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''What? No, to miss an occasion to destroy the warband would be foolish, we are in position to destroy many Xenos with a proper expenditure of resources, sparring further waste elsewhere on the battlefront''

Poncho was quick to reply to that one.

'Understood sergeant.' Simond said straightening his helmet and idly scratching idly at some flaking paint and powdery rust.

Simond took a long satisfied breath and smiled. He looked up at the warm sky of the tropical world and muttered a soft prayer for his comrades and himself.

"Hope is the first step on the way to disappointment" replies Wyona towards Teodore, even though her look makes it pretty clear, that she shares this hope. "Better get down to business. Poncho: you are from Krieg, so you should have the most experience setting up some nice foxholes. I want you to assist us and give some instructions, while Malakai, Adamo, Teodore and I prepare some cover.

Tambo, M'Gele: try to set some trap in the gate, maybe we get lucky and can take out some of them when they enter. Your idea hiding in the jungle sounds good, but that only work out, when the greenskins really come that way. And I always expect a good plan to fail. I want you with your chameleoline cloaks in between the storage tanks... I know it is a pretty explosive place to hide, but that's an angle we haven't covered so far, and a hidden sniper might draw less fire that way.

All others: you know your place, get to it and send those beasts to hell. The emperor protects!" she exclaims loudly and makes the sign of the aquila.



You make the best you can of the time you have left, and soon there are a couple of foxholes some 40 yards from the gate, where you have a good shot at what's coming in while not being in charge range and would not be totally out of range should the come from somewhere else. Through the combeads, Tambo warns, that he has rigged a two firebombs inside the gate, hoping it might either set an intruder aflame or damage something should a vehicle try to come through. While he begins to look for a nice spot to hide, he also comments that he has loaded one of the grenade launchers with krak grenades, the other with 3 halucinogenic and frag grenades each, alternating. His "battleplan" would be to first look what's coming through, then decide between the weapons and assist as good as he can. Finally he settles for a place pretty high up, where he migh have a good look on the overal situation and his combeat can act as a transmitter so that all of you can hear each other.

Soon you can see some plumes of smoke in the jungle heading your direction, from at least three sources - two smaller ones pretty close and a really big one lagging behind a bit. The approach from the east, where the promethium wells are, so that Njal has the best look from his position. Soon he can hear the ear deafening sound of the rugged, crude engines the Orks cobble together and finally he can make out two Ork buggies, one with some crude type of rocket launcher, the other with some type of automatic slug thrower. Beside gunner and driver, another 4 Greenskins hold on to each abomination of a vehicle, shouting, screaming and generally having a good time while they ride through the jungle. The Buggies fan out and begin to drive around the refinery, one north, the other south towards the gate. Njal might try a potshot with the autocannon on his watchtower, as might Teodore, otherwise it looks like it is time to get onto your position, as none of the buggies has the firepower to break through the sturdy walls. This should also be the sign for Poncho to get into his Tauros and hope for the best.

To not endanger their original plan and lure the Xenos into entering through the gate, Njal and Teodore hold their fire and instead get down to there positions, while Tambo has an eye on the direction the buggies came from and the third, rather large cloud of smoke approaching. Seconds later, the "southern" buggy - a relatively nimble halftrack makes a half turn away before turning right towards the gate which is still half blocked by the heavily damaged Wartruck that was used by the orkish defenders of the refinery you already vanquished. The wreck is angled diagonally right within the whole, leaving some space right and left, which are both to narrow for even a buggy to get through. But as Greenskins are, you can hear the massive, cobbled together engine roaring, huffing and puffing and over it all you hear a voice calling "SCREW DA PEDAL DOWN RUNT! TIME TO GO FAAAAASTAAA!" followed by the the sound of a screwdriver, even that might be just your imagination.

With a defeaning crash of metal on metal, the buggy ramms the wrecked truck, pushing it a bit out of the way, just enough to let the buggy squeeze through and enter the refinery. Amazingly the rugged and sturdy construction of the vehicle takes the beating relatively undisturbed and keeps on going. Unfortunatly it didn't even trigger the firebomb Tambo placed on this side of the wreck, hopefully leaving it for the next intrurder.The Ork boyz crawling on it are shaken through and even peppered with some shrappnell from the tortured machines, but laugh and shout happily, having the time of their live. One even hits the wreck and is torn of his buggy, laying on the ground unconscious for a moment. The others cling on, while the buggy accelerates again going straight along the street between living quarters and refinery. Even if most of them haven't even spotted a target, they immediatly begin to fire wildly with their brute shooters, the gunner in the back of the buggy just spraying towards the living quartes for good measure, without hitting any of you. Only one of the passangers on the right side seems to have spotted Teodore and Wyona at their position and jumps of, maybe 20 meters from them. Where others might have tried to roll more or less elegantly, he just lets himself smash on the ground, tumble some times before crashing into some oil drums, before getting up astonishingly fast. A battlecry on his lips and a bloody cut above his eye he raises a large axe and a pistol the size of Teodores upper body and starts charging towards the two Skrynne soldiers.

