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2015/12/03 23:25:57
Subject: The Rogue Trader Dynasty - 6th update, For the Emperor - For McGroy!
This will be the story, background and future chapters of the McGroy Rogue Trader Dynasty.
The background fiction, from which I draw my models used on the tabletop level. Like a space marine chapter, but with less gene mutations. As of yet...
Pictures are taken from google, and is meant to give an example of the crew and soldiers look.
Commander of the McGroy Dynasty of Rogue Traders, Everwatching of Sub Sector Auran, of Segmentum Solar.
McGroy holds a vast fleet, compomising of several tanker-, cargo-, transport- and warships
His fleet are remnants of gifts, granted to his family's lineage by the Adeptus Mechanicus of Mars, and his Command Barge, Comet Imperiator, was produced on the sacred moons of Jupiter a long time ago.
He has plenty of troops at his disposal, displaying beyond guardsman-level grade equipment, as his ties to the Mechanicus are strong and old.
The Comet Imperiator is a gigantic battleship, combined with the agility and speed of a grand cruiser, a marvel of technology, and the most ornate of ships in his possesion. Of all the ships, this one is irreplaceable. Once already, has the dynasty had to have it refitted after its defeat in battle.
Its size challenges those of others of its class, measuring in at almost 7 terran kilometers in length, and almost 1 kilometer in width. Its hull elegantly artificed to allow speed and agility of its size, however sacrifising in firepower.
Among other ships of notice are his three sons' command barges, each a Dauntless Class Light Cruiser, with a length reaching the 1,5 kilometre.
the Shield Of Auran, Astral Purifier and Auran Maximus.
His sons, at the age of 48, 43 and 40, stand head of his three divisions of warfare. The Infantry, Mechanized and Navy.
The oldest son, Lennardt Maximillian Augustus McGroy the 24th. Or simply McGroy Junior.
Heir to the rogue trader dynasty. Trained in the arts of war in the Schola Progenium, Officio Prefectus and lastly served in the Imperial Navy for 10 years, befor he returned to his fathers trade of life.
He commandeers, alongside his father, the entire McGroy fleet, and in His place, he lays down destruction with the vessels unto the worlds they wish to capture.
Lucius Verus Mcgroy, commander of McGroy's Mechanized army. Master of his division of tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and a few underground and underwater vessels.
Trained in the Schola Progenium, and served alongside some of the best tank commanders The Imperium has, he too returned home, when he was deemed ready.
and lastly, the youngest of the brothers, Galan Nacisse McGroy.
He had merely finished his training as an Imperial General as he was recalled for reasons unknown.
He serves now as the General of the troops of McGroy, guiding to victory on the ground, trough dangers unheard of.
McGroy himself, close to 90 years. Biologically and mechanically enhanced, and as such having the grip of reality and body of only a 50 year old. His body is old with scars.
His left leg and arm, blown off in a battle long ago, replaced with the finest bionics, and interfaced with a powerful boltgun, and power sabre.
Half his head bald with metal from his bionic red eye, ever-peering into the boid of space, analyzing every last fragment of information. The other half, with short stocky red hair, peering from the McGroys lineage back to the Auran Sub-sector of Auran Prime.
Around his body he wears a big brown coat, sewn with the finest leather, and imbued with a special string, created doing the Dark Age of Technology, rendering the coat all but immune to the most potent of firearms.
He displays very little physical bionics, but underneath the skin, dynamoes, cog and unimaginable parts spin around, his brain and nervous system, amplified ten-fold.
To the mortal man, McGroy looks just like any other captain. But the truth is, that with all the weaponry, bionics, mechanics, drugs and other enhancements. McGroy could stand toe to toe with even the mighty astartes and come out on-top.
Aboard his vessel Comet Imperiator, a special design was made. The interior is nowhere as dystopian as other ships of the Imperium. In fact, every part of the ship, is covered in wood-resembling plasteel, turning the ships interior, into what can only be described as the most luxurious interior a planetary governor could afford for his household.
McGroy carries not only potent weaponry, but relics and ancient xeno artifacts aswell. Though he can only keep these, as a sign of trust from the Adeptus Mechanicus, as they regularly aid them in exploration missions, across the unexplored void.
However, not all care for the succes of McGroy. The Inquisition keeps a keen eye on the dynasty, as many of those that join them are everything ranging from veterans and gangers to rebels and even inquisitorial refugees.
In fact, McGroy hires anyone better at handling their weapons, than standard imperial guardsmen of the Astra Militarum.
Struggles ahead
Recently, on a mission to colonize a new planet named Otides V, the vast fleet, and colonist transports, was caught in a warpstorm. For how long they were trapped, they do not know.
What they do know, however, is that they ended up nowhere near their destination, and with every astropath but McGroys personal astropath's head blown to pieces, by the psychik schriek of the immaterium.
While a great setback, this did not stop McGroy in furthering the plans of colonization. Transporting both colonists and equipment down to the planet's surface.
Soon however, they found they were not alone. Pax Aquilarium Prime as the locals called the planet, was infested. It had been the center and destination of the warpstorm.
Many different enemies and allies had been swept up here.
Corrupted guardsmen and Orks were the first of the colonists problems, as they descended upon the new inhabitants of the planet.
Another great blow was dealt, as the planet opened wide at equator, and a city arose. A necron dynasty was beginning to awake.
McGroy's forces had been blown ashore a deserted planet, only to find it anything but deserted. They'd have to fight with everything they have, and hope that they could reach help from someone, somewhere. No matter the cost...
Dim morning light began to lighten up the interior of the Comet Imperator. The ship had been in orbit around Auran Secondus for nearly 2 terran weeks, as supplies was shipped into the massive cruiser, and civillian and military vessels alike joining the already vast armada of starships.
finally as the rotational field of the planet had drawn them around to the sun litten side, was the last supplies and colonists being shipped into orbit.
McGroy himself had overseen every single cargo delivery to ensure that no outlawed material was being brought aboard. That is, without paying a certain amount of Imperial credits, for the ship's crew to look the other way.
several of these bribes had already passen trough the checkpoints into orbit, with the help from McGroy's forces. Liquor, tobacco, magazines, heck, a wealthy merchant that'd want to setup shop on the new planet, had asked for a "special agreement" to have crates of autoguns brought onboard.
None of these however, was anything compared to what McGroy himself was about to bring aboard. Trough trade and guile, commanderie and a slight amount of luck, McGroy had managed to "hire" a bunch of ogryns. Told that they would push forward the Emperors light into the unknown, they had been tricked into following McGroy. Though not far from the truth, they'd end up following more of McGroys commands than the Emperors. McGroy though of it merely as borrowing some assets for the time being, and an addition to his already formidable collection of weapons and armsmen.
But the ogryns was not all, fresh from the forges of Ryza, a shipment of plasma weaponry had arrived. McGroy had gone trough a lot to have such powerful weapons brought unto his ship. Another gift from the techpriests he'd been given, after pulling a series of strings.
As the last cargoship flew away from the fleet, McGroy headed for the bridge, and as he entered gestures of respect was made towards him.
Captain Rykul looked to meet the gaze of McGroy, as he began: "Admiral, all ships have been refueled, repaired and are ready to depart for Otides V, we are only waiting for your oldest son, to be transported to his ship"
McGroy looked too to meet the face of man not barely 10 years younger than himself, though much more old looking, weathered and grim. "Where is he currently?"
Without retracting a muscle, yet with a slight expression of a grin on his face, Rykul put it simply: "He's heading straight into orbit on board a carrier, he'd been visiting a certain madam on the planet"
Letting out a small laugh, McGroy remembered his old days as a young explorer, and his endeavours around the female counterparts. "Have his ship ready for departing the second he is onboard"
The slight expression of a grin turning into a smile, "Yes sir" Rykul said.
