40kRP: TMC: Chapter 2 - Of Ice and Steel

[Dark Lord Nihilus]

An soulless, apathetic purpose drove the Necron Lord with vigor unlike that of its lesser brethren. His cognitive network was affixed upon the single prompt, the single function of locating and retrieving his mighty weapon. Two pariahs proceeded his, two flanked him, and two trailed behind. The first pair stalked mercilessly forth, shouldering aside the gargantuan doors which sealed the tomb. They had barely gone forward when the were cut down by a shimmering form, the skull of one lifted into the air and seemingly manipulated before discarded. With a wordless command the flanking Pariahs stepped back and the trailing pair hastened to join with their brethren. Raising their warscythes simultaneously they opened fire, relentless raking the air with the high power discharge from their gauss blasters. Without a clear target upon their adversary, the Pariahs fired indiscriminately, pumping enough crackling bolts that a few should invariably hit their target regardless of whether they could perceive him or not. Bolts ricocheted off of the floors, walls, and on occasion Lord Kriyoset. The potent necrodermis deflected the bolts with capricious ease.

Whilst his bodyguards retreated Lord Kriyoset leapt into the fray, for an instant the blur of a figure dodging the tempest of gauss energy was visible. With a powerful strike, he sent the figure flying landing crumpled on the earth. The intruder’s armor had absorbed the blow, yet not with the ease to be expected. A smoking crater was left in the wake of the Necron Lord’s strike, and the suit’s field generated camouflage began to flicker. Lord Kriyoset’s clawed crackled with sickly energy, and the air raged around them. Although unarmed he was far from helpless empowered by the disruption field modification common to the tombs scarabs. The disruption fields warped matter causing even fabled adamantium to buckle under prolonged contact.

The Pariahs advanced as one, continuing to focus fire on the prone being. In the depths of the tomb the pounding sound of marching was heard. The ancient warriors had awoken, and they arose to reap their harvest from the living. They would begin with the intruder and spread forth until the entire planet was culled in the name of their baleful god.

 

[Arion]

RE: Of Ice and Steel

Na'ske blinked, realising that he was suddenly thrown against the snowy floor. He forced himslef up and rolled away from the gauss blasts. And landed behind a snowdrift, his wounded leg collapsing under him, he quickly pulled out his pistol and the new knife.
He sighed, and then looked out over the snow drift,and realised they were still shooting at something that looked like him, with a sudden flash of intuition he realised that Oto'kais was maintaining a holographic image of him. That wouldn't last much longer.

Flicking a switch to incedinary, he poked out of his hiding spot again. Drawing careful aim, he shot the first pariah in the eyes, blinding it and causing it to chop its ally in half. He then dispatched the last 3 in the same way. The Lord turned to his position, but the bullets did nothing to him.

"Slightly fairer this way, don't you think?, 1v1" Na'ske addressed the Lord.

Kyrioset came racing forward and smashed the pistol in half as Na'ske rolled away and settled into a practised fighting stance.

OOClease note: My camouflage is exactly that, camouflage . The suit changes depending on what it is in contact with. I am not invisible!

 

[TMS]

RE: Of Ice and Steel

OOC - I hope this will fit in with how you've imagined it all to "look like", heheh.

-------------------------------

The Eldar warriors approached the Necron outpost only to find it to be seemingly abandoned. The human-made buildings were silent and dark, showing nothing to evidence the presence of the soulless automatons that they had come to vanquish. Even the defensive measures, tall pylons that were scattered about the base, stood still and inactive.

Still grasping his crackling halberd with both hands, Cebalrai bellowed in frustration as there were no enemy in sight to tear asunder. Trying his best to soothe the vengeful spirit, the accompanying Warlock sent him a telepathic thought,

-“Patience Starstrider, it seems that we are fortunate enough to have arrived at this location before the Necrons have had any time to surface and fortify. If our good fortune holds through, we might be able to repel the soulless monsters and thus deny them the use of this base.”

The Wraithlord stopped in his stride, the upper parts of his construct-body heaving up and down as if in anticipation and exhilaration. Around him, the Eldar Guardians moved in to secure the immediate perimeter and to find favourable positions should the enemy appear. The Striking Scorpions that skulked somewhere in the surrounding area kept their distance, ready to pounce at any hostile creature that might show itself.
Suddenly, green lights started to glow here and there about the outpost.

