus was riding on the lead vehicle, sitting on top of the Chimera with Hiras and her squad. He squeezed the Sergeant’s hand. He believed her background as a feral warrior would help him deal with the locals.

She thought he was out of his mind, and that these natives were a bunch of savages.

*BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM*

“There is a chaos force on the planet of Ulianor, any aid would be greatly appreciated, as we lack sufficient armored strength. Good luck! The landing alone will be hard.”

ordomalleusviktoria:

Gallus sucked on a cigar, one boot on the neck of a traitor guardsman’s neck and the other on a pile of captured enemy guns. Naturally, with the ulimbics help, the chaos scum had been obliterated, and at little loss too.

Before lengthy introductions with his Ulimbic counterparts could begin, two pieces of news came by the satisfied colonel.

“Sir! Viktoria and that group of mounted locals has been spotted, they’ll be here in five!”

Gallus nodded, grinning. He knew those rough riders would get the job done.

“The other piece of news, trooper?”

“All our guns stopped working.”

Gallus blinked.

“Haah, amusing, soldier. Care to clarify?”

“Currently any and all las based weaponry fails to fire. Given that 95% of the unit is armed with Las-SMG’s, Hotshot lasguns, hotshot laspistols, and hellguns, it effectively means that besides our four heavy bolters, twenty grenade launchers and fourty or so flamer units this regiment is reduced to combat knives.”

“What.”

Soon Viktoria and her band rode up to the colonel.

“Gallus! Its good to see your friendly albiet chewed up face. We have much to discuss!” Viktoria said, easing herself off of her mount with the awkwardness of someone who clearly was not used to riding horseback.

“Yeah, I think we do. Some kind of mystic chaos bullshit just broke all of my goddamn toys out of nowhere for no reason other than to give me a brain anyeurism. You’d think the chaos bastards would wait before commiting something like this, I mean they dont even have ground forces any more, how does this development make any sens-“

Viktoria interrupted the Colonel as his voice shook with incandescent rage. “So we’re all dead then, is what your saying”

“Yeah, basically” Gallus replied

Behind the two of them, the hulking Bae’nor marched up.

“WHATS THIS ABOUT DEFEATISM? THERE IS NO SUCH TRADITION OF FEAR MONGERING FOR THE ASHMEN OF ULLIANOR.”

Gallus turned to the noble.

“Besides dying in battle then, what would you propose, sir… ?”

“Bae’nor, of house Belgrade!”

“Right, right. What could we possibly do?”

Bae’nor took off his helmet and massaged his chin, which like the rest of his face was hairy and ashen.

“Perhaps house Gun can be of some assistance. This problem comes from the new large evil sky horse above this place, yes? The one thats in the process of crushing both of your other sky horses since half of their gun batteries stopped working and they were already desperately outnumbered to begin with?”

“I guess so” Viktoria said, shrugging.

“Then Bae’nor knows a way! Come, bring your warriors with us, we shall go into the mountain and you will see the great cities of our people.”

“Before that, can we please get this House Gun thing rolling. Your people have vox systems dont they, cant you just call this in?”

Bae’nor looked frustrated.

“But I was going to-“

“Tell you what Bae’nor, you speed this particular part of this up, and I promise you, we will definitely go do the city thing, right after. You can show me off to all your friends and maybe we could dance or something but FIRST the big dumb sky horse thing needs to stop doing what its doing, and I dont know how you intend to fix that but please just do it now and be done with it.”

Bae’nor blinked for a few moments, then gestured to one of his knights to bring a very old looking vox system over. He tapped at a few buttons.

“Curator! It has been far too long, I havent heard from you since last all-fathers feast. I have a favor to ask on behalf of house Belgrade.”

…

“Yes, that house Belgrade. The one that sent you all of those fine looking princes and princesses to marry off. Surely you cant have forgotten Stex Aphex an-

…

They all died? You dont say?! And when was this?!”

“BAE’NOR!” Viktoria shouted.

