To advance in the upper echelons of the Imperial Guard, one depended upon three factors (besides luck and the favor of the God-Emperor, that is): Skills at military leadership. Skills at politics. And connections. To prosper, you needed at least two out of three.
General Leonidas would, in the privacy of his mind, concede he was an unexceptional military leader. Oh, he wasn't the sort of useless idiot who lost battles against badly outnumbered and outgunned foes (like that foppish fool, Colonel Aleksander, who had managed to squander the lives of over 70,000 gunners by forcing them to charge across miles of open terrain exposed to enemy artillery fire), but he was under no delusion of being the next Saint Macharius.
Now, General Hawk? General Hawk kept achieving impossible victories that would have made Saint Macharius proud. In part, this was due to having the best-equipped regiment on Cavitus (a feat made easier by having, by far, the smallest regiment on Cavitus). In part, this was due to each individual member of G.I. Joe being on par with Assassins and the best of the best of the Tempestus Scionis. But, having read every battle report involving G.I. Joe, Leonidas was forced to (privately) concede that Hawk was, genuinely, a tactical genius.
He was also, Leonidas noted, a political idiot. Any Imperial Guard regimental commander worth his salt, if he'd won Hawk's incredible streak of victories, would have properly capitalized on them, gotten himself buried in medals, enriched himself with a couple billion Thrones, made long-lasting political connections with the planet's nobility, and gotten a powerful patron in Sector Command to take an interest in their advancing career.
Hawk had spent a week in Ciudad, and what had he accomplished? Nothing. He'd managed to offend Magos Gamma, gotten himself entangled in the failing schemes of Bishop-Praetor Cortez, and failed to properly secure the favor of King Cortoban.
Back then, Hawk's sheer lack of political acumen had made Leonidas want to grab him by the lapels and shake him like the bag of idiocy he was while screaming at him to stop wasting his opportunities.
But since those were opportunities to get Leonidas's job, he'd of course stayed silent.
And this. Somehow, Hawk had gotten a bead on the Vivaxis Collection. He'd even managed to find one of the swords! And yet, not only had he failed to properly ward himself against Leonidas taking the treasure for himself (not that he had found the other 99 relic blades yet, but his men were busily combing the area), but when they'd negotiated, the idiot asked for the wrong thing. For Leonidas to follow a lead Hawk had found about the location of Viscount Aragon.
Did he actually think he would get credit from the King if Leonidas used his intel to rid him of Cortez's most dangerous pawn? The sheer naiveté was staggering at times.
Regardless… Leonidas had made use of some deniable assets to raid the cathedral. He'd seized all the evidence, much of it admittedly encrypted.
For now, he didn't know yet what Aragon's location was.
But oh, he had found dirt.
King Cortoban hadn't been surprised by the dirt, apparently - he'd suspected for years that many of the pilgrims leaving Cavitus for Revelation never actually reached the shrine world, ending up instead as slaves on worlds like Fanatic's Joy. It was a neat little loophole that allowed the Bishop-Praetor to enrich himself without having the King personally approve the merchandise being transported off-world - the pilgrims didn't count as merchandise but as passengers, only becoming slaves (and merchandise) after reaching their destination. Loophole or not, however, it was still a case of tax evasion… and, of course, one could assume the Bishop-Praetor's superiors on Revelation would not approve.
So, King Cortoban hadn't been surprised. But he'd been pleased to have Leonidas deliver him such choice blackmail material on one of his greatest political enemies.
Hawk possessed great tactical know-how. He and the rest of G.I. Joe were one of the main reasons the Imperial Guard was winning on Cavitus, pushing the foul xenos back.
Leonidas had political acumen and connections. And once the dust had settled down on Cavitus, he was going to use them to secure a prestigious new battlefield to command, and make sure G.I. Joe was there to win victories for him.
And if he actually managed to secure the bounty from the Vivaxis Dynasty… he might be able to secure his position as the next Lord-General of Xanadu.
"I have to say," says Colonel Ormuzd of the 11th Kiboutani Drop-Troop Regiment, "this is actually the first time in months that the Orks push into our territory, rather than us reclaiming territory from them. Good thing the Organitron 1st was here to kill their Meganob."
"G.I. Joe did its part," says General Hawk, "but we could not have pushed the Orks out without the Kiboutani 11th or the PDF 501st."
Though Ormuzd isn't wrong about the Orks rarely pushing in, of course. It's been nine months since G.I. Joe first landed on Cavitus, and the invaders have lost a lot of territory. And over a third of their forces, while the human forces are actually at a point where reinforcements outstrip losses. By now, the Imperial Guard is confident in victory - a radical change from how things were when you landed on this planet, and the Guard and PDF had been slowly losing ground for thirty-two years.
And then, unexpectedly, a relatively quiet part of the front got rushed by a Gargant and a large concentration of Ork Kommandoes, breaking through defenses and going deep into Imperial territory. G.I. Joe and the Kiboutani 11th got called in just in time to prevent the bogeys from overrunning an inhabited city.
"Unfortunately, I must be the bearer of bad news," Colonel Ormuzd looks like he's biting on a lemon. "You remember the Ork army that was looting the industrial district? It would appear that they've decided to follow on the tracks of the army we just destroyed. They're headed here, and expected to arrive in less than a day."
"We can contain them," General Hawk says, pointing at the map. "If the 11th and the 501st establish fortifications at-"
"I'm sorry, General, I truly am," says Colonel Ormuzd, "but the 11th and 501st are both under orders to move west immediately. General Leonidas wants us to seize the mountain range."
"What?" You interrupt. "There's over forty thousand civilians in this city who'll get massacred if the Orks get here!"
"I'm all too aware, your holiness," says Ormuzd, "and I have pointed out to General Leonidas that destroying the encroaching army was more urgent. He believes it's best to let them overextend so that they'll be easy to encircle later."