Climbing into the captains chair, Rukyl was wired into the ship itself, steering it with his mind, and feeling every inch of its hulls and interior crawl with life from the many passengers and crewmen aboard.
As he ascended, so did the rest of the captains on the other ships. Each of them could feel their ships propulsions hasten in the void, as they prepared to accelerate outwards.
From his command station, McGroy could see the armada prepare. His three sons barges, the Shielf of Auran, Astral Purifier and Auran Maximus, flying into a pattern around his own ship.
Up here, the planet looked tiny, a hive world with a population close to the 60 billion, well governed, well suppllied and well connected. It looked tiny, and he knew that it was, for had his dynasty not aided it time and time again, it'd be ashes. He was, afterall, the Everwatching of Auran, a title that was inherited along with the the position of admiral in the dynasty.
He took one last look back on the planet, turning his head toward the void, and the messenger that brought the voxlink with the news of his sons arrival on board The Shield.
With a smile of lust for adventure, exploration and more valuable artifacts, he commanded his fleet. "Attention all ships! This is McGroy. Execute formation Bravo and prepare for majority warp jump. We're setting course for Otides!"
The combined propulsions began to rock the void, and the ships' gellar fields began to spark into life as the warpdrives turned active, sending lightnings around in a bubble over the ships.
Crackles of lightning flayed the universe around the fleet, and a massive whirlpool of unreal proportions and reality bending power appeared before the armade of ships.
All in cohersion they flew forward, into the gates of hell known as the Immaterium.
Aboard Compet Imerator, McGroy himself sat calmly, waiting for the information from his astropaths, comm-servitors and astro scanners. after 20 exhausting minutes, his instruments showed no warp fluctuations, and the all-clear was given aboard the ship.
He had expected no problems doing transit, after all, his ship was one of the finest that could be built. Created for the purpose of exploration, and with stronger gellar fiels and warp drives than others of its class.
As the last ship of the fleet Emerged from the real-space portal, he sent out signal to the other captains and admirals.
*Commlink crackles* McGroy to all commanders of the colonization fleet, report your status
No more than a couple minutes afterwards, the astropaths began relaying the voxes from the fleet.
All ships reported no fluctuations, and the armada commenced their warp travel.
Their destination: Otides, a system which had been ravaged by war with orks, and after their WAAARGH! had left the system, was deemed worthy of recolonization.
Their mission: Setup base on Otides Secundus, a desert planet, former hive world. Locate any valuable resources and secure these using the regiments of guardsmen part of the fleet.
All of this was easy. Nothing McGroy hadn't done before. This time, he even had more men at his disposal. 4 full regiments of infantry guardsmen, the Auran 53rd, 88th, 91st and 96th, as well as a regiment of Leman Russ Tanks, of the famous regiment, The Armaggedon 1343rd Steel legion.
The reports given to him before his departure had shown that most of the orks on the planet ahd devolved into a feral state, and as such, clearing out the main land would be easy. The only troubling part would be the hive city Leikert, where a band of orks had setup shop, and as such, would still be in possesion of technology.
He'd had to worry about that later, though.
Not even 2 hours into his expedition, and the sensors aboard one of the fleet ships had gone off. He brought up a vox link of the ship, and could see the problem. The warp was fluctuating around the ship, and the gellar fields was being stressed ti the maximum.
Phenomena Galore The Valiant Heart, a battleship of approximately 2 thousand metres, carrying one of the 4 regiments of the infantry, was caught in a wave of warp energy. Even with the gellar fields restored to near 100% efficiency before departure from Auran Secundus, they were being strained by the raw material of the immaterium, crashing against the ship like a flood.
Aboard the ship, most of the guardsmen had went to sleep the second they'd departed, hoping for some R&R before they'd been put to work on the battlefield of Otides. What they got was anything but R&R. They'd been woken by the sounds of clawing on the hull, temperature swings, blood rain in their compartments.
Oh yeah. And a minor demon incursion.
The regiment was mobilizing, from all around the ship, demons was warping in, and the gellar fields at the bow of the ship was failing drastically.
From his command seat Lennardt McGroy could begin seeing abnormalies protruding from the ships hull. The bow was changing from a magificent golden eagle, into a twisted parody of chaos. Tentacles was wrapping itself arund the ship, protruding towards the bridge, and trying to encase as much of the ship as possible.
Alarm sirens were going off, as the Valiant Heart declared itself at the brink, begging for reinforcements.
However, before any troops could be sent to the ship, and before any could be evacuted, the rest of the warp storm hit.
Aboard the whole armada, alarms went off, as the crew prepared for war.
Demons, blood, gore, ghosts, orcs, explosions, mad psykers. Anything that could possible go wrong, was going a lot worse than total disaster.
McGroy rose from his throne, and began relaying orders to his commanders.
Captain Rykul, take command of the ship, and inform the rest of the captains to secure any valuable assets, as well as all valuable personel. We can't stay in this world of madness for much longer, we'll have to dewarp soon!
Rykul took a swift look at his commander, and began ordering the astropaths to send out the plans to the fleet.
Himself took the ships command chair, locked into place, he began securing and locking down the ship, while the crew onboard fought off the invaders.
McGroy found himself in the ships armoury, as he was preparing for war.
He went off to what could only be described as non interesting wall, he uttered a command word and the walls swung open, revealing a hidden armory.
Inside, he don his armour, a refitted set of inquisitorial power armour of the Ignatus pattern.
For the fight ahead he picks his favorite weapons, a storm bolter and storm shield, as well as a xeno work of art: The Phase sword
Before heading out, he picks up a small necklace, opening it up revealing a digi-pic of his family and himself. With a click of a button, he's engulfed in a refractive field.
Demons are attacking his ship, and hell if they're going to take his Comet away! He'll see to the demons end before they see to his.
Reports just came in, as the Titanic void ship; The Comet Imperator flew into the shadow of the planet, dark times lay ahead but the battle report had to wait, the city were lost, one of many that fell to the necron advance on the planet’s surface below. Yet they were slow, and could be outmaneuvered, McGroy himself had fought worse than this, but he struggled in his mind and tried to understand how they refused to lay down and die, as they should. After ranks and ranks of fire that could fell any mortal man.
That was something the brutal orks at least did, Die, the agile Eldar Ran if you dropped a few well-placed airstrikes on top of them, and the local guardsmen did at least take a hint when you send down a few pair of rations their way, and wished them a good day with a few orbital shells. They seemed to secure the provisions and transport them back at first chance.
Heck even the space marines with their millennium old machines and bikes had been but single raids and small bites at his ankle. But when you look at something from space it’s always so small on the surface, but it also could reveal the true scale of this threat rising. Even from this high vantage point, he could see them spreading further by every passing moment on the planet. A metal carpet of dread constructions of xeno tech was slowly covering the planet, destroying all life in its way. The old Rouge trader could almost feel it in his chest how every single step they took was closer and closer to taking the planet and foil what he had fought for, for so long.
He realized his heart was beating fast… He had kept his heart, supporting it with argumentations to make sure he did not kick the bucket anytime soon from old age… it had many good years left.
He took yet another slurp of his glass with a transparent liquid, too thick to be water. He sat down in his office, the dystopian skulls that covered his walls and almost looked at him though their empty gaze. He could not shake the feeling off that he was being observed by them, he sat down and looked at the report, packed in brown paper with his sons seal on it.
>>> M41:xxxx
By Galan Nacisse McGroy
Unknown city detected, investigation proved that it had potential for reconstruction.
City defence has through some investigation been restored by the Mechanicus; their investigation of the city has proven to show signs of seismic activity, nothing of note.
Unknown signature has possibly been detected; a single psyker has been recovered saying something is stalking him. Further investigation has been issued. Subject has been restrained due to suspicion of unsafe activities. But cooperates for the sake of his protection.
Target located, we have been approached by an assassin of the Office Assassinarum he has us pinned down.
