Duty Never Ends..

[Jaminos]

(I started this thread so I could expand on characters I mention in my other story, Born In The Dark: A Dark Angels Tale, that I found warranted their own short stories. Some might be a few posts and some might only be a single post. But I wanted a place where I could write about them and no detract from my other story)

(This first story is actually based off of a game a played once. I felt the game was so interesting that it deserved to be fictionalized. I hope you enjoy)

Service until Death...

Brother Ravion sat on his scout bike, flanked by his two fellow squad mates, waiting for the signal to be given. Their black armor of the Ravenwing blended in well with the shadows.

They had received a distress signal two weeks ago. No message was given, only the standard emergency signal that was broadcast in the event the Imperial Guard stationed on the planet had been wiped out completely. Though that happened rarely. Usually they were able to send their own request if the battle had taken a turn for the worse.

The entire thing bothered Ravion. He had fought hundreds of battles on a hundred different planets. He knew how to kill each enemy of man in a special, intimate way. But in his entire life, he had never seen anything like this.

The city of Broker had a population of approximately four hundred thousand men, women and children. All loyal citizens to the Emperor. They produced ammunition for the sector. All gone without a trace.

Dark clouds started to form quickly and before long, rain blanketed the streets. The entire costal city looked as if nothing had happened. As if people would start walking out of their homes to go to the great factories, to start up another day of work.

"Not a bloody body to show for it!" Brother Tereck growled behind him. His famous short temper rising once more..

"Its as if they were never here! Even Orks leave behind their own foul mark from where they have been!" He continued.

Brother Santos spoke up as well. "Aye, Even Tau and Eldar let their enemies bury their dead. Not so much as a shallow grave."

"Patience, brothers. Second and third squad will turn up something." Sergeant Ravion soothed.

As if to support his words, Second squad's Sergeant came over the Vox channel.

"First squad! We need you to get to us ASAP! We found something you are going to want to see. Sending up flare now..."

A bright red flare shot up into the air even as he still was talking. Hitting the throttle of his bike, smoke billowed from his exhaust and his tired screeched as he aped away. His squad hot on his heels.

He slid his power sword out of it's sheath, flicking on the power setting. The blade came to life in a blue glow. Giving fierce shadows under his cowled head.

They covered the distance to the other squads in less then two minutes. Second and third squad were both parked at the edge of the city, facing the ocean.

Ravion was about to question what the other squads had found when he saw for himself their discovery. A large ziggurat rose from the depths of the ocean. Once it cleared the waves, it floated at least twenty feat above them... then started heading towards them.

In his long life he had never encountered this foe before. Only rumors and tales, never had he seen them before.

Necron

To be continued..

[Jaminos]

The monolith slowly hovered towards their position. It was perhaps two klicks from their position. By his estimate, they had maybe ten minutes before the monolith was at their position.

 

The chaplain in charge of the mission, Chaplain Sijerra, came over the Vox channel and started giving orders. "Squad one, I need you to run interference for our whirlwind while it trays to get a targeting lock. The weather is giving it a hard time and it is vulnerable until it has a firing solution."

 

Ravion gave a quick "affirmative" before he ordered his squad to the position where the whirlwind was hiding.

 

The Champlain ordered squads two and three to prepare some traps for the Necron. The Chaplin and his command squad were currently holding off in the middle of the city, trying to raise command. The Vox was having a hard time raising the command ship to call in their reserves.

 

Ravion and his squad quickly zipped along the road. Their bikes making a bestial growl. The whirlwind was hidden in the middle of a park, covered by surprisingly thick foliage. The crew of the whirlwind d was currently out, working on a dish that helped direct pinpoint strikes.

 

Ravion got off of his bike and addressed a marine who wore mostly black armor, save for a shoulder pad that was painted in the red of Adeptus Mechanicus. "What is the status, sergeant?" Ravion asked calmly.

 

"The targeting system was hit oddly enough by a lightning strike. While it is shielded from most electrical warfare. But it did force a hard reset on the system. I have my men trying to speed it along."

 

"We have approximately ten minutes before they reach land. Do whatever you can quickly, brother. We need artillery support as much as you can give us"

 

The Marine looked back at the whirlwind and then back at Ravion.