“Oh, right. I’m sure by now you’ve noticed the new sky horse, the big evil one attacking those good looking sky horses?”

“Yes, good, well we were hoping you could shoot a few arrows at it.”

Bae’nor listened for some time without speaking, then nodded and bid ‘Curator’ goodbye.

“Lady of Fire, I have made it so. House Gun. Look to the sky to see the gifts I have bought for you!”

Gallus, Viktoria, Heidi, and all the guardsmen looked up, and noticed that a few peculiar large domes were rising out of several sand-banks around the mountain.

“Theres no way.” Viktoria muttered

“Is that…” Gallus said, grabbing at his binoculars.

The nearest one produced a huge cannon from within a port in the dome.

“GET DOWN!” Gallus shouted, before the entire ring of massive planetary defense guns fired in unison into the sky, burning a huge hole in the cloudy sky. Through that hole a massive explosion could be seen.

As the sky filled with burning debris for the third time that day, the PDF guns quickly burrowed themselves under the desert sands again as the 4th realized much to their glee that lasguns apparently worked again.

“Thats the last time we’ll be able to use those this month. It takes a long time to make the shells, since all is done by hand. Now, shall we go?” said Bae’nor, gesturing ahead back towards the mountain.

The bridge of the Torch of the Will was dark, and unnervingly so. Admiral Karel was standing, mouth agape, at his command pulpit. All of a sudden, glowing orbs emerged on the planet’s surface, and suddenly hurled into the new arrival from the Chaos fleet. The ship was ripped apart in a spectacular array of multicolored explosions, and within moments, the bridge of the battleship flickered to life.

The admiral slumped down into his pulpit, a dumbfounded expression on his face. “Well…….” His stern nature reasserted itself. “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, YOU DOGS?! WE STILL HAVE REBELS TO KILL!”

Meanwhile, on the planet’s surface, the Ulimbic were struggling to fix whatever might be jamming their lasguns, when they too witnessed the spectacle.

“Holy Emperor……” Mouthed Jacobus. Not questioning the tribal’s reasons, seeing as how they had a great deal of firepower at their disposal, he rallied his guardsmen to follow the mounted warriors.

Although if they were going to make him dance, as the Inquisitor said, they had also better have some fine booze to put the Commissar’s confidence at an acceptable level.

(On another note, ask-a-commissar, please ask somebody before you drop a bomb like that into an rp.)

ask-a-commissar:

Lieutenant Kreiger Model 172634-now missing an arm-approaches the Captain. “ The number’s 172634. Because we cannot come into radio contact with our commander, I guess I am in charge now. “ The Cadian Medic bandaging him wipes a tear from his eye. “Our Old Commander was an amazing Commissar. He did so much. One time he punched right through the skull of a-“

“172737, we need to go now.” Magellan interrupted his rambling.  

“Right. Well, lets get going then. You’ll be in Valkyrie 2 with me. Tell your men to find whatever transport that has open spots.” As everyone moves out, three Kreig soldiers climb out of the wreckage. They quickly join the bedlam of soldiers, serfs and knights moving around the wreckage. Within 15 minutes, everyone is on the transports. The Valkyries fly in twin formation, 50ft from the ground, and surpass the knights within minutes. 

“You’re sure you know where we’re going?” 172634 shouts to Magellan over the roar of the engines.

“Yes it should be past this desert and over a mountain!” Magellan shouts back, just barely being heard.

“Alright then.” 172634 shouts back. He moves his hand where his left  arm would have been. On the outside, he’s a normal Kreiger inspecting his wound, inside he’s a man mourning a loss. Magellan takes a glance at him, and thinks the former. Magellan returns his gaze to the darkening desert, going over the events of the day. 

As soon as Jacobus heard the order, he barked out the same to his troops. Ises and others in her heavy weapons contingent set up alongside the Stormtrooper heavy bolters, creating deadly enfilading kill-zones for unwary heretics. Ace and Araleth took their squads and headed for cover, desperately trying to avoid the worst of the mortar bombardment. Varius and Colbert were watching the unholy bastards. This batch looked tougher and more healthy then the last batch, and as they marched forward, Jacobus heard their unnerving chanting, catching only a few words, as the very language they used burned his ears.