Images has been received from orbital scans of the city, they show movement through the city.
Orbital scans now confirm the movement of enemy forces towards our location.
We got visual contact with- [NECRONs]- Defensive measures has been taken.
Forces has been deployed to repel the threat.
Enemy has been stalled, awaiting reinforcements.
Holding the defended area. All Mechanicus has evacuated the city and reinforcements are inbound.
City defenses prove efficient to hold off the enemy forces.
Reinforcements has come and the threat has been neutraliz-
Enemy reinforcements has arrived, their numbers are too great.
All forces has been evacuated. All wounded has been taken out with the Vendettas all other forces have reported back at the ground base.
All signs of the stray psyker has been lost and enemy forces have overrun the Assassin. <<<
McGroy took yet another slurp of his glass, emptying it, he was filled with a grim feeling about the city but he felt proud that his blood still showed signs of Great potential. He put it into his drawer; already overflowing with reports. His sons had performed extraordinary.
He was on sight, as his men aimed their bombardment planet-side. One thing he would not run out off soon was ammounition; he could bombard them for years to come. He leaned back saving this thoughts trying to forget it for a moment, yet… peace would not come to him just yet….
He heard a sound, a strange one… a knocking on glass… he turned towards the window, out into the cold-vacuumed void to see something out there. Something too big to be an asteroid came into view, A ship not of any human design, the sharp shapes, and the pyramid feature on top was a dead giveaway. He stopped breathing for a moment. Space, the sanctum for his operations, where he launched his forces now violated by this… this… Thing.
The monolithic tomb ship drifted slowly by in the distance. He could tell it was at least 15 kilometers long.
“Magnificent isn’t it?” a raspy voice said behind him. Something was in the room… the monotone sound spoke out like a whisper, echoing though out his office.
McGroy turned to see a skeletal figure mummified in metallic bonds, that seemed to move like there was a soft wind in the room, yet no such weather was. Ghostly and towering over the rogue trader by half a meter. Its metal bones were hidden well under the bonds of metal that bore glyphs of a language not meant to be spoken by mortals, a grim smile was on the creature’s death mask that covered its skull and its cosmic age was written across its body in scratches and hints of rust that could just as well betray the eye.
Its bodywork was not like anything he had seen in his long life involving the many wonders and horrors of the relationship with the Mechanicus.
It moved with grace of a living being despite being metal, no chance of being a suit as he could see glimpse rays of light coming from the other side of the room though its ribbed torso.
McGroy was quick to act, he produced his storm bolter, and directed it up against the intruder yet he halted before emptying the clip into the bodywork of the Xeno intruder.
“Easy now Rouge trader, if I were here to fight I would have not thrown away the advantage of surprise, would I” the ghoulish construct spoke in an emotionless voice that cut straight to his very soul, slick and sharp.
In disbelief, he looked at it, “They don’t talk… they don’t knock on windows but they do die… “
He opened fire at the alien creature and saw as the bolts simply falling to the ground after impact on the monstrous thing… Then they went off, showering the room in light, flint and shrapnel.
McGroy ducked and took cover behind his office table that had been reinforced to protect him from anything, and it had earned justice for the price he paid for it back then. As many trades in this office had turned down a very bad road.
“Tsk tsk tsk” the raspy voice said… “I am here to talk… My employer is not very pleased with your offense against his forces… but he finds you… worthy of a chance…”
McGroy looked over the table edge, Bolter first.
“What do you suggest…Xeno?!!”
Once again, the hollow voice began to cut at his soul, as the words were banefully slowly escaping him, almost as they never were meant to be said.
“He wants to… Trade”
“Trade what?!” McGroy raised himself upright and stood tall.
“Your help, for our… peace…”
“Stop speaking like a preacher and cut to the chase....” McGroy’s eyes were almost in flames, his determination was flaming, though he had had a bad day already… but if this was going to be his last; he’d go out with some dignity.”
“Stop your assaults against the Necron forces on the planet below us and we will spare you and your forces from the fate of extermination that my Phaeron brings to this planet. He has some interesting… obsessions.
He seeks only the destruction of the native races… now. If I could put a word through to him… and you would not get in his way… we will leave the planet alone after all other life has been exposed to the “Glorious Extermination”.
McGroy looked in disbelief at the ragged and ancient machine that had given an offer that sounded most interesting, but being a Rogue Trader means more than just making deals, there is always a catch and these aliens would seem treacherous at any turn and twist that they get their wicked hands at. And this Phaeron… he had heard that word before somewhere inside his mind, somehow it was escaping his thoughts, he had to focus.
“What’s the downside to this, xeno?” He firmly asked, raising an eyebrow to show his doubts.
“My phaeron sees it… as your forces are either not important or simply insignificant, but still sees you as a possible threat to the smoothness of this operation. Now I am not the one to speak the words of my overlord, I am but the messenger.”
“Yeah… and why not just wipe us out? Your ship out there isn’t tough enough. I’ve been in space battles before; my fleets against your ship… your chances are not looking good. I think your Phaeron is scared”,
For the first time since the encounter had started, McGroy’s arguments finally had some solid ground in it. He remembered the words his Father always said, “When weapons does not solve the problem, words might just do the job and more” those words had saved him many times over.
The machine still just stood there, as if it was thinking… or processing, he had seen this before with most people… much similar to his meeting with some Mechanicus fella’ that just simply froze… this was maybe his chance.
“While it is true that your fleet is impressive on its own… I will admit that I am not here to measure the force of our weapons, knowing your type… Let me throw in something good for you then…”
McGroy knew he had hit a weak point in the machines argument, and he was now trying to convince him by trying to bribe him out. “What you think is wor-“. He was cut short as the bindings around the skeletons body began to unfold and reveal something new….
McGroy quickly readied his storm bolter again and was about to open fire as something unexpected hit the floor in front of him.
As if pulled out of some heretical portal, the bindings fell aside to reveal 2 figures that shocked him and surprised him. What looked like a twitching psyker and a muscular man, embalmed in synthskin, lay on the ground in front of him…
“These 2 were recovered fighting at your side… one tried to escape though the means of the warp… the other was aquired by our lych gaurds… both put up quite a fight for humans… I think you want them for your own good”
“Emperor be…” he mumbled to himself. Astonished by this sudden development. He was sure that man was a Vindicare, the helmet and the weapon that was attached to him, little doubt was to be had.
“Even though the necron forces won’t touch you anymore… you need to fight off an entire planet… first. Now I see you have little hold of the planet itself… and if the necrons were to perish of all sudden… the weakest would go first.”
McGroy took a deep breath, he could see it… without the necron threat to occupy the Local imperial forces he had provoked with his sudden instruction and the other xeno races, he would be a lone group isolated from any allies, not even the Mechanicus would help him decimate an entire planet for anything he could offer right now.
Maybe this… would be the better deal off for now. He could always consider the development later.
Before he made any further thoughts, the door opened and a squad of Veterans stepped into the room wearing their flak armor, led by McGroy’s youngest son that had received the word from an operator watching his father’s office televox feed
The feed had been disrupted by a sudden unexplainable interference. It had taken a nearby tech priest some time to restart the system and see some strange disturbance on the feed and something laying on the floor.
Something must have prevented them from seeing the giant alien in the middle of the room, as the guardsmen that entered the room had requested access though the intercom, but had received but dead air, and decided to go check on him. Their reaction never the less was what to expect. As these had not been in any state prepared for what met them in the room.
The doors shut, and locked itself… and the camera feed once again died.
What happened afterwards were a blur, most of McGroy’s men never heard about this episode while rumors said that a devil itself had entered the room and had cast off some kind of evil curse, the officers quickly discarded it and most of those with what seemed to be common sense did the same.
