++ Turpe Et Dicere ++

[Daemon2027]

I would like to say I wasn't excusing you guys of of stepping on the XIX legion toes, I was just pointing out the similarities to the RG and Serverain as something I liked about the story. Sorry to derail to the thread a bit.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

No, you're fine. I'm not as well read as some people with the Heresy novels, so if you hadn't brought up the similarity I'm sure someone else would have.

[Brother Heinrich]

Good stuff guys, glad to see you resurrecting the Unification project and giving it real life. The elements of survival against the odds and against their own degenerating biology reminds me of the Thunder Warriors from Outcast Dead. 

[Arac]

@Hyä: Can you Show where you made the cut to split the ashen circle guys in half?

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

http://i.imgur.com/NQ45h0V.png

 

-- Chapter 2.3: The Tumor of Nord Merica, part 1 --

 

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

 

    The massive turbine engines of the rotocopter sang as they streaked toward the dark horizon at nearly four hundred kph, a blur against the bruised grey cloud cover. The remains of the outer defenses, if they could be called that, were like the smoldering bones of giants strewn across the desiccated wasteland.  From the state of the blackened corpses and burned out vehicle shells, it appeared the XVII Legion had barely broken stride as they pushed through. To the west was the unmistakable trail of the IV Legion; the dry earth sunken and packed hard by the tread of thousands of vehicles.

    As the 'copter up ate the distance, the pilot dropped lower to avoid turbulence from the coming storm, giving a better view of the carnage below. The quality of the resistance increased, graduating from the ramshackle camps of nomads and destitute mercenaries to brick walls topped with razor wire and gun emplacements, bunkers, thousands of uniformed soldiers, and even tanks that looked to have been well maintained before they made the fatal error of standing against the Legions of the Emperor. The IV had struck with such fury that vast swathes of the desert wasteland had been reduced to blackened, fused glass and even three weeks later, the flames of their passing still smoldered from the shattered command bunker.

    The pilot banked and the horizon began to shift as they approached a camp, the blades of the rotors beating a steady rhythm against the six figures seated in the troop transport bay. To the northeast, they could see through the small armaglass windows the cyclopean silhouette of the D'troi superhive. Its uppermost towers and peaks were hidden in dark, roiling clouds of pollution while the lower half was obscured by a haze of smoke and dust, constantly fed by the ceaseless firing of the massive artillery lines of the IV Legion. Rows of anti-aircraft guns and missile emplacements cycled to life, tracking the 'copter as identification and clearance codes were transmitted by vox between the co-pilot and the IV Legion camp command. Codes were checked, approved, and permission given to land.

    One of the men unbuckled his restraints and moved to the port door. He grasped the safety rung bolted to the ceiling with one hand and disengaged the lock on the sliding crew door and pulled it open with the other. Wind blasted inside the bay, bringing the smells of the distant flames and the heavier odor of fyceline from the artilley. The previous dull roar of the turbines and rotors climbed to a wailing scream but he ignored it, seeing now what had been hidden through the thick, dirty armaglass - the faint blue shimmer of the great shield dome over D'troi that protected the hive within. Rumored to have been constructed in the last days of the Dark Age of Technology, the shield was long held to be impenetrable to anything a terrestrial force could bring to bear against it. Even now, he could see the tiny sparks of light denoting artillery shells landing on the shield to no effect.

    "What the bloody hell do they think the six of us can do against that?" Rel voxed, his raspy voice nearly lost in the scream of the engines.

    Vall, still looking out the open door, shrugged. "We're about to find out."

    The pitch of the engines changed and the rotocopter dropped altitude toward a marked landing area. The downwash of the blades whipped dust and smoke into gritty whirlpools. The other five members of the scout squad removed their restraints, grabbed their kit bags, and followed Vall onto the tarmac. A single IV Legionnaire was awaiting them. Tall and broad in the chest, he held his helmet in the crook of his left elbow, unblinking in the storm of dust and downwash as he looked down at the five scouts that barely came to his collar. Of the one scout that came close to him in height, he paid no heed.

    "Which of you is Lieutenant Vall?" he shouted over the noise.

    The scouts just stood in front of him, unmoving, as the engines of the rotocopter shut down.

    The IV Legionnaire's face wrinkled up in disgust. "Yeah, I heard all about you lot. Not even enough respect to doff your cover when meeting with another Legion. Now which of you is Vall?"

    One of the diminutive Astartes stepped forward. "I am."

    The big brute's granite-like face split with a sneer. "Warrant Officer Mahdra requests your presence. No one else does."

    Murg, the most stocky and thickset of the group, took a step forward. "I'd wager the apothecaries pulling the progenoids out of your dead scouts might feel different."

