Volume Two - Chapter Twenty-One
Volume Two - Chapter Twenty-One
New Purchase: 2x Castlekiller Missiles.
Points Reduced to: 1620
Sylvia squinted into the auspex. "Help me, here, Eternal," she muttered. "We need to make these shots count."
"Then strike true, squire. Aim for the largest of them!"
The largest of them was probably one of the distant stompas lumbering their way out of the camp. The issue was that they were far away. The camps were placed about six klicks out. Far enough that even the longest-ranged marksman couldn't hope to land an accurate shot. Some of their artillery guns could shoot that far, of course, but they had long ago learned that night-and-day bombardment of an ork encampment was more expensive than simply filling a trench with more troops and waiting for the orks to get closer.
A single shell cost as much as a thousand las rifle power packs.
She got a lock on the stompa, but it was poor. So she fired the first of two missiles, then she switched her target to a group of ork trucks roaring across the distance and fired her second Castlekiller missile.
The first flew up and arced down, then exploded against the front of the stompa.
The massive vehicle slowed down, then continued walking, now with a hole large enough for an Armiger to crawl through punched into its side.
The second Castlekiller rammed into the ork truck from above and the explosion that followed wiped it and the two at its sides right out.
Kills Confirmed:
9x Orks
4x Gretchin
New Point Total: 1840
"Two more," she said.
New Purchase: 2x Castlekiller Missiles.
Points Reduced to: 1700
If she wanted more points, it probably made more sense not to target ork armour. The vehicles might keep some orks alive. So this time she targeted larger running formations. Both missiles raced forwards, almost parallel to the ground.
The orks caught on, and point-defence from the stompa and other vehicles started to criss-cross in the air. Somehow, the missiles seemed to know this, and they started to fly in a spiralling pattern that avoided most shots.
Both detonated in the centre of large formations of running ork boys.
Kills Confirmed:
22x Orks
1x Gretchin
New Point Total: 2150
Sylvia nodded. Better. Then again, even if she killed a thousand orks all on her own, that might not be enough to put a dent in what was approaching. More and more orks were pouring out of the camp, and even kilometres away, she felt like she could hear their unhinged, happy roars.
She needed comms, and now.
"Machine Spirit Vyper," she said. "I need..."
Sylvia winced as return fire zoomed past her. A stray missile from all the way across the battlefield missed the Eternal by about half a mile and rammed into the wall with a gigantic explosion.
She added to her shortlist. "I need a vox system, a good one. And shields. And more repair systems. I need to be able to move, dammit."
"I understand. Did you want to tackle the upgrades one at a time?"
"Yes," Sylvia said. "We'll start with a proper vox system."
"How many points would you like to invest in it?"
She needed to save some, and spend more on other things. At the rate she was going, she was making a solid few thousand points every hour, but that was only if this continued. She was sure the rampaging orks would have something to say about that momentarily.
"Call it... a thousand points."
It was a lot, she suspected, but she also needed something robust and powerful, something that the orks couldn't simply jam. She wasn't sure what kind of archeotech Vyper had available, but so far everything she'd seen the machine spirit summon out of thin air had been of exceptional quality.
"Certainly. I can have it come pre-installed as well. Give me a moment to redirect the repair drones. A Fortress Class Impenetrable Communications System costs 800 points. With installation, that comes up to a neat 960 points total."
The little spider-like drones scampered across the cockpit, snipping wires and moving a few things aside. "Do it," Sylvia said.
New Purchase: Fortress Class Impenetrable Communications System.
Points Reduced to: 1190
There was a flash, and a clunk, and suddenly a corner of the cockpit had a new device in it. The system had multiple monitors, one atop the other, as well as obvious speakers and a microphone. It was black and blue and red, with a silvery accent that matched the bare-metal accents of the Eternal. If it wasn't so new and robust-looking, it would have fit right in.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
As it was, it looked like it needed to age and collect dust and grime for a decade or three not to stand out so much.
"System installed."
She was tempted to get on the vox right away, but a second... nor very near miss from an ork missile had her reconsidering.
"Shields," she said. "We have a fair number of points left. Call it another thousand."
"Certainly! Perhaps something similar to an Ion shield? A Tier One Cast Absorption Shield? It can be auto-installed below one of your pauldrons and linked into the Eternal Pride's power system. Though the power draw is fairly elevated."
"We were planning on replacing the reactors anyway," she said. "How much?"
Only Five hundred points per shield, with a sixty-point charge for installation. You might want to consider redundancy, however. These will be strong against small-arms fire and can take a single non-continous blow from a stronger source."
"Two, then. One for each pauldron."
"Done!"
New Purchase: Tier One Cast Absorption Shield.
Points Reduced to: 70
She sighed. "And another missile," she added.
New Purchase: 1x Castlekiller Missiles.
Points Reduced to: 0
She barely took a second to aim before firing the missile out. It skim over the ground and punched into the front of an orkish formation.
Then she followed that up with a shot from her volcano lance. The power draw was noticeably worse, but it looked like the shields were working as a few stray shots from the orks sparked off of a half-dome that was projected off of her side.
She didn't have time to wonder about its efficiency or anything of the sort. Instead she started to shuffle the Eternal Pride to the side, bringing it closer to her section of the trenches.
At the same time, Sylvie reached over to the vox station and pulled out a small headset... then she stared. It had the normal shape for a headset, but the earcups were on top, and shaped... for her.
She removed her commissioned officer's cap, setting it down next to her, then fit the headphones on. It was comfortable. She reached over and found the vox system's interface, with dials next to each. It was labelled clearly, with each button having backlighting. It only took her a few seconds to figure it out, which was good, because she wasn't sure she had long.
The vox clicked on, and she was impressed at the lack of crackle. Was this what good tech was like?
She cleared her throat. "To all guardsmen in range, this is Knight-lieutenant Nekomata, of the Eternal Pride. The orks are coming and our communications are shot. Be aware that there are tunneling elements across no-man's land. The enemy can and will break through behind our trenches. Prepare for a full scale frontal assault. Be aware that the enemy may have infiltration and deep-striking capabilities."
She paused. So far she was just being factual. Nothing that would have a commissar even twitch. Though some of them rather disliked it when an officer pointed out what the enemy was obviously capable of doing.
The next part was pushing past the bounds of her station.
"Until contact is re-established with command, I'm taking over this section of the wall. Artillery and heavy gun crews, to your stations. Weapons free on my mark. All troops, to battlestations! I need vehicles with mounted weapons behind the trench line, now. We're about to deal with a massive frontal assault. Prepare evacuation lines. I need runners returning to the city and to high command with reports every five minutes."
She wanted to call for a general retreat. Mine the tunnels, shut the doors, and regroup where they had a better chance.
That would land her with a bolter round to the back of the head.
The entire siege apparatus of Death Bane was built around consecutive lines of retreat, but issuing that order was only acceptable after certain conditions were met.
They hadn't even been decimated yet. To call for a retreat now would be cowardice.
She even understood the sentiment. If they didn't put a boot down and resist, then the orks would only build momentum, and in a long-lasting war against the greenskin xeno, momentum was vital.
Right... she had a lot more things she wanted to upgrade, but it would only matter if she could get a few hundred more kills in.
***