One man that was hospitalized reported sightings of a creature made from pure evil, rambling about skeletons. He was spared from seeing his X-ray scans. Other men that had entered that room was also reported to the medical bay for having crushed ribs and had somehow passed out from what seemed to be… a lack of air in the room. Saying that their wounds were caused by their flak armor locking up. This theory was not well received, yet faded as more grave matters had happened aboard the ship.
Such as another mysterious character that had appeared aboard the ship, he was declared a stowaway, and send to the fleets imperial shrine where a set of multiple missionaries, made a schedule to tend to him and his traumatic experiences locked up inside a tight space without light and little oxygen.
They took good care of him, yet rumors said that this individual had shown psychic potential and heretical icons on his hands. But after a few weeks of intense praying and the missionaries hard work on the man’s mind he had miraculously “saved his soul”. Whatever that meant.
Something more mysterious had been reported amongst the crew. A single room was filled with medical equipment and several of McGroy’s best doctors working constantly for days. In addition, not any of them never mentioned the incident again.
Somehow later, a lifelong friend of Galan, captain of the Comet Imperator and old friend McGroy, had appeared, he was a muscular man of strong standing, highly intelligent and agile as no other man.
And in addition, hadn’t a single missed shot on the shooting range.
All this was happening aboard the ships in orbit around the planet. Yet on the planet’s surface, the Necron threat had changed directions in some areas and focused its efforts completely elsewhere. That no one questioned what happened that day is outstanding on its own. However, the war for the planet kept on. In addition, this event would be one of many in the planets history that never reached the light of day.
Many more fights were to come.
Shell after shell hit the metal floor as flashes erupted for the muzzle of the autopistol.
Derren, Veteran Sergeant, was down to his luck. He'd just emptied the last of his autopistol magazines into what could only be a demon, and his shotgun was still in his locker back at mess hall.
Horns protruding out from the head of the beast, and claws for hands, he wanted not to glare at the creature; now only slowly walking towards the quivering man. He shivered with fear, fumbling across his garments, tinkering with every litte trinket he'd acquired from the distant worlds he'd visited on board the ship. Feathers from alien birds and quadropeds alike was not going to make much of a difference. He let his hand slip into his jackets interior pocket, grasping the solid object he had found, and realised it was an orc's corner teeth, roughly 5 inches in length. While the teeth was rotting and smelly, it was still hard as rockrete, and he could feel the emeperor smile to him.
Before he could counter attack, he could feel something being laid upon his shoulders. And then, the smoothest voice he'd ever heard. Softer and more elegant than the last woman he'd been with on hive world Inderaan V. He felt uneasy, not of fear, but as a shy man who just wandered into a lady.
"Human, what is that you desire most". The words echoed in his mind, and his answer was as simple as any mercenaries'
"Money, for which I can buy you presents". He felt his will fail, and turned to see the women he'd fallen in love with.
All around him, he could see gold and jewels lying on the floor, and he began collecting them.
In his final moment, he paid no attention to the claw that had impaled him trough his body. He saw only a golden river flowing from himself. And then, only a golden darkness.
Ceramite boots hit the heavy metal floor, and a hail of bolts flew forward from the darkness hitting the unprepared demon. A mess of pink and purple body parts was left behind as McGroy's shots tore the demon apart.
His eyes wandered the hallway, and found the body of one of his men. the corpse was fresh, but was twisted like only the taint of chaos could do, the dead mans face, half covered in blood and gore, and the other half showing a wicked grin, like a man fallen to insanity.
The work of demons, McGroy thought to himself, and by the looks of the creature that had killed his soldier, slaanesh demon no doubt.
McGroy knew fully well of what the warp held, and its masters, for he had fought them before, and won.
He continued down the silent corridor. The ship's gellar field had been weakened by the sudden outbrouk of a warp storm, and he was expecting more demons to appear. As he passed a blast door, he could hear the sounds of lasbeams and bolter shots on the other side, a battle was being fought.
Quickly he overwrote the rune codes for the lock mechanism and the sealed door sprung open as if it had been hit by a small explosion
Lieutenant Hartley led the defense. He could see his men fall before him. Out of the original 250 men stationed in this cargo bay, roughly 60 remained. Most of the casualties were only critically or seriously wounded troops, caused by the flailing and barbed tentacles, that protrded from the creatures backs. Still he had lost 50 or so men. Crushed into pulps, cleaved in half, or outright beaten to death.
He had himself expected death sooner than later, and was prepared to engange the demons in hand to hand combat with his chainsword, giving his life to save the ship. should it come to it.
Fire spewed out of Lando's Flamer, and into the mass of tentacles and flesh. He could feel the heat on his face trough the visored helmet, and hoped that the enemy would feel some of it as well.
Around him Jard, Larred, Montz and Belk joined up with their lasguns, pouring fire into the ranks of the demons. Their part of the defense line was slowly being eaten away by the endless waves of the Empyrean locals.
The order was to hold the line at all costs. The bay was, among others, to be used as an assault ramp to the outside of the ship, and with voidships, to transport crew to the other vessels in need of military assistance.
The 5 of them, having known each other for 2 years now, Jard and Larred for 3, was their own little team. Fighting and working together on every mission, and hell, even have their own little flak patch on the left shoulder, to indicated a sort of squad number.
Montz looked to that patch, and reminded himself of his duties to his friends, he looked over his right shoulder, seeing Jard lying on the metal, thrown back by a lash, gasping for air, his armor crumbled inwards crushing his ribs and organs, causing a painful and traumatizing death, if not helped. Belk and Larred was already on the floor besides him, trying with their knives to get off the armor, and even going as far as to shooting it with their lasguns. with only Lando to help in defending their position, Montz knew what he had to do.
He grabbed all the explosvies he could, Lando still creating a torrent of death and buying time for his suicide run. Throwing them into a sack, he took out one last grenade, and armed it.
Just after that, a metallic hand grabbed his wrist, taking the grenade from his hand and throwing it into the mess of flesh and tentacles.
"Back in line soldier, throw those damn grenades into the enemy. Not your life!" "Yes sir" he muttered, astonished by what had just happened and still traumatized by his friends injury. He'd expected to meet Lieutenant Hartleys gaze as he looked up, but instead, he was met with a glowing red eye.
stumbling to his feet, he threw himself into the barricade, popping another frag grenade into the enemies lines, and then putting a fresh power cell into his lasgun.
The metal clad figure had taken point besides his position, and begun throwing bolter fire into the ranks. He suddenly realised, that he'd been saved by Admiral McGroy.
He could feel his morale returning, all along the lines, over the crackles of las shots, thundering of the heavy stubbers and autoguns, soldiers noticed the presence of their commander, and began to fight harder. Every shot began to count, each carefully placed where they would do the most damage to the demons.
Trough his vox amplifier, McGroy issued the final order.
"Sons and daughters of the Imperium, let not the warp be victorious. With me; Charge!"
As the final soldier heard, grenades were thrown over the barricades, and just as the explosions had went off, the sound and warcry of 50 men echoed troughout the bay. The subtle sound of weapons being drawn could be heard, the whirling sound of chainswords powering up and the screeching of hitting into daemonic flesh. All along the line, the demons could no longer hope for landfall, as they were finally being pushed out of the bay. Chopped, diced, flames, sliced, cut and shot. The room was being filled, now more than ever, with the bodies of the demons.
The last echoes of the warcry died out, and among the 251 that held the bay, only 24 was standing as the last demon erupted into warp flames, and dematerialized.
Montz had survived, with only a broken arm and a concussion, his friends had as well. Lando has abandoned his flamer along the way, and had been thrown across the room, his armor barely saving him from breaking his neck, Jard had remained with Jarred, but Belk had lost his left eye to a rogue autpistol shot. They were but happy that they were all alive.
McGroy took control of the situation, setting up perimeters with the last men, and calling in reinforcements. He had alerted his retinue, calling for them to accompany him into the next fight aboard his youngest sons ship.
I like it, you've obviously put a lot of effort into this. Hoping to see some more.
