Warzone Qorabbas: Part II

 The Qorabbas Retribution – Part I

Author's note: This article follows on from part 1, which you can read here.

[//chris_b/@chrisbuxey+]


Koinos felt he heard the machine-spirit telling him to ignite the blade. It will burn off the dust. It will keep the edge keen. He murmured an imprecation against corruption. The voice was cunning. Impersonating a machine-spirit was new. In the past it had been numinous; an edge of nobility. When he had resisted, as the Chaplains had warned him, it had wheedled, or bargained, and, at last, threatened. 
 
He swallowed heavily. It was too long in this tunnel. They had all been too long; and all because the cursed traitors had turned to another false prophet and holed up in this grimy warren. He couldn't bring himself to think the word itself – that only antagonised the voice. 
 
***

[//Flesh Eaters descend into the depths of Kanah+]
[//dave_m@n_vermind+]

Eschewing the transport tubes – reasoning, rightly, that they were too vulnerable to ambush – the Flesh Eaters made their advance on foot. Their ranging scouts reported the presence of mines, which slowed the advance to a crawl as the Marines painstakingly isolated and defused the explosives. When the Skitarii reported, in dismay, that the mines had been detected, Kaleo, Voted Commander of the Firebreak and Partisan forces in the region, simply smiled grimly. 
'It is as it should have come to pass. On finding a hidden blade, the over-confident warrior believes a second cannot exist.'

[//Consul Kaleo of the Firebreak+]

The Flesh Eaters officers ordered their forces to remain close and disciplined, but the crawling pace nagged at them all. The advance took some four days to reach the lightly-defended border regions of Qanah, and it was almost with relief that the Flesh Eaters found themselves engaged, and were able to fall on the defenders.

 
'Look to your weapons, brothers!' Ostroth's cry came from mouth to ear; the vox was corrupt. Koinos closed his eyes for a moment, then ignited the blade. All around him, he heard the gunning of chainblades and hum of reignited power packs.
 

With equal parts courage and savagery, the scions of the IXth Legion forced their way into Qanah; the three wings of the group quickly overwhelming the so-called 'Gatehouse' district. The defenders were as disciplined as might have been expected, dug-in and prepared, but the Flesh Eaters proved more than a match for the soldiers they faced. 

The strategy was relatively straightforward; familiar to any Codex Chapter. Officers on the ground would identify potential weak spots, then focus their efforts on quickly overwhelming and overrunning the area. In the complex shanties and corridor of the undercity, this allowed the Flesh Eaters to deeply penetrate the defender's lines, before turning and threatening the enemy from behind.

+ Voivode Ostroth the Terrible led the advance portion of the Flesh Eaters assault. +
[//mikl_h-w/@duckcalledsue+]


He was awash with gore. They were all awash. Not merely blood-spattered, the Flesh Eaters were caked in gore as thick as gruel. Slamming his back to a shanty wall, he paused. A deliberate blink. His eyelids closed on the voice and opened with Koinos once more.

He swallowed heavily. His mouth tasted of iron and tin and combat. Small arms fire was constant, and overlaid with yelled commands – and the damn battlecry of the Partisans.

Stop. saying. the. word. he urged them, silently. 

Sweeping his power blade up, he motioned for the squad to advance once more. If things were proceeding as planned, their comrades would be poised for the next strike, on the next line. Over and again, the Flesh Eaters were taking great chunks out of the Partisan line, then working back to pincer away strongpoints against their support, flensing and bleeding the enemy. It was a simple strategy. It worked well.
 
[//Flesh Eaters loosed in the warrens of Qanah+]
[//dave_m@n_vermind+]

The Partisan Guardsmen held for a respectable time, their nerve buoyed up as much by cries of 'One Throne on Terra!' and 'Captumori!' as the combat drugs – but at last their strength was spent. Believing themselves to be closing the jaws of their own trap, Marshal Jhum – the overall commanding officer of the Qorabbans – ordered his forces to pull back to pre-prepared positions. The retreat was covered by a series of timed detonations as the first lines were abandoned. Fortunately for the Flesh Eaters, the speed and at which they had overwhelmed the defenders meant that they were, for the most part, ahead of the blasts.

As the Partisan Imperial Guard fell back, the Flesh Eaters were drawn further into the warren of streets, and the battling becoming more heavy going. With the battle moving into more built-up areas, it amounted to little more than tunnel fighting. With plenty of time to prepare, the Qorabbans and Avaricians had been estimated to hold the Flesh Eaters for some four hours; after which, they had been briefed, the Firebreak would close the trap.