And among them were Traitro Legionnaires, with twisted mockeries of holy purity seals flowing from their armor.

“This just got much more interesting.”

Jacobus then piped up among the barrage. “Brothers and Sisters of the Imperial Guard! We shall weather this storm, for their shells are as raindrops compared to our holy might!” Ironically, a few soldiers had their battlecries cut short by a mortar shell. “Black and Reds! You fight alongside the Emperor’s own holy Stormtroopers! Take heart from their example!” He turned to the said Stormtroopers. “4th Shock regiment! Your training places you alongside the mighty Astartes themselves! Are you going to let us regular troops outdo you in battle?!?!?”

(The ultimate BLAM gif)

ask-a-commissar:

The 2 of the 15 Valkyries land on top of the wreckage. They take up firing positions, and join the battle from there. Half of the remaining ships land around the wreckage, and kreigers and Cadians storm out with a mighty yell. The 82 brave men and women fighting for the emperor charge the daemons. 

The horsemen stared at the marvelous sight, briefly forgetting about what they were doing. When the Daemons realize that they are outnumbered, they fight harder, better, faster, stronger. Several Horsemen are knocked off, and fight the daemons in melee.

The other 6 Valkyries fly towards the three crashed chaos frigates, leaving the battle for the others to fight. 

Lieutenant Kreiger Model 172634 leads the charge towards the daemons and the knights. “I FEAR NO EVIL, I FEAR NO DEATH, FOR THE EMPEROR COMES FOR ME!” His prayer has become the troops battle cry. At the point of contact, 172634’s bayonet broke on a daemon’s chest. He stood there, as did several others, staring at the broken knife. The Daemon chuckled to itself, then swiped its claw at the Lieutenant. He was struck, and flew 13 feet backwards. The troops stood dumbstruck at this horrible sight, watching their fearless leader get killed befo-

The Daemon will have no part of this, and begins slaughtering them. It was shot shortly thereafter.

The Ulimbic heavy aerial transport soared through the acidic atmosphere of Ulianor. There was heavy fighting around a particular mountain, and that seemed to be the logical place to begin the search for the missing Inquisitor.

The attacking forces made no effort to hide their allegiance to their dark gods, which made it easier for the Ulimbic soldiers to identify their targets.

The Black and Reds moved like clockwork out of their transport. “MOVE IT 4TH COMPANY! THE EMPEROR NEEDS YOU TO GET YOUR ASSES IN GEAR!” roared the familiar bark of the Commissar. “This is Commissar-Captain Jacobus Colbert, Colonel Gallus. We’re here to assist any way we can and locate the Inquisitor. In the meantime though, we’ll see if we can’t flank these damn heretics.”

Jacobus did not wait for Gallus’ reply, and immediately set about his bloody work.The heretics, so busy with the dug-in stormtroopers to their front, were shocked to see the Black and Reds come storming through the crags to slay them with las-bolt and bayonet, all the while roaring their famous battle cry.

“AHU! AHU! AHU!”

ordomalleusviktoria:

Viktoria was shaken from sleep, feeling dazed and bruised. When she came to she found herself being dragged from a precariously positioned life pod by an angry sister in silver armor, cursing the skies as she tugged at the limp inquisitor.

“Wait, let me just-” Viktoria began, before noticing why she was being tugged. The life-pod, along with a few other motionless serfs still in it, rapidly fell away with a loud crack, as the bedrock that supported it gave way and the pod tumbled away into distant sands.

“FETHING hell that flight attendant couldnt strap a soldier in if Slaanesh itself was overseeing the process. No wonder we all blacked out. I’m going to pull that bastard off the emperors lap, drag him back to the real world just so I can beat the ever loving grox shit out of him!”

Viktoria pushed herself up. groaning.

