Adeptus Astartes: Deathwatch

[Mikey]

1949 - "Nice shot," Zirk voxed as his head swivelled side to side. "We're clear for the moment." He strolled back towards the team, stooping to retrieve the ork head he had just liberated from its body. When he reached the tree line, he reached up and pulled down a branch. He quickly impaled the head and then fixed the branch by the upper panel of his jump pack. "That was fun," Zirk said with the slack ork face leering over his left shoulder.

[Tyyr]

1949

Mithras just grunted and walked up to the ork with the burna. Grabbing a fist full of cables and hoses on the beasts back he ripped them free, ruining the weapon. Anotnia walked to the edge of cliff and looked over, a faint clicking from her helmet betraying her amplifying her vision. "They have grots and squigs attached to some sort of wheel. I believe we just ring the bell and they'll bring us down."

[Sionnach Glic]

1949

"Can you see any guards down below?" Hati asked, walking up to join Antonia on the cliff's edge.

[Tyyr]

1949

"A few orks milling around, and a squig handler. No organized guard that I can see," she reported.

[Tyyr]

You stand at the edge of a nearly vertical cliff. The shear rocky face descends rapidly to a half moon shaped cut out in the mountain. Below you sits the warboss' encampment. The far east side of the depression, where it falls away to the valley far below, is walled off with a twelve meter high ramshackle collection of stone, timber, and various roughly beaten pieces of metal standing in for real fortifications. The top of the wall is patrolled by bored looking boyz and grots who pay far more attention to the drunken revelry taking place inside the fortress than what might be happening on the outside. Poles with ork fetishes dot the length of the wall along with several roughly hewn ballistas and at least one primitive cannon. In the middle of the wall is a rather competent looking gatehouse with a narrow winding path leading down to the valley below where you can see a truly massive ork encampment.

The orks at the base of the ridge have congregated in massive numbers and even from several kilometers away the seething mass of green is obvious milling about their camp. The shapes of huge squiggoth's mill around, parting the green mass before them like ships at sea, mostly.

To the north of the depression is a shanty town of ork tents and buildings. The farther north they are the smaller and less impressive they get. The southern most buildings are almost worthy of the title and you see many nob and bosspoles set out in front of them with generally more impressive looking orks milling about around them.

To the west is massive and impressive stone fortress. Over twenty meters tall and ringed with a moat the fortress' keep has only a few high set windows letting those inside see out. The top of the structure is wide and flat and you can see a nob and his mob of boyz milling about on top of it. The only entrance in and out of the keep is a large wooden draw bridge and gate right in the front. It's open at the moment but the sharpened gleaming tips of a portcullis can be seen under the lip of the doorway.

A wide open area leads from the gatehouse at the wall up to the keep. The footfalls of millions of orks over thousands of years having worn the path down to bare stone and dust. Half way between the gate and the keep is a collection of massive bonfires. Orks are milling around these fires, some using them for cooking, some just dancing and hooting around them with primitive tankards raised. One pair is playing toss the grot over the fire with varying degrees of success. Near the largest fire a ring of orks surround two large nobs. The big orks are both carrying oversize choppas and one is dressed like most of the orks, in red and tan with a leather helmet while the other is wearing a blue and white checked shirt with dark pants and a top knot. The two large orks circle one another and when a blow is landed the crowd breaks out into cheers.

Directly below the group is a large number of wooden long houses and scrap piles. In the southwest are huge piles of wood and scrap metal. To the north of those piles are three large tanks with a commendable lack of leaks for orks, only a few gallons of liquid spills from them every minute. Smoke is curling from some of the long houses and the smell of meat drifts through your senses.

A few orks are milling about in the encampment but not many. Most appear to be enjoying the revelry around the fire and those that aren't there appear to wish they were.

[Lighthawk]

1950

"Hell of a party," Khan comments dryly. "How do we want to bust it up?"

[Tyyr]

1950

Mithras shook his head. "We don't. There's too many of them to fight. If the camp decides to attack us we don't have the strength to fight them off. We'll have to use stealth."

[Lighthawk]

1950

Khan shook his head. "Apologizes for the misunderstanding, but I was not suggesting such. I merely meant to inquire how we wish to proceed, as our success will no doubt ruin their celebration."

[Tyyr]

1950

Mithras pondered it for a moment. "The best way to fight them would be to get them fighting one another. See those two orks fighting in the circle? Different clans. We might be able to stir up some animosity between them. If they were fighting one another they'd be too busy to find us."

[Lighthawk]

Mir
1950

Khan nodded. "Hell, we might not even have to, if that fight goes poorly enough it'd probably be enough excuse for the orks to start a riot."

[Tyyr]

1950

"Perhaps," Mithras said noncommittally. "If these warbands have been vying for supremacy this can't be a very amicable meeting for them."

[Lighthawk]

1950

"Perhaps if brother Hati were to put a round through the skull of the ork who seems to be winning, his clan would believe the other clan was trying to cheat."

[Sionnach Glic]

1950

Hati carefully sighted down the scope, focussing on the bigger of the two.

"I can get him from here with no problem." He replied, not looking up. "Inquisitor?"

[Tyyr]

1950

Mithras chuckled. "Good idea. Make it quiet and they could start to blame one another."

Antonia perked up at Hati's question. "By all means, I'm here to observe, not tell the Astartes how to fight."

[Sionnach Glic]

1950

"I won't argue with that." Hati replied. After a short pause he pulled the trigger, sending silenced round flying through the air towards his target. Through his scope he saw the head of the target greenskin burst spectacularly, silencing the surprised crowd instantly.