Science Demands Sacrifice
- Location
- Canada
In the degraded Galaxy of the 30th Millenium Science has to many become indistinguishable from magic, and dark magic at that. The Doves of war have played some part in that association for in their passionate drive for understanding the universe through rigorous and systematic study unburdened by superstition or the burdensome chains of morality and self preservation they have often crossed the line between reasoned endeavor and horrifying crimes against sanity. However it would be the great disservice to accuse either of the most intellectual and inquisitive of the Emperor's children of recklessness or incompetence. Indeed whilst more than willing to push into the unknown and take great risks in the name of progress they were perfectly aware of the dangers and the need for those risks to be calculated and proportionate.
So whilst it is perfectly fair to say that keeping colonies of Orks for experimentation and observation was a course of action was objectively a horrifically dangerous idea only to be attempted by beings supremely assured of their own competence and with a certain willingness to court potential disaster the Dove's never for a moment lost their grip on reality as some of their more cautiously minded colleagues might accuse. They were well aware of the inherent risks of their line of experimentation and after mining as much raw data as possible sought to dispose of their subjects before the projected intersection between containment options and Ork development resulted in disaster.
But long before that point they had gained many exciting and unprecedented insight into the nature of Ork reproduction. The speed, duration and intensity of the process had largely been a matter of rough rule of thumb but this dedicated study allowed the Doves to craft the Soter-Antheia-Spore Formula that could accurately predict the rate of Ork spore production and gestation down to the individual specimen, a fantastic achievement. Furthermore in the course of their less, savory research they also opened new routes of potential weapons development that could prove terrifyingly potent in the future. Beyond the 'hard' science of theorems and data there was also unprecedented exploration of Ork 'Kulture' and societal organization albeit with a natural focus on its impact on military potential. Many long standing myths were firmly discredited and by project's end the Doves could boast of a greater understanding of mankind's ancient menace than any other humans in the Galaxy.
All good things must come to an end however and as Ork development was noted to be increasing exponentially, one feral community, albeit a major outlier progressed from swords and axes to primitive atomic weaponry within the span of Terranmonths. On an individual scale many Orks of unique types possessing specialized traits and role specific genetic knowledge were beginning to emerge and perhaps most alarmingly at all, audio surveillance was beginning to provide hints that the Orks were becoming aware of the 'Sneaky Geekz Snoopen and Perving on us'. In combination the these factors were decisive in convincing the Twin Primarchs that the experiment had run its course and needed to be concluded before current containment plants were rendered obsolete and inadequate.
Ever practically minded and never ones to let a research opportunity go to waste they used the extermination itself as a learning exercise, shunning the more indiscriminate and destructive means of mass destruction and instead making use of limited ground forces in an effort to fully Gauge evolving Ork combat potential
The first extermination operation was conducted on the jungle world of Draga Six, a world noted for its impressive biodiversity and various incredibly potent predators it was initially chosen to test the Ork's ability to survive in a difficult and complex environment and their impact on the ecosystem, however difficulties were soon encountered by researchers as the Orks became increasingly elusive and adapt at disappearing into the deep jungle without a trace showing themselves to be unusually intelligent and adaptive, inflicting heavy casualties on Imperial Army formations sent in to locate them. The survivors of which provided valuable primary accounts of the novel Ork tactics from a variety of points of view.
Interview #134
Subject D-4533 They were in the trees! In the fracking Trees!
Osaria Secondus: and you believe this was an intentional tactic or something more coincidental?
Subject D - 4533: W-what?
Osaria Secondus: Do you believe that they were making use of the terrain on purpose to gain an advantage or accidentally stumbled upon one wandering blindly in search of combat?
Subject D - 4533: They knew what they were fracking doing, hung our scouts by their…by their…they knew, they hunted us, hunted us man, one by one, and the last one left? They'd make him lead them to next. Oh Frak.
Osaria Secoundus: They were capable of subverting hostile personale?
Subject D - 4533: You'd do it too…didn't have a choice, had too…else they'd have…the others, they would have done the same.