"That's… You can't just…"
"I don't know how much latitude the Organitron 1st gets with its orders," Ormuzd says in a resigned tone, "but when a Kiboutani regiment receives orders from high command, we follow those orders. We have little choice, I'm afraid."
"Understood," Hawk nods. "I wish you luck in future operations, Colonel."
"You as well, General. Hopefully, a fraction of the civilians will be able to evacuate."
"They'll try, but I don't intend for it to be necessary."
Ormuzd pauses. "You're staying here."
"We are, Colonel."
Ormuzd stops, and then solemnly salutes. "May the God-Emperor welcome your souls with the honor they deserve, General."
"And that's the situation," General Hawk explains to the assembled forces of G.I. Joe (…and forces associated with G.I. Joe, such as Rolande and the small elite PDF force under Sean Kaltberg's command). "The Orks will be here in less than 24 hours. Not enough time for the civilians to get to safety. As such, it is our mission to stop them… but this time, we will be working without the support of any other regiment, be it Imperial Guard or PDF."
"Doesn't that mean we'll be outnumbered on the order of a hundred to one?" asks Sean Kaltberg.
"More or less," General Hawk nods. "Given these odds, I intend to stay, but I am asking for volunteers to help hold the line."
You step forward.
So does every other Joe.
So does Rolande.
So do Sean Kaltberg and every PDF soldier under his command.
"A question, General," says Commissar Popov. "What are G.I. Joe's current orders?"
"The last orders we received were to destroy the previous Ork army to come here. Since that has been accomplished, we are currently waiting for new orders."
"It might not be a bad idea to request them, then," says the Commissar. "Then again," he steps forward, "lives are the Emperor's currency, and to spend them here in taking down as many of the foul greenskins is a fine way to spend it."
Teela Kaltberg steps forward. "General… How are you planning to handle this battle?"
"With ten intense hours of preparation, followed by eight hours of sleep for everyone," General Hawk replies. "Tomorrow will be a long day, and I don't want anyone tired before it even begins."
[Remaining Orks: 103,905]
The town you're protecting is honestly not that big. It's not small enough that it can be evacuated in a single day - the war has left the roads in a dismal state, and it's not like most of the civilians can afford any sort of vehicle. But it's small enough to establish barricades around it. In all likelihood, however, the town will quickly be encircled by the enemy.
The civilians are told to gather toward the center of the town, so hopefully any Orks who breach the perimeter will be killed by G.I. Joe and Almadero's Beachhead-trained PDF battalion. …And the sentry guns.
G.I. Joe hasn't had a lot of opportunities to reverse-engineer Tarantula Sentry Guns, but you have had opportunities to watch them at work… so after some engineering work (you know Menlo played a big part), the factory complex aboard the Flag has been able to produce a few dozen automated turrets that look like Tarantulas, and have comparable abilities. So, thanks to the Flag's space bridge, these have been deployed in the area.
So have three Baneblades and multiple smaller vehicles… and to actually enable the Banblades to move around, a few buildings in the town were torn down to make for larger roads. (Where possible, the buildings' owners and tenants were generously compensated, which you suspect is a deal they wouldn't have gotten from another Guard unit or the PDF.)
General Hawk and the rest of the flag officers have been poring over the map and selecting specific buildings to be marked in specific colors based on how G.I. Joe is to treat them in battle (specific ones are selected to fortify in, others are to be used as sniper nests…). Though of course, ideally the Orks don't get that far.
The minelayers are hard at work. You don't have anywhere near enough mines to fully protect the town, of course… so instead, General Hawk has opted to establish some very obvious minefields, designed to encourage the Orks to avoid them and charge through specific "corridors" that'll make it easier to kill them en masse as they approach.
As for you, you are busy producing a large number of Guardsmen cardboard cutouts and fake artillery units (with sound!) meant to obfuscate which parts of the fortifications have how many defenders. It'll only fool people from a distance, but that's all they're meant to do.
"I'm not complaining. We're doing as the Emperor requires. But I will say, this is a fairly non-standard use of a Knight," says Rolande as she uses her mech to haul some of the fake artillery into position.
"From each according to his ability," you reply as program the sound system - from a distance, it needs to look like the "artillery" is actually firing.
"Is this actually going to help?" Teela Kaltberg looks skeptical. "The Tactica Imperialis recommends striking enemy fortifications wherever defenses are weakest, but I sincerely doubt any of the greenskins have red the Tactica Imperialis. Considering their obsessive love of fighting, they might actually prefer to attack what they perceive as our best-defended spots."
"Oh, I know," you say. "But there are still plenty of reasons to install these fakes."
"What reasons?"
"For starters, our forces will need to move from one end of the fortifications to the other to respond to threats, and we never want an area to actually look undefended - just one Nob deciding to take advantage of that could be a disaster. Second, every bullet that hits a cardboard cutout is one that isn't hitting a human being. And third?" You grin. "We're counting on the Orks to charge toward a good fight. We're putting the highest concentration of these in front of an area meant to act as a killbox," you point at the map. "See, the plan is to bait the Orks into charge into the center of the wedge here, putting themselves at the mercy of our artillery and machine-guns… and, if they actually manage to get close enough, there's a secondary minefield waiting for them a short distance before the barricade."
"Oh." The Cadet Commissar seems satisfied. "Excuse me, this might sound stupid considering everything in the past nine months, but… are you actually expecting to win? Is that why the entire regiment volunteered for this mission?"
"Making the impossible possible is practically in G.I. Joe's mission statement," you reply, "so I'm definitely not coming into this fight with a mindset of a dead man walking. But no, no-one goes into a fight with this sort of lopsided odds with full confidence of victory unless they're stupid or fanatical." You give her a level look. "But everyone in this town would have been massacred if we just left. That is why every member of the regiment volunteered."
"Hear, hear," says Rolande. "That is the human soul shining in its full glory, as the Emperor intends."
Kaltberg blinks. "…Sometimes, I wonder if your regiment even needs a Commissar."
