Hive Warfare! Part Duex

Max: *nods* “Mess or would you rather I cook?”

Akira: "Mess, no time for a proper meal."

Max: “Sounds like a plan”

*skip through the meal n shit?*

*Yeah*

/About an hour later, inside their headquarters\
*Surrounded by Atleast 30 of his Black Hand, Max was running the veterans and Akira through his plan*

Max: *Pointing to a fairly clean looking map being projected onto a wall*
“There are 3 ways into the mining district: Road, Elevator, and train.”
*Points to a red path*
“By road we’re looking at a 2 hour hike through multiple decks, and a minimum of 4 armed checkpoints. 
They only exist to frighten people, but they’re still ferrocrete bunkers and thus a threat. My Black Hand will seal with these, and in doing so bring the vast majority of our enemy to them.”
*The image switches to a 3 dimensional drawing of the ship, focussed on the elevator links between the decks, once again they’re highlighted*
“Elevators are the fastest way up, but we’ll be walking into a killing field. Heavy machine gun emplacements still watch over the elevators, only a small volunteer group will take this route, you’ll have rocket launchers and your job will be to obliterate any emplacement you find
”
*And again. This time showing off the HMGs and their fields of fire*
“From the elevators it’s a 60 metre sprint until you’re underneath them. There’s next to no cover, and you’ll have panicking workers to deal with. You’ll need to work fast and be accurate”
*Once again it changes, to an aerial view of both stations*
“The trains, this will be how the vast majority of you arrive. The station is large, open, and lightly guarded. Once you’re off the train, your jobs will be to clear the station and use the fleeing workers as a shield. With luck the elevator group will have destroyed most of the bunkers, giving you a clean run to into the district proper.”

Akira: "I'll take the elevators. Shields will hold off stubbers. I'll need some volunteers to pack the launchers, stick behind our shields and you should be fine."

*A pair of Black Hand and their assigned squad of veterans step forward*
*muffled* “We’ll take the launchers” *And looks to Max, who nods his approval*

Max: “Akira and those Black Hand will deal with the bunkers. The remaining Black Hand will distract the enemy on the footpath. Rest of you are with me, we’ll take the station and rendezvous with Akira. From there I cannot tell you what will happen, the best information I have says a maze of machinery and hardware, so it’ll be a meat grinder. Prepare yourselves and the men beneath you, Shotguns, knives, swords and anything close range will come in handy. Any armour will serve you well...The Priest will be holding a prayer in ten minutes. Dismissed”

Kerak: "Hunt begins!" *the kroot around him click their beaks and squawk loudly*

Akira: "Ready for this shitstorm?"

Max: “Yeah, you?”

Akira: "oh you know it."

Max: *smirks* “Lets go hunting”

—

/Elsewhere\
?: +He plans to take the mining district on deck 365+
??: +The boy sounds confident, do the Goliaths know he’s coming?+
?: +No yet ma’am. It will be a slaughter, and your son will likely challenge their leader to single combat+
??: +What is his obsession with duelling every minor gang lord he finds?!+
?: +To rule here you must be strong, his woman fights most battles on his behalf. This is his way of proving himself to those beneath him. And reminding them why nobody fucks with him+
??: +Strange people...Thank you. Continue with your original mission, I want that woman of his dead and my son home!+
?: +Understood ma’am. I’ll get him home safe+

Akira: "Hah... Come on Kerak, armour time." *she smiles at max, then walks off to suit up*

/About an hour later\

*The elevator was hot, dark, cramped, and worst of all noisy. A constant grinding sound reverberated through the box every few seconds, momentarily deafening all inside. To make matters worse Akira was surrounded by Kroot on one side and easily annoyed Black Hand on the other, she had already stopped Atleast three fight from breaking out because a worker elbowed someone or insulted their armour*

BH: *through locked teeth* “Can’t I just Kill one, make them all obey orders?”

Akira: *Growling behind her thick steel faceplate* "Yes, make a scene why dont you. Get us all killed, and you'll die first, with my hands around your bastard neck."

BH: *He growls and rolls his shoulders, not wanting to provoke her further* “Just saying. It’ll be chaos when we get there”

Akira: "Yeah. Stick behind your shield, and move fucking quick. Pray to every saint you can think of. Fuckin cross your fingers too."

BH2: “Remember to keep your Kroot safe incase the distraction fails”
BH1: “I think the bloody xenos know already!”

*A worker who overheard this gives Akira a frightened stare, immediately trying to scramble to the exit doors whilst uttering ‘Fucking rival Gangers!’*

Akira: "You'll want to be behind us, once the shooting starts." *at the worker*

*The man shakes his head, the shrivelled bags under his eyes unable to mask the fear in his eyes*
“They’ll cut you down!”
*Other workers begin to take interest as the man barges passed*

Akira: *she raises a gauntleted hand to her heavy plate mask, and pulls out a pin, that was holding the visor shut. She raises her visor.* "Do you know who the fuck I am?"