    The sergeant's face blanched red with fury and Vall quickly moved between him and Murg. "We are here as a courtesy to assist another of the Emperor's Legions in any way that we can."

    "Let's get this over with," the sergeant growled. He turned and started off for the bunker. The scouts fell in behind him.

    "He's an unusually pleasant ambassador for his Legion," Bev Duros voxed. He was the only member of Alpha scout squad who was not a Child of Night, and it was an accomplishment he was fiercely proud of.

    "Don't expect it to be different from any of the rest of them," Xon replied in his soft tone. "They are some of the first to call us child killers and scum unworthy of-"

    "Enough," Vall cut in. "We are here at the express invitation of a decorated officer of the IV Legion and a personal friend of mine. I will not have any of you disrespect his Legion or his men in my presence. Understood?" The other scouts all voxed an affirmative.

    They descended into the bowels of the sprawling bunker, stopped numerous times at check points by armed legionnaires in full battle plate. Each time, the sergeant that refused to offer his own name had to show his credentials and the clearance codes for his charges to not only be inside a restricted area, but to be armed as well. Each time, they were met with disapproving stares at best, or outright distaste and insults at the worst.

    The IV legionnaires would have been practically indistinguishable from one another save for the odd scratch or flake of missing paint if they had their helmets on. They were uniform, polished, and well ordered. Every piece of kit immaculately maintained and spotless. All were clean shaven and most shared a similar look of buzzed hair on the sides of the head with a wide, but short mohawk on top. Squared away, as Vall remembered the term Mahdra was fond of using those years ago in the citadel of the Firstborn. It wasn't that the VIII Legion scouts took no less care of their own equipment, but more that no two of them looked alike that seemed to draw the ire of the IV. Each scout's helmet, weapon, and webbing rig had been customized to the preferences of the individual, but perhaps most egregious of all was that Bev Duros -- whose eyes weren't as sensitive as the others -- had removed his helmet to display a thick, dark beard and a full head of shaggy hair.

    The bunker shook, dust raining down from the ferrocrete ceiling, as another salvo of the big guns of the IV Legion sent shockwaves rumbling through its structure. The sergeant finally guided them out of the cramped stairwells and into a massive open chamber with four great doorways, two on each of the left and right walls. The doors opened into vast lifts used to carry large numbers of personnel and materiel to the surface. Around them, legionnaires of the IV gathered at their designated rally markers and stared upward with each new rumble, the desire to be out in the open, taking the fight to their enemy writ plain on their faces. The few human staff that could be seen looked like rats trapped in a ferrocrete cage, the claustrophobic space widening eyes and making hearts race. The air stank with their fear sweat.

    As they passed through the center of the great chamber, winding around ammo carts and mobile armor fitting stations, the gathered astartes of the IV now had something else to direct their attention to. The chatter and din of activity that had filled the chamber died in the span of a few seconds to be replaced with hushed insults and stares as cold as the void of space.

    "He wasn't joking. They really don't want us here," Aja said softly over the squad vox channel.

    "No Legion wants to ask for help," Vall replied.

    "Especially from us," Rel added. The sadistic smile he always wore could be heard in his raspy voice.

    Another titanic salvo of fire shook the bunker so hard that the lights flickered and some of the humans cried out in alarm. The sergeant glanced over his shoulder to make sure they were keeping up, and possibly to check that none of his brothers were following with ill intent. At last they came to one of many large sets of double doors that lined the back wall of the chamber and the sergeant punched a code into a keypad next to the handle. A bolt disengaged from the other side.

    "Warrant Mahdra awaits your pleasure," the sergeant announced and then walked off.

    "Wait here," Vall ordered over the squad vox. He squinted his eyes, removed his helmet, and stepped inside to find a large armory stocked with scout gear. The lights had been dimmed to accommodate his eyes, he was surprised to find. Across the room, a very tall and broad astartes was stripped to the waist and going over the equipment laid out on a table in front of him. The bare skin of his wide shoulders and back was a medium brown shade and criss-crossed with deep, vicious scars - the stigmata - as well as numerous bullet and knife scars. The astartes glanced over his shoulder, then turned around, offering a small, tired smile.

    Vall set his helmet on a bench and removed his glove as he walked over and the two slapped their arms together, wrists grasping forearms, in their traditional greeting.

    "You're still pale. And short," Phelan Mahdra said.

    "You've managed to grow even uglier," Vall said, pointing at a fresh scar on Mahdra's cheek with his free hand.

    Their hands parted and Mahdra slapped his friend on the back. "I'm glad you've come, brother." He sighed and his voice gained an edge of anger. "I wish they had gotten you here seventeen days ago when I first requested outside aid."

    "The Fourth Legion is rather stubborn about that sort of thing."

