Warzone: Borhelia - a mini-campaign on the planet Boreliah in the Esenie system!
The spy-drones were reporting good news. Lord Entragian chuckled with a horrible bubbling sound as he watched the monitors where the data and footage flowed in. He saw the landscape designated as The Pomonian Valley on the monitors and calculated and pondered over possibilities. The rain poured down over the mountains and thunder rolled over the wet valley, making it look like a moist blanket. It was like the sky knew something terrible would soon happen and tried to scare and wash away any sane being from the area. Lord Entragian stood silent and brooding as he watched lightnings struck the mountaintops. He had lost the meaning of nature’s beauty long ago but was yet awestruck by the force with which a thunderstorm roared. It was like a chained beast, close to become free, bellowing and hollering its rage against its captors. It was a raw power and anger that couldn’t be tamed…
After looking at the spectacle a little more, he then tightened the grip of his Manreaper and prayed a short lithany to his foul and loving, and beloved, god. The Liber Magii was down there… in the valley… ready to be plucked. The tome was beyond importantance and should he get his hands on it, the road to the lost library would be open. He cursed his earlier mistakes and wouldn’t lose it ever again. And this time, when he had it in his hands, he would skip the fore-play and get to the map itself. No more amusing himself with its useful, but petty, spells and stories… No, he would crack the mystery of Gulibus’ lost collections and find it and take it… and then… mankind would tremble! And not just mankind… but everything would bow before Nurgle… everything!
The wreckage of the crashed Valkyria was scattered all over the valley, glimmering in the pouring rain that hammered the pieces with its heavy and cold raindrops. Lord Entragian turned from the spy-drone monitors and looked at the holo-map for signs of opposition. He knew that the false emperor’s troops were nearby, searching for the Liber Magii themselves, and that it would be close. Real close. The Valkyria had crashed mysteriously at first, but soon reports came of movements of huge swarms of Tyranids. The Pomonian Mountains were full of the devouring creatures and retrieving the book from the crash site would be complicated, to say the least. But nothing could stop Entragian now. He had to try. The Tyranids wouldn’t bother with the book, but if they somehow managed to retrieve and, he gasped, somehow destroy it, it would be the biggest loss of opportunity he’d ever faced. And Father Nurgle would not be pleased. At all. By Nurgle, it would be better if the Space Marines would get it, then he could continue the hunt… and he had promised Father Nurgle this prize… if he couldn’t deliver it, all the favours father bestowed upon him would probably end and his long life would end as well. That couldn’t be allowed to happen! There was so much more to achieve…
***
Na’gha’gharzzh landed with a sigh at a small copse and scanned the area ahead of her. The Daemon Prince sneered when she saw a small band of humans, probably the survivors of the downed aircraft, crouching behind some rocks. A puny mock-fortification like that won’t save your sorry and poor lives, she thought. But then she noticed movement further away from the stone formation. In the distance, black and blue marines advanced with haste. Lots of them. Na’gha’gharzzh sent a thought to her commander up in orbit and told him that things were starting to happen. She then noticed movement to the right and growled as she saw the Tyranids spill forward. The Tyranid horde was fast, incredibly fast, and it would soon reach the first pieces of the downed Valkyria that were scattered before her. As Na’gha’gharzzh unfolded her wings to engage the marines she urged Entragian to start deploying his troops now. Na’gha’gharzzh then barked and signalled to the Bloat Drone, that floated beside her, to aid her against the oncoming imperial troops. Not long after the revving engines of two Rhinos were heard and they moved directly towards the Tyranids. At the same time the air flickered around the closest debris and heavy Terminators arrived, together with Entragian himself. The battle had begun! Na’gha’gharzzh nodded to herself and set out to start the killing!
***
Brother Antastus of the Black Wolves saw the incoming enemy fire a little too late. Several Blood Claws were already falling and dying when he ordered his men to take cover. He swore and barked another order:
“Get up and move! Head for that crater a.s.a.p!! Go! Go! Go!”