You chuckle. "We wonder that every time Popov opens his mouth, but for what it's worth, Teela, I'm glad to have you around. If not as a Commissar, then as a well-read, highly intelligent woman who's a decent shot with a Hellpistol." You pause. "…But while you should be fighting to win, it might still be a good idea to talk to your brother before the hostilities start."
She nods grimly.
"Yeah, I just had a long chat with Teela," Sean Kaltberg says over lunch break. "Honestly, I'm grateful for every opportunity we had to talk over these past nine months."
"Buuut?" you say.
"But what?"
"Come now, Sean," Almadero (who is still passing as "Allegro", Sean's aide-de-camp). "It's obvious something's bothering you."
The Stormtrooper Captain sighs. "The Schola Progenium know how to drill cowardice and weakness out of students. After you go there, you no longer fear giving your life for the Emperor. Mostly."
"Mostly," Almadero chuckles.
You nod rather than make disparaging comments on the nightmarish indoctrination centers.
"However," Sean goes on, "while I'm willing to lay my life down for Him On Earth, no question… I find that I'm less at peace with the idea of my baby sister coming to a bad end." He stares at you intensely. "I know you have other priorities, but if you could watch out for Teela during the battle-"
"Sean Kaltberg," you stop him. "I've never set foot in the Schola Progenium, but in G.I. Joe training, they never expect us to stop treating our lives as worthwhile. A soldier risks his life, yes. A time may come when a soldier has to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect others.
"But we join G.I. Joe and go into battle fully intending to survive. And we do, most certainly, intend the same for the people we care about."
"At the risk of sounding like Teela," Sean counters, "lives are the Emperor's currency."
"Teela's my friend. I don't view her life as expendable."
"Of course Teela's life isn't expendable!"
"Do you think she views your life any differently?"
"Uh."
"He's got you there," Almadero chuckles. "And he's not wrong, Sean. With all due respect to our teachers at the Schola, there's nothing wrong with wanting to live."
"Spoiled brat," Sean whispers to him, but it's clearly said with affection.
"A spoiled brat who had a dream of giving Cavitus a capable, competent PDF force," says Almadero. "…And I have to say, that dream has gone in unexpected directions."
"No kidding," says Sean. "Beachhead is one hell of a drill instructor. I think our unit is not only better than standard PDF forces, but practically elite by the standards of Imperial Guard by now. I mean, maybe not Cadians, but… better than I ever expected them to get."
"Good thing, too," you say, "because they've got a tough fight ahead."
A typical Joe will definitely beat a typical Ork or five in a straight fight.
That doesn't mean Joes are immortal. If the Orks' artillery starts hitting your fortifications, you're all gonna die. Same if their air force starts bombing you.
As such, a significant number of Joe-piloted Thunderbolts have been sent ahead to harass the Ork forces en route, bait their air force into a fight, and lead the pursuit within range of G.I. Joe's own AA batteries. You managed to put a shot right through an enemy Mega-Bommer's cockpit, ending the massive flying fortress with a single hit.
A couple Thunderbolts were downed in the process, requiring rapid extraction for the crew, but the enemy air force was destroyed - which led to the second phase.
The second phase being, G.I. Joe's Thunderbolts climbing to stratospheric heights, then diving toward the Ork formations, using gravity to reach hypersonic speeds only slightly below what Thunderbolts can actually withstand, and using that incredible speed to fire shots at specific targets among the Orks before changing direction. A dangerous exercise that led to the Thunderbolts just barely avoiding crashes due to their own inertia, but, your pilots know what they're doing, and this allowed them to avoid getting hit by Orkish AA. As for the shots they fired, they were able to break up the Orks' artillery and the vehicles with the longest attack range.
Well, it's been a busy day, and you need to get your rest before the battle proper tomorrow. But you should also think carefully about what arsenal you're bringing to this battle…
[Remaining Orks: 103,152]
You need to kill the Orks fast, and you need to survive while being shot at. With that in mind… well, you already know how destructive the Bolter Rifle is, and some of the expensive chips for overclocking your evasive algorithms won't be remiss.
And then, it's time to hit the hay. Need those eight hours of sleep to be optimally efficient tomorrow!
…
…
…
Can't sleep. Fuck.
Well, thankfully, you are equipped for just such a situation. You didn't want to go there, but, needs must.
Grim-faced and steely-eyed, you take it into your hands.
The book of Ecclesiarchy prayers.
Five minutes of reading it is enough to solve your insomnia problem.
****************************************
Sleep has been had, last-minute checks on equipment have been performed, and the green tide is rolling closer and closer to weapon range. Kicking up a massive dust cloud as it does.
Yeah, OK, it's a bit intimidating.
"Everyone in position," says Flint, "fire as soon as you think you have a chance of hitting, the one thing we don't lack for is ammunition."
As you rush to your position, you are aware of the massive Mad Max-esque vehicle that comes to a halt not that far from the barricades. Seated on a crude throne on its roof is a Meganob. Next to him, a Nob stands up and starts bellowing:
"All right, krumpers and dakka-distributers! Boss Bloodred brought ya here, ta da best battle on da planet, and ya ain't gonna disappoint Boss Bloodred, are ya?!"
The Ork crowd shouts back at him. Satisfied, the Nob turns toward his boss, whom you presume is Bloodred. "Well boss, just say da word!"
The Meganob maintains the same serious, silent frown.
"Boss?"
Meganob Bloodred refuses to answer.
"Uh, boss? Why ya so quiet?" the nob nudges him.
Only for the Meganob's head to fall from his neck.
"Wat."
Huh. Guess Snake-Eyes was sent to scout further ahead.
[Remaining Orks: 103,151]
G.I. Joe's artillery units begin firing, along with tanks and a whole lot of fake artillery. Mostly, they're hitting enemy units with AA capability.
From the corner of your eye, you notice the gleam of a plasma shot from what you think is Sci-Fi's sniper turret. A Flash Git pops.
Some Orks venture into minefields and became cautionary tales for others.