[//paul_h/@the_midnightmare+]

'Sweep the streets. Door to door. Room to room. The Grand Voivode has decreed none shall live. To turn from the Emperor’s light is to invite the darkness. They shall find out that we are the darkness.'
[//Sergeant Lugos, Veteran of Feretory+]


In fact, evidence points to Kaleo instead deliberately delaying, choosing to re-mine a portion of the tunnel instead. Casualties increased substantially amongst the Firebreak's allies, and no conclusive reason for the delay was ever recorded.
'Whether this sat ill with the warriors under his command is – for obvious reasons – no longer on record, but the ruthlessness – if such it was – of Kaleo seemed to suffer no serious repercussions from Partisan High Command in the years that followed. Perhaps the Consul was simply aware of just how precious their lives were to the Partisan cause – particularly when compared with the duplicitous priesthood of Avarice and a rabble of Qorabbans.'
[//Inquisitor Angustin+]

[//cameron_m/@dizzyeye.01+]

Casualties rose amongst the Flesh Eaters, but the cost was colossal – by the sixth hour, it was estimated that Kaleo had lost more than half of the defending Imperial Guard forces. It was a further hour before the Consul eventually led his forces into battle, by which time the scrambled vox was alive with sounds of sobbing pleas for support and relief.

Another pause. Another moment of clarity. Koinos had lost a squadmate to an ambush – autocannon. It might not have caught them if...
 
For a treacherous moment, Koinos couldn't remember his name. There were so many new faces; newly-ascended Space Marines fast-tracked into the brotherhood. He struggled to think of them as brethren.
 
No matter. He turned a corner, cautiously – and came face-to-face with the Thing That Should Not Be.
***

The trap closes

[//Dom Gais of the Firebreak+]
[//pesh_s/@freelance_pesh+]

The order had come. Dom Gais took a moment to speak a brief litany before following in the footsteps of his advancing brethren.  'In the name of the Emperor, his Returned Son and this Holy Bolter, do I commend the lost souls of my fallen Brothers to the His light.

Delayed but not abandoned, Kaleo's Firebreak forces swept in. The element of surprise – and the lack of vox – allowed them to engage the depleted Flesh Eater rearguard and overwhelm them in relatively short order. Blurted alerts and alarms failed to reach the body of the Flesh Eaters' force before the Pentarchy line was overwhelmed in an echo of their own work mere hours earlier.

Kaleo and his men had clearly taken bitter lessons from the events on Frith. Acutely aware both of his own limited numbers, and the savagery and abandon that accompanied the increasingly unstable Chapters of the Pentarchy, the Voted Commander of the Firebreak had opted to allow the Flesh Eaters to overextend.

It was a fortunate gambit on the Partisans' part. The Flesh Eaters were hampered and disrupted not merely by the strategies in play and disruptions in communication, but also likely by the wavering leadership of High Voivode Jan Velghor. In an unfortunate twist, the very fact his forces was mostly made up of pre-war veterans worked against him – unlike the fresh troops even now being recruited in Heliopolis, these warriors were all too aware of his imbalance, with corrosive effects on morale and discipline.

[//Unfortunately for the Flesh Eaters, the majority of the Chaplaincy (such as Dosteo, pictured) and Sanguinary Priests were fully engaged in the recruitment drive, leaving the front line veterans starved of their balancing influence.+]
[////françois_v@withteatea+

***

The Firebreak advanced unflinchingly, and unceasingly. Keeping in tight knots, the stern warriors were able to overwhelm the Flesh Eaters in detail – though when packs of the red-armoured enemy were uncovered, the odds were closer.
 
Bolter chanting alongside those of his brethren, Dom Gais advanced along the avenue. Like his brethren, his trailing leg swept forward with each step, ensuring a constant centre of balance. Behind them, the traditional Firebreak combat-mandala stretched out in the dirt. A servitor; messily draped with a tabard emblazoned with a four-pointed-star, followed behind them, brushing away the marks to leave no trace.

[//Firebreak forces cut down the Flesh Eaters rear lines+]
[//cameron_m/@dizzyeye.01+]

Shell cases rained down as the Qorabban emplacement desperately attempted to fend off another probe from the Flesh Eaters – only for the Serjan to hurriedly call for a cease fire. 
 
"Praise the Primarch and him-on-Terra! It's the reinforcements!" She cried, and the weapon crew sagged with relief. "Don't slack now – we must have the bastards on the run!" She called out to the Astartes down the line, and a Firebreak marine stepped out into the street, his hand raised. 
 
Boltgun slung, he made the Partisan salute, placing a fist into his upturned palm. As the Guardsmen returned the motion, Dom Gais mused. It was a good strongpoint. From the looks of things, only two ways in – and the front way was a long street, bereft of cover. He counted four dead Flesh Eaters – and... something else.
 
Black armour? He paused. Kaleo would want to know about this – and not for the first time, he cursed the lack of vox. 
 

*** 


[//cameron_m/@dizzyeye.01+]

Fighting continued for the next six hours, during which time the Firebreak and their allies are believed to have achieved a kill ratio of at least 2:1 – impressive, given their limited numbers. The Flesh Eaters, however, were far from defeated. Some of their greatest warriors and heroes were present, and wherever they stalked, death followed. 