TheEyeOfNight- I swear, this thread is 70% smack talk, 20% RP organization, and 10% butt jokes
TheEyeOfNight- "Ordo Xenos reports that the Necrons have attained democracy, kamikaze tendencies, and nuclear fission. It's all tits up, sir."
Space Marine flyers are shaped for the greatest possible air resistance so that the air may never defeat the SPACE MARINES!
Sternguard though, those guys are all about kicking ass. They'd chew bubble gum as well, but bubble gum is heretical. Only tau chew gum
Sgt. Vanden - OOC Hey, that was your doing. I didn't choose to fly in the "Dongerprise'.
"May the odds be ever in your favour"
Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
I have no clue how Dakka's moderation work. I expect it involves throwing a lot of d100 and looking at many random tables.
FudgeDumper - It could be that you are just so uncomfortable with the idea of your chapters primarch having his way with a docile tyranid spore cyst, that you must deny they have any feelings at all.
Dim morning light began to lighten up the interior of the Comet Imperator. The ship had been in orbit around Auran Secondus for nearly 2 terran weeks, as supplies was shipped into the massive cruiser, and civillian and military vessels alike joining the already vast armada of starships.
finally as the rotational field of the planet had drawn them around to the sun litten side, was the last supplies and colonists being shipped into orbit.
McGroy himself had overseen every single cargo delivery to ensure that no outlawed material was being brought aboard. That is, without paying a certain amount of Imperial credits, for the ship's crew to look the other way.
several of these bribes had already passen trough the checkpoints into orbit, with the help from McGroy's forces. Liquor, tobacco, magazines, heck, a wealthy merchant that'd want to setup shop on the new planet, had asked for a "special agreement" to have crates of autoguns brought onboard.
None of these however, was anything compared to what McGroy himself was about to bring aboard. Trough trade and guile, commanderie and a slight amount of luck, McGroy had managed to "hire" a bunch of ogryns. Told that they would push forward the Emperors light into the unknown, they had been tricked into following McGroy. Though not far from the truth, they'd end up following more of McGroys commands than the Emperors. McGroy though of it merely as borrowing some assets for the time being, and an addition to his already formidable collection of weapons and armsmen.
But the ogryns was not all, fresh from the forges of Ryza, a shipment of plasma weaponry had arrived. McGroy had gone trough a lot to have such powerful weapons brought unto his ship. Another gift from the techpriests he'd been given, after pulling a series of strings.
As the last cargoship flew away from the fleet, McGroy headed for the bridge, and as he entered gestures of respect was made towards him.
Captain Rykul looked to meet the gaze of McGroy, as he began: "Admiral, all ships have been refueled, repaired and are ready to depart for Otides V, we are only waiting for your oldest son, to be transported to his ship"
McGroy looked too to meet the face of man not barely 10 years younger than himself, though much more old looking, weathered and grim. "Where is he currently?"
Without retracting a muscle, yet with a slight expression of a grin on his face, Rykul put it simply: "He's heading straight into orbit on board a carrier, he'd been visiting a certain madam on the planet"
Letting out a small laugh, McGroy remembered his old days as a young explorer, and his endeavours around the female counterparts. "Have his ship ready for departing the second he is onboard"
The slight expression of a grin turning into a smile, "Yes sir" Rykul said.
Climbing into the captains chair, Rukyl was wired into the ship itself, steering it with his mind, and feeling every inch of its hulls and interior crawl with life from the many passengers and crewmen aboard.
As he ascended, so did the rest of the captains on the other ships. Each of them could feel their ships propulsions hasten in the void, as they prepared to accelerate outwards.
From his command station, McGroy could see the armada prepare. His three sons barges, the Shielf of Auran, Astral Purifier and Auran Maximus, flying into a pattern around his own ship.
Up here, the planet looked tiny, a hive world with a population close to the 60 billion, well governed, well suppllied and well connected. It looked tiny, and he knew that it was, for had his dynasty not aided it time and time again, it'd be ashes. He was, afterall, the Everwatching of Auran, a title that was inherited along with the the position of admiral in the dynasty.
He took one last look back on the planet, turning his head toward the void, and the messenger that brought the voxlink with the news of his sons arrival on board The Shield.
With a smile of lust for adventure, exploration and more valuable artifacts, he commanded his fleet. "Attention all ships! This is McGroy. Execute formation Bravo and prepare for majority warp jump. We're setting course for Otides!"
The combined propulsions began to rock the void, and the ships' gellar fields began to spark into life as the warpdrives turned active, sending lightnings around in a bubble over the ships.
Crackles of lightning flayed the universe around the fleet, and a massive whirlpool of unreal proportions and reality bending power appeared before the armade of ships.
All in cohersion they flew forward, into the gates of hell known as the Immaterium.
Aboard Compet Imerator, McGroy himself sat calmly, waiting for the information from his astropaths, comm-servitors and astro scanners. after 20 exhausting minutes, his instruments showed no warp fluctuations, and the all-clear was given aboard the ship.
He had expected no problems doing transit, after all, his ship was one of the finest that could be built. Created for the purpose of exploration, and with stronger gellar fiels and warp drives than others of its class.
As the last ship of the fleet Emerged from the real-space portal, he sent out signal to the other captains and admirals.
*Commlink crackles* McGroy to all commanders of the colonization fleet, report your status
No more than a couple minutes afterwards, the astropaths began relaying the voxes from the fleet.
All ships reported no fluctuations, and the armada commenced their warp travel.
Their destination: Otides, a system which had been ravaged by war with orks, and after their WAAARGH! had left the system, was deemed worthy of recolonization.
Their mission: Setup base on Otides Secundus, a desert planet, former hive world. Locate any valuable resources and secure these using the regiments of guardsmen part of the fleet.
All of this was easy. Nothing McGroy hadn't done before. This time, he even had more men at his disposal. 4 full regiments of infantry guardsmen, the Auran 53rd, 88th, 91st and 96th, as well as a regiment of Leman Russ Tanks, of the famous regiment, The Armaggedon 1343rd Steel legion.
The reports given to him before his departure had shown that most of the orks on the planet ahd devolved into a feral state, and as such, clearing out the main land would be easy. The only troubling part would be the hive city Leikert, where a band of orks had setup shop, and as such, would still be in possesion of technology.
He'd had to worry about that later, though.
Not even 2 hours into his expedition, and the sensors aboard one of the fleet ships had gone off. He brought up a vox link of the ship, and could see the problem. The warp was fluctuating around the ship, and the gellar fields was being stressed ti the maximum.
Phenomena Galore The Valiant Heart, a battleship of approximately 2 thousand metres, carrying one of the 4 regiments of the infantry, was caught in a wave of warp energy. Even with the gellar fields restored to near 100% efficiency before departure from Auran Secundus, they were being strained by the raw material of the immaterium, crashing against the ship like a flood.
Aboard the ship, most of the guardsmen had went to sleep the second they'd departed, hoping for some R&R before they'd been put to work on the battlefield of Otides. What they got was anything but R&R. They'd been woken by the sounds of clawing on the hull, temperature swings, blood rain in their compartments.
Oh yeah. And a minor demon incursion.
The regiment was mobilizing, from all around the ship, demons was warping in, and the gellar fields at the bow of the ship was failing drastically.
From his command seat Lennardt McGroy could begin seeing abnormalies protruding from the ships hull. The bow was changing from a magificent golden eagle, into a twisted parody of chaos. Tentacles was wrapping itself arund the ship, protruding towards the bridge, and trying to encase as much of the ship as possible.
Alarm sirens were going off, as the Valiant Heart declared itself at the brink, begging for reinforcements.
However, before any troops could be sent to the ship, and before any could be evacuted, the rest of the warp storm hit.
Aboard the whole armada, alarms went off, as the crew prepared for war.