And you take out a small squad of bogeys with a storm of micro-missiles.
It's so noisy, you can't even make out what the Nob is yelling… before Flint throws a grenade all the way into his mouth. Big green jackass makes some choking noises before turning into a shower of green and red.
[Remaining Orks: 102,258]
Your burst of automatic fire cleared some room by removing a half-dozen bogeys from the field.
Sadly, nature abhors a vacuum, and the room is almost instantly filled with more Orks.
You're noticing some Nob who's carrying a banner. It's a quirk Orks and the Imperial Guard share - they have standard-bearers carrying flags into battle like some pre-industrial armies.
You're also noticing an Orkish vehicle approaching. Some armor, lots of machine guns.
Can't take more than a second deciding where to aim this mounted Bolter first, there's no time to not be shooting.
You take aim at the standard-bearing Orks. Hopefully, taking him down will lower their morale?
…Trouble is, this Heavy Bolter is effectively a mounted, heavy machine gun. Not the best weapon for taking down a singular target. You do explode one of his arms, which seems to really piss him off.
Then a shot from Sci-Fi finishes him off.
Your armor's evasive algorithms warn you to duck at the very last second as the vehicle gets close enough to direct automatic fire at your barricade. You hit the ground, bullets whistling above you-
…and then Lady Jaye throws a javelin. Which lodges itself into the Ork vehicles and unleashes what you think is some kind of small-scale EMP, frying its controls completely. The vehicle, carried by its inertia, runs over a couple of Orks before crashing into the barricade.
More and more Orks are approaching. Four get taken out with a grenade by one of Almadero's PDF soldiers, but there's just too many of them. To make matters worse, you're seeing a squad of Ard Boyz approaching…
[Remaining Orks: 101,020]
Even with well-trained PDF guys helping out, you're not gonna be able to hold if the pressure gets too overwhelming too early.
You focus your eyes on the group of Orks charging the barricade. You engage the targeting algorithm. And over the next few seconds, you move the Heavy Bolter with all the precision you can muster between automatic Bolt shots.
Aim.
Bolt fires.
Ork explodes.
Aim.
Bolt fires.
Ork explodes.
In what you suspect is less than four seconds, you take out eleven Orks.
A handful more get taken out by a Tarantula sentry gun.
Flint, even as he shoots one in the head, shouts coordinates - presumably at the Basilisk, which manages to take out the Ard Boyz.
An Ork Biker gets his front wheel shot off by Lady Jaye.
Not that any of this is buying you any respite, mind. You're seeing an Orkish tank coming your way, along with a squad of Orks coming with flamethrowers-
Wait. The Tarantula just shot up.
Ah, crud. Stormboyz a-coming.
[Remaining Orks: 99,685]
No way you're letting an enemy tank get this close to your positions.
"Ironhide, aim for that thing's flank!" you hear Flint shout. "Sci-Fi, light up the flamethrowers' fuel tanks! Everyone else, take out the flyers!"
Don't need to tell you twice.
You aim, you fire. You start fucking up the tank's treads. It tries to dodge to the side. Big mistake - not only does this expose its flank to you, allowing you to blow the left tread to tiny bits with multiple Bolts, but the maneuver and inertia, combined with the lost tread, results in the tank rolling on its side.
At around the same time, a plasma shot from Sci-Fi's sniper nest causes the ammunition of one of the Burna Boyz to blow into a fireball that catches the other Burna Boyz in it, leading to a chain reaction of fireballs that clears some space in the green tide.
Everyone else shoots at the Stormboyz, but those fuckers are fast, maneuverable, and more competent than your average Orks. While most of them get nailed by laser fire mid-air, one manages to dive through your formation and slice his blade through a PDF trooper before taking back some altitude-
Only to get shot, along with another Stormboy, by a man with his own jetpack (or rather, Grav Chute).
Stalker. Former gang leader turned one of the first G.I. Joe recruits. "Saw you had a bit of a pest control problem, so I'm swatting some flies."
"Can't say we couldn't use the help," says Flint. Both of them stare at the PDF trooper, who's bleeding profusely…
[Remaining Orks: 98,352]
You turn toward a PDF trooper next to you, who is staring in horror at her bleeding comrade.
You step in front of her and shout quick order. "Take the Heavy Bolter, keep firing at the Orks!"
"I… yes sir!" she shouts, not addressing you as a Tech-Priest in the confusion of battle, instead grabbing the Heavy Bolter and unleashing automatic fire at the endless waves of bogeys.
You rush at the bleeding soldiers. "No chance of getting him back in the fight, just keep him from bleeding out!" Flint orders.
You try saying reassuring words to the injured soldier before quickly realizing he's passed out. Hopefully from shock rather than blood loss. Fast as you can, you apply your limited knowledge of emergency trauma response and your less limited knowledge of advanced medical technology to stop the bleeding.
At which point Stalker takes him in a fireman carry. "I'll take him to the field hospital," he says as he flies away.
You rush back to the Heavy Bolter currently being fired by a screaming PDF trooper (to her credit, she did just shred five Orks with it, so the screaming doesn't seem to be hindering her performance). "Good work, soldier," you say, take back your position just as a Marauder flies above you, performing a bombing run on the Orks…
[Remaining Orks: 95,901]
The Marauders bombing run has given a short yet welcome lull in the enemy onslaught. Enough to take a quick look at the battlefield before you.
"Flint," you point out, "that dead tank should still have enough explosives on board to flatten a Baneblade. Problem is, the way it tipped over, we'd need to get to the far end and shoot there to set it off."
Flint only thinks for half a second. "What if the Basilisk aimed a shell right behind that tank?"
"…Assuming an accurate shot, it should work."
"It might come in handy sooner rather than later. Brace yourselves!"
You see the problem - a whole squad of Tankbustas is coming up, and you doubt your barricade will do very well against their rocket launchers. What's more, there's a Nob leading a charge of Slugga Boyz your way…
"Focus fire on any Ork who's about to shoot a rocket! Sci-Fi, get the Nob!" Flint shouts.