***

Fleet combat 

Some ten hours since the Firebreak had launched their attack, missives had begun to filter through, as both sides had managed to patch into the direct line local comms-net. It appeared an orbital conflict was raging in addition to the battle beneath the ground. This was to no-one's advantage here – but gave still more worries for both sides. 

The Flesh Eaters were the first to receive new that the Riven Lords and Firebreak fleet was engaged with the Pentarchy vessels, which had been joined by a Charnel Guard squadron and a lone Red Talons craft. Ship-to-ship boarding had resulted, and more Astartes forces had been landed. 

[//The Firebreak vessel Fire and Passion was conquered and scuttled by the Charnel Guard elite, headed, it appeared, by Stapan Stanizar Gorn himself.+]
[//matt_t@spacedhulk+]

Some thirty minutes later, it became apparent to the Firebreak that the Flesh Eaters were changing their behaviour; as though some command had cut through their berserk rage. The advantage of surprise had swiftly been lost, and as the forces had percolated through the settlement, the Firebreak could no longer count on encountering and overwhelming individual Flesh Eaters. It was a critical moment, and when reports came to Kaleo that the fleet was engaged, he reluctantly ordered the retreat. With such a small command, he couldn't afford the risk of his own forces suffering what they had inflicted on the Flesh Eaters.

[//War-chief Botros Senn of the Red Talons was at the forefront at the relief-effort, his fresh force carving a red path through the Firebreak cordon – mainly made up of the treacherous Avaritian Skitarii//]. 
[/mikkel_h_w/@duckcalledsue+]



***

Horror

Dom Gais exhaled with a pained gasp. Blood vented from his helm in a cloud. By instinct alone did his blade manage to deflect the Flesh Eaters' own power sword – and the Frithian blade was carved into two neat pieces by the action as his wrist flexed unnaturally.  
 
His vision swimming, Gais managed to wrongfoot the screeching black-armoured creature by hefting the truncated sword, and in the gap, his surviving squadmate gunned it down. It was the second of the strange monsters they had encountered; and – so deep in the settlement had they advance – still they had no way of communicating their presence. 

As the mines the Firebreak had so painstakingly re-established were detonated, the maglev tunnel network came down behind them; seemingly trapping both sides in the Qanahi warrens. Worse for the surviving Guardsmen and Skitarii, the power was cut to all but isolated regions, plunging the city into stifling heat and darkness, through which stalked monsters.

The Firebreak had played their final card. Using their allies as bait, they had gambled that they could successfully hold a large and important Pentarchy force long enough for the fleet to establish teleportation rituals to extract them. By bringing down the tunnel, Kaleo would bury a Pentarchy Chapter Master and his most experienced veterans alive – along with their hapless and unsuspecting allies – and certainly for more than long enough for the Wormwood Sons' atomics to be introduced.

Before that, of course, the Firebreak needed to extract – and to do that, they would have to rally around the few teleportation matrices powerful enough to operate this deep.

For three horrific hours the two Astartes forces raged and battered each other, both naturally cohering around the few defensible market squares and gathering spots as their vox-starved commanders attempted to re-establish a line of command. 

Koinos marched beside his Lord and Master. His head was full of the voice; echoing madly. Each blink changed everything. One moment he was scarlet-armoured and marching besides a golden giant; the next he was clad in crimson and in lockstep with a monster. 

For all their courage and cunning – and undoubted ruthlessness – the Firebreak's numbers were counting against them, and the Flesh Eaters were ascendant. Scattered blurts were increasing in number from strung-out Firebreak squads as they sought to re-establish cohesion. Some unexpected factor, something horrendous, was tipping the balance of power decisively in the Pentarchy's favour.

Alas, while many of the Firebreak did escape thanks to their teleport matrices, Voted-Commander Koleo would never emerge from the warrens, for just minutes before the devices were activated, he was the first Partisan commander to encounter Velghor the Lost.

Even as boltgun fire and flame erupted around him – the only illumination he could see – Koinos exulted. They had found the traitor. A mere fifty yards separated his lord from the traitor – and the Flesh Eaters raised an ululating howl of triumph as their Lord and Master descended upon the enemy...

[//Lord Velghor the Lost, the Sorrow Recast, the Traitors Bane+]
[//paul_h/@the_midnightmare+]



Blood. Blood filled his helm. Dom Gais tore his helm away with his remaining arm. He gazed with horror across the marketplace as he saw the colossal figure – the largest and most monstrous of all the black-armoured monsters he had thus seen. It was perched on the ruined chest of his fallen commander, tearing into the dead Firebreak with frantic, horrible abandon. 






His vision failed as the teleport runes enacted– but the last thing he saw were the rolling wide eyes of Jan Velghor, lost in madness...


[//The Thing That Should Not Be+]
[//paul_h/@the_midnightmare+]