Brother Antastus pointed at a large crater, full of wreckage. Behind him and his Blood Claw pack Grey Hunters were approaching, backed with heavy support. The orders were clear: concentrate on retrieving the artefact! Do not engage in firefight unless you had to. Antastus found it hard to not return fire in order to fully advance on the crashed pieces of the Imperial aircraft, but he was confident that the superiors knew what they were doing. And, he had to admit, speed was of the utmost importance! Then another volley of bolt-fire cut down even more of his Blood Claws and, following that, several of his men were attacked by a strange flying thing spewing out some green and filthy fluid. The fluid hit and more of his men died, now in terrible agony as the green fluid ate through their armour and skin and bones… it was disgusting and heart-breaking… Antastus had to pull back his squad as there were only a few Claws left. But, thank Russ, Grey Hunters were plugging the hole left by his Claw-pack…
***
The Nurgle Rhinos sped forward towards the debris and wreckage closest to the Tyranids. Inside the Rhinos, silent Plague Marines waited to disembark and claim the prize for their leader. No-one spoke or moved, but they all knew that time was of the essence. The Tyranids were quick and they would soon overwhelm everything. Tallyman Septicus watched the Plague Marine squad he rode with in one of the Rhinos and droned on with his constant counting:
“Six… Seven.. shells… the fly swells…. One…. Two… an eye full of goo… Three…. Four…”
The Plague Marines listened closely to the counting Tallyman as they found the sevenfold counting soothing and reassuring. Nurgle watched and cared for his children. As he always did. Then suddenly the Rhino abruptly stopped and the driver hollered the order to disembark as the rear door opened. It was time to start searching for the artefact…
***
Entragian materialised together with a squad of Blightlord Terminators from the teleportarium. He quickly assessed the surroundings and decided to move to the second closest crater, in order to work his way back, from the Tyranid onslaught and search the craters as they came before him. But suddenly a group of Black Wolves was in the way. Thousand years of hate filled him, and his Terminators and they charged the false emperor’s troops with a deep passion and hate. They forgot all about the craters, the Tyranids and the Liber Magii… all that mattered was to annihilate their ancient enemies. It was a blood-bath! Gunshots, flails and rusted and poisonous swords tore into the Black Wolves and they were cut down in mere minutes. With their hated enemy dispatched Entragian and his Terminators started looking for some kind of box or crate. But to no avail… only debris and torn metal pieces were found in the crater. Entragian swore and turned towards the next piece of wreckage some yards away.
***
Wolf Priest Cato, The Black Wolves commander, was worried. Things were going down fast and now the problem of the Tyranids was becoming a dire threat. Not only were the vile Nurgle forces desecrating a crash-site where good Imperial men had died, but also the speedy advance by the Xenos into his flank. Lots of Xenos. They would overrun both his and the Chaos forces in mere minutes. Things were looking bleak. Then he heard something on the inter-vox, that almost made him laugh, just because of the absurdity of it… Reports came from the right flank, far away from the Tyranids and the Death Guard, that a truck with two greenskins was approaching towards the rightmost of the crash-site. Scavengers, no doubt, he thought and was suddenly filled with rage. Common thieves poking around among Imperial corpses that should be laid to rest and saluted… that was just too much.
“Engage the greenskins! Wipe them out… all of them! Nobody touches our dead comrades…Emperor have mercy on their souls…”
Then he came to think of another possibility; what if the greenskins found the artefact? Would the Inquisition ever get hold of it then? Well, for now he had to assure that his force wasn’t overrun and wiped out:
“For Russ…. And the Emperor! Engage all enemies! But, withdraw if necessary! We might fall into a trap, my wolves… and better to live to fight another day!”