The buggy passes Malakai and Adamo before the other two Greenskins hop of, yet unaware of the Brontians 25 meters away, looking around to get their bearings. They have not yet seen the Tauros and Poncho (40 meters away) but it would be a wonder if they didn't any moment. the buggy continous towards the opposite wall and gets into line of sight of Njals and Ercs Chimera, being about 100 meters distant from them.

Gunfire and ork shouts rang out breaking the relative quiet. Balwain jumped at the noise.
'Easy son. It's just a few greenskins. The others will probably sort them out without us. It's when the shots are coming from all round that you should be worried..'
He took a swing of the strong spirit and patted his horse on the neck.

He hoped the others would need his help. It would be awfully boring, and unfair if they got all the glory. The boy Teodore didn't even want to see action, and he was up there. Unfair was what it was.

Teodore waits a bit. He doesn't want to jump the gun like he did the last time. But when it seems like the right time, he presses down on that suto cannon and let's rip at the approaching buggy.

As the buggy hurles itself forward from the impromptu barricade, Teodore decides to focus his attention on the vehicle first, before adressing the Ork that had slammed in the ground near Wyona an him. They had have the time for at least some practice shots before the Xenos arrived, but the autocannon on the tripod in front of him was most definitly not just "a slightly bigger Assault rifle" as Wyona had joked. Also he waits for the right time, even though he is still slightly unsure how he would know that the right time had come. Definitly before the buggy got out of sight driving down the street.

Looking from Ponchos direction, the shoddy construction jumps into sight from the right, already pretty fast and still picking up speed, leaving only seconds before it would be out of sight. The Kriegsman had waited for this though, and his experience and cool demeanor tracking it with a keen eye, he lets the little, half open turret swivel around with an electric humming, noticing its quite nimble movement on well oiled ball bearings. The buggy right in his crosshairs, Poncho triggers the fire switch and you can hear a loud twanging noise, as the capacitors discharge and the cooling coils scream while two bright red rays slam into the side of the buggy.

The whole left side panel - if one wants to call it that way - is smashed to bits, whole chunks of metal flying around as nothing more than molten slags of iron, brass and steel, while the vehicle is thrown to its right, not really by the impact, but by the impuls created by its exploding left side. The gunners legs and lower body are also grazed, as is the driver.



Seeing the enemy vehicle hit, but not yet completely destroyed, Teodore triggers his autocannon too, sending a burst if heavy slugs towards it almost in the same instant. Two of the shots hit true, piercing the astonishingly solid armor on the right side... and by the looks of the result hitting the fuel tank. Torn apart by the impacts of the heavy weapons on both sides, the buggy turns in a violently expanding ball of fire, detonating with eardeafening volume. The gunner - or rather what burning pieces are left of him - is catapulted almost a good ten yards straigth into the air before raining down with the rest of the debris, while the drivers coal like remains roll some metres towards Njals Chimera before distributing themselves. Indeed the explosion is so massive, that the Ork near Wyona and Teodore, that was just about to charge them is thrown to the ground again, a couple of metal shards sticking in his back, but nothing that would outright kill him.



"Great work soldiers!" Wyona comments through the combeads and gives Teodore and enchoraging clap on the shoulder.
Tambo, who was watching from his hidy hole to warn you what else was approaching warns "I can see some kind of turret with a pretty nasty gun... Big, big, ugly gun. Wouldn't count on the walls to hold it back, if it wants to get through. Looks almost as big as a Baneblade, but shoddyly bolted together...
And it has... some kind of katapult thingy on its back?" he mutters confuzed. "What the... " he says in disbelieve and Simond and Balwin from their position can see something being catapulted in a ballistic arc over the eastern walls. They just want to maneuvre their steeds into cover, as they see something barely approaching a parachute (more like a kitchen table-cloth) open up and a small, bipedal shape hanging down from it. Overal about a dozen Gretchin are starting to rain over the eastern part of the facility, with 2 or three of them that had missed the general idea of a parachute just smashing into the refineries chimneys with a wet splat. Some will come down on the street, but most will likely land somewhere between the pipework and chimneys where the horses will definitly not reach them. To make matters worse, Simond can also see a much larger Orkoid shape get into view above the eastern wall. It looks a bit like the Ork-boys you saw before, but has what looks like a man-sized rocket strapped to its back, catapulting it over the wall - and from the sound of it, it is not alone.
Through the combead Tambo says "I'll try and get the ones over the processing plant to save the cogboy! Simond, if you you have something to shoot, do it!"

"Now I have seen everything," Njal mumbles as he glances up and sees Grots raining from the sky like Drop Troopers.

They were still in the air, and there were bigger issues on the ground. Njal pivoted his turret and opened up on the Orks approaching Malakai and Adamo. Time to save the poor bloody infantry again!