You're already firing. Tankbustas are tougher than the average Ork, but at least their armor is easily overcome by the Heavy Bolter.
A plasma shot from the sniper nest explodes the Nob's head. About ten Tankbustas are killed by the Basilisk, five by a grenade Flint threw, several more by you, by Lady Jaye, by the Tarantula, by the PDF…
But there's just too many of them.
And a handful of rockets get through.
One rocket completely misses whatever it was aiming at. One shakes the barricade. One destroys one of the fake artillery barrels you set up yesterday. And one…
You stare up. Well, shit. That Tarantula is no longer operational.
Also, while you were busy taking down the Tankbustas, the Slugga Boyz had time to rush the barricade. Several come down upon you with their crude machetes.
Step to the left.
Step to the right.
And rotate the Heavy Bolter so that its barrel deflects the machete.
All three attacks evaded, and you didn't even step away from the Heavy Bolter you're manning. But now what? Your position is now crawling with Orkish melee combatants, and they're too close for you to aim the mounted weapon at them…
[Remaining Orks: 94,210]
"I'll fix the Tarantula!" you shout. "Hold the fort!" you order the slightly-bewildered PDF woman besides you, who shoots you a wide-eyed look and then shoots an Ork.
You begin heading for the emergency stairs to get you to the roof where the Tarantula is located, when a rope suddenly swings by.
You grab it. The far end is attached to a grappling hook, which is attached to the ledge right next to the Tarantula. It's already got knots in it to facilitate climbing. And you've climbed up enough ropes in G.I. Joe training to know that going up this thing will take you some five, maybe ten less seconds than running all the way to the stairs and up them.
You glance in Flint's direction, since that's where the rope swung from. He's currently grabbing a laser rifle and shooting one of the Orks on the barricade.
You know Flint's a planner-type, but did he set up this rope just to save a few seconds in case someone needed to get to the Tarantula…?
Well, regardless, you're climbing as fast as you can. Which is pretty fast, considering.
Yeesh. This Tarantula looks like a mess. You'll be lucky if you can get it to-
No, wait. You can do this.
Unplug this wire to initiate a system reboot, plug it to the X67 port instead. Remove this part - useful, but not critical - and plug it in to fix the firing mechanism. Take the destroyed armor panel… and put it back on sideways; it'll still fit, even if the cover won't be as total as before.
And just like that, you've turned the sentry gun from "good for the scrap heap" to "almost as good as when the battle started" in less than twenty seconds.
Some days, you actually feel like you're good at this job. Especially when the Tarantula begins beaming down laser fire on the remaining Orks on the barricade. In fact, there's only one Ork left now, trying to take a swing at the PDF trooper.
You try, and fail, to resist the irresistible urge to yell like Tarzan as you use the rope to swing back down there and, feet-first, into that Ork - sending him tumbling off the barricade.
The PDF trooper stares at you. "…What."
"Whatever works, soldier," you grin as you take back the Heavy Bolter.
[Remaining Orks: 92,669]
The Tarantula's back in action, and you're back to firing automatic bolter fire at the bogeys.
And good thing, because the endless stream of bogeys has not abated. They just. Keep. Coming.
"We can't keep this pace much longer, Flint," you hear Lady Jaye. "At this rate we'll have to retreat to the inner barricade."
"The later the better," Flint replies as they each shoot an eye off a Nob. "We can retreat, but not very far."
You listen, and you keep firing. They're not wrong… the concentration of enemies just keeps rising, and there's only so fast you can kill them. With this many-
BOOOMMM!
And suddenly, the number of enemies just went down by several dozens.
You look behind you. There, on a ramp established a few dozen yards behind the barricade for precisely this purpose, a Baneblade has come up, and its complement of weapons disgorges destruction upon the Orks, the ramp putting at the right height to fire over the barricades.
"Sorry I can't stay any longer and hand out more presents," comes Cover Girl's voice, "but Brekhov is next on the Nice List. Ho ho ho, everybody!"
"The help's appreciated, Cover Girl," Flint says as he resumes firing. As do you - this is a welcome lull.
[Remaining Orks: 90,105]
Cover Girl's Baneblade spends less than 30 seconds thinning the ranks of Orks swarming your positions before it heads to another part of the barricades, but the relief it gave you is welcome.
Also, a thought occurs to you, looking at the corpses of the Tankbustas.
"Most of the Tankbustas were carrying powerful limpet mines," you point out to Flint while shooting at onrushing Slugga Boyz. "A precision shot can detonate them! They're designed to take out armored vehicles."
Flint doesn't waste any time. "Sci-Fi, when you see enough Orks clustered near a mine, detonate it at your discretion."
You shoot more automatic fire, and the PDF trooper near you passes you more ammo.
Lady Jaye takes out a trio of Orks who thought they were being sneaky and bypassing your defenses.
Paladin manages a beautiful shot with her Basilisk that takes out over twenty Orks at once.
Sci-Fi's precision fire detonates two of the mines, killing over a dozen Orks.
And then things get bad.
That's a Killa Kan. An Ork walker. Those are a problem.
That's a Gorkanaut. An even larger Ork walker, and a bigger problem.
And that is some kind of nightmarish cross between a heavy tank and a locomotive, looking like it's going to rip right through your barricade if you don't stop it.
Sh-
[Remaining Orks: 86,928]
Flint yells some orders, which in the split-second you are reacting to without being fully aware of.
You target your Heavy Bolter at the charging locomotive, your algorithm and cybernetic armor compensating for its speed by moving the weapon by a precise number of millimeters between each shot.
A first Bolt impacts the armor, deforming it.
A fraction of a second later, a second Bolt hits the same pot, breaking it further.
The same goes with the third Bolter, and the fourth, and the fifth, your movements allowing every single shot of your automatic fire to hit the same spot - creating a breach in the locomotive's armor and then detonating inside, causing significant damage to the machinery…
…just instants before a krak grenade is flung by Flint right through the hole you've made, exploding inside and making the damage worse.