"I can't give any promises, but I will see what I can do. If the system is still offline by the time we are given coordinates, we can still fire the hard way. But the chance of hitting our own men will be much higher."

 

Ravion nodded and mounted his bike again, igniting the engine once more. "Understood sergeant. I will keep you covered until you can start raining death."

 

Before the marine could answer, his squad was already off. Thunder howled in the sky. Matching the roar of their engines. Steam rolled off of his blade, cause by the rain.

 

The monolith made landfall as he predicted, in ten minutes. From the sea, Necron emerged, slowly walking in precise lines. Walking in step, weapons forward, deadly machines.

 

The first two rows of warriors triggered Squad three and four's traps. Melta bombs detonating at just the right time. The Necron force cared not, it continued to march over their fallen soldiers.

 

Once the Necron were bottle necked down the narrow streets, Squad three and fourth came from both sides and struck. Their twin-linked bolters carving a path of devastation. 

 

The Necron force was decimated. The tactic worked several more times before all that was left was the monolith. It was unable to hit the faster scout bikes with its gauss weapons on the crest of the monolith. 

 

Squads three and four moved in to place melts bombs when they realized to late that it was according to plan by the Necron.

 

Slowly rising from where they lay, the undying machines took aim and fired. The gauss weapons went through the power armor as if it did not exist. Killing men with little effort.

 

One Marine had survived and managed to scramble back to his bike to escape the trap. A flash of lightning struck next to the marine, a Necron Lord rose from the spot where the lightning had struck and with a thrust of it's strange staff, stabbed the Marine through the back. 

 

The Marine was lifted from his bike, impaled on the staff of the Necron Lord and then thrown to the side. Dead.

 

Ravion got over the vox channel and ordered for a artillery strike on the Lord's position.

 

The whirlwind Sergeant replied "We still are stuck rebooting. We will have to fire a manual shot."

 

The distinct sound of a whirlwind firing off in the distance could be heard from his position. The missiles landed directly on target, filling the area with debris and dust.

 

After a very long moment, the dust settled. The Necron lord was standing still. It pointed forward and the monolith followed suit.

 

A enemy that death could not claim.it.

[Jaminos]

"Repeat again?" The chaplain asked calmly over the Vox channel.

 

"Squads two and three have been completely whipped out sir. They were taken by surprise and completely whipped out. I can personally confirm every kill they made. The Necron just got back up again and started firing at them as if all they had done is knock them down." Ravion repeated once more. His own disbelief had not settled in yet.

 

His squad had pulled back from the area they had used to observe the battle. They needed to pull back closer to the whirlwind to provide defense. They had intercepted a squad of Necron warriors and dispatched them quickly. They had no sense of preserving their lives. They walked into a hail of fire and they did not even slow. These did not come back as the others had.

 

"I wonder if that monolith has something to do with their returning to life. Or perhaps the leader. I saw it carrying something in its hand that seemed to glow every time they fell in battle." Santos said to Tereck.

 

Father Sijerra spoke up after a moment of silence. 

 

"Squad one. Continue to run interference. We are going to draw the monolith to us. We will continue to try to raise command and get our reserves sent in. Over and out

 

Ravion pulled into a side street with his bike, narrowly hitting a Chimera transport that had been parked. His fellow squad brothers were still conversing over their narrow band vox channel for private communications with squad members within a twenty meter radius.

 

"...And I am saying if you cut off their head, they can't come back. Remember what ol' Sergeant Calman use to say? A good double tap after the enemy is dead, is always a good policy." Tereck said to Santos.

 

Ravion nearly drove into a squad of Necron warriors who were heading towards the park. He used his momentum to go into a power slide and create a extremely powerful swing of his sword. He took three Necron out with his sword alone. Santos opened fire from behind with his twin linked bolters. Tereck simply plowed into the enemy. Uncaring of what damage it might do to him. To his credit, he took out two Necron for his trouble. 

 

Ravion squeezed the trigger on his handlebar and took out three more Necron. Santos was unable to continue firing after Tereck had charged into the enemy line. Hitting the turbo booster on his bike. He charged into the enemy position. 