The Chimeras Autogun opens up with a heavy, loud "THUDTHUDTHUD", sending its payload towards the two Orks that are just turning towards the two Brontians - who are luckily not in the line of fire. Even though they are relatively close for an autocannon, most of the salvo misses, but the third shot takes the left ork right in the knee, ripping away his left leg in a spray of blood. The impact almost causes the Greenskin to cartwheel, before he smashes in the ground, clawing towards the grizzly remains of his lower appendage. The bleeding looks rather massive and doesn't seem to stop as fast as you have seen on other orks, leaving the wounded Xenos shacking in shock - and soon dying.



His comrade meanwhile storms forward towards Malakai, who manages to deflect his axe almost gracefully before slashing at him with a fast counterattack from his chainblade that misses the greenskin, but is immediatly followed by a flurry of blows, two of which cut deep into the Ork. As before the wounds the heavy chainblade causes would outright kill a human, but so far only enrages the beast, that keeps on smashing its axe on the Brontians. Their melee is pretty thick and it doesn't seem advisable to shoot into it, if one is not a really good shooter.


As indicated, Tambo prioritizes the Gretchin going down over the refinery installation to the northeast, where you saw the tech priest vanish as to protect the "civilian", exploding one of the Gretchins heads with a precise and clean shot. Another two of them have meanwhile landed and start to crawl into the inner workings of that installation while the forth is still in the air and might still be downed before vanishing. On the southern installation where Tambo hides, two have already landed and two are still in the air, while the four aiming for the street in the middle will all land soon, in an area between 10 and 40 metres from Simond and Balwin.
The "rocketboy" the Cavalryman saw is meanwhile some metres above the wall and will likely land on the inner side in some seconds, and from the sound of it there are at least two following him.

Within the refinery Techadept Kraithus Qraen can hear someone trying to switch through the local channels to try and contact him - an easy feat, as he was already listening in on the mindless chatter of the Astra Militarum Grunts outside. "Uhhmm... Mr. Techpriest, Sir? There are some Grots inbound to your position. At least two. Little buggers with knifes and pistols. We are kind of occupied out here, so I hope you can take care of yourself. Good luck!" Qraens loyal servitor meanwhile just keeps laboring about, as he should, humming some strange melody to himself again. Likely some unscrubbed memory fragment of the soul that once inhabited the constructs fleshy parts before it was turned into a tool of the Omnissiahs will. So the foul Xenos that had desecrated this holy installation were back! Time for some payback!

Simmond really regrets not having any kind of gun. The little bastards where everywhere, and it'd certainly help to do something about that...
But on the other hand...
Well would hardly blame him for going after the bigger beast, even if the refinery was crawling with the small vermin.
He gestures to the incoming ork with the rocket. 'We'll get the big one, and any that might be following him.' He calls putting his heels to the horse's flanks.
He isn't quite sure what the anti tank charge on his lance would do to an ork, but he suspects it'd be more than sufficient

"We are in the thick of it now" Njal bellowed out to Erc. Sitting still was death to an APC, so it was time to get moving.

Erc began to maneuver the Rig into the next firing position, while Njal used the rotation and elevation of the turret to open up on targets of opportunity. Vehicles first, orks second, and grots third.

Locate, lock, and fire. Locate, lock, and fire. It was a well practiced rhythm, and Njal accompanied it with a soothing hymn to the machine-spirit.

From the sound of it, the big tank Tambo mentioned is rolling towards the north wall, but will likely need some more time to reach it. You can also take a wild guess, that the second buggy, that Njal saw rounding the facilities north will reach the gate any moment now, together with some more greenskins, from the sound of shouting and bellowing outside. While Erc turns the Chimera towards the opening - prepared to fire the Hull Bolter or Autocannon on whatever comes through - Njall realizes that he might put a shot of opportunity into one of the Gretchin landing above Tambos hideout. The Autocannon swivvels some degrees to the left and the iceworlder takes aim for a single, aimed shot, that turns another of the small creatures into a small cloud of blood-red mist before targeting the gate again.
"Thanks Njall! Much appreciated!" comments the Askari, glad about the opportunity to maybe focus down another one of the would be attackers on the Techpriest.


The four grots landing more towards the street near Simond run into whatever bolthole they find as soon as they land. While that leaves the route open for a charge towards the Stormboy, it also unfortunatly leaves the cavalrymen as only targets of the Gretchins short attention span. Two of them start shooting their blastas, with one of the projectiles glancing the cavalryman. So far so good, but it will be risky to fight in this crossfire.

Meanwhile the first stormboy lands inside the wall, two of his comrades already on his heels, but still up in the air. The first has barely touched the ground, as Simonds steed is basically upon him, as the cavalrymen has prepared just for that to bring down the first beast before he is joined by his friends.


Malakai is still fighting with his Ork, as the next wave hits the gate. This time a strange kind of tracked bike squeezes through the tight opening on the right, while a squad of 5 Boys with big shootas try to slip through on the left to immediatly run towards the southwestern corner to get out of the bottleneck. This time, both groups trigger the detonator Tambo placed and right in the moment as they pass through the gate, two fiery clouds of volatile gasoline plume up, bathing all of the orks as well as their crude bike in flames. While the sturdy Brutes incredibly survive the initial blast and flames, only one of them manages to completly roll clear. Three of the footwarriors instead catch flames as the slicky oily substance clinges to their thick hides. The sturdy tracked bike takes the burning like a boss, but open as the construction is, its driver is also sheated in flames and makes the mistake of inhaling some of the burning fumes, which takes him out cold for some valuable seconds, letting the bike slew to a halt.