Multiple things happen simultaneously.
A spear thrown by Lady Jaye hits the right side of the locomotive (well, your right, the Orks' left), exploding into a mesh of super-strong filaments that tangle and slice through the wheels.
A shot from the Basilisk hits the front left (your left, the Orks' right) of the locomotive. This, combined with the destruction of the wheels on the other side, causes the locomotive to flip and fall on its side, skidding to a halt mere feet away from the barricade.
A plasma shot from Sci-Fi's sniper rifle goes right through the slit in the Killa Kan's cockpit, presumably frying the pilot inside.
And the Gorkanaut gets a sudden distraction in the form of heavy automatic fire from its side, coming from a charging Chien Du Forgeron.
"I SAY THEE NAY!" shouts Rolande inside the Knight as she charges the larger walker.
[Remaining Orks: 86,170]
"Soldier!" you shout at the nearby PDF soldier, "take this!"
To her credit, she wastes no time as she takes the Heavy Bolter - and despite the fear in her eyes, she shoots Bolt after Bolt at the Gorkanaut.
Rolande is already squaring off with the enemy mech in melee, Reaper Chainsword versus gigantic Power Klaw. From even the first few seconds you can tell that Rolande is the more skilled mecha pilot… but not necessarily by a wide enough margin to compensate for the difference in size between the two mechas.
You need to figure out a way to-
You can almost see a lightbulb start shining above you.
Because… That silly-looking gun emerging from the Gorkanaut's center of mass? That's not a cannon. That's an oversized flamethrower.
And you've seen enough Ork tech to confidently guess its fuel reserves are practically adjacent to the flamethrower itself.
"Rolande!" you shout, mouth to the comm, "slice through the weapon in the middle of its chest - there's a large promethium cache behind it!"
"Sci-fi, light it up!" Flint shouts.
"On it!" your fellow engineer shouts, his rifle generating a highly visible laser beam.
Rolande takes a swing. "BY THE HONOR OF THE JEAN-STONES!"
And now that's a pretty massive gash where the flamethrower used to be.
And now there's a javelin flying through the air, its spearhead going right through the gash before exploding. Which causes the flamethrower's fuel reserve to burst into a massive firestorm from inside the Gorkanaut. Some of the flame get far enough that Rolande is forced to take several steps back with her Knight; the head of the Gorkanaut is completely charred, the massive machine collapsing to the ground and crushing several Orks under its weight.
"…How many javelins do you have?" you ask Lady Jaye.
"Hopefully enough," she replies.
[Remaining Orks: 84,686]
"I don't want to sour the mood," you say as you shoot four Slugga Boyz dead, "but it feels like we've barely made a dent in their army so far!"
"We've made a dent all right," Flint replies while Rolande takes her Knight elsewhere to fight off more enemy vehicles. "Their numbers only feel infinite. Sooner or later, they'll run out of warm bodies."
You notice the Joe air force performing another bombing run… and then hightailing it away from the enemy. Are they running away from something…?
As if in answer to your question, there is suddenly a massive flash of light in the distance. A few seconds pass before you actually hear the massive boom.
You keep shooting, even as you try to understand. The Tarantula, undistracted, takes out a Nob.
The smoke isn't done clearing, but you're pretty sure you're already seeing the edges of a massive crater where thousands of Orks used to be. "What the Robert Oppenheimer was that?"
"Every Daisy Cutter the Flag could provide," Flint says while plunging his bayonet in the throat of an Ork Kommando who managed to climb the barricade. "The Space Bridge made for an effective delivery tool."
[Remaining Orks: 69,801]
"Sir, we've got a situation," you say as you dodge a literal bullet. "Some of the smarter Orks are using the dead locomotive for cover!"
"It's a situation to our advantage," Flint counters. "Paladin, minus 5 degrees, 110 feet!"
"Got it!" she replies as she fires the Basilisk. The shell falls right behind the locomotive, and the Orks get sandwhiched between their putative cover and the explosion.
"Situation withdrawn," you chuckle as you resume firing.
Of course, that just means other situations arise, because this battle involves a number of combatants comparable to the Siege of Vicksburg, and 99% of them are on the enemy side.
Right now, the situation is a squad of Warbikes approaching your barricade at high speed, a squad of Stick Bommas (or whatever you call a bunch of Orks carrying multiple grenades), and a Deffkopta. All coming at you at once, all armed with explosives.
[Remaining Orks: 68,655]
You fire and fire and fire. One Stick Bomma down. Two Stick Bommas down.
The Deffkopta explodes in an airborne fireball as Sci-Fi fires a lancing plasma shot at its gas tank.
Three Stick Bommas down. Four Stick Bommas down.
Several of the Warbikes skid along the ground, their riders shot dead… but a couple get close enough to launch small rockets.
And despite your efforts and those of the others, a couple of grenades get thrown your way.
You fire some more. The last Warbike goes down, a Stick Bomma explodes in a fiery conflagration.
Is everyone OK? You look around. PDF soldiers fine, Flint fine, Lady Jaye fine, nothing got close to the Basilisk or Sci-Fi's sniper nest…
…But it looks like the Tarantula is beyond repair this time around.
[Remaining Orks: 67,306]
The PDF soldier passes you some ammo in-between shooting Orks with her Lasgun. "Your holiness, can we hold on without the Tarantula?"
"I mean. It was killing less enemies than the Basilisk," you chuckle.
But truth is, you share her concern. A lower rate-of-killing-Orks might actually make this position untenable, and you're not sure it was tenable to begin with-
Ah crapbaskets. Another Killa Kan.
"Leg's a bit thin on this one," Flint comments… and then he uses his laser to spot said leg.
Well. Might as well.
You unleash a rapid succession of Bolts that all hit a metal rod barely thicker than yourself. Between that and a direct hit from Sci-Fi, the leg is too damaged and snaps under the Killa Kan's weight, sending the ugly mech crashing down.
