DIG!”
The crack of a whip from the Thorakitai taskmaster followed by a scream of a slave, normal noises to Trunculo now. He had been a tank gunner in the Last of Sycorax regiment within Hexis city, or whatever they called that Xenos shit hole. He had never asked questions in the Guard, maybe he should have.
“DIG!” The boom came out again, another scream, Trunculo thought that was Trooper Hayes, he’d come from another regiment, never thought to ask which one.
“Obedience. Labour. Fidelity.” That’s what the Thorakitai drummed into the slaves, “Obedience. Labour. Fidelity and you will survive, even prosper” they said, Trunculo didn’t think he wanted to prosper in their ranks, something was off about them, there was no obvious mutation, but they never showed their faces.
“DIG!”
The labour continued, each dig he heard some slaves reciting the words drilled into them, punctuated by the ‘crunk’ of spades cutting into the earth. It was something, they tortured those who made any reference to the God Emperor. Maybe it would help.
“Obedience”, CRUNK, “Labour”, CRUNK, “Fidelity”, CRUNK, “Obedience”, CRUNK, “Labour”, CRUNK, “Fidelity”, CLANG!
Trunculo stopped and looked down at the dirt he was digging into, an alien metal skull stared back at him, its eyes glowing as it rose from the ground and stepped to full height. Panic erupted from around him the Thorakitai sounded the alarm, other slaves fleeing as fast as they could away from the Xenos monster. Trunculo stood stock still, frozen at the rapidly looming sight of the monstrous Necron. As it levelled its gun barrel to his face he sighed a sigh of relief, “Oh, it’s finally over, thank the Emperor”, and Trunculo was no more.
In mid 02.019M42 the Iron Warriors had sought to dig in and heavily fortify their position on Hexis. “Fortress Einsenkunst” was the goal, an interlacing series of fortifications, trench works and supply points. Each point was planned to build on redundancies, with choke points, kill zones and traps throughout, every step an enemy force took into Iron Warrior held territory would be steeped in blood. That was the plan, however the Necron slumbering beneath the world had other intentions.
In 1602.019M42 the slave workers digging trenches at the northern border of the Shifting Sands were beset by Necrons of Nemesor Teal’cs dynasty. Zorisch rushed a Dekathla of Iron Warriors and daemon engines to respond to the unexpected threat.
Luckily for Zorisch, the Necrons were slow to move forward into attack and his Havoc squads and Defilers launched shot after shot into the Immortals, destroying a phalanx of them. The Necrons began their slow march forward but continued to be outmaneuvered by the faster Iron Warriors who saw the intended attack and blocked with expendable Thorakitai while the Chosen setup to charge. A second fusilade of was unleashed from the Iron Warrior line, followed by a deadly charge from the Chosen who fired plasma into one unit of Immortals while charging into another. On the flank the two Maulerfiends charged into the Lychguard. The Necrons while outnumbering the Chosen and Maulerfiends were boxed in. The Thorakitai secured the mid field as the Havocs secured the backfield. The Destroyers wrecked the only target they meaningfully could - the Defiler who crumbled despite the the repairs of the Warpsmith.
The Necron attack was realised as futile as Obliterators tore into reality, ripping through more Necron machines, the Wraiths, already damaged by concentrated fire, attacked the obliterators who simply withdrew to a safe distance while the Havoc squads caught them in the crossfire. Zorisch’s Chosen warriors, despite taking casualties facing down triple their number, still stood, cutting down yet more under the direction of the squad leader Petridis’. The Necrons were slowly surrounded, staccato fire continuing to blast machine bodies to pieces. The end came when a Maulerfiend broke through the Necron lines and grabbed the Necron leader in its great clawed fist and smashed it to the ground over and over and over until the whole Necron force teleported away, as shattered as the body of their leader.
The Iron Warriors completed their vast fortifications in Old Town, the Shifting Sands and the Great Sand Sea. The prime fortress and Stahl’s base of operations on the Shifting sands was decorated with an enormous grinning iron skull of the Iron Warriors. If the Emerald Serpents intended push ended disastrously, the fortress Eisenkunst would be needed sooner than intended.
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