    Mahdra exhaled sharply through his nose and his large hands clenched into fists. "It took nine squads of dead scouts to convince them otherwise. I don't care if my brothers have a problem with me, but this was a senseless waste of lives."

    "You're not a scout," Vall said. He stepped up to the table and looked at the strange device amidst the armor pieces, bolter magazines, grenades, and various other kit.

    "I am whatever my Legion needs me to be." Mahdra picked up the ballistic cloth tunic from the table, pulling it over his head and powerful shoulders. "Plus, I was growing tired of sitting here helplessly while all of our best scouts were cut down and new recruits were being fed into that meat grinder."

    Despite what he thought of the way the IV treated their only living Firstborn, Vall knew it was a wound his old friend did not want opened again, and as he always did in situations where his limited social skills failed him, he changed the subject. "Why have you brought us here, Phelan? What do you need of me?"

    "We're stalemated against the shield covering D'troi. I need you and your team to help me break that stalemate so we can crack it open."

    Vall echoed what Rel said earlier. "What can the six of us do against that?"

    Mahdra was silent as he continued putting on his gear. Over the dark grey long-sleeved ballistic tunic went gloves of ballistic cloth with an armor plate on the back of the hand, a plated chest piece with bolter magazine pouches across the abdomen, grenades on the left side, and his combat knife on the right. Next came vambraces and spaulders that Vall recognized as recycled parts of the piecemeal armor their Firstborn unit had been given until the kinks in the first generation of power armor had been worked out. The pieces weren't even ceramite, but a thick steel alloy - hastily blackened for stealth work -  that was easier to work and allowed Mahdra to constantly modify it as his body continued to enlarge. Last was a bolter carbine custom fitted to Mahdra's enormous hands and secured with a three-point sling. The helmet and the strange device, which Vall now saw was a backpack, Mahdra easily hefted with his left arm.

    Vall had kept his thoughts silent when he first saw his old friend again, but he was shocked at how much larger Mahdra had grown in the years since their last meeting. Coming back to the present, he looked over his friend's gear with an appraising eye and frowned.

    "What's wrong?"

    "No cameleoline?" Vall asked.

    "That's what I have you for," Mahdra said in a flat tone. "Now come on, I'll brief you and your men on how you're going to help us win this fight."

 

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/Sy113Jv.png

 

++Lientenant Vall, Recon Squad Alpha, IX Company, VIII Legion++

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/8PhpVCQ.jpg

 

++Warrant Officer Phelan Mahdra, XIV Company, VII Grand Company, IV Legion++

 

   
So, we're not dead! Yay! I'm sure y'all know how it goes, what with life jumping up and keeping you away from the hobby table from time to time. Even still, apologies for the delay on the next installment. You might have noticed that in the title of this one, it said part 1. As is sometimes the case, the idea I had ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated and in the spirit of not putting up a wall of text so large it would turn people away, I'm gonna split it into two parts. I know this is another diversion from the current mission of Oxitania, but it will all tie together, I promise.

 

Since this is in two parts, I figured I'd show the WIP pics of the figures now, and the finished versions with the second part. For those of you who saw Greyall's drawing of Vall and Mahdra, I already had Mahdra's figure done in the modeling phase and he used that as reference, but for Vall I only had a description to offer him.
    

    

  

[GhostMalone]

Dude thats :cussing awesome as :cuss it's perfect and fits the art work to the t

[Daemon2027]

The story is good, intresting, I like the continued focus on the proto Legions, and the wars on Terra.

The models are excellent, your GS ability is just plain amazing.

[Slips]

I had a very Predator feel when reading this :p

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

The story is good, intresting, I like the continued focus on the proto Legions, and the wars on Terra.

The models are excellent, your GS ability is just plain amazing.

The vast majority of this project is going to be during the Unification wars, and thanks for the compliment.

I had a very Predator feel when reading this

There's no cabinet minister to rescue, I swear.

[jeremy1391]

I love this thread!

[Kizzdougs]

Beautiful work, BCK! Excellent writing and very creative modelling work. I usually skip over "walls of text", but I'm more than happy to read your work. It was great to see some IV Legion goodness in there, especially considering that I've just finished working on my own Iron Warrior. I wouldn't describe his gear as "polished and well ordered" though :P

 

Looking forward to the next update :tu:

[GrandMagnus]

Wow, BCK, awesome conversions. What mini was used as the base for Vall?

[Kriegriss]

bravo fella great work as usual

[Barabbas Sogalon]

Damn, this is great.

[Fire Golem]

Very nice, as always.

[depthcharge12]

Great writing man! However I feel that those models don't quite feel in universe with 30k but that's just me.