-“The Necrons are awakening. Disable the defensive constructs before they get a chance to strike!”, the Warlock called out over the communications channel. Acting swiftly, the Striking Scorpions leapt forth and hurled their haywire grenades at the pylons, disabling them before they could unleash their destructive payload at the besiegers.

Seizing the initiative, Cebalrai thundered towards a central-command building as its doors slowly swung open to reveal an entrance to the underground tomb-network that the Necrons would soon emerge from. Despite his wraithsight he could make out some form of unexpected commotion as he drew closer, every stride causing the earth to shift. The Eldar Guardians started to race towards the assorted buildings behind their Wraithlord but they could not keep up with him. As he reached the central building, Cebalrai was greeted with several blasts of gauss energy unleashed from the warscythes of Necron Pariahs, the pulsing green lightning impacting on his wraithbone shell, seemingly unable to penetrate the outer casing as it washed over the polished surface like water from a hose.

 

[Trevy the Great]

RE: Of Ice and Steel

The dull thud of detonating bolter shells echoed about the hallway as the mass-reactive ordinance blew apart yet another Necron warrior. His presence detected and location pinpointed, Prexis had removed the bulky silencer from his Bolter, and switched his personal sheild from a blank quality to a true energy barrier. He moved down the now empty hall quickly, taking a moment to slice his power sword through the blackened corpses of two Necron warriors that lay on the far end. He rounded a sharp corner, seeing an entrance to another, larger chamber several meters away, the passage guarded by two Pariahs.
The first fell, it's torso turned to molten metal by a plasma bolt and the other decapitated by Prexis' power sword before it could react.
The way clear, Prexis ran quickly into the larger chamber, his autosenses quickly taking in the height of the massive room. Around the edge, hundreds of empty alcoves that once contained Necron warriors lined like dark mouths. The walls, covered in arcane script and symbols, reached hundreds of meters into the darkness ahead. Above him, Prexis' enhanced senses could make out several Tomb Spyders, managing the glyphs on the wall or carrying damaged warriors into the darkness. Prexis carried on, however his approach was not left unnoticed. A beam of green light lanced from one of the spyders, hitting his sheilds and stopping in a flash of green light. Prexis turned suddenly, firing his plasma weapon rapidly, before the weapon began to overheat and he was forced to drop it. The Tomb spyder that had been firing at him dropped slowly, half of the massive construct melted and in flames. Another descended upon him, and several deft shots from Prexis' plasma pistol blinded it, and the spyder crashed into the floor of the massive chamber. But that was not all, as hundreds of tiny metal insects began to descend from all crevices of the chamber.
Grabbing his bolter, Prexis ran from the room into the closest door. He had no idea if it was the right one, but he hoped that the power of the Daemon Lord would choose for him. He made it through into the empty halls as the scarabs began to reach him, one battering his helmet and knocking him back against the wall.
Apparently the rune he hit was the one to close the door.
The tide of insects stopped, Prexis dispatched those that had made it through before he began to make his way down the tunnel. On second thought, he shot the rune he had fallen on. He hoped that it would hold the door.

 

[Gree]

RE: Of Ice and Steel

Shas’o Kir’cea stood out of her Crisis suit in her combat uniform and looked down at the burning remains of Dalu City. A feeling of sorrow and disgust ran through her body and the sight.

When she had returned from the retreat from the Space Marines she was shocked to see an invasion by a foe that had appeared out of thin air. In one fell swoop Dalu city, the Tau presence on the southern continent was gone.

The failure weighed upon her heavily. She had sixteen years as a fire warrior, but this was her first command as a Shas’o, she had seen and fought against all manner of foes? But this kind of thing?

She had been assigned to command the military forces of this city and in that task she had failed in her mandate to govern and protect. But she would not let such feelings overwhelm her, she was a Shas’o.

‘’Shas’o’’ a voice sounded near her. It was one of her Shas’vre. ‘’Ethereal Aun’el Sho’ka is present’’ she turned and thanked him as the Ethereal arrived. His head cocked to one side.

‘’You are troubled, O’Kir’cea’’ he stated. The Tau was an excellent reader of moods.’ The loss of the city troubles you? Yes?’’ he questioned her.