Osaria Secoundus: "You were compelled to betray your comrades? Fascinating, how did the subversion process work?
Subject D - 4533: they'd get your friends, start a fire… talk about salts and the best parts…fight over who got the biggest…it was…
Osaria Secoundus: They spoke to you in Gothic?
Subject D - 4533: Kind of, most of them were like little kids or drunks but the boss? He could speak enough to make you understand what he wanted.
Osaria Secoundus: You encountered their leader?
Subject D - 4533: *Loud and Distressed Laughter* Encountered? Big bastard kept me on a leash. Used me like a Snifferook back home.
Osaria Secoundus: So he compelled you to locate other patrols and then kill them? How many did he find in this manner?
Subject D - 4533: Too many.
Osaria Secoundus: Please be precise, this is for science.
Subject D - 4533: Frack you! You're just like him! You frac
[Interview Temporarily Suspended]
[Interview Resumed]
Subject D - 4533: I…I think it was five or six…five! It was five.
Osaria Secoundus: "Are you certain?"
Subject D - 4533: Yes! Please Skybrother have mercy yes! It was Five!"
Osaria Secoundus: "And did the tactic remain static?"
Subject D - 4533: "What?"
Osaria Secoundus: "Did this 'Boss' make you do it the same way every time or did he adapt it with experience?
Subject D - 4533: Yeah he changed it up, sometimes he'd make me walk ahead and talk to the guys, other times he'd stop short of where I said they would be and send his own guys out, sometimes it would be a big fight, sometimes they'd creep and stab. Sometimes they would use the bugs oh Skybrother the bugs…it was different every time, figurin out how it worked best I guess."
Osaria Secoundus: A logical hypothesis. In your opinion, which was the most effective way of eliminating your comrades?
[Long Delay]
Osaria Secoundus: Do I need to resume persuasion?
Subject D - 4533: No! I guess, well the straight shoot and stab worked fastest, but I don't think the Boss liked it that way, the slow stuff, where he got to scare us and sneak around,and then set all his creepy crawly friends that they lured out with meats and then chased into our troopers that was more fun.
Osaria Secoundus: And you believe entertainment was a higher priority than tactical advantage?
Subject D - 4533: I think entertainment is the only reason those Green Monsters do anything.
Osaria Secoundus: Interesting. I think we have enough data to process here, though if you will could you give your subjective opinion of the final engagement you were party to?
Subject D - 4533: I saw a chance, we thought it was just another patrol but I guess they figured out what was happening, pulled different teams back, the firefight was one huge frackfest. I couldn't take anymore I ran for it and didn't stop until I hit something…someone.
Osaria Secoundus: The Tactical Squad who then proceeded to engage and destroy the Ork Leadership element.
Subject D - 4533: No. Well yeah but it wasn't neat like that. You frackers waited, just waited, I saw you all there cammed up, quiet, you had the drop on the monsters but didn't lift a finger, watched the whole fight. Didn't start shooting until it was all over. You just…let it happen.
Osaria Secoundus: If its any consolation, the data gathered from close discreet observation of a successful Ork assault on a reinforced postion was exceptionally useful to our work on this world.
Subject D - 4533: I…should have stayed with the Orks. They're more human than you are.
Osaria Secoundus: Inaccurate, I am 34% human. Thank you for your time D - 4533. I will note your cooperation, you will probably receive a promotion, I understand your regiment is understaffed after recent operations, you have greatly furthered our knowledge, progress owes you a debt.
[Subject D - 4533 had no further coherent response, interview terminated]
--
Keddru IV had been a beautiful world of plains and mountains, some primitive ideal of untamed nature whose fertile soils could easily have made a perfectly suitable agricultural world had its potential as a test site not been noted by the Doves of War and infested with an breeding population of Orks. Within months the peace of the tranquil mountain valleys had been banished by the thunder of Ork Hammerin and the plains had become vast proving grounds and playing fields for the bewildering array of weaponry produced from the foundries, growing in sophistication and potency with every day. Of all the contained research populations it was Keddru IV deemed the most threatening, especially upon discovery of a crude space program. Still the Orks had apparently not considered the implications of their impressively vast industrial apparatus, concentrated as it was in a handful of megafoundaries. The Dove's battle analysts based on recon flights estimated an 80% reduction in enemy effectiveness with the application of precision bombing by the the Legion's air element.