A moment later the tracked vehicle is pushed forwards violently, as the second buggy - a wheeled one - also pushes through, immediatly firing a ridicoulusly looking missile all the way towards Njalls Chimera that might just hit the Transport, if Erc doesn't manage to jink it.

A round smacked into his body armour, and then another. They were buzzing all round like angry bees as he rode the gauntlet.
Simmond leveled the lance tip towards the landing ork, it had a moment to turn towards him before the lance tip struck.

The ork blew apart. One moment it was there, the next in a flash of brilliant heat it was reduced to smoking limbs cartwheeling through the air with scant left of it's torso at all but curling smoke and hot hissing steam.

Simmond's eyes were afire. That had done the trick. Oh yes, that had done the trick nicely.

Techadept Kraithus Qraen falls flat to the earth in a manner somewhat unreserved for a Tech-Priest, but the Machine-Emperor's servants must not stand on ceremony and ritual.

Especially when standing is a good way to get one's head blown off by mortar fire. Or little grots with knives, Emperor curse them.

He rose, a little unsteadily, but got his sandals under him and took off in the direction of the Chimera.

Even from this distance, that one obviously needed a new timing belt. Having the thing get stuck in this mess would be disaster for the machine's spirit, and for the lives of the troopers who served it.

He only hoped they didn't blow his head off while he ran to their rescue.

Holding up his crozius, waving it wildly, and trusting the Emperor, he committed himself to a unit he knew little of, and to troops he had never met...

The blast caused Njal to look away from the scope for a moment, and in that moment the Ork buggy came barreling through the gate. He had been set-up to suppress the gate, and found his cannon pointed the right way so he hit the trigger hoping to take out the buggy.

It was too late now, as that plume from the rocket left a deadly trail that was going to hit them. He just hoped they could pop the enemy vehicle before it popped them.

Erc tried to jink the chimera as best he could from the oncoming missile. Metal boxes on tracks are not know for their agility. Tracks clanked in protest and the whole machine gave off a metallic whine. If they were lucky the bulldozer might take the hit instead of the tank itself.

The fight between Malakai, Adamo and the Orkboy attacking them remains kind of inconclusive for the moment, with all three of them managing to parry or evade the swings of each other rather well. Which is quite a feat, as the Ork was indeed wounded more gravely by Malakais first attacks as was immediatly obvious, bleeding heavily. Nonetheless it speaks for the resiliance of the vile Xenos, that he still manages to keep up a fight.


Meanwhile Teodore takes aim at the Ork that had landed near Wyona and him and that was just getting back on his feet after being smashed to the ground by the first buggies explosion. Seeing as it is "just" a single ork and one clean shot should already do the trick, he decides it is more important to make that shot count instead of just spraying away. The Autocannon lets out a single, strong bang and due to the close range leaves the Greenskin not enough time to dodge the massive round that hits him right in the side of the head. He is smacked pretty hard and his left ear and part of the sturdy green hide on that side of the head is ripped away, but the brute is quite definitly not dead. Instead he surges forward, bridging the distance between himself, Wyona and Teodore freakishly fast, firing a burst from his crude massive pistol while swinging his axe. The bullets pepper the ground dangerously close to both Skrynne soldiers, missing them by a hairbreadth at best. Now the beast is almost upon both of them, but Teodore might be able to get of one last shot at point blank range, if he is lucky. If he misses that, it will get really ugly for them.


Over at Simonds position, the two Stormboys he already saw are landing near him. He might have the time to charge one of those, but he will get in a lot of danger of being overrun, should he stay at this position as another two appear above the wall to the east. There are also still the Grots in the pipeworks nearby, two of which keep shooting at the cavalrymen that have just melted away one of the bigger Xenos, both finding their mark. Rearing his horse around and shifting in the saddle, Simond manages to evade at least one of the shots, but the other smacks into his body armor.

A moment later, a Lasbolt smacks right into the face of one of the Stormboys that was still up in the air, smacking his head back and turning one of his eyes into a charred mess. Blinded and disoriented the beast bellows in pain and while not completely taken out seems to at least not be an immediate problem for now.
Through the combead Tambo can be heard "Simond, I can't see the ones that landed near you. I'll try and reposition, but you're on your own for now!"