‘’In a way yes, we had held on the city as part of the Empire, we had promised the inhabits that we would protect it, and now almost all of them are dead’’ she remarked with sorrow, casting her eyes over the desolation,

‘’The road of the Greater Good is rife with sorrow and hardship, but we must overcome in the name of T’au’’ Sho’ka quoted one of Aun’va’s many sayings on the greater good.

‘’You are right of course Aun’el, I have experienced death and destruction before, it is not the defeat of loss of life, as regrettable to the Greater Good as it may be’’ she said, eyes flickering back at the ruins.

‘’It is just that these…. Chaos followers are utterly mad. The Imperial Gue’la are barbaric enough but even they can be reasoned with to an extent. Chaos is utterly destructive and made, completely uncaring of their own lives for any cause other than senseless slaughter’’ she remarked.

‘’These, things’’ she spat in disgust. ‘’They are the worst’’ The Tau had recorded unknown alien life forms seemingly teleporting into existence with their battles with Chaos Marines. But they had never seen it to this kind of scale.

To this date the Tau do not know the exact relationship these ‘’Daemons'' have with the chaos Gue'la nor do they have any idea how they are to able to shrug off a railgun round or their mysterious methods of teleportation. Certain earth caste scientists believed that they were similar to necrons but that theory was unproven.

‘’I think, Aun’el, that for the first time in my life I genuinely hate a race, I pity the Gue’la, I pity the orks, the tyranids are mindless animals, the eldar are utterly inscrutable, but chaos, chaos is utterly insane’’ she finished, revulsion in her voice.

‘’There are races out it the galaxy that cannot coexist with the greater good no matter what, the orks and tyranids are some, the Gue’la can join use, but these species cannot, perhaps we can cause the chaos Gue’la faction to see the error of these ways If we destroy these… things’’ he said, deep in though.

O’Kir’cea sighed. ‘’I am not a philosopher, Aun’el, but at the moment I will have to rescue the rearguard of my troops from the outskirts of the city, the less dead the better’’ she said with finality.

Aun’el Sho’ka nodded. ‘’Of course Shas’O, may the greater good be with you’’ he said as the female commander leapt into her command suit and plugged herself into the controls.

‘’Thank you, Aun’el’’ she said as the chestpeice of her suit closed and she took off.

 

[Trevy the Great]

Prexis sprinted through seemingly endless halls, marveling at the craftsmanship that allowed these machines to bury what seemed to be an entire city beneath the ice. He turned yet another perfectly chiseled corner and was met with a blast of green lightning from a group of warriors that occupied the other end of the hall. Firing his bolter from the hip, the mass-reactive shells shrieking across the long hall as bolts of white light before detonating deep within the bodies of several of the metallic skeletons, severing torsos and limbs, Prexis quickly closed the distance between them even as more flashes of green light erupted from him, drawing precious energy from his shield and returning it to the Warrior's spiked weapons. In a moment, Prexis' bolter had stopped firing and clattered to the ground, several moments after that the Warriors had ceased to exist in single pieces, and only moments after that the ornate door at the far end of the hall had opened and closed.
The resistance was getting stronger, he must be getting closer.

 

[Arion]

As the Lord marched towards him Na'ske moved in slowly, partly from his limp, but also from caution. Kyrioset lunged forward, attempting to grab Na'ske and kill him with the phase field, but Na'ske was quicker, he rolled to the side, wincing slightly and broke three of Kyriosets ribs with the knife. But was then sent staggering by a blow in the back, his armor smoking. They enaged in a close quarters duel, Na'ske trying to avoid contact for more than a second while darting in at openings, slashing here, delivering a harsh punch there. Kyrioset couldn't hit him effectively, but neither could Na'ske do any serious damage before repairs moved in.

They continued in this way for some time but the reverie was broken by a quick com-link message.

"See if you can reach the top of the main outpost building, evac awaiting you there."

He turned, the dropship was indeed hovering in cover from the towers and out of view of any reinforcement. Delivering a solid punch to Kyriosets face, which simply snapped back again, Na'ske began running to a side ladder. His muscles pumping, temporarily ignoring the pain he clambered up the ladder, just in time to see Kyrioset leap up and crash down next to him.

The Dropship began rising, and without a pause Na'ske held onto an outstretched arm. As he climbed in, the ship turned and began to aim the railguns. Kyrioset looked almost horrified as his advanced senses saw the bullets in slow motion, small holes in his chest became large ones as the metal was ripped away. He collapsed as Na'ske sank gratefully onto the floor of the ship.