As with all operations conducted by the 16th Legion, the air campaign was to be meticulously planned and systematically conducted containing an element of deception. It was determined from the recon sorties that enemy air defenses were numerous but incredibly disorganized, lacking even basic coordination between gun positions or overall control. The Dove's intended to exploit this, massing a vast armada of hundreds of Imperial Army Avengers and Thunderbolts that formed a great flying circus around the industrial perimeter in a titanic diversion as elite squadrons of Stormbirds and Storm Eagles plunged down from orbit directly on target. It was hoped that the Orks would be distracted and overwhelmed.
Indeed the strategy at first seemed effective, the Ork AAA fire was astoundingly dense, some Imperial pilots swearing that they could exit their cockpits and walk from one side of the Flakstorm to the other. But it was directed outwards at aircraft on the limits of its range and moving too quickly for any individual gun to track or defeat. For all the thousands of Flaktruks ringing the factories perhaps one in a hundred landed even a glancing hit, shooting down far more of their own Rustbucket fighters than Imperial aircraft.
The second phase of the operation initially promised even greater success, the squadrons shot through the air faster than the human eye can see and the Transhuman eye was filled with the most perfect of targets, spread out below them. The first warning of disaster was sensor warnings, fast moving interceptors, coming directly from below. In an instant the viewports of the strike package were filled with the sight of hundreds of Ork Boys clinging onto crude rockets one handed, waving choppas and in one case what appeared to be some piece of unique headwear shortly before the sky was torn apart by massive explosions. Tearing gaps in the Astartes previously perfect formations and utterly disrupting the strike. Efforts to compensate by calling in the Army Squadrons for follow up strikes ended up in heavy losses to Flak and increasingly numerous Rustbucket fighters seemingly entering the great aerial battle from the runways at the end of the factory floor.
Every scientific endeavor comes with an acceptance of failure, Antheia and Soter were not the types to double down on a costly and less than effective strategy, their alternative strategy was being put into place within minutes of the ill fated first strike's failure. The Ork factories would instead be taken by ground assault. Orbital bombardment options were considered and dismissed due to the desire to collect examples of Ork Technology and concerns of exposing void assets to further surprises. The ground campaign saw the legion deploy en masse onto the plains and dare the Orks to come and fight them via tailor made taunts based on psychological analysis over the course of long months of fighting. This tactic proved successful and the Mechanised hordes of the Ork came pouring out of the mountains into pre-arranged killzones. The Dove's conducted a first rate conventional armoured battle with their Raiders and Main Battle Tanks reducing thousands of rickety and unconventional Ork weapons platforms to pieces. The Orks for their part seemed happy to trade punch for punch endlessly without any evolution in tactics beyond ever more excessive use of firepower.
The Sixteenth legion could have conceivably attrited the Ork Forces and advanced upon their factories with sufficient time and expenditure of ammunition, overtaking even the Orks incredible ability to replace losses. Such a strategy was both time consuming and wasteful, instead they used the cover of the titanic Mechapopalypticc battle to discreetly deploy strike forces deep behind the lines, the first the Orks knew that the Imperium was 'cheating' was when a salvo of tank rounds obliterated their precious factories cutting off the stream of Dakka that had allowed them to directly contest the world. The Dove's wasted no time in taking advantage, launching a major counter attack on all fronts as the Orks before them were reduced to angrily throwing empty shootas at them. Kreddru IV was shortly thereafter secured and sterilized.
--
Omegaon Team rode across the desert on their specially modified and quieted CaMek bikes under the ten thousand stars of the East Attonian night. As was often the case in the Sixteenth Legion there was a symmetry within the group. Six Marines, riding in pairs, two escorts, two apothecaries and two Captains, Kasara-2 and Janus-2, the most feared individuals in the entire legions, masters of their craft, the best at what they did and what they did was disrupt and delete any threats to the mission.