Njal lets out a burst from the Chimeras Autocannon to suppress the Orks at the gate, hoping that Poncho will take care of the buggy with his heavier Lascannons. The stakkato of hard slugs slam into the mass of partly burning orks near the gate, smashing the legs of one of the already burning brutes to pieces and dropping him on the ground. Its wounds are obviously so severe, that even the sturdy Xenos parishes, screaming with such fervor, that his comrades struggle to hear anything beside him.
The other four orks that were set aflame by the improvised mines including the biker are to agonized by the flames to do anything sensible, with only one of them dropping to the ground to try and put out the flames, while the others only clap on them pointlessly. The biker seems to be hit the worst, jumping of his bike and running around flaying his arms around before crashing into the gate wall and falling down. The other three burning boys don't look much better, to confused by the mix of pain from their burnes, the screams of the dismembered ork on the ground, the running torch of a biker and Njals suppression fire, all together keeping them neatly near the gate and under control.
The single Ork that already jumped clear of the firebombs seems to be much more capable - brutally cunning you could say - and rolls free of his comrades, dodging the autocannons bullets and taking a quick sprint to his left, towards the blind angle south of the living quarters.

Meanwhile the Buggies missile shoots towards the Chimera, leaving a curly trail of smoke from its primitive rocket engine - how this thing even manages to maneuvre and stay on target remains a mystery to all of you. As Erc realizes that he will not be able to jink away from the hit, he at least turns the Chimera heads on, hoping that the sturdy front armor and dozer blade will take the brunt of the hit. The projectile hits the dozer blade with a massive detonation, pushing the Chimera back a metre and almost cracking the dozer in two. Yet the added appendix took most of the punishment, leaving only the front armor plate with very slight deformation. A moment later Erc and Njal get aware of a nasty smell of some cooling gas evaporating into the crew compartment from a shaken loose pipe, without being able to make out the leak.


Just outside the Chimera, Kraithus Qraen half crawls, half runs towards the Imperial transport, just as it is hit by the blast of a Xenos weapon. Behind him he can hear the sonorous huffing and puffing of his Servitor "Sparky" trying to keep up with his master and shielding him from danger as good as he can. Two dangerously precise bursts of shooting follow you from back from the refinery, but sparkys blocky posture and his spread out arms let the bullets slam into his hunched shape, doing relatively minor damage.
Judging the danger of the situation, Kraithus contacts the machine spirit of the Chimera through the Noosphere, half intensely pleading, half stubbornly insisting of letting him in - to which the sturdy vehicle responds by popping the little door in his rear hatch.
Alarmed by the sudden sound of an opening door in the back of the Chimera, Erc and Njall hear Tambo in their combead "Njal, Erc, I think I just saw the cogboy running to your position. Take care to not flatten him if you back up!"
The moment Kraithus reaches the opened door, he sees that the transport is almost empty, safe for a turret gunner and a driver. His optical mechandrite immediatly switches through some sensory modes though and alarms him of a coolant leak near the left of the troop compartment from which an irritating gas is starting to fill the Chimeras inside. Nothing he couldn't fix immediatly if he enters, provided the Guardsmen have the presence of mind to not hinder him or ask stupid elongated questions.



Next off, Poncho takes aim with the Tauros Lascannons to try and get rid of the Buggy, before it manages to break through. Aiming for the revolverlike missile launcher that is in the proicess of rotating to set up the next shot, the bright beam shoots from his armored car again, piercing right through the weapon, the Ork-loader behind it and part of the buggy. The rocket fuel and warhead of the missile being loaded is evaporated in an instant, setting ablaze not only the rest of the magazine but also the buggies fuel. A massive fireball engulfes the gate area, turning all Xenos remaining their into ashes and turning the vehicles - including the wartrack blocking the gate - into scraps so small, that there won't even be enough left of them for an ork to salvage. Even the one Ork that managed to sneak away is violently thrown to the ground.


While between them Njal and Poncho have nicely cleared the gate - the St.Paulus trooper setting up the trap by suppressing the assailints close by the buggy and Poncho coup de gracing them - a new and much more devastating threat emerges, as the Northern wall is suddenly hit by a massive explosion, smashing part of it in and generating a 5 or 6 meter broad gap. Whatever big was coming from that direction WILL enter the refinery any second now, and Njals Chimera currently has its back turned that way.

"DEUS EX MACHINA VOBIS CUM!" Tech Adept Kraen dives for cover and shouts in a voice loud enough (at lest, he hopes loud enough!) to keep the gunner from blowing his head, off, and hopefully making the chimera crew aware that his presence is Imperial and not Xenos.

"From some distance, I perceived the plight of thine gallant chimera's timing chain. From here, I can detect more immediate concerns!

"Keep doing thy jobs, lads, I'll fix what can be fixed without getting in the way. But try to make way for my poor, gallant Servitor. His service as reactive armor alone will be of quite the limited span, I fear.

"Sparky, take cover an return fire!"

Kraen gestures to whatever cover is available to the servitor, if there is any. If none, he won't give that order, but allow Sparky to catch bullets for the guardsmen.

In the meantime, he does a survey to discover what is most in need of repair to keep the Chimera functional that he would have a reasonable chance of repairing in the middle of battle.

Simond glanced around. There was a hell of a lot of bullets flying towards him, another smacked into him painfully.
As much as he wanted to charge down the next beast the intensity of fire was getting too heavy. He doubted he could make it to the beast without being cut down by fire.
Sometimes it was better to retreat and re engage later.

