Commander Fariz leaned wearily beside the sandbagged pillar reinforcing the armorplast board, surveying the scene below the control tower, overlooking the main landing area of Port Hubris. Bulk haulers and transporters filled the scene, with scattering of navy fighters amongst them. Newly arrived troops and invaluable supplies were disembarked and hauled straight to the front lines. Ongoing repair works could be seen all around as the carnage wrought during the battle to evict the “Unclean” forces of Lord Minthras is still abundantly evident.
“Sir?” his reverie broken by a call from one of the tech-adepts manning the auspex console.
“What is it?” he queried as he hurried to the tech-adept.
“Multiple signals inbound from Haides. Some appear to be of Imperial origin while others are, um, unidentified.” The adept explained the situation.
As he was pondering on the growing situation, another call attracted his attention.
“Sir? We’ve got jamming coming our way and there seems to be a vox transmission from those signals” another adept informed him.
“Put the base on alert, inform the Lord General…” Fariz didn’t manage to finish as a clear vox garbled out, the voice obviously stressed, yet calm at the same time.
“Port Hubris, Port Hubris, this is Major Andi Kapinski of the Haides PDF. I’m inbound on your vector and I’ve got a frakking bunch of greenskins on my back.” The voice paused for a while “I have 6, I repeat, 6 haulers with me, jam-packed with refugees from Haides. We’re running out of escorts here” the last almost a yell “ Frak! There goes number 4. We’ve just lost a transport. Get us some air cover! For the love of the Emperor! Help us!” the plea almost a scream.
Fariz glanced at one of the techs and the adept nodded, “One of the Imperial signal is rapidly descending in the Southern sector, indicating emergency descent”
Without hesitation, “Scramble Blue Flight! Have Yellow Flight on Standby and prepare the flak batteries.” Fariz calmly issued his orders. Grabbing a binocular, he rushed to the balcony and scanned the sky.
Slowly, small dots interspersed with flashes appeared over the horizon. Increasing the magnification, he saw the bulky haulers come into view, some leaking smoke while tracer fire laced the sky from the buzzing ork fighters circling the transports.
As the drama continues to unfold, he began to have an uneasy feeling. Again, he searched the sky for any tell-tale sign to calm his unease. His gaze brought him back to the transports, and he realized, despite their seemingly erratic flight, they’re not badly damaged and the orks don’t seem to be hitting it at all.
“Blue Flight to Base, engaging the enemy” a vox transmission from the engaging fighters caught his attention. “Scramble the ready flight and have them escort the transports, tell them to watch out for anything suspicious” Fariz relayed another order to his aides. He put up his binoculars again and saw the ork fighters’ dog-fighting with Blue Flight even as Yellow Flight reached the transports, which had distanced themselves from their pursuers.
“This is Yellow Flight, we have eyeballs on the transports. Will pro….what the frak!” and the voice was abruptly cut off.
Flashes began to appear around the transports as Yellow Flight disintegrated under a barrage of well aimed missiles and lascannons originating from the transports themselves.
“Emperor, save us” muttered the astounded officer as he realized what is happening. This is the attack they’ve been waiting for. All those ready alerts and training simulation was for this day, and the defenders were still caught off guard.
“Sir, we’ve lost contact with the southern batteries. Outposts Beta-16 and Gamma-21 not responding to any of our hails” another aide informed him.
As alarms began to blare across the spaceport, he noticed that the transports were descending rapidly. Even as he looked up, he saw a fighta bomma plummet in a dive and loosed a speck of blackness towards the control tower. That speck continued to grow as it descended and realization filled the officer, his mind finally comprehending the big bomm coming his way. The final thing on his mind before the bomb exploded and ended his life in a fiery and violent explosion was that “Warboss Grimfang is here.”
Mission: Capture and Control
Opponent: Faizal Imperial Guard Cadian 7th Division
Strategy Cards:
Virus Bomb (Imperial Guard)
Careful Planning (Orks)
Bonuses:
Imperial Guard has an extra 100 points to spend on additional units.
Orks rolled 4+ (d6) for their command bastion and selected Fearless for the Nob bikers
The lead elements of the Cadian 7th reached the edge of the built up area and reformed from their column formation into a new battle formation. On the other side, the ork mobs began to mass and concentrate even as sporadic fighting started all over the spaceport between the greenskins and pockets of resistance.. In a panic reaction, the guardsmen released a virus bomb upon the orks. Five of the ‘ard boyz toppled with their bodies slowly dissolving into mush. Even the warboss was not spared and he could be seen coughing and wheezing after the attack.