They made their rendezvous at the Oasis at precisely the designated time yet their contact was already starting to creep away. A small wiry woman, clad in weathered but colourful robes with the hard sandblasted features common to natives of this world. Janus-2 had taken a similar appearance himself and slouched just slightly so as to seem closer to human height.
"Fallerek?" He greeted in question, voice rough and low as if the two had spent a lifetime in the dunes.
"Y-yes? You are the sky people, come to save us from the monsters?"
"We are here to remove the infestation." Janus-2 assured her meaningfully.
His colleague's indifference was plain even under her heavily customized helmet. Kasara-2 was not one for wasting words.
"I thought there would be more of you."
"I assure you, we are more than sufficient for the task at hand, but rest assured our comrades are not far, they shall strike hard and fast at the optimum moment and remove the infestation on this world." A well practiced smile of reassurance accompanying the words. "But we shall need your help, are your people prepared for what must be done?"
The young woman gathered herself, "Yes…we are ready. We do not have a choice, its act now or die and be fed to the beasts, if we are fortunate."
"That is the spirit!" Janus-2 enthused.
Even the assassin managed an approving nod.
"We should hurry, the others be waiting, they won't risk the night for long, that's when the worst beasts strike."
"Indeed, our favored time."
The girl had arrived on foot it seemed, "They hate my Forta." She offered hesitantly looking at the Camek's with fear.
"Then you get to ride alongside me. A privilege many a girl has killed for over the decades I promise you." He chuckled wryly, leading her to his mechanized mount. Every inch the roguish uncle.
The enlarged party moved more slowly now, the girl clinging onto the Astartes for dear life, if they went at full speed either she would fall or worse scream and perhaps compromise the mission, but they still made good time, arriving just a couple of clicks from the Ork Encampment, the designated rally point of the motley auxiliaries. They were not much to look upon, all shapes and sizes, old men and women, little boys and girls, armed with whatever came to hand.
The Astartes shared with them some autoguns and las pistols.
"Your purpose is distraction, go wild, shoot everything, shoot nothing, shoot the Gods if they show up. Just shoot and yell and be ready upon our signal. We strike exactly four hundred and seventeen seconds before dawn. In the meantime you need to prepare the ground for us, I want these target designation stickers on each and every beast you can find, this is vitally important but simple, you merely lick the sticky side and place it on the haunch of the beast!" Janus instructed gleefully, winning them all around.
As he enthused about their plan Kasara-2 handed out the strips. Making each in turn demonstrate the procedure on one of the Camelmeks. "Just to leave nothing to chance."
The Astartes saw of their assets with promises of good fortune and glory from Janus-2 and quiet satisfaction of a task well on the way to completion by Kasara-2
---
The enraged shouts of the Orks broke the predawn silence in the dooms. The Astartes hit hard and without mercy. Beasts stumbled blindly into their gus, the Orks themselves were more lively but disoriented, surprised and lacking in support. Their was beside himself with fury, shooting and hacking with abandon. "Who messes with Lorkerence of Orkabia's stuff?!" He demanded. The only answer was Kasara-2 melting his face with a precision shot before closing the distance to finish the work with more overpowered melta blasts and final assurance stab into its disintegrating heart. Efficient and effective. Perfect.
It took exactly four hundred and fifty-two seconds to destroy the encampment, one hundred and twenty of these being the slow disintegration of the Ork corpses, their spores, their beasts and their slaves.
"100% Effective across all non Ork Species, no registrable effects on the Orks themselves, their immunity is incredible." The Apothecaries reported as they examined the various corpses pre disposal. The Orks shot and stabbed and melted to death, the humans and beasts drowned on their own fluids.
"Excellent job everyone, a real team effort. Could not have done it without you." Janus-2 congratulated the pile of their auxiliaries topped by Fallerek of course.
His colleague turned away in disgust, why did he always waste time on the joking? A successful assignment was enough satisfaction. But she supposed a big mouth was a requirement for the Face.