 

He was going to fast to do much damage, but that was his tactic. He was to fast to be hit. What surprised Ravion, was as he charged, he grabbed a single Necron by it's metallic skull and took the entire Necron with him. He leaned down far enough to grind it's head against the ground. Sending sparks every which way. When his move was done, he only held half of a Necron's skull, the body had detached half way through his move.

 

"Your tactic is sound, brother." He said, examining the skull as half of it still glowed red from the heat of grinding against the ground at high speeds.

 

The Necron forces apparently started to rally, they formed ranks and started to swing their gauss weapons at them. Tereck was hit across the head with one weapon. He stared at the Necron for a moment and then started to laugh. His laughter was so uncontrollable that he was hit three more times. All he did was laugh louder at the attempts to harm him.

 

"The scary undead army hits like a Space Wolf! I might die from laughter!" Tereck hit the throttle hard and spun around in a circle. Killing two of the four remaining Necron. Ravion dispatched the other two, cleaving both with one swing. 

 

Following Santos's example. They beheaded the entire squad, throwing their metallic skulls down a sewer manhole not far from them.

 

To their relief, the whirlwind crew was able to get the dish working again and had a target lock and a firing solution on the Monolith. Krack missiles streaked into the sky. A few moments later, the sound of missiles detonating could be heard.

 

Over the Vox channel the Sergeant of the whirlwind spoke.

 

"This is Whirlwind one. We made a direct hit. Unfortunately it appears our missiles are not strong enough for that armor. Requesting that we pull back. We are not going to do any good out here."

 

Father Sijerra answered back with " Affirmative Whirlwind one. Pull back to LZ. Squad one, we need you to provide a distraction while they pull back. We are only half way to the Necron force and can not  get them in time before they will reach you."

 

"Acknowledged. Squad one, on approach."

 

Kicking his bike into high gear, his bike screamed towards the enemy position. His brothers hot on his heels. The Monolith could be seen from everywhere in the city. Its black shape slowly hovering towards the center of the city. 

 

The enemy had at least twenty warriors and what appeared to be some sort of flying Necron. Half of their body appeared to be like that of a warrior. The other half was like some strange metallic carapace. 

 

Fanning out, he had his men give as few targets as possible. They struck first by doing quick hit and run tactics. They did not take many out, but they were out of their range before they could return fire. To their surprise, the Necron Lord was only able to bring back half of those they destroyed. 

 

The strange flying Necron started to chase after them, once they assimilated their hit and run tactics. One managed to take out Tereck's bike by shooting out the real tire. His bike skidded hard before he leapt off. He pulled his Bolt Pistol and started to open fire with it. Slowly making his way to the smoking ruin that was his bike.

 

Ravion provided fire support to cover his retreat. Once he was at his bike, he pulled a bolter off of the twin link mount and started to open fire, using the bike as cover.

 

Santos took out two of the flying Necron by using his superior driving skills to get them to crash into obstacles they were not expecting. The first crashed into the parked Chimera that Ravion had nearly ran into earlier. The other failed to make a hard turn into a corner and crashed into a building.

 

Ravion took out the remaining flying Necron with a quick melee where he exchanged blows for a moment before he severed the torso from the flying platform. The flying portion continued to fly a few more moments before it crashed into the ground.

 

Necron Warriors started closing in on Terecks position. He would kill three or four and two would still rise after being taken down. Santos came to his aid by firing into the Necron mass. He only managed to take out one before they turned on him and opened fire. 

 

He took several gauss rounds to the chest. He slumped on his bike for a long time. Over the squad Vox channel Santos spoke weakly. "Goodbye my brothers. Send them back to the abyss."

 

Hitting the turbo boost on his bike, he charged into the mass of Necron one more time. He hit the enemy hard, his bike exploding half way into the mass. He managed to take out another five before his death.

 

Tereck howled in rage and ripped the second bolter from the mount, firing both weapons into the Necron force. His aim was wide and he only took out a few before the monolith fired on his position. When the smoke cleared, all that remained was a crater where he stood.

 

Alone, Ravion turned his home towards the Necron force. Only a quarter of their number had been lost for good. The rest had raised from their death.

 

His sights settled on the Necron Lord at the heart of the column. Revving his bike, he charged.

 

To be continued...