He heard the roaring acknowledge from his men and felt great resolve. But, the enemy was starting to surround both the Black Wolves and the Nurgle forces and his resolve slowly turned into doubt… The Tyranids were starting to hit his flank really hard! And the Death Guard Marines… they were close, real close. Then an explosion right beside him tore a large hole in his side. The pain was bearable, just, but as he looked down at the wound, he saw maggots and a vile, yellowish liquid running down his left leg and the sight almost made him faint. Then someone roared, and Cato suddenly found himself in a fierce hand to hand combat, parrying wildly the bloated and rusted blades that were thrusted against him. The pain in his side almost made him faint, but not before he cleaved the skull of a Plague Marine. The last thing he felt was strong arms dragging him backwards… “Friend or foe?” was his last thought, then darkness engulfed him.
***
Entragian saw his Plague Marines and Septicus succumb to the Tyranids. There were so many of them! It was an endless tide of claws and fangs. When the last Plague Marine fell, together with Septicus, Entragian had to withdraw… there was no chance of getting close to the craters there. He just had to hope that the Liber Magii was in the other direction. But, there were more problems. The Tyranids started to envelope his position. And the Black Wolves were reinforcing their first wave. Outraged, Entragian decided to fall back. It seemed that the Black Wolves still hadn’t found the artefact and that they also were forced to withdraw. Entragian prayed that the Tyranids wouldn’t stop here and just continue advancing past this crash-site. Maybe, just maybe, there was a chance to come back here and pick up the pieces. His force here was spent, and he gave the order to retreat. As the order was given, he was teleported up to his ship, along with his bodyguard… or, what was remaining of it. The last thing he saw was Na’gha’gharzzh getting pierced by a large Tyranid creature. I will come back, he thought… I will come back and get that elusive piece of book one way or the other…
***
Brother Tempestus waited for the debriefing. It had been a bad fight… the Tyranids and that swine Entragian had almost wiped out his strike force. And Cato… Cato was badly hurt by the forces of decay and put in a stasis chamber, where he would be the next coming weeks, sedated, but on the mend. He would live to fight another day, but that wound… infected and unholy. Tempestus shivered when he thought about Chaos and its total disrespect towards all that was pure and good. It was heavy on the heart to lose that many brothers and they didn’t even manage to retrieve to artefact that the Inquisition wanted so bad. The thing would probably be trampled into the dirt, destroyed or whatever. Perhaps for the best, he thought. Things forgotten should perhaps stay forgotten and this artefact, this book, was proving to cost too many good lives. Tempestus sighed as the battered Black Wolves that still lived assembled in the debriefing room.
***
“Oi, Ghrukh, dat was a friggin’ good fight… yeah?” Ur-Guff pointed at the dead corpses on the field ahead of him. The smell was terrible, and the amount of bodies were huge. The smoke rose from several burned-out vehicles and it was an eerie silence that made Ur-Guff all jiggly. Grukh looked at the scene and started searching for a ball of snot in his nose. He found what he was looking for and put it in his mouth and chewed frantically for a while before swallowing it:
“Yer right, Ur… Dat was somefing ta look at… But… oi, less go and see what dem oomans left behind, yeah?”
Ur-Guff nodded and moved slowly towards the nearest pile of bodies. There were some of the Tyranids there, but mostly those ugly smelling and bad looking humans. Ur-Guff poked carefully with the butt of his autogun at one of the green giants. Some yellowish goo bursted from a wound and the smell that came from it made Ur-Guff vomit violently. Grukh looked at Ur-Guff and laughed hard. Then he saw something strange. Under a crater in the crater there was some kind of box. Something must have blown among the wreckage and uncovered some more thing, hidden at first. A box, Grukh thought. A human box… that could be of value, he thought.
“Oi, dumb-ass! See dere… dat is somefing ooman-made. Stop pissin’ about and ‘elp me lift”
Ur-Guff slowly went to Ur-Guff to see what it was Grukh had found. It was a large box alright. Locked and sealed.
“Er… da yer fink boss wants to ‘ave it?” Ur-Guff talked slow and with a low voice.
“Of coss, dumb-ass! Da yer fink yer can take da box yerself? And ‘ide it from boss? Yer mad, Grot? We is not ta ‘ave fings, Ur… we gets killed if we ‘ide fings from da boss…”
“Ummm… aammm… yer right per ’aps… But we gets reward, yeah? Yeah?”