*Several eyes widen, and muttering takes over the elevator as people start recognising the group. Almost instantly Akira, the Kroot, and the Black Hand are given a wide berth, the workers backing up rather quickly*

Unknown: “Dats Max’s Whore!”
Another: “No! That’s his wife! And her Kroot!”
More: “It’s Akira! She’s here to kill the bastards an free us!”
??: “Where’s Max?!”
???: “hiding!”
The worker: “Y...You’re Akira...Lady of Death, phantom of blades, butcher...daemon! The warp spawned wife of an exile! Please don’t kill us!” *Her reputation has certainly traveled, and it would seem like it’s been expanded on. No one had accused her of being a daemon yet, phantom of blades was new too*

Akira: "Aye, thats about right. We're here to put the sword to those drug addled cunts. Stay out my way, and we'll have no trouble."

Worker: “They’ll kill us all”
*The elevator judders to halt and Akira feels the hydraulic locks slam into place beneath the floor*

*akira chuckles, and drops her visor, replacing the pin, and hefting her shield.* "Shields up people!" *the kroot muscle their way to the front, holding huge shields, inches thick steel plating.*

*The Black Hand And veterans ready their rocket launchers, lining up behind Akira and her kroot with hands on their right shoulders*
BH1/2: “Ready.”

*The doors screech open and the workers immediately burst out, some barging past the immovable Kroot  and falling, only to be crushed under the boots of a hundred other men. Akira’s only view is of the Kroot beside her, and of the murky yellow light filling the elevator*

Akira: "FORWARDS!!!" *she roars the command, and the kroot obey. Well practiced, they step forth, lock step, shields raised and blades readied.*

BH2: “50 metres left side!”
*Once free of the elevator a man steps out, kneels, and fires. A small missile streaks into the closest bunker and obliterates it utterly, sending fragments of ferrocrete high into the air*
BH1: “5 seconds before they fire!”

Akira: "To cover!" *She leads the force at a jog, the fastest she can move in her amour. Shield kept up, she moves left, heading for the hit bunker, the closest and best cover available*

*SHe gets about halfway before retaliatory fire begins cutting down workers, almost instantly rounds begin slamming into the shields and Akira’s arm complains rather noticeably as the impacts become more and more common*

*she grits her teeth, and keeps the shield up, turning to face the incoming fire, supporting her shield with her sword hand, walking sidestep, moving closer to the destroyed bunker, and keeping the black hand behind her covered*

*She feels someone behind her toss a grenade and soon hears the roar of a rocket launcher as another takes the opportunity to strike. Judging by the numerous cries of pain, the rocket missed its target and hit a different group of rival gangers*

BH2: “10 metres and you’re safe!”

*Akira's head jerks to the side as a heavy stubber round strikes off the side of her helmet, but she keeps moving. Her breath is starting to condense on the inside of her faceplate, the narrow slit of thick glass she's looking through is restrictive. Her field of vision reduced to directly in front of her, in a 45 degree cone, and her own feet. Beside her, Kerak weathers fire with ease. The helmet he wears, fitted over his beak is reminicent of the pigface helms, worn by knights on terra so long ago.*

*The Black Hand guide Akira into the remains of the bunker, the ferrocrete walls providing ample protection from the heavy stubbers. As Akira back to the Kroot she sees the other member of the Black Hand push his assigned veterans into the bunker before a burst of fire puts him on his arse, the rounds having gouged deep holes in the carapace armour but failing to kill the man*


The road is a good thirty metres wide, flanked by monolithic machinery and buildings on either side. On a normal day it’d be packed with men and women marching to the mine, brightly painted pleasure girls trying to lure workers away for five minutes of peace, Goliaths patrolling with heavy stubbers in hand and all sorts of other life just trying to get by

*akira grabs him by the collar of his armour, and drags him into cover.* "You hit?"

BH1: “I’m not dead, get ready for the next bunker”
*The guy rolls and pushes himself to his feet, forcing himself through a spike of pain as his ribs protest the movement*

BH2: *Having quickly walked over* “Next bunker is about 50 metres away to our left, with a supporting bunker about 60 metres north of the one we’re in”

*Most of the incoming fire has stopped, and judging by the Numerous footsteps gangers are closing in*

Akira: "Hold here, we'll hold this attack, then move."

