Decrepit Dakkanaut
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As spots to pick a battle went, Captain Trevorrow could have sent his opponent in the Chaos battlegroup a rather large list of alternative options to the Mogmire System. Why the traitors had picked a system in the process of being devoured by a tyranid splinter fleet to spring an ambush attack on his own ships, Battlegroup Augustus, was beyond him. Nontheless, the renegades had dropped out of warpspace to attack him right on the edge of the system. It was mercifully away from the brunt of the hive fleet's concentration towards the 4th and 5th worlds. There the tyranids were busying themselves with consuming the planets biomatter and crushing the small orkish scrap ships trying to mount a defense of their worlds, the fleet vast like some cloud of insects casting the greenskin's worlds in a deep shadow.
Trevorrow could almost feel sorry for the primative greenskins, they were xenos and therefore destined to be trodden into the dirt by the manifest destiny of Humanity, but they were his xenos, they belonged to his galaxy, unlike the tyranids which seemed to have come 'from beyond'. Trevorrow had read military reports of what tyranids did to the worlds they captured and the races they 'absorbed' and, perhaps, even stinking orks didn't deserve that fate. His battlegroup had been sent to investigate the reported tyranid presence and destroy it if possible. Upon arrival in the system, it had been a quick realization that this was an entire splinter fleet. He had wisely opted to collect data and then pulled his ships away. They had been moving to the fringe of the system to jump to warp when the chaos ships had launched their surprise attack.
Another shot from the lead enemy vessel struck his ship's shields sounding a dull, deep knell. The shields held however and his own battlecruiser, Lady Shiva Unbound, spat a vicious response with her prow mounted nova cannon and starboard plasma batteries, carving a sizeable wound in the Carnage class cruiser. A second cruiser, a Murder bearing the skull rune markings of the blood god, moved away from engaging other Imperial ships to put it's self between the Carnage and the Lady Shiva. This denied Trevorrow the opportunity to press the attack, though, considered the Captain, that was more about the Murder seeking to engage a 'worthy foe' than trying to protect it's wounded comrade. The Murder pushed it's way out past the rest of it's battlegroup into the open killing ground of the space between the combatants, it looked to Trevorrow like some predatory shark, overcome with the scent of blood and it's bravery was encouraging other vessels in the traitor fleet to close. He sipped his amasec and half turned from the front command screen to address his executive officer.
"Mr Kopka, send message, all cruisers, prepare to halfspeed, broadside and lock on, escorts close to designated cruisers and prepare for fighter repulsion... I want that 'brave' Murder in the lead of the pack gutted from stem to stern, give her playmates some food for thought..."
His severe second nodded and clicked his heels, turning to bark the order to the officers at comms.
"Oh and Mr Kopta, lets step up the gunnery a tad, Lady S's plasmas have never balked at getting a little warm and I don't want to hang around here long enough for the bugs to start taking an interest in us instead of eating those greenskin worlds, they would give us significantly more problem than this traitor rabble eh?"
Kopka allowed himself a rare, wicked grin and nodded again, now turning to the tactical desks to bellow an increase to the rate of the plasma fire past naval approved parameters.
All in all, not the disaster it might have been. Trevorrow's ships were taking on the enemy comfortably. One chaos cruiser was already a burning hulk, torn open by massed torpedoes in the opening stages of the conflict, Shiva had done considerable damage to that Carnage, a couple of his own ships had sustained some light damage and were being rotated back behind undamaged ships to afford them some protection. Now, he watched as the first long range shots started finding that Khornate cruiser and sparked from her shields. The Blood God's followers might be formidable, but they were easily baited and glory hogs all. His battlegroup was performing admirably, working in harmony and parrying and feinting to great effect against the traitors raw aggression. Their eagerness to spill blood had caused them to attack early, things would have been far worse for Trevorrow if the traitors had waited for his ships to bunch up for the warp jump.
It was then that the astropath choir, who had been holding up well in the face of servants of the ruinous powers and the psychic shadow from the tyranids, started making an awful clamor, shouting and gnashing their teeth and roaring, leaving the rest of the multitudes of the bridge crew wide eyed and stunned. The Senior Astropath, Nicholsi, stood suddenly upright, turning his eyeless face to Trevorrow.
"We must withdraw sir, we need...nee...We needs ta get away boss! Dey are coming now, dey want ta smash and kill and crush, dey are so many boss, dey are gonna stomp and rip till dere ain't no bugs no more!!"
As the astropath grew less coherent, his face became momentarily feral and he snarled. The Captain arched his brow and stepped forward, peering down over his pulpit at the astropath.
"Nicholsi, why are you babbling like that, what on Terra is wrong with you...?"
Two naval commissars immediately drew their helguns and advanced towards the astropath, ready to put him down if he showed signs of daemonic possession. Trevorrow halted them with a gesture, granting the longest serving of his crew time to prove himself. Nicholsi shook at his head as though trying to rid himself of the fugue.
"They are here for their worlds, my Lord Captain, all their worlds. The hordes have arisen, the beast is awake, aware at last of it's purpose... The Green Beast Is Awake!"