“Dat we get, Ur…. Boss is fair and square… even if we is grots… coss… we got ‘im dis box!”
Grukh fetched the spade in the truck and started to dig. This could be his ticket to a better life in The Camp. He just hoped the boss would see it that way as well…
The black candles flickered in the stale chamber and the only sound that could be heard was the soft humming of the air-vents that performed their infinite duty of keeping the air fresh. At his desk, Inquisitor Ogden was in deep thought. He sat in his chair, in which he had been sitting for so long now, and thought of possibilities, threats and how-to:s. Ogden had been sitting like that for many hours, days even… and he had not yet come up with the best course of action. That annoyed him, he was usually quick on deciding what to do in certain circumstances and that had got him far. Now the Ordo Xenos regarded him as one their top Inquisitors… one that got things done… But still, this situation had gotten the best of him. That irritated him immensely…
He ran through the premisses once again. The Liber Magii, important beyond comprehension… the map to ruin of mankind if it got in the wrong hands… lost… again. And in xeno territory. The good thing was that the vile forces of the ruinous powers never got to lay their hands on it, but… it was lost in Tyranid territory! The Liber Magii was at the crash-site in the Pomonian Mountains and now it wasn’t… Or? Ogden shook his head slowly. The book needed to be found. Yes! The Tyranids had to be wiped out. Yes! The forces of Entragian searched for te book as well. Yes! And scans of the crash-site told him that the book, or even any remnants of the crashed Valkyrie, were there no more… Why? Why would the Tyranids care about debris… all they wanted was bio-mass to devour and evolve from… Why was the crashed Valkyrie no longer there…? Nothing was there anymore… The Tyranids had moved on further south. They would be dealt with soon, necessary action was already taken to ensure that this Tyranid onslaught would be halted and eradicated. But what had happened to the Valkyrie? And the Liber Magii? Ogden thought for a while and then decided to listen to the comms from the battle. Had he missed anything? Something insignificant, but yet very important? Something told him that there was an answer to be found in the comms. It had to be…
<static> … lpha six, over? This is… <static>… at X43, Y67… <static> … movement to the north… <static> … nids? Over?... <static> … egative… <static> … ck… Permission to… <static> … pha six… Proceed to… <static> … gage the gr… <static> … they here?... <static> … coming! Never mind… <static> ... ts! Return fire southwards! Now! No… <static>…
Ogden listened to that part of the comm-traffic over and over again. It was there… the answer! Something that made the troopers baffled and distracted. He heard it in their voices. Of course he had talked to the commanding officer and several troopers but none of them could tell him what it was. And squad Alpha Six was no longer… killed in action… the lot of them! Ogden sighed. What had distracted squad Alpha Six? And was it connected to the missing Valkyrie wreckage? Probably. But there were no reports whatsoever of anything other than the xenos and the Nurgle forces… Ogden searched his brain for an answer… Then it hit him. Ogden realised that there were indeed other reports from further north about Ork camps. Orks that were of no threat at the moment and by-passed by all. What if… what if the greenskins had scoured the battlefield after all forces had withdrawn or left it? Scored it for… useful things? And found not only parts and bits… but also a crate with something in it? Yes… that must be it. The idiotic greenskins had found the crate and took it somewhere where their boss hid. Yes, that must be it! It all made sense! Ogden rose and stretched his back with a cracking sound. The mishap with the Tyranids on Hyperia still felt. But now he had to set things in motion… And, he had to have a serious talk with Lord Collabri, who had assured him that there were no other ”problems” in the Pomonian Mountains except the Tyranids and Entragian. Lord Collabri hadn’t been doing his job and for that the Inquisition had lost precious time. Lord Collabri was a fool and would be replaced within hours from now. Ogden smiled, he had never liked that pompous idiot anyway…
Written by Tony Melander (May, 2018)