*They both nod as the first ganger charges into the ruined bunker, and into kerak*

/Elsewhere\
*Having 'persuaded' the station guards to let his army into the train, Max is at best about 10 minutes away*

*Kerak simply backhands the ganger with his shield, hurling him, most likely broken in skull or neck, back outside. He breathes in deeply, looks up, and lets loose a hunting call. Deafeningly loud, destinctly avian, it echoes through the confined space.*

*Max has recieved the call, a three click radio burst. The assault has started.*

*The ganger crashes into one of his comrades, sending him back onto the floor. But yet more arrive, from both sides of the bunker come at least 20 gangers, while a pair of Goliaths wait for the right time to join the fray*

—

*With the assault underway, the black hand begin their diversion*

*akira pulls her revolver from a holster on her thigh. A tronvasse .50, left to her by her father, a seven round cylinder, and a huge slab sided barrel to handle the recoil. For the ganger she takes aim at, the world seems to slow down, her gauntleted finger tightens around the trigger, the guard removed to permit her gauntlets. The cylinder begins to rotate and the hammer pulls back. The moment the hammer snaps down, he feels a searing pain in the right side of his face, as the bullet passes through his cheekbone. The last thing he consiously understands before the back of his head explodes in a shower of greymatter and bone fragments is the sound, and the basso vibrations reverberating through his entire body.*

Akira: "COME ON THEN!" *Pistol raised, resting against a right angle cutout at the top right corner of her shield, for the purpose, as she aims again, she moves her entire torso, turning left a few degrees, another ganger's head coming to rest in her sights.*

*The kroot, all five of them, kerak, the albino female, the lighter brown male, one with pale blue/green skin, and the last with dark, dusty red markings, and black banding on his quills. They form a solid wall of plasteel and muscle, blades readied.*

*Weapons fire erupts beside Akira as the veterans keep the gangers from crashing into her flank. The Kroot are faced by a small squad armed with mostly shotguns and large knives. They move quickly firing fairly wildly into the shield wall before throwing themselves at the kroot. They push and pull at the shields, desperate to find an opening. Knives start punching through the gaps between them, their blades catching against the armoured kroots legs. With the Kroot momentarily distracted, the two Goliaths stalk around to the right side of the bunker, where Akira and her men had come from*

OOC: And I’ve edited the Max n Akira bit again. “Although Akira definitely wears the trousers in this relationship, it is Max’s endless ambition that drives the couple ever forward.”

*Akira notices the goliaths moving around, and bellows an order.* "FORWARD!"

*the kroot break forth, against mortal men with blades and poor quality shotguns, the act is akin to the advance of a combine harvester through grain. Blades rise and fall, men are knocked down by strikes from shields, then trampled to death by the oncoming kroot. Bladed talons causing ruinous injuries.*

*The men don’t stand a chance, and the few who aren’t brought down shatter and flee, much to the displeasure of their Goliath overlords. The two Goliath in question charge forwards, hoping to catch to spindly looking Kroot from behind*

OOC: Slow replies, in car.
You up for a longer combat sequence? Or would prefer to do this bit n skip to the end?

*the first of the goliaths finds himself subject to a steady hail of fire from akira's pistol. Having turned to them, she calmly empties the remaining five bullets into the charging man.*

OOC: Either or, dont mind

*Round after round embed themselves into the Goliath’s flesh, barely ticking him as he raises his hammer, ready to crush the skull of the nearest kroot*

*Akira steps up to him, holstering her pistol, and raising her shield to block the blow.* "KERAK! BEHIND!"

*Kerak begins to turn.*

*The hammer crashes into the shield, the blow leaving a large dent in the metal as the energy shoots down her arm*

*The Second goliath bursts past Akira, and lays into the men behind with his axe*

*akira drops to a knee, the shield hitting the floor, gritting her teeth against the muscle spasms the burst of energy imparted her, she wraps a hand around her sword's grip.*

*Kerak has turned, and is rushing to akira's aid, alongside the albino female, while the three remaining males pile in towards the second goliath*

*The goliath almost laughs at the oncoming kroot and wrenches his weapon back, ripping the shield from Akira’s grip and stepping back to let the Kroot cone to him*

*The other Goliath doesn't notice the oncoming kroot as he tears men limb from limb, his axe crashing through flesh and armour with every blow as if they didn’t exist*

*the three kroot decend on him, dropping shields, loosing enough weight to perform their infamous leaps. The red male strikes first, landing on the goliath's back, digging in his talons and the claws of his free left hand, and ramming the viscious hook on the end of his blade into the goliath's shoulder. the brown male seizes on his axe hand with his left hand as it is raised, claws digging into the wrist, then thrusting his blade up and into the goliath's armpit. The blue male, circles around the other side, crouched, ready to leap, to react to the goliath's responce.*

*akira has drawn her sword, clutching her left arm to her chest, in pain from the violent removal of her shield, still crouched. Kerak and the albino move past her, and stand shoulder to shoulder in front of her, overlapping their shields, a practiced team*

*With blood rapidly pooling into his lungs the Goliath turns, roars, and lunges toward the Brown kroot. Forcing his left hand forward so it clamps down on the xenos’ throat. Red suddenly finds himself clinging on in an attempt to not fall off as the goliath turns, the human moving far faster than expected*

*The Goliath seperates the shield from his weapon and holds it like a buckler, the weight being almost an afterthought. He grins and charges forward, using the shield as a battering ram whilst swinging his hammer in a low arc aiming to have it crash into kerak’s legs once he crashes through*