As his words finished and the astropath fell back into his chair shivering and muttering, klaxons began wailing across the ship, displays lighting up and alarm bells chiming, bridge officers all started shouting and moving with agitated speed. Kopka looked from his monitors up to his captain and shouted.
"We have incoming sir, across the board, cannot fix numbers, unable to pinpoint location but it's all... look, Emperor's teeth, LOOK!"
Kopka pointed to the main viewscreen that took up the far wall of the bridge and as Trevorrow looked, he took an involuntary step back. Hundreds of great tears in space had appeared, like an army of madmen was slashing through the veil with knives, all over there were ships pouring through them, not in dozens, not in hundreds, but in thousands and thousands, from tiny escorts to massive battleships and at the center of each great rift came a space hulk, the smallest of which must stretch for over twenty miles in girth, the largest perhaps one hundred miles in diameter, all bristled with obscenely large weaponry and fortifications.
It was like a tidal wave of Ork ships. Numbers could not be taken in by the human eye, just walls of warships.
Trevorrow's mouth hung open for a moment, the frantic activity on the bridge of the Shiva stopped as all stood in wonder and horror at it, it was impossible to gauge, more ships in sight than stars, all brutal, ramshackle, armoured and armed to the teeth with all manner of scrap weapons. Part of this monstrous armada would be passing right through the area his ships and the chaos ships were occupying in a matter of moments. He blinked back his awe and shouted to his second.
"Kopka, get the bridge awake and alert, we need to get ourselves out of here, all ships, all ships, do you hear me Kopka, get us the hell out of here now!!"
"Sir, the warp engines are still minutes away from being at charge, we will have to hold them for a moment to be able to jump".
It was too late as vanguard warships moved into firing range, Trevorrow and his crew had fought greenskins before, the firing would start almost immediately as the war-eager xenos would seek their destruction.
Nothing came, no firing, no change in direction, nothing and on they came.
Trevorrow frowned and gripped the pulpit rails as an absolute monster of a orkish battleship suddenly tore it's self free of the warp right beside them. It passed too close to the Lady Shiva bow, it's massive jutting iron jaw smashed into her with such force she was knocked sideways like a boxer taking a haymaker on the chin. The behemoth collided with his own two mile long warship, Trevorrow winced as a great metallic scream reverberated throughout his beloved ship. Shiva called out in her pain as the nova cannon was sheared from the prow. Pitch and yaw wildly thrown as she presented her underbelly to the ork battleship's starboard guns. She swung away from the oncoming monster, the initial knock saving her from further collision and knocking her over a mile sideways. The pride of Battlegroup Augustus thrown aside like a child's toy.
Navigational crew struggled to fire her stablisers and right her to the rest of the battlegroup. Captain Trevorrow offered a swift prayer to The Emperor and the Mechanicus for the armoured prows of the Imperial Navy, for it had certainly saved the Shiva from destruction, his mind was racing to what the greenskins were doing, this was not like them! A terrified tactical officer panicked and turned from the sight to race back to his firing station, lightning quick, Trevorrow drew his laspistol and fired a shot an inch from the young officer's hand, causing him to recoil from the console.
"Nobody fires a bloody thing..." He said attempting a cool tone. "We were in their path. They don't seem to care abo-"
The ork battleship and the rest of its vanguard had moved on past the Imperials and was passing the traitor fleet, the Murder at the fore showed no such restraint, swept up in it's bloodlust, the khornate cruiser fired everything it had at the ork battleship. It was like throwing eggs at a charging ambull, but it did get a response.
Every ork ship in range, perhaps a hundred vessels, opened up on the chaos cruiser, the Murder dissolved instantly. Trevorrow had never seen anything like it in his two hundred years of service, the traitor ship was reduced to a silvery red dust cloud in a brief but massive flash of orkish aggression, it didn't have time to explode or rupture, it just ceased to be a ship. The remainder of the traitor fleet was turning, scrambling to jump into the warp, mostly it too was ignored by the greenskin armada, but for those foolish enough to fire as they withdrew, those were destroyed, utterly, just as with the Murder.
Trevorrow's intuition had saved the Shiva and his battlegroup, the ork megafleet was moving on into the system, moving towards their worlds, towards the tyranid splinter fleet, which, while massive and consisting of thousands of bioships, was utterly dwarfed by the greenskins numbers. Some of the bioships were beginning to break from orbit, perhaps to mount a defense, it would be a pitiable attempt, the bugs were utterly doomed, a nest of wasps rising to attack a thunder storm.
"Engines up sir!" Kopka reported.
"All ships, this is Shiva Unbound, pull out at once, set course for Halliday dockyard, best speed and Emperor guide us!"
The imperial ships swung away from the Mogmire system as the warp opened to allow them in, it was the first time in Trevorrow's career he had welcomed heading into the sea of souls, away from what lay behind him. The Shiva was the last of the imperial ships to pass into the immaterium, damaged as she was, Trevorrow was the commanding officer of the battlegroup and would not leave until all his ships were shepherded into the warp. Shiva finally began limping into the rift, nose bloodied and torn from the collision. Trevorrow watched the rear monitors as the first wave of ork ships opened up their guns on the tyranid splinter fleet and the massacre began in earnest. He was glad to be very far from here as the Mogmire System became a visceral hell.
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