Squishy Squig
California
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The air was dry and hot as they crossed the barren wasteland. The team had only been traversing the land for an hour, but already they were feeling the effects of heat exhaustion. Gallagus Zarkov, a tall lean man wearing polished carapace armor was examining his auspex, searching desperately for an item that was lost to his family so long ago, the one item he needed to officially become a Rouge Trader, his great-great grandfather’s writ.
It seemed as if the desert was an endless expanse of rolling hills and sand, as if it would never end and the team would never find their objective. As the team reached the crest of one of the hills, Kendrick a tough muscular arch-militant with standard guard flak armor dulled out from the years of use in battle, noticed an odd bulky shape in the distance still quite a ways off. “I’ve got a visual on something off in the distance.” He pointed it out the rest of the team. Jack, an average sized senchal wearing a flak vest and a camo cloak with a bolt gun and a high grade inferno pistol holstered, replied, “Do you think it contains the writ or clues to its whereabouts?”
“There’s only one way to find out for sure.” Ken said. The rest of the team agreed, and they headed towards the shape, hoping whatever it was that it held some clue to finding the long lost writ. As they neared, the bulky shape began to take form, and they realized it was the ancient remains of a crashed gun cutter.
Noticing that the ramp in the back of the craft was opened, Kendrick took point drawing out two pristine bolt pistols. He edged forward, checking his pistols to ensure he had enough ammo in case a firefight broke out. He came around the corner fast, ready for whatever was on the other side, but what he found instead was quiet unexpected. Imperial guard bodies were strewn about the floor, mangled and torn up beyond recognition. While some were just a bloody pulp of remains with dried blood stains around them, other bodies had limbs hacked off, or they were blown off by crude weapons. Realizing there were no threats in the room Ken keyed his micro-bead.
“It’s clear to move up, but prepare yourselves for what your about to see.”
Within moments Gallagus and the rest of the team were up with Ken, revolted by the site that laid before them.
“What do you think could’ve done this?” said Ken.
“I don’t know, but lets hurry through this and find the writ before the same fate befalls us as well.” replied Gallaugus. “Jack, Ken, stand guard and key us over the micro-bead if anything happens.”
Gallagus and his last two teammates Louis, another muscular combat-hardened arch-militant wearing a flak vest and carrying a well maintained longlas, and Mike, a gruff middle-aged voidmaster with battle worn flak armor, a polished bolt pistol, and a power sword, went through into the next room to try and discover any clues to finding the writ.
As the trio went off further into the gun cutter to find clues, Ken checked the perimeter for any signs of life, while Jack examined the ancient wrecked hull. As Ken was finishing his short patrol Jack keyed him over the micro-bead to meet him on the starboard side of the vessel. Ken rounded the corner and was surprised at what he saw, the wing was nowhere to be seen and the remainder of the hull was scortched. Ken walked over to Jack and asked, “What do you think did this?”
“I’m not quiet sure, but it looks like a plasma shot may have taken this bird down.”
“Who could’ve done that, ork weapons are to crude… Do you think it could’ve been chaos?”
“I was thinking it might have been, this is a forbidden world after all, and nobody really knows what’s here.”
“Great, just what we need, chaos filth… What’s that thing over there?”
Jack followed Ken’s gaze and saw an object a few meters from where they were. They headed over to check what it was and were amazed at the finding, a hilt the size of Ken’s forearm was laying in the sand with the blade missing.
“What in the god emperor’s name could’ve wielded a weapon that big?” Ken asked, surprised at the sheer size of the hilt.
“I don’t know, it could be orks, or it just might be chaos,” said Jack, then Ken keyed his micro-bead.
“Gallugus, come in.”
“Gallugus here, what do you need?”
“Just a heads up, Jack found out what took down the ship, it looks like a plasma shot took out the wing, and be on the look out for possible ork or chaos filth onboard.”
“Right, thanks for the update, keep me posted on what you find.”
Jack and Ken searched the area around the wreckage for a little while longer, but found nothing else to indicate what happened to the ship or the crew. Jack headed up one of the sandy hills to the top to see if he could spot anything from there. He saw that to the right there was a cliff that dropped down to unknown depths, ahead the sandy dunes kept going, a seemingly endless expanse, and of to the left a there was dense forest that looked lush and full of life. Jack also saw something shiny a little ways down the hill, as he started to call Ken over something jumped up from a concealed position in the sand.
Gallugus, Louis, and Mike came across a withered guardsman whose uniform was mostly intact, but his head was missing. After some searching Gallugus found an insignia on the left shoulder of what looked like a rouge trader mark. Gallugus looked up to his two teammates and said, “Looks like we just picked up the trail, lets keep searching and see if we can find that writ or something to lead us to it.” They came across a rusted door that was halfway open, almost as if it was pried open by something. There was no power left on the ship, and on the other side of the door was complete darkness. Mike drew his bolt pistol and took out a flashlight from his pack as he cautiously edged towards the door. He pointed his light down the hall ready to fire his weapon at the first indication of an enemy, but the hallway was empty, with the exception of a few open doors. Mike led the way with Gallugus in the center, and Louis covering the rear. They came to the first room, peered in and saw that the room was in shambles. There were guardsmen crushed underneath the weight of weapons lockers and lasguns were tossed about the room some bent others broken in half. The team moved down the hall checking each room they came across and found similar results. They came to the last room in the hall, the door was unlocked and cracked open. Mike and Louis moved up to try and open the door. They both slid there hands into the crack of the door and got a good grip before trying to move the door. After pulling on the door for what seemed like and eternity, the door started to give way with a moan. In the next room there was nothing more than remains of the pilot and co-pilot seated in the cockpit.