Meanwhile, the air force is performing under bombing run, so that helps.
[Remaining Orks: 64,780]
Keep trigger finger pressed. Keep quickly moving the Heavy Bolter so it's aimed at a target in the moment a shot fires.
Your trigger finger hurts. Ah well.
There's a massive crash you can hear all the way from another sector of the defenses as an Ork mecha (Mega Dread? Can't tell from over here) collapses.
You overhear on the radio one of the Joe teams informing the rest of you that they have to retreat from their barricade.
More concerning: There's an armored vehicle heading your way with cannons and a bunch of Flash Gitz on the roof, there's a Mekboy with an unusually sophisticated armor and a really big gun for his size whose design doesn't look familiar, and several dozens of fodder Orks rushing the barricade.
[Remaining Orks: 61,164]
Ork technology is often hard to predict, and you don't want to find out what this weird gun does. You take your shots at the Mek Boy.
…and he has a force-field. Fuck.
A Bolt explodes next to him.
He rises his gun.
A Bolt explodes on his force-field.
He aims his gun in your general direction.
Another bolt causes his force-field to fizzle out.
Electric arcs begin to coil around his gun-
…and then Mek Boy's head explodes as Sci-Fi finishes him.
Around the same time, a direct hit from the Basilisk, combined with Flint's Krak grenade and Lady Jaye's antitank javelin, all cause the armored vehicle to explode, sending the Flash Gitzes flying.
Unfortunately, a bunch of the fodder Orks manage to reach the barricade, and several of them rush at you.
You dodge multiple shots and cleaver swings, even using the Heavy Bolter to block a few attacks (it's very resilient tech, it can take it).
And then your side explodes into pain as a bullet pierces it. You're pretty sure it shattered a rib.
The next instant, three of the attacking Orks are killed by a grenade, courtesy of the PDF soldier. Which… has the downside of getting a lot of Orky attention on her.
Also, the Flash Gitzes, while injured, are getting back up and grabbing their guns. And there's a tank headed your way, and more Slugga Boyz and Shoota Boyz coming…
[Remaining Orks: 60,010]
Your side hurts like hell right now.
But you don't have time to worry about that. There are seven Orks on your side of the barricade, and while you're wearing some darn good armor, the PDF soldier a few feet away is far more vulnerable.
"Get down!" you shout at her. She hits the floor almost instantly, while you jump sideways… your hands still gripping the Heavy Bolter.
Your weapon, attached to its tripod, doesn't budge from its location. Instead, your inertia causes it to rotate 360 degrees, with you behind it all the way.
You pull the trigger every time the rotating Bolter is in front of an Ork. By the time your rotation is over and your feet hit the ground again, you've taken down five bogeys.
That leaves two, who scream as they charge at you.
The PDF woman rolls onto a kneeling position and shoots one of them in the head before he can reach you.
And the last Ork gets shot in the head by Lady Jaye.
Problem is, there are dozens of Orks rushing forward, the Flash Gitz are about to rip you to shreds, and the tank-
The Basilisk fires. It hits the ammo reserve of the dead tank you pointed out earlier.
The shockwave from the explosion is enough to shake the barricade. You think a whole bunch of smaller bombs that were littering the battlefield by this point exploded too.
On the plus side, that cleared the board. For a few seconds, at least.
"I doubt we can stay here much longer, but let's make them pay for every inch!" Flint says.
[Remaining Orks: 57,295]
You shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot.
And they keep coming. Dozens and hundreds of Orks, and even with the automated fire and the Basilisk they're still getting way too close to the barricades.
You've maintained enough situational awareness to notice that among the ones in close range, there's one with a flamethrower, and another one readying a grenade. A couple dozen feet further, there's a Nob bellowing as he's charging in the barricade's direction. And even further than that, you can see a Killa Kan moving into range.
The one upside is, all the adrenaline makes for a halfway-decent painkiller, so the bullet where your rib is supposed to be isn't debilitating you. Not a dull moment in this battle.
You manage to put a couple Bolts through the Ork with the flamethrower… but you just narrowly miss the flamethrower's gas tank. Which is a shame, because the fireball would have helped clear the Orks close to the barricade.
At least a few of them do die when Flint shoots the Ork with the grenade, and the later falls to the ground before exploding and taking a couple of bogeys with it.
A couple dozen Orks die to Paladin's Basilisk, several who were getting far too close for comfort get shot by the PDF soldiers and Lady Jaye, and the Nob dies to a headshot from Sci-Fi.
Unfortunately, that leaves the Killa Kan, which steps into range…
…and, you think, happened to step on one of the many, many explosives left around by all the dead Orks. It's a small explosion relative to the mech, but enough to make it lose its footing for a few seconds.
You're not sure that's gonna help you, though, because several Orks are climbing the barricade, and two more Killa Kans are drawing near.
[Remaining Orks: 54,776]
You hurriedly take out half a dozen of the Orks who got way too close for comfort. The last one screams as he aims his gun at you, only to get a bayonet in his throat courtesy of your PDF friend.
But there are dozens more Orks behind them… and three Killa Kans converging on your positions.
Not enough time to take them all out.
"Everyone retreat to position Bravo!" Flint shouts.
You gaze at the Heavy Bolter. No time to get it off its mount, much less carry it with you - every second counts for this maneuver.
So the only second you have to spare, you use to set up a little surprise with the couple hundreds of Bolts left that you didn't have the time to fire. Most of the prep work was done ahead of time before the Orks even got here, you just need to press a couple buttons to dunk the ammo reserve in fuel.
And then, as Orks finish climbing up the barricade, you turn your attention to your actual escape route - a zipline.
Not that you're going first. "Get going!" you shout at the PDF lady.
"Not before you your hol-"
"THAT'S AN ORDER!" you shout at her.
"Yes sir!"
Like, you appreciate her trying to put someone else's survival ahead of their own, but you're G.I. Joe. First into the danger zone, last out.