When the virus bomb cloud cleared, the tanks of the imperial guard began to fire. Battle cannons, and Storm Eagle rockets rounds began to rain upon the milling orks. Several more boyz were blasted apart, as well as 2 of the biker nobz. The warboss was again wounded and his mood was getting blacker by the minute.
Wishing he had his regular ‘ard riding ‘an ass krushin’ nobz around him, the warboss sighed at the nobz mob surrounding him. “This bunch has just mobbed together and they sure are uppity about it” thought the warboss as he noticed the gleam of recklessness in the nobz beady eyes. “Well, I’ll just have to make do wiv dis nobz, then. At least dis bunch won’t run away crying becoz dem sure is eager to prove how gud dey is to me” the warboss mused in his head. Tossing aside any uncertainties, the huge warboss revved his engines, the nobz following suit.
With a loud cry, the warboss led his nobz across the landscape, bypassing shells of bombed out habs and warehouses, closing in on the tanks of the imperial guards. Amidst the swirling dust and smoke, the ‘ard boyz surged forward towards the enemy’s gun line and scrambled from ruins and rubbles, the Mad Dok cackling insanely as he led them forward. In preparation for the assault on the spaceport, the warboss has arranged for a surprise attack by his newly hired mercenaries, the Vulcha Boyz, led by the notorious Zagstruk. It remains to be seen if such an investment would turn out to be beneficial or not. Leaping from the antiquated Da Vulcha and deep striking in between 2 Leman Russ squadrons, the stormboyz scattered into cover, with everyone surviving the landing.
In the confusion, Snikrot led his komandos sneaked past the milling imperial guard tanks and disabled the Storm Eagle launcher on the manticore, as well as disabling the vehicle. The komandos paid for their daring and was subsequently gunned down by the alerted guardsmen. The tanks rumbled through the ruins and angled for better shots at the nob bikers, ignoring for the moment, the advancing ‘ard boyz.. Blast after blast came crashing down on the nobz and 3 more were blasted apart by shells. One of the hellhounds began to flank the ‘ard boyz and toasted some of them. The other hellhound went for the just landed stormboyz and in the rush to fire, managed to burn only 3 of them.
As the flanking hellhound unleashed its deadly payload, a mob of lootas appeared at its flank, their big shootas blazing. All the wild shooting hardly dented the armor and the meks could be seen arguing amongst themselves, blaming each other for putting paint pellets instead of black powdered AP rounds. A raggedy bunch of grots too could be seen making their way towards the ork statue behind the ruined hab complex. Left with only 3 nobz, the warboss led them into the guns of the leman Russ squadron, blowing one up in a spectacular explosion and leaving the other a burning hulk. The Mad Dok continued to urge his ‘ard boyz forward and they rapidly closed their distance to the imperial lines.
Zagstruk leapt into the air with his stormboyz in tow and they smashed into both the Leman Russ squadron and the solitary hellhound that targeted them just now. The demolisher tank was instantly crippled by Zagstruk’s klaws and the other tank in the squadron was left immobile and stunned. The hellhound fared better and escaped with barely a scratch. The lootas attempt to cripple the other hellhound in assault failed as the speeding tank easily avoided their clumsy blows.
Undaunted by the loss of his tank squadrons, the imperial guard commander ordered the chimeras toform a firing line and take down the warboss and his remaining nobz. The assaulted hellhound reversed its course and belched flame towards the lootas, killing four, yet the orks remained unshaken and continue to taunt the fleeing tank. A squad of veterans managed to outflank the nobz mob and poured fire from behind. Even the troopers inside the chimera used their fire-holes to contribute more firepower. After the blizzard of fire, the nobz were none the worse to wear as only one of them suffered a wound.
Dumbfounded by their apparent failure to stop the nobz, the newly arrived veterans did not react fast enough when the warboss came barreling towards them, his skorcha leading the way. 6 men crumpled into cinders and the rest were wounded by a single swipe of the warboss’s klaw. The remaining nobz thundered across the uneven ground recklessly and slammed into the rear of the command chimera and another chimera containing a veteran squad. The command chimera blew up, killing the officer of the fleet and another trooper. Despite the explosion, the commander managed to pick himself up and reformed his surviving command squad.
Zagstruk again led his boyz against the hellhound and this time, they also struck at the manticore damaged earlier in the battle. Zagstruk klaws tore off the hellgound’s turret and the stormboyz tossed in a couple of stikbombs into the hull. The ensuing explosion ignited the fumes and the tank easily brewed. An oily black pillar of smoke marking its demise. The dismounted crew of the manticore couldn’t defend themselves from the stormboyz and some well placed stikbombs ensured its destruction. The lootas braced themselves and let loose a fusillade of lead and whatnot into the other fleeing hellhound, stopping it in its track, smoke leaking out of its ports and slits. Soon, its highly flammable cargo caught fire and the tank was left burning furiously.