Greater glory would have to be achieved later. His comrades still needed him.
He turned his horse and spurred it towards the big promethium tanks nearby.

If he could break the line of fire of just a few of the little creatures he'd have much more chance of being able to regroup with the others.

"AHHHH, NOOOOOO!" Teodore screams and frantically fires point blank into the charging ork, thinking that now truly is his time to die....but hopimg against hope that it is not.

Panicked as the Ork is almost upon them, Teodore pulls down the trigger and lets loose a salvo from the Autocannon at point blank range. The whole set of massive bullets is right on target, shredding the complete lower half of the Xenos into paste. Teodores attacker is hurled back several meters, thanks to the throne, as half a moment later the grenades at his hip detonate. Those might have seriously hit the medic and the sergeant.
"I need a sitrep!"



Malakai and Adamo finally manage to overpower bleeding Ork right in front of him with their blades, even though Adamo has suffered some wounds on his own. Breathing heavily into the combead he reports "Looks like we have the gate cleared for now, but somethings big is coming through the wall in the north!". Teodore can see them starting to jog over to his position, to join up with the their sergant and get the wounded Brontian patched up a bit.

Next you can hear Tambos combead activating, from the sound of it M'gele and him running or advancing somewhere. "A lot of trouble at the eastern wall. Seems like Simond and Balwin had to pull back out of the alley. We are loosing ground there. Trying to reposition to support him. But there are at least three of the smaller buggers each crawling between the promethium wells and the storage tanks. So be on your toes near them!"

The two cavalrymen meanwhile manage to disengange from their battle, with the shots from the Gretchin going astray this time. Meanwhile the last rocket boys land, while a last glance back shows them a very massive ork - a so called Nob from the stories of the veterans - is pulling himself up over the wall on a grapnell. While the one Stormboy that Tambo had hit on the face is already almost on his senses again, the others seem a bit undecided if they should charge after Simond or wait for their leader. In the end they only halfheartedly jog after the horses in a kind of compromise.

Over at the Chimera, Sparky looks a bit blank and confused - if you could say that of a half machine-man - trying to process Kraitus order. Finally deciding that he can best protect the techpriest if he stays near him and that the inside of the Chimera also qualifies as cover, he clambers in and shuffles to the driver compartment. As Kraitus had ordered him to return fire, he opens the door and squeezes himself into the codrivers seat - much to Ercs protest. Taking over the Hull bolter he just seems to... wait without doing something. Only after some stray round hits the chimera he finally triggers the bolter in that rough direction without even aiming, fullfilling his orders to the best of his abilities.
Kraitus himself - fully aware of the exact position of the gasleak - pulls back the necessary panel in an instant, grabs into the mess of cables and slams the right tubing back into its socket before switching the Chimeras ventilation to full power. The whole ordeal takes only mere seconds and the inside of the Chimera is cleared of the fumes.
Concerned by the collapsing wall in the North, Erc triggers the internal Chimera com as well as his personal bead "Hold your caps lads, I'll put us into that alley. Guess everywhere is nicer than waiting for that frosted blizzard coming through the wall!" The next moment Kraitus has to grab for a hold, as the driver floors the gaspedal and speeds up the sturdy transport towards a narrow street between the refinery parts. While he himself slams the back door shut, his optical mechandrite darts left and right through the crew compartment, checking the small vision slits and periscope mirrors. Overall the techpriest gets a rough idea what is going on behind them and to the sides. The northern wall, from which your vehicle is distancing himself fast is in the process of collapsing and behind it you can almost make out a huge abbomination of a tank whose mere existence seems to be blasphemy towards the Omnissiah. As you swing into the alley, it is just breaking through, turning the remains of the wall into a cloud of rockcrete powder.

Taking these informations together, Wyona orders: "everyone, we try and focus on that eastern alley first. Clear it as fast as we can to get them of our backs before trying to bring down the big tank. Avoid it as long as possible!"
Just as Malakai and Adamo arrive, Teodore remembers that there was a shortcut on the maps of the refinery. A narrow, walled walkway that circled right around the right of the storage tanks that should provide some cover to the left and right. Of course that didn't mean that there might not be Grots on that same walkway, but at least they would be in front of you and not set an ambush from the sides putting you into a crossfire. Given that all alternative targets were big tanks or massive Orks, it might be the safest course of action right now to "help" by clearing the smaller Xenos while the others take on the big stuff, so that looks kind of promissing for the young paramedic. Adamo is slightly wounded, but still fit enough to pick up the Autocannon together with another carrier.
Other than Malakai who reported the gate to be clear, Teodore also remembers clearly, that there was one Ork slipping away who should be somewhere behind the living quarters right now.