“Looks like they both died from the impact”, said Mike who was examining the long dead corpses.
“Doesn’t look like there’s anything else here, let’s head back out and rendezvous with Ken and Jack” came Gallugus’s stern reply.
Chapter 2
Up from the ground came a gretchin, startled from the two forms in front of it, it turned around and started to run in fear for the forest. The sudden appearance of the gretchin caused Ken and Jack to draw their weapons and fire, dropping the gretchin immediately. The sound from the shots echoed through desert, and moments later the two heard faint yelling and felt a slight shaking in the ground. The two turned to where the sound seemed to be coming from and were horrified by what they saw. Massive green beasts at least seven feet tall and made of pure muscle were pouring out the forest by the hundreds, and heading straight towards the pair.
Jack looked to Ken in amazement and said “That’s… That’s a lot of orks.”
“Yea, I think we should go… NOW!”
Jack and Ken turned around and took off at a dead sprint towards the shuttle remains.
Ken keyed the micro-bead and exclaimed, “Gallugus, we need to leave now, there’s a massive amount of orks pouring out of a forest over here!”
Gallugus, receiving the message, started to run towards the exit ramp with Mike and Louis in tow. As they were leaving the shuttle not only did they see Ken and Jack sprinting towards them down the sandy hill, but they also heard the roar of orks getting increasingly louder.
Gallugus waved for Ken and Jack to follow him, and shouted, “Come on, follow me!”
The team of five ran past the prow of the ship, and stormed up the sandy hill that met them.
Jack remembering what lay beyond the hill, shouted, “Gallugus wait! There’s a cliff over that way!”
Gallugus hearing the warning slowed as he came to the top of the hill, and faced a canyon edge. Gallugus searched franticly for a way out when he noticed a small pathway that lead down.
“Look, there’s a way down, that pathway”
Ken ran ahead and went down the pathway first, Louis was close behind him, and then Jack and Gallugus followed them down with Mike at the back of the squad. It seemed as if the orks knew exactly where the team was. Their constant shouting and yelling was getting closer by the second.
The pathway leading down was steep and rocks jutted out everywhere. Louis tripped and caused Ken to fall just as the path ended at the bottom of the canyon, and they hit the ground hard. For the most part they were fine, a little shaken, but they shrugged it off and ran on, desperate to get away from the oncoming hoard. Jack, Gallugus, and Mike made it down the path safely, and helped the fallen two up quickly before moving on. After the team stopped at the canyon floor, the yelling from the orks died down. Mike noticed this first and said “I don’t think they found that pathway yet. We should be in the clear for a…” when Mike’s vox-caster started going off. Mike quickly analyzed his vox, and found that a message was being relayed.
Mike turned to Gallugus and said “Sir, I’m picking up a distress call, but the message is to garbled to understand anything.”
“Can you get a fix on the location or at least a direction it’s coming from?”
“It seems to be coming from straight ahead, but it’s hard to be sure exactly, with the signal bouncing off the canyon walls.”
“Well, it seems we have an area to investigate. The writ may lie with the group that’s broadcasting the signal. Now lets move before those orks find that path down here.”
They started to move down the canyon in the direction that Mike pointed out. They moved down at a brisk jog, trying to get as far from the ork hoard as possible, when the yells and shouts resumed. The canyon walls carried the echoing yells and amplified them, which made it impossible for the team to estimate how far away the orks were.
Gallugus, Ken, and Mike were in the center of the canyon path just coming out from behind some boulders that were strewn about. Jack and Louis were to the right of Gallugus, close to the wall and passing by the last of the boulders that were in their way. Suddenly gunfire erupted from two well-concealed heavy stubber emplacements.
Chapter 3
The emplacements were dug into the walls on both sides, and were a few meters off the ground. As Gallugus, Ken, and Mike ran for cover behind the boulders they just passed, Gallugus was clipped on right side of his torso and was knocked to the ground from the force of impact, but lucky his armor managed to deflect the round. Another round ricocheted off rocks near them and hit Ken, but it bounced harmlessly off his armor, while Mike managed to help Gallugus get back to his feet and get to cover without being hit. Louis and Jack hadn’t been spotted yet, so they took cover behind a boulder close to them. Louis drew out his long-las, while Jack unslung his bolt-gun, Louis carefully came around the boulder, long-las at the ready, and took careful aim at the orc nest on the far canyon wall. His crosshairs were right on the orc, firing the heavy stubber, and let out a well placed shot that took off the orcs head, and as he fell to the side still holding the trigger down on the weapon that turned with him shredding the loader to pieces. Jack took aim at the loader in the remaining emplacement and fired his bolt-gun. He managed to put three rounds into the orc loader’s chest, knocking him back and killing him. The orc gunner turned his attention to Jack, who was still out of cover after firing at the loader, and started to open fire on his position, but a burst of las-shots from Gallugus and Louis took out the gunner before he could open fire on Jack.
The orc wails were becoming unbearably loud, and a giant dust cloud could be seen from where the five men were standing. They started running again, passing the now unoccupied gun emplacements and trying to get away from the oncoming horde. Up ahead, Gallugus spotted a small cave opening no more than 20 feet in front of them.
That's all I've got for now.
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Commissar "Glory to the first man to die!"