Demons, blood, gore, ghosts, orcs, explosions, mad psykers. Anything that could possible go wrong, was going a lot worse than total disaster.
McGroy rose from his throne, and began relaying orders to his commanders.
Captain Rykul, take command of the ship, and inform the rest of the captains to secure any valuable assets, as well as all valuable personel. We can't stay in this world of madness for much longer, we'll have to dewarp soon!
Rykul took a swift look at his commander, and began ordering the astropaths to send out the plans to the fleet.
Himself took the ships command chair, locked into place, he began securing and locking down the ship, while the crew onboard fought off the invaders.
McGroy found himself in the ships armoury, as he was preparing for war.
He went off to what could only be described as non interesting wall, he uttered a command word and the walls swung open, revealing a hidden armory.
Inside, he don his armour, a refitted set of inquisitorial power armour of the Ignatus pattern.
For the fight ahead he picks his favorite weapons, a storm bolter and storm shield, as well as a xeno work of art: The Phase sword
Before heading out, he picks up a small necklace, opening it up revealing a digi-pic of his family and himself. With a click of a button, he's engulfed in a refractive field.
Demons are attacking his ship, and hell if they're going to take his Comet away! He'll see to the demons end before they see to his.
Interesting to hear about a Rogue Trader doing so well for himself he's got an armada, and to be honest the whole concept of this is Grimdark and pure 40K - even the traders need attack cruisers to operate in the 41st Millennium. (Ever tried to attack a Craftworld? They were originally trading ships, apparently.)
One question about your fluff post: would a Rogue Trader actually be allowed/able to afford a battleship? Those are the ultimate bad boys of space. There's no reason why not, it just seems a bit much, I would have thought a modified heavy cruiser (ex-military, I doubt he could afford to have many ships built, probably purchased from some mothball fleet or scrapyard?). This is just a question out of interest and not an attempt to sabotage your story!
Upcoming work for 2022: * Calgar's Barmy Pandemic Special
* Battle Sisters story (untitled)
* T'au story: Full Metal Fury
* 20K: On Eagles' Wings
* 20K: Gods and Daemons
NoPoet wrote: Hmm, I thought I'd posted in this thread.
Interesting to hear about a Rogue Trader doing so well for himself he's got an armada, and to be honest the whole concept of this is Grimdark and pure 40K - even the traders need attack cruisers to operate in the 41st Millennium. (Ever tried to attack a Craftworld? They were originally trading ships, apparently.)
One question about your fluff post: would a Rogue Trader actually be allowed/able to afford a battleship? Those are the ultimate bad boys of space. There's no reason why not, it just seems a bit much, I would have thought a modified heavy cruiser (ex-military, I doubt he could afford to have many ships built, probably purchased from some mothball fleet or scrapyard?). This is just a question out of interest and not an attempt to sabotage your story!
No worries.
As my fluff suggest, this rogue trader isn't an ordinary one, and is, in fact, a dynasty. Meaning that his lineage is very old, and so is his contacts and fleet.
In regards to the ship itself: It is a bigger Battleship, but modified (legally and not-so-much), to allow greater speed, so that it won't slow down the rest of the fleet. Yet sacrificing firepower in doing so. As you say; more like a heavily modified cruiser
The other battleships aren't battleship classes, sorry for that confusion, they are merely battle-ships.
Check out my Rogue Trader Story:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/672269.page
Hi mate, I was reading and commenting at work so I appear to have missed a few details. Let me re-read the whole thing.
Upcoming work for 2022: * Calgar's Barmy Pandemic Special
* Battle Sisters story (untitled)
* T'au story: Full Metal Fury
* 20K: On Eagles' Wings
* 20K: Gods and Daemons
This update is a teaser for the upcoming short story about McGroy's meeting with the Necrons.
All written by Zcee Nook.
Reports just came in, as the Titanic void ship; The Comet Imperator flew into the shadow of the planet, dark times lay ahead but the battle report had to wait, the city were lost, one of many that fell to the necrons rising. Yet they were slow, McGroy himself had fought worse than this, but he struggled in his mind and tried to conclude how they refused to lay down and die.
That was something the brutal orks at least did, the agile Eldar Ran if you dropped a few well-placed blasts on top of them, and the local guardsmen did at least take a hint when you dropped a few pair of rations their way, as they seemed to secure them and transport them back at first chance.
Heck even the space marines with their old machines and bikes had but been raids and small bites at his ankle. But when you look at something from space its always so small on the surface, this was a planet wide problem… spreading further by every passing moment on the planet. A metal carpet of dread constructions of xeno tech was slowly covering the planet…
The old Rouge trader could almost feel it in his chest how every single step they took was closer and closer to taking the planet and foil what he has fought for for so long. He realized his heart was beating fast… He had kept his heart, supporting it with argumentations to make sure he did not kick the bucket anytime soon from old age… it had many good years left.
He took yet another slurp of his glass with a transparent liquid, too thick to be water. He sat down in his office, the dystopian skulls that covered his walls and almost looked at him though their empty gaze. He could not shake the feeling off that he was being observed by them, he sat down and looked at the report, packed in brown paper with his sons seal on it.
Galan Nacisse McGroy
He was filled with a grim feeling about the city but he felt proud that his blood still showed signs of Great potential. He put it into his drawer that was filled with reports unopened in the same brown paper… no point in reading old news.
He was there on sight as the men aimed their bombardment planet side. One thing he would not run out off soon was ammunition; he could bombard them for years to come. He leaned back saving this thoughts trying to forget it for a moment, yet… peace would not come to him just yet….
Not only that, but here's a work in progress of McGroy, drawn by Caiboht himself.
Reports just came in, as the Titanic void ship; The Comet Imperator flew into the shadow of the planet, dark times lay ahead but the battle report had to wait, the city were lost, one of many that fell to the necron advance on the planet’s surface below. Yet they were slow, and could be outmaneuvered, McGroy himself had fought worse than this, but he struggled in his mind and tried to understand how they refused to lay down and die, as they should. After ranks and ranks of fire that could fell any mortal man.
That was something the brutal orks at least did, Die, the agile Eldar Ran if you dropped a few well-placed airstrikes on top of them, and the local guardsmen did at least take a hint when you send down a few pair of rations their way, and wished them a good day with a few orbital shells. They seemed to secure the provisions and transport them back at first chance.
Heck even the space marines with their millennium old machines and bikes had been but single raids and small bites at his ankle. But when you look at something from space it’s always so small on the surface, but it also could reveal the true scale of this threat rising. Even from this high vantage point, he could see them spreading further by every passing moment on the planet. A metal carpet of dread constructions of xeno tech was slowly covering the planet, destroying all life in its way. The old Rouge trader could almost feel it in his chest how every single step they took was closer and closer to taking the planet and foil what he had fought for, for so long.
He realized his heart was beating fast… He had kept his heart, supporting it with argumentations to make sure he did not kick the bucket anytime soon from old age… it had many good years left.
He took yet another slurp of his glass with a transparent liquid, too thick to be water. He sat down in his office, the dystopian skulls that covered his walls and almost looked at him though their empty gaze. He could not shake the feeling off that he was being observed by them, he sat down and looked at the report, packed in brown paper with his sons seal on it.
>>> M41:xxxx
By Galan Nacisse McGroy
Unknown city detected, investigation proved that it had potential for reconstruction.
City defence has through some investigation been restored by the Mechanicus; their investigation of the city has proven to show signs of seismic activity, nothing of note.
Unknown signature has possibly been detected; a single psyker has been recovered saying something is stalking him. Further investigation has been issued. Subject has been restrained due to suspicion of unsafe activities. But cooperates for the sake of his protection.
Target located, we have been approached by an assassin of the Office Assassinarum he has us pinned down.
Images has been received from orbital scans of the city, they show movement through the city.
Orbital scans now confirm the movement of enemy forces towards our location.
We got visual contact with- [NECRONs]- Defensive measures has been taken.