Poncho sees the Chimera speed past and drive into the alley, meeting up with Simond and Balwin whose horses are just slowing down to a trot from the other direction. To his left he can hear something big crashing through the northern wall. From his gut feeling there are currently three possible courses of action that present themselves:
a) follow the others into the alley, where he would have support, but you would have all eggs in one basket as the saying goes.
b) stay where you are, take a potshot at whatever came through and then play hide and seek with it, to try an keep it occupied until the others have taken control of the eastern flank again
c) pull back, round the living quarters close to the western wall and try to flank whatever big stuff is coming through.
The driver of his scout car - a specialized servitor - has little to say to this decision and just waits for his order where to put the vehicle.

"Alright Adamo, can you carry that thing? Let's head up that walkway to cover the flank." He decides to ignore the ork that got away for now.

Teodore remembers that there was a shortcut on the maps of the refinery. A narrow, walled walkway that circled right around the right of the storage tanks that should provide some cover to the left and right. Of course that didn't mean that there might not be Grots on that same walkway, but at least they would be in front of you and not set an ambush from the sides putting you into a crossfire. Given that all alternative targets were big tanks or massive Orks, it might be the safest course of action right now to "help" by clearing the smaller Xenos while the others take on the big stuff, so that looks kind of promissing for the young paramedic. Adamo is slightly wounded, but still fit enough to pick up the Autocannon together with another carrier.
Other than Malakai who reported the gate to be clear, Teodore also remembers clearly, that there was one Ork slipping away who should be somewhere behind the living quarters right now.

Njal kept a tight hold on the controls, and leaned into the scopes just enough to keep his eyes on the targets, but not enough to get an eyeful of scope. Despite the rapid movement, he had to hold his ice.

He tried to keep his turret tracking as they rounded the bend and tried to spot the Ork boyz before they would spot him. He didn't need another Rokit to the hull thanks. The first one was bad enough!

As soon as he found an Ork shape in his sights, he let loose with Auto-cannon. A nice satisfying series of "booms" filled he turret.

With an unknown threat looming over them, Poncho decided do some reconnaissance, ordering the specialised servitor to round the living quarter in order to get a shot into whatever it was' flanks. With the Tauros moving around, he takes time to aim fully, waiting to see what his target would turn out to be by making us his sights were set at the right rangeé

Bit of a rough go, but at least the chimera seems in better shape. The Tech adept has three concerns, prioritized thus:

1. Is there anything else wrong with the chimera that is very obvious trouble and needs dealt with now?

2. What's up with Sparky? Is he able to keep up?

3. If both the above are reasonably ok, he'll announce his presence to the vehicle commander.

Simond turned his horse towards the chimera, in an approach that he was confident would not put him in it's line of fire and put his heels to the flanks of his horse again.

It was probably going to be one of the most dangerous dashes he'd have to make. But it would put him behind it's ample armoured bulk, behind it's ample firepower. And he could protect the machine from any ork that tried to attack it.

"Sure thing mate!" Adamo exclaims, trying to overplay his wounds. Nonetheless Teodore notes that this might be one of the first times the others did not refer to him as "kid", "boy" or anything similar. And it was about time for that. Wyona already knew him enough to trust his memory and indeed you quickly find the beginning of a bridgelike walkway, with two sidewalks high enough to give you cover, as long as you keep your head low. The two Brontians team up to carry the autocannon, while Wyona leads on and Teodore covers the rear. A brisk jog later, you pause at a corner in the walkway. In front of you is a relatively straigt stretch leading to the alley through which you would have a possible firing arch. Currently you don't see a Greenskin, but you can hear them shouting. If you set up here you might get a shot into their flank if the charge your comrades at the entrance to the alley.
Behind you the way you came by is just behind the corner, meaning you can look into the alley you came from if you lean back, but anyone coming from there would have to run a while before he can aim at you.
Teodore risks a quick glance above the wall at the side of the walkway. While he hears the sniggering of at least two Gretchin somewhere in that direction, he fails to spot them. But they are likely some way away and might not have noticed your little group. For now he focusses on patching up Adamo as good as possible, which he succeeds in nicely. The Brontian is as good as it will get under these circumstances and Teodore has laid the best possible groundwork to keep him in the fight and recover later.


Simond is a seasoned enough rider to guide his steed elegantly along the side of the Chimera, rear it around and have a good look around. Whatever big thing is coming through in the north seems to take its time and is not upon you right now. He also catches a glimpse of Ponchos Tauros, that is driving backwards in a tight turn behind the living quarters before accelerating north behind the cover of the prefab buildings. Looking east, along the side of the Chimera, he can see the four rocketboys comming towards you with renewed fervor, as they are hurried on by an enormous looking Greenskin whose face and upper body seems to mainly consist of scartissue and bulging muscles. In his hands he wields some very scary looking big weapon, that looks like som madman has taken a whole bunch of smaller guns and just welded them together - throwing in a chainsword as bajonet for good measure. Spittle sprays from his feetlong tusks as he screams "WAAAAAGHHHH!" the smaller (yet still over 2 metres high) stormboys taking up the battlecry and charging towards the Chimera.