 

I'm glad somebody finally wants to nuke Detroit good and proper :P it's just a nasty dirty town. I don't think anything other than the Redwings would be missed tbh.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I love this thread!

Me too!

Beautiful work, BCK! Excellent writing and very creative modelling work. I usually skip over "walls of text", but I'm more than happy to read your work. It was great to see some IV Legion goodness in there, especially considering that I've just finished working on my own Iron Warrior. I wouldn't describe his gear as "polished and well ordered" though

Looking forward to the next update

Thanks, man. Keep in mind, these guys are waiting to go into combat, so they have plenty of time to work on their gear.

Wow, BCK, awesome conversions. What mini was used as the base for Vall?

I did a post in my WIP thread on these two guys. http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/278032-bcks-thread-of-stuff-at-long-last/?p=4147273

bravo fella great work as usual

Damn, this is great.

Very nice, as always.

Thanks very much.

Great writing man! However I feel that those models don't quite feel in universe with 30k but that's just me.

I'm glad somebody finally wants to nuke Detroit good and proper it's just a nasty dirty town. I don't think anything other than the Redwings would be missed tbh.

Forge World has supposedly said that they will not be making scouts in carapace armor and I have never liked any of the GW scouts with their odd SCUBA regulator and the armored codpiece of doom, so I had to come up with my own version and I (obviously) drew heavily on modern military forces for it.

[Hyaenidae]

I'm glad somebody finally wants to nuke Detroit good and proper it's just a nasty dirty town. I don't think anything other than the Redwings would be missed tbh.

That's my birth home you're talking about, High-speed.

And I'm still a Lions fan.

........*cough*

[DuskRaider]

Go Pack Go.

 

Beautiful work, BCK. The VIII Scout looks ace.

[depthcharge12]

I'm glad somebody finally wants to nuke Detroit good and proper it's just a nasty dirty town. I don't think anything other than the Redwings would be missed tbh.

That's my birth home you're talking about, High-speed.

And I'm still a Lions fan.

........*cough*

Pfft. I went there for a bar mitzvah once...every other store was a strip club, a liquor store, or a Coney Island :P sometimes they were two for ones....

As for being a Lions fan - that shizz is medical. You need to get that checked out.

[Vazzy]

I'm glad somebody finally wants to nuke Detroit good and proper it's just a nasty dirty town. I don't think anything other than the Redwings would be missed tbh.

That's my birth home you're talking about, High-speed.

And I'm still a Lions fan.

........*cough*

That's the true sign of an insane man.

[Flint13]

 

I'm glad somebody finally wants to nuke Detroit good and proper :P it's just a nasty dirty town. I don't think anything other than the Redwings would be missed tbh.

 

That's my birth home you're talking about, High-speed.

 

And I'm still a Lions fan.

 

........*cough*

The Lions? Huh... I heard Detroit used to have a football team at one point :p (I can't talk, I'm a Raiders fangirl)

 

I was going to say something pretty similar to kizzdougs... Normally that text wall turns me off, but for a very few BnC authors. Great work Kage!

 

Can't wait to see these mini-bros in paint ^_^

[Daemon2027]

Pfft. I went there for a bar mitzvah once...every other store was a strip club, a liquor store, or a Coney Island :P sometimes they were two for ones....

I'm not seeing the issue. In fact I'm tempted to tell my mates to swap our Vegas trip to Detroit.

[Soldier of Dorn]

Jesus Christ... you go camping for the weekend and look at what you miss...

Phelan and Vall look amazing, BCK. Truly, they are an inspiration. Additionaly, the fluff is very enjoyable, though I am curious as to what Legion Bev Duros hails from.

Anyway, as we seem to have gone off on a tangent about football (real football for all you non-'Muricans ), I can only say as a Seattle resident that the Seahawks are to the sport what the Emperor's Children are to drugs. Of course, to say anything else would be heresy of the first order, and therefore get me and my immediate family drowned in a giant bowl of bean dip.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Easy to miss a new installment 'cause the thread had been quiet for about a month, and I'm glad you enjoyed both the writing and figures. :D

 

Bev Duros is an Albian, btw. I thought I had read in Massacre, though I can't seem to find it now, that the ranks of the VIII were swelled with an influx of new recruits from Albia and other areas. I can't imagine that there would be enough of those pale children down in those dark prison sinks to make an entire Terran Legion so they had to bulk out the numbers. The praetor figure I did for the ETL is a crazy Rus(sian), for example. The way I am choosing to differentiate the Night's Children from other recruits is that they only have a given name, while the others have familial names.

 

I hope to have the next part up soon with Mahdra and Vall painted, as well as currently working on getting some ideas together for the Oxitanian augmented soldiers that they're going up against.