Forces has been deployed to repel the threat.
Enemy has been stalled, awaiting reinforcements.
Holding the defended area. All Mechanicus has evacuated the city and reinforcements are inbound.
City defenses prove efficient to hold off the enemy forces.
Reinforcements has come and the threat has been neutraliz-
Enemy reinforcements has arrived, their numbers are too great.
All forces has been evacuated. All wounded has been taken out with the Vendettas all other forces have reported back at the ground base.
All signs of the stray psyker has been lost and enemy forces have overrun the Assassin. <<<
McGroy took yet another slurp of his glass, emptying it, he was filled with a grim feeling about the city but he felt proud that his blood still showed signs of Great potential. He put it into his drawer; already overflowing with reports. His sons had performed extraordinary.
He was on sight, as his men aimed their bombardment planet-side. One thing he would not run out off soon was ammounition; he could bombard them for years to come. He leaned back saving this thoughts trying to forget it for a moment, yet… peace would not come to him just yet….
He heard a sound, a strange one… a knocking on glass… he turned towards the window, out into the cold-vacuumed void to see something out there. Something too big to be an asteroid came into view, A ship not of any human design, the sharp shapes, and the pyramid feature on top was a dead giveaway. He stopped breathing for a moment. Space, the sanctum for his operations, where he launched his forces now violated by this… this… Thing.
The monolithic tomb ship drifted slowly by in the distance. He could tell it was at least 15 kilometers long.
“Magnificent isn’t it?” a raspy voice said behind him. Something was in the room… the monotone sound spoke out like a whisper, echoing though out his office.
McGroy turned to see a skeletal figure mummified in metallic bonds, that seemed to move like there was a soft wind in the room, yet no such weather was. Ghostly and towering over the rogue trader by half a meter. Its metal bones were hidden well under the bonds of metal that bore glyphs of a language not meant to be spoken by mortals, a grim smile was on the creature’s death mask that covered its skull and its cosmic age was written across its body in scratches and hints of rust that could just as well betray the eye.
Its bodywork was not like anything he had seen in his long life involving the many wonders and horrors of the relationship with the Mechanicus.
It moved with grace of a living being despite being metal, no chance of being a suit as he could see glimpse rays of light coming from the other side of the room though its ribbed torso.
McGroy was quick to act, he produced his storm bolter, and directed it up against the intruder yet he halted before emptying the clip into the bodywork of the Xeno intruder.
“Easy now Rouge trader, if I were here to fight I would have not thrown away the advantage of surprise, would I” the ghoulish construct spoke in an emotionless voice that cut straight to his very soul, slick and sharp.
In disbelief, he looked at it, “They don’t talk… they don’t knock on windows but they do die… “
He opened fire at the alien creature and saw as the bolts simply falling to the ground after impact on the monstrous thing… Then they went off, showering the room in light, flint and shrapnel.
McGroy ducked and took cover behind his office table that had been reinforced to protect him from anything, and it had earned justice for the price he paid for it back then. As many trades in this office had turned down a very bad road.
“Tsk tsk tsk” the raspy voice said… “I am here to talk… My employer is not very pleased with your offense against his forces… but he finds you… worthy of a chance…”
McGroy looked over the table edge, Bolter first.
“What do you suggest…Xeno?!!”
Once again, the hollow voice began to cut at his soul, as the words were banefully slowly escaping him, almost as they never were meant to be said.
“He wants to… Trade”
“Trade what?!” McGroy raised himself upright and stood tall.
“Your help, for our… peace…”
“Stop speaking like a preacher and cut to the chase....” McGroy’s eyes were almost in flames, his determination was flaming, though he had had a bad day already… but if this was going to be his last; he’d go out with some dignity.”
“Stop your assaults against the Necron forces on the planet below us and we will spare you and your forces from the fate of extermination that my Phaeron brings to this planet. He has some interesting… obsessions.
He seeks only the destruction of the native races… now. If I could put a word through to him… and you would not get in his way… we will leave the planet alone after all other life has been exposed to the “Glorious Extermination”.
McGroy looked in disbelief at the ragged and ancient machine that had given an offer that sounded most interesting, but being a Rogue Trader means more than just making deals, there is always a catch and these aliens would seem treacherous at any turn and twist that they get their wicked hands at. And this Phaeron… he had heard that word before somewhere inside his mind, somehow it was escaping his thoughts, he had to focus.
“What’s the downside to this, xeno?” He firmly asked, raising an eyebrow to show his doubts.
“My phaeron sees it… as your forces are either not important or simply insignificant, but still sees you as a possible threat to the smoothness of this operation. Now I am not the one to speak the words of my overlord, I am but the messenger.”
“Yeah… and why not just wipe us out? Your ship out there isn’t tough enough. I’ve been in space battles before; my fleets against your ship… your chances are not looking good. I think your Phaeron is scared”,
For the first time since the encounter had started, McGroy’s arguments finally had some solid ground in it. He remembered the words his Father always said, “When weapons does not solve the problem, words might just do the job and more” those words had saved him many times over.
The machine still just stood there, as if it was thinking… or processing, he had seen this before with most people… much similar to his meeting with some Mechanicus fella’ that just simply froze… this was maybe his chance.
“While it is true that your fleet is impressive on its own… I will admit that I am not here to measure the force of our weapons, knowing your type… Let me throw in something good for you then…”
McGroy knew he had hit a weak point in the machines argument, and he was now trying to convince him by trying to bribe him out. “What you think is wor-“. He was cut short as the bindings around the skeletons body began to unfold and reveal something new….
McGroy quickly readied his storm bolter again and was about to open fire as something unexpected hit the floor in front of him.
As if pulled out of some heretical portal, the bindings fell aside to reveal 2 figures that shocked him and surprised him. What looked like a twitching psyker and a muscular man, embalmed in synthskin, lay on the ground in front of him…
“These 2 were recovered fighting at your side… one tried to escape though the means of the warp… the other was aquired by our lych gaurds… both put up quite a fight for humans… I think you want them for your own good”
“Emperor be…” he mumbled to himself. Astonished by this sudden development. He was sure that man was a Vindicare, the helmet and the weapon that was attached to him, little doubt was to be had.
“Even though the necron forces won’t touch you anymore… you need to fight off an entire planet… first. Now I see you have little hold of the planet itself… and if the necrons were to perish of all sudden… the weakest would go first.”
McGroy took a deep breath, he could see it… without the necron threat to occupy the Local imperial forces he had provoked with his sudden instruction and the other xeno races, he would be a lone group isolated from any allies, not even the Mechanicus would help him decimate an entire planet for anything he could offer right now.
Maybe this… would be the better deal off for now. He could always consider the development later.
Before he made any further thoughts, the door opened and a squad of Veterans stepped into the room wearing their flak armor, led by McGroy’s youngest son that had received the word from an operator watching his father’s office televox feed
The feed had been disrupted by a sudden unexplainable interference. It had taken a nearby tech priest some time to restart the system and see some strange disturbance on the feed and something laying on the floor.
Something must have prevented them from seeing the giant alien in the middle of the room, as the guardsmen that entered the room had requested access though the intercom, but had received but dead air, and decided to go check on him. Their reaction never the less was what to expect. As these had not been in any state prepared for what met them in the room.
The doors shut, and locked itself… and the camera feed once again died.
What happened afterwards were a blur, most of McGroy’s men never heard about this episode while rumors said that a devil itself had entered the room and had cast off some kind of evil curse, the officers quickly discarded it and most of those with what seemed to be common sense did the same.
One man that was hospitalized reported sightings of a creature made from pure evil, rambling about skeletons. He was spared from seeing his X-ray scans. Other men that had entered that room was also reported to the medical bay for having crushed ribs and had somehow passed out from what seemed to be… a lack of air in the room. Saying that their wounds were caused by their flak armor locking up. This theory was not well received, yet faded as more grave matters had happened aboard the ship.