Inside the vehicle, Kraitus analysis of the Chimeras disposition reveals some still minor structural damage, but there is nothing he can do about it right now - that will take some hourse at least. Sparky is slightly damaged, but he has stopped dripping oil and lubricants and sitting behind the armor plate of the codriver should be safe for now. His cerebral implant processing fast, what course of action might increase their chances of survival the most, the Techpriest connects one of his dataports to the internal cogitator of the Chimera and effortlessly contacts its trusty machine spirit. Compared to those in the marvels of machinery the Adeptus Mechanicus uses, the Chimeras spirit is a rather simple minded one. A true and loyal soldier of his holy armies, but not the brigthest light in the chandelier. But as the saying goes "a small mind leaves no place for doubts". Linking in, Kraitus reads out the exact position of the turrets servo motors as well as the main guns elevation and horizontal axis, transmitting them in live feed towards Sparky. Up in the turret, Njal may be jumped a bit, as an optical modul on a long mechandrite comes up from below, snakes around and checks the episcopes for the correct distance measures.
Keeping his cool as best as he can, Njal aims for the largest Ork he can see, remembering that he heard the bigger ones are the most dangerous and often multiply the combat prowess of their peers. The thing is hellishly fast though and unleashes a quick salvo from his strange gun before Njal can depress the trigger. The abomination of a weapon spits out two bolts of blueish glowing plasma that circle around each other in some kind of screwing motion due to some freakish gravity effect, throwing their aim wildly off and disappearing somewhere in the sky. The Nob eyes the large promethium Tanks to either side of you and has the sense to drop his Snazzgun for now and pull out a large two handed Hammer instead.

Just that moment Njal fires a burst from his autocannon, while down below Sparky just copies the exact position of the turret weapon with his heavy bolter and adds a single shot to it, even if he misses for now. Njalls salvo is right on target though, smashing in a straight line from left to right through the middle of the big nob. Its arms are pierced and some its muscles hang down in large shredds, but that doesn't even seem to stop it from swinging around its hammer. The hit to the chest seems to have shattered something inside its Torso though and screaming in pain, the Ork goes down to one knee. While it seems to be stunned for the moment, the salvo that would have crushed an imperial buggy like the one Poncho was driving in does not seem to have killed the big Greenskin

The other four orks - including the one Tambos shot blinded on one eye fan out, two to the north of the alley and two to the south (including the wounded one), and charge forward. Even if they don't quite make it to the Chimera, they will reach it any moment now. And Njall will not be able to target both groups. The right group peppers the Chimeras front hull with inconsequential fire from their pistols, as they can't see anything else, while the left group can make out half of Simond and Balwin behind the Chimera and try to shoot at them. The sturdy vehicle covers both cavalrymen nicely though.

The next moment the cavalrymen can hear an audible "fooomp" sound somewhere from the southern side of the alley, followed by a small, dark egglike shape flying towards the two orks charging towards the northern flank of the Chimera. The next moment the blastegg explodes right between these two orks, unfortunatly without doing any real damage to their thick hides. Through the combead Tambo curses "Damn these Frackers are tough. Changing back to the longlas!".
Simond cannot quite charge one now, but he can position himself in a way that he will be upon them the next instant before they can act themselves. Also he migth have enough time to signal to Njall which direction he will go, to not get into the firing arch of the Vehicle.


Ponchos Servitor hits the reverse, turns the Tauros around and speeds north. You don't get quite in a position to shoot at something in any sensible way, but through the windows of the living quarters and in part above its roofs, the Kriegsman can make out the massive shape of a superheavy tank. It seems to have a massive turret gun and a pintle mounted heavy machine gun... thingy. As well as a fixed, forward facing bunker breaking mortar, two sponsons and three little turrets with guns.
From the sheer size of that thing and the obvious thickness of its armor, it might be wise to focus on separate turrets first or try and get behind it in the vain hope of finding some kind of soft spot. The question was if Orks even build their tanks with a dedicated, better armored front or if they just slapped armor plates to each side equally...

[/spoiler]credits to werewolfhunter in whose gallery I found that pic[spoiler]

[spoiler]aimed single shot with the Grenade launcher with a Frag Grenade. Hit with a 36.

ooc

seems like I'm mishandling Sparky. Anything I can do to make him a little more effective?

Poncho was quick to inform the others of what he had witnessed, all the while ordering the servitor to cut down the engine of the Tauros, hoping to pass unseen and to allow his little vehicle to be better positioned to strike at the large threat.

Simond took a regular explosive tipped lance from Balwin, and readied himself to charge.

The combead in his ear crackled to life and he heard the Kreigsman give the warning that a massive enemy tank was approaching from the northern side of the refinery.

He regretted his positioning, He wanted to see the thing, he wanted to have a go at it before the others could. He hoped that they would not be done with it before he could reach it.

Njal glanced around for the cavalry, but could not get a clear line to them. He saw them ride behind, so he assumed that was where they had hunkered down.

He tapped the comm-bead, "Simond? I am engaging the greenskins on the left. Cover us as best you can. Can't get to the big rig until we scoop out this drift."

With that, he swivelled the turret at the crazy xenos with rockets strapped to their back and opened fire.