Battle report 3
Unfortunately, as the Imperial Militia discovered as they streaked into the sky in their getaway ship, the treasure chest was booby trapped. It blew a hole out of the side of the ship, tearing off an engine and sending them in a slow smoking spiral back into the ruins. Their greedy rivals, sensing that now was their chance to finally get their hands on the treasure, converged on the wrecked ship as the stunned Militiamen staggered out.
However, their glee was short lived. The players were handed the following...
In a strange turn of events, the rivals were forced to forget their quarrel and stand shoulder to shoulder against the slavering horde. And the Pirate Kommandos, who had a little more Mork (cunning but brutal) than Gork (brutal but cunning) about them, had the sense to realise that their brutal Orkish cousins wouldn't distinguish between 'umies and well-dressed Pirate Kommandos like themselves. Distasteful though they all found it, and with frequent glances over the shoulders, the humans let the Kommandos take up defensive positions on the front side of the crashed flier, while they covered both sides and the rear.
If they survived long enough, the players would eventually face the feral ork's warboss. Defeating him was the only way to stop the waves of feral orks. If they couldn't take him down, they would surely be overwhelmed. However, the warboss wasn't an easy target...
So the players deployed and loaded their remaining ammunition. Every player was under strength, having lost one or two of their gang members to the previous missions. They would need to make their remaining men and bullets count.
In a stroke of good fortune, the ship had come down in an explosives dump, and the ruins here were littered with highly explosive barrels. A well-placed shot would cause these to detonate, and hopefully take a few ferals out with them. Unfortunately, several of these barrels were close enough to the ship to ruin the players' day if anyone else targeted them.
The players started by opening up in all directions, taking down several feral Orks - almost the entire first wave. It looked like they could hold this position forever. Except for the fact that 3 of the miner gang, 2 of Cauldron's ghosts and 2 Imperial Militia had run out of bullets - including their most powerful weapon, the heavy stubber. The Pirate Kommandoes were doing fine though, holding their position and waiting for a right proper scrap. They also sidled up to the treasure chest and began to drag it out of the ruined ship. No one noticed.
No one paid much attention to this however, as the two gangs closest to the battlefield's edge - the Miner gang and Cauldron's Ghosts - had noticed that they were very close to the feral orks, a couple of which managed to reach them in a charge.
This was very dangerous. The Feral Orks were individually better in hand to hand than any of the humans on the field, and to hold back the horde the humans needed time and distance to pick off the Orks. In the furious melee of close combat, they couldn't target the Orks. Almost everyone took a few steps back, now with their backs to the ruined flier.
The Kommando Pirates didn't fall back however, they let off a few shots at the nearest ferals and barrels (causing a huge daisy chain explosion that took out two feral orks but also a Pirate Kommando, one of Cauldron's Ghosts, and set the downed flier on fire) then prepared to charge.
The line was holding, for now, but starting to get tied up around the edges. The Imperial Militia still had clear line of site down the long street.
As two more miners and two more of Cauldron's Ghosts went down, the Kommandos charged the nearest ferals, tearing though them and leaving a gap for the two pirates who were jogging towards the battlefield's edge with the treasure, unchallenged.
On turn 3, the warboss entered the fray, and more feral orks poured in from every direction in unusually high numbers.
Immediately, the humans focused fire on the warboss. First they had to shoot a few of his cronies out of the way, but this left the way clear for the next turn.
Unfortunately, this also left the warboss within charging distance. He hilariously outfought a brave but foolish Imperial Militiaman, inflicting something like 9 wounds.
More Orks came in from every edge. The Pirate Kommandos showed unusually good accuracy for Orks, and shot down two of the ferals, leaving their side of the field wide open. The Kaptin even had time to pose with a burning space ship behind him, looking cool.
Meanwhile on the other side of the ship the humans managed to bring the Warboss down to his final wound with the miners' heavy stubber, which ran out of bullets at that very moment.
More orks poured towards the centre...
Even though another couple of men went down, the Warboss was finally taken down by massed firepower. Now no more orks would enter the fray, and all the defenders had to do was defeat the feral orks currently charging towards them, albeit with dwindling ammo and mounting casualties. At this point the Pirate Kommandos ducked out via the battlefield edge, carrying the treasure. It wasn't a mission objective, but surely getting away with the treasure while pulling a fast one on a bunch of 'umies and getting a good scrap into the bargain is in the best spirit of Mork.
With less than half strength remaining on all sides, the last feral Ork was downed as it snuck up between two buildings.
And with that the battle was won. Every side had survived, but at great cost.
And so the rival humans rather bashfully collected their dead and wounded and disappeared into the ruins, where they were haunted by the snickering laughter of the victorious pirate kommandos.