Such as another mysterious character that had appeared aboard the ship, he was declared a stowaway, and send to the fleets imperial shrine where a set of multiple missionaries, made a schedule to tend to him and his traumatic experiences locked up inside a tight space without light and little oxygen.
They took good care of him, yet rumors said that this individual had shown psychic potential and heretical icons on his hands. But after a few weeks of intense praying and the missionaries hard work on the man’s mind he had miraculously “saved his soul”. Whatever that meant.
Something more mysterious had been reported amongst the crew. A single room was filled with medical equipment and several of McGroy’s best doctors working constantly for days. In addition, not any of them never mentioned the incident again.
Somehow later, a lifelong friend of Galan, captain of the Comet Imperator and old friend McGroy, had appeared, he was a muscular man of strong standing, highly intelligent and agile as no other man.
And in addition, hadn’t a single missed shot on the shooting range.
All this was happening aboard the ships in orbit around the planet. Yet on the planet’s surface, the Necron threat had changed directions in some areas and focused its efforts completely elsewhere. That no one questioned what happened that day is outstanding on its own. However, the war for the planet kept on. In addition, this event would be one of many in the planets history that never reached the light of day.
Many more fights were to come.
Shell after shell hit the metal floor as flashes erupted for the muzzle of the autopistol.
Derren, Veteran Sergeant, was down to his luck. He'd just emptied the last of his autopistol magazines into what could only be a demon, and his shotgun was still in his locker back at mess hall.
Horns protruding out from the head of the beast, and claws for hands, he wanted not to glare at the creature; now only slowly walking towards the quivering man. He shivered with fear, fumbling across his garments, tinkering with every litte trinket he'd acquired from the distant worlds he'd visited on board the ship. Feathers from alien birds and quadropeds alike was not going to make much of a difference. He let his hand slip into his jackets interior pocket, grasping the solid object he had found, and realised it was an orc's corner teeth, roughly 5 inches in length. While the teeth was rotting and smelly, it was still hard as rockrete, and he could feel the emeperor smile to him.
Before he could counter attack, he could feel something being laid upon his shoulders. And then, the smoothest voice he'd ever heard. Softer and more elegant than the last woman he'd been with on hive world Inderaan V. He felt uneasy, not of fear, but as a shy man who just wandered into a lady.
"Human, what is that you desire most". The words echoed in his mind, and his answer was as simple as any mercenaries'
"Money, for which I can buy you presents". He felt his will fail, and turned to see the women he'd fallen in love with.
All around him, he could see gold and jewels lying on the floor, and he began collecting them.
In his final moment, he paid no attention to the claw that had impaled him trough his body. He saw only a golden river flowing from himself. And then, only a golden darkness.
Ceramite boots hit the heavy metal floor, and a hail of bolts flew forward from the darkness hitting the unprepared demon. A mess of pink and purple body parts was left behind as McGroy's shots tore the demon apart.
His eyes wandered the hallway, and found the body of one of his men. the corpse was fresh, but was twisted like only the taint of chaos could do, the dead mans face, half covered in blood and gore, and the other half showing a wicked grin, like a man fallen to insanity.
The work of demons, McGroy thought to himself, and by the looks of the creature that had killed his soldier, slaanesh demon no doubt.
McGroy knew fully well of what the warp held, and its masters, for he had fought them before, and won.
He continued down the silent corridor. The ship's gellar field had been weakened by the sudden outbrouk of a warp storm, and he was expecting more demons to appear. As he passed a blast door, he could hear the sounds of lasbeams and bolter shots on the other side, a battle was being fought.
Quickly he overwrote the rune codes for the lock mechanism and the sealed door sprung open as if it had been hit by a small explosion
Lieutenant Hartley led the defense. He could see his men fall before him. Out of the original 250 men stationed in this cargo bay, roughly 60 remained. Most of the casualties were only critically or seriously wounded troops, caused by the flailing and barbed tentacles, that protrded from the creatures backs. Still he had lost 50 or so men. Crushed into pulps, cleaved in half, or outright beaten to death.
He had himself expected death sooner than later, and was prepared to engange the demons in hand to hand combat with his chainsword, giving his life to save the ship. should it come to it.
Fire spewed out of Lando's Flamer, and into the mass of tentacles and flesh. He could feel the heat on his face trough the visored helmet, and hoped that the enemy would feel some of it as well.
Around him Jard, Larred, Montz and Belk joined up with their lasguns, pouring fire into the ranks of the demons. Their part of the defense line was slowly being eaten away by the endless waves of the Empyrean locals.
The order was to hold the line at all costs. The bay was, among others, to be used as an assault ramp to the outside of the ship, and with voidships, to transport crew to the other vessels in need of military assistance.
The 5 of them, having known each other for 2 years now, Jard and Larred for 3, was their own little team. Fighting and working together on every mission, and hell, even have their own little flak patch on the left shoulder, to indicated a sort of squad number.
Montz looked to that patch, and reminded himself of his duties to his friends, he looked over his right shoulder, seeing Jard lying on the metal, thrown back by a lash, gasping for air, his armor crumbled inwards crushing his ribs and organs, causing a painful and traumatizing death, if not helped. Belk and Larred was already on the floor besides him, trying with their knives to get off the armor, and even going as far as to shooting it with their lasguns. with only Lando to help in defending their position, Montz knew what he had to do.
He grabbed all the explosvies he could, Lando still creating a torrent of death and buying time for his suicide run. Throwing them into a sack, he took out one last grenade, and armed it.
Just after that, a metallic hand grabbed his wrist, taking the grenade from his hand and throwing it into the mess of flesh and tentacles.
"Back in line soldier, throw those damn grenades into the enemy. Not your life!" "Yes sir" he muttered, astonished by what had just happened and still traumatized by his friends injury. He'd expected to meet Lieutenant Hartleys gaze as he looked up, but instead, he was met with a glowing red eye.
stumbling to his feet, he threw himself into the barricade, popping another frag grenade into the enemies lines, and then putting a fresh power cell into his lasgun.
The metal clad figure had taken point besides his position, and begun throwing bolter fire into the ranks. He suddenly realised, that he'd been saved by Admiral McGroy.
He could feel his morale returning, all along the lines, over the crackles of las shots, thundering of the heavy stubbers and autoguns, soldiers noticed the presence of their commander, and began to fight harder. Every shot began to count, each carefully placed where they would do the most damage to the demons.
Trough his vox amplifier, McGroy issued the final order.
"Sons and daughters of the Imperium, let not the warp be victorious. With me; Charge!"
As the final soldier heard, grenades were thrown over the barricades, and just as the explosions had went off, the sound and warcry of 50 men echoed troughout the bay. The subtle sound of weapons being drawn could be heard, the whirling sound of chainswords powering up and the screeching of hitting into daemonic flesh. All along the line, the demons could no longer hope for landfall, as they were finally being pushed out of the bay. Chopped, diced, flames, sliced, cut and shot. The room was being filled, now more than ever, with the bodies of the demons.
The last echoes of the warcry died out, and among the 251 that held the bay, only 24 was standing as the last demon erupted into warp flames, and dematerialized.
Montz had survived, with only a broken arm and a concussion, his friends had as well. Lando has abandoned his flamer along the way, and had been thrown across the room, his armor barely saving him from breaking his neck, Jard had remained with Jarred, but Belk had lost his left eye to a rogue autpistol shot. They were but happy that they were all alive.
McGroy took control of the situation, setting up perimeters with the last men, and calling in reinforcements. He had alerted his retinue, calling for them to accompany him into the next fight aboard his youngest sons ship.
McGroy the 23rd finally has his own miniature.
Of notice is the lack of hair on the model, compared to the picture of him. Though he does look more rugged for a 90-or-so year old.
War part 2 is being written upon, and it can be expected in the near future
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