“Oh good, you can walk Vikki. I always wanted to carry you around but this isnt the best time.”

Viktoria cast a glance at the sister, and then towards the horizon. Across the dusty grey-yellow sky she saw innumerable streaking trails of fire and smoke as dozens of pods landed scattered about, with valkyries in varying states of disrepair hurriedly making desperate landings, often hotly pursued by Chaos talons.

“Feth me…”

“I know! You should have let me shot the bastard who seated you if-“

Viktoria pointed towards the sky, and both watched in silence as a hulking pillar of metal larger than a mountain flew through the sky, burning like a torch and crashing with an earth-shaking ‘BOOM’ that brought Viktoria to the ground again.

Heidi nodded.

“Looks like it landed in some place called the Char Sea. Good thing too, if it landed in the mountains we’d have to deal with volcanic rivers and unbreathable air. Dust seas arent so bad.”

The silver sister offered her charge a hand.

“First things first though, we need to link up with Gallus. Most of his forces were on those pods, and assuming they didnt also have homicidal safety instructors we should be able to link up with survivors.”

Viktoria frowned.

“We… do we have communications? Or some kind of rally point?”

Heidi shook her head.

“Not at all! An-“

She paused, watching as a small chaos-owned sword class frigate slowly lowered itself down from the cloud cover.

“It would seem like hiding in the hills would be a good idea right now. Follow me, I see a few places.”

Viktoria spat out some blood, and limped after her intrepid bodyguard, who hummed as chaos fighter wings screamed overhead.

The Emperor-class battleship Torch of the Will exited the warp over Ulianor, right in the midst of several Chaos escort ships. The tension on the bridge was thick as the rotgut brewed by the bilge rats until the admiral unceremoniously roared “OPEN FIRE!” The gun crews complied hurriedly, the worry etched on their faces as they frantically began to load the macrocannons.

Meanwhile, the guardsmen assembled in the Torch’s hangar began to load themselves onto transports. Sixth platoon was particularly frantic. Jacobus and Varius were mobilizing their forces.

“Our particular company is aiming to locate and secure the Inquisitor. The rest of the regiment is moving to secure the wreck of the Virgil.”

The hangar shook with the sound of macrocannon rounds bursting on the hull of the battleship. Varius chimed in with his Commissar. “Brace yourselves, boys and girls! It’s gonna be a hot flight!”

As their transport left the hangar, the guardsmen were thankful that there were no windows, as there would undoubtedly be transports that went down in their descent, and it would be better not to know that.

Jacobus in particular gave his own aquila pendant a quick kiss, and prayed to the Emperor that this particular transport would find their mark.

Colbert laughs a bit, almost choking on the fumes of his lho-stick. “Well, that’s one way to do it I suppose. Good on you, Commander.”

ordomalleusviktoria:

This is Captain Magellan of the INS Virgil requesting immediate search and rescue and evacuation of wounded, priority level Gamma, Inquisitorial sanc- *static*

…forces have downed us over planet Ulianor, grid-map Delta-sierra-foxtrot, Segmentum Obscurus, near the eye of terror.

Opfor has heavily entrenched and… -static- cannot hold out! Heavy casualties and wounded!

All imperial forces this beacon is set to repeat! Chaos elements hav-

*static, crackling*

Crash site currently unknown, rapid deceleration imminent. This message is set to playback from probe 04, I repeat, massive chaos incurs-

“IMPACT IN TWO MINUTES!”

This message is set to repeat. I say again any imperial forces respond!

…

This is Captain Magellan of the INS Virgil requesting…

<playback loop. Scrubbing. Last known position, Ash-world Ulianor, Segmentum Obscurus, unidentified debris field XC-227 in high orbit.>

»Accept aid request?

Y/N

Lord General Zaxen ponders the request for aid, before finally settling on the Y option.

“Lord Commissar, get the troops assembled, we’re going on a rescue mission! And notify sixth platoon, they’ve had some experience dealing with these people.”