The ‘ard boyz finally made it into combat. Their victim, one of the disabled Leman Russ tank left alone by Zagstrukk. It did not take much to reduce the damaged tank into scrap metal, something that Dok Grosnik personally took care of. Elsewhere, the grots made a dash for the ork statue across the road, ducking behind cover where available.
The command squad, bereft of its transport, courageously charged the nob bikers after reducing their number to a sole biker with melta and plasma shots. Consolidating back into a crater, they await the inevitable onslaught of the ‘ard boyz. Bottled up in their transports, the remaining two veteran squads fired upon the ‘ard boyz, felling a few. The ever shrinking imperial line is now in a desperate situation.
The lootas, devoid of any viable targets decided to move up, to where the action is. The grots finally reached the statue and milled around it, looking confused, and out of breath. The ‘ard boyz called upon Da Green and declared a Waaargh! that propelled them through dangerous and difficult ground straight into the sides and rear of the disabled chimera. Infused with furious rage, the blows from the average choppas penetrated the armored skin of the vehicle, wrecking it permanently in many places. The unlucky veterans inside managed to disembark, saved by the orks attention on their doomed transport.
Zagstruk again leapt into the air, this time at great speed, causing one of the boyz to tumble from the sky as his rocket pack overheated and blew up, much to the amusement of the mob. This time his target was the remaining chimera. In no time, Zagstruk’s klaws easily ripped its armor, leaving the vehicle a twisted wreck. The veterans inside too had the misfortune to disembarked with enemies all around, yet they remained steadfast and did not panic.
The company commander, seeing the desperate situation he is in, stepped up to his men and issued “First rank fire! Second rank fire!” on one of the veteran squad. Falling back on their discipline, the veterans steadily took aim and unleashed a firestorm of lasgun shots at the approaching ‘ard boyz. Meltaguns added their fury to the mix and 10 were felled by the volley. Half of those groggily stood up after being brutally slapped and patched up by the Mad Dok. The other veteran squad picked on the stormboyz as their target and reduced the mob to just 4, including Zagstruk himself. Unfazed by his losses, Zagstruk ignored the annoying veterans and hunted for the imperial commander.
Scrambling over terrain and wrecks alike, the ‘ard boyz slammed into both veteran squads like a veritable avalanche, sweeping all before them, with a few losses of their own. The trampled, butchered bodies of the guardsmen ample evidence of the brutal bloodlust inherent within the boyz.
The commander suddenly found his escape route blocked by four rocket packs totting orks. One of them a big brute and the suddenness of the attack left the officer with no time to avoid his death as Zagstruk’s klaw crashed into his carapace helmet, straight to his skull, crushing it. His refractor field was too weak to deflect such brutal assault and his carapace suit might as well had been paper for all its worth. Dismayed at the loss of their leader, the surviving guardsmen were easily dispatched by the rest of the stormboyz. The assault ending as suddenly as it had begun.
With bloodlust still in their system, it was some time before the orks realized that there were no more enemies to fight. All the defenders of Port Hubris had either fallen on the battlefield or had fled from it. The spaceport is in orks hand! The cries of Waaaaarrrgghhh! and accompanying dakkadakka noise could be heard reverberating from the vicinity of Port Hubris for some time after that battle between the orks and its imperial guard defenders.
“Dats sum fight!” Warboss Grimfang muttered as he surveyed the scene of the Imperial Guard’s last stand. Numerous burnt out wreck littered the edge of the spaceport, testimony of their crews’ brave, but ultimately futile effort to stem the mobz.
As the warboss sat astride his big ride, a modified mek-special work based around an ultramarine bike, one of his nobz called for his attention. “Boss, dat Zagstrukk fella coming dis way.”
Looking up, as he is nursing the bloodied scar along his arm, the warboss could see the stormboyz boss striding towards him in his unique gait, courtesy of his bionic klaws.
“’ere boss, here’s sumfink speshul fer da boss.” Zagstruk grinned evilly as he dumped a pile of meat and clothing across Grimfang’s bar handles.
“wotzit?” the warboss looked the ‘thing’ over and poked his finger at it. It’s obviously dead, if nothing else.
“Dats da umie bossman, boss, hur, hur, hur.” Zagstruk explained.
A bright gleam appeared in warboss Grimfang as understanding dawned. “Ark, ark, ark. Dats gud. Too bad yer didn’t save me da head.”
Zagstruk merely shrugged at that comment and left the warboss to admire his newly acquired “trophy”.
Result: Ork victory (2-0 objectives), in addition, the imperial guard force was totally annihilated.
As a consequence, Port Hubris is now under Greenskin management (They are calling it Grot’s ‘Arbor)
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