And you should get out, because the Orks are firing at you.
You artfully dodge between the bullets - hrm, that one zipped by too close for comfort - and lunge for the zipline as soon as the PDF lady has put a few yards of distance in.
You guess the whole zipline thing took the Orks by surprise, because they only resume firing around the time you hit the ground - right new to Paladin's Basilisk, which everyone - Flint, Lady Jay, the PDF contingent, everyone but Sci-Fi (who's got a different escape route) - is in the process of climbing.
You're quick to join them.
The Basilisk begins driving backward, even as Orks cover the barricade, joined by the three Killa Kans.
Too bad for them.
"Now!" Flint orders, and Paladin fires the incendiary shell at the back of the barricade's base.
You didn't have enough mines to completely encircle the town with minefields, no.
But hiding a large bomb inside the barricade?
You could do that.
Plus several tanks of promethium scavenged from the town?
You could do that.
Plus all the ammo left, like the hundreds of Bolts.
Even at this distance, you feel your ears pop from the explosion. Bits and pieces of Ork and Killa Kan falling everywhere.
They took the barricade? Not without a cost.
[Remaining Orks: 50,012]
Your short retreat is granted a minute's reprieve by close air support showing up - Wild Bill and several others perform an attack run on the Orks approaching the remains of your barricade.
Still, it's not long before more Orks are rushing through the street in pursuit.
It's with a big grin that you press the detonator on the demolition charges, causing a couple of multi-level buildings to collapse on the street, crushing dozens of Orks under the rubble. More importantly, that closes off a few paths, forming corridors the Orks rush through to pursue you.
General Hawk and the others put a lot of work into planning this. The corridors that the retreat forms? Minefields.
Oh, your Basilisk drives through the minefield just fine. The mines are inactive.
Sci-Fi has the remote device needed to activate them. He just needs Flint's signal.
When the Orks resume rushing after you? Boom. Many, many booms.
Giving the Basilisk time to roll behind a wall, while the rest of you take your positions in the marked buildings and such.
[Remaining Orks: 47,650]
Your own position is on the third floor of a building, where a Multi-Melta has been placed ahead of time on a tripod. The tripod itself has been placed on a rail, so you can move the Multi-Melta from window to window.
Next to you is the same PDF gunner from before. "I'll be sticking by you, your holiness," she says as she aims her Lasgun out the window, "but the Multi-Melta is not designed to spray rapid-fire like the Heavy Bolter. You will not be able to take out entire crowds of greenskins at once."
"Oh, I know. That's not gonna be my role," you grin. "Now that we've switched to urban warfare, we've got something else to handle the entire crowds."
Regardless, looks like the Orks are moving in the streets below. Couple dozens Boyz, one Mekboy in the bunch, one Nob, a trio of Warbikes, and what looks like some kind of APC…
Well, you know what the most urgent target is.
Melta weapons are interesting. They hold some similarities to certain Cybertronian weapons you've seen, albeit more limited. Their ability to project extreme heat onto a target makes them ideal for taking on heavily armored opponents.
Your heat ray, and a shot from the Lascannon Flint is manning on another building, hit the APC at the same time. It explodes in a fireball that almost definitely killed every Ork inside.
The Nob only lives half a second longer, sniped by Sci-Fi.
The three bikes charge forward… right into a net that explodes out of a javelin Lady Jaye threw from the window of her building. Which you know had plenty of high-tech javelins waiting for her inside.
More Orks die to Basilisk shells and PDF lasers.
It's a solid start! …And you hope you can make it a solid continuation, because the next wave has what looks like a hundred bogeys in it, and it includes a fully-armored Big Mek and a dozen Tankbustas with rocket launchers.
[Remaining Orks: 43,922]
One downside of Melta weapons - they have limited range. You need to actually wait for the Big Mek to come closer.
Sci-Fi and his plasma rifle operates under no such limitation, and he ma
nages to hit a bomb carried by one of the Tankbustas and make it explode, taking half the anti-armor bogeys down in one fell swoop. The rest are taken out by the Lascannon.
"HOY! YOU IZ SCREWED, HUMIES! I GOTZ HUNDREDZ OV BOYZ HERE," the Big Mek shouts with a feral grin as he aims his concerning weapon in the general direction of the Lascannon, "AND DEYS GUNNA GET Y- VAIT, IZAT…"
His smile disappears as he realizes what's coming up behind him.
A Hellhound tank.
Hellhounds are among the lighter tanks the Imperial Guard will yield, and are often treated as an inferior alternative to the Leman Russ. But with the Orks stuck moving through urban corridors, the Inferno Cannon mounted on the Hellhound is suddenly a nightmare to deal with.
"ZOG IT! RUN!" the Big Mek shouts as he begins running away, seconds after the Hellhound incinerated thirty Orks in one fell swoop.
The Orks' panicked run doesn't do them much good, though. The Big Mek gets his leg vaporized by your Multi-Melta, despite his force-field and power armor; the Hellhound finishes him off. The remaining Orks run away, trying to outpace the Hellhound…
…only to run into a different set of flamethrowers, courtesy of a Joe and three PDF.
Meet Blowtorch. Dude's a G.I. Joe veteran, and an expert if there ever was at fire-based weaponry. He helped plan this phase of the battle. Because right now, there are multiple Hellhounds progressing through the urban corridors, massacring the Orkish infantry.
The downside, of course, is that the Hellhounds aren't the most resilient of tanks, so you gotta eliminate foes with anti-tank capabilities.
[Remaining Orks: 38,483]
Vaporizing another Ork tank, you slide your Multi-Melta to another window. No point in making it easy for the bogeys to know where yo shoot.
All around the city, the Orks have crossed the first layer of barricades.
Only for those who rush in to bet trapped in urban corridors that G.I. Joe has turned into fiery killboxes. Those corridors are roamed by Hellhounds and a handful of Baneblades.
Meanwhile, the Orks outside the city are still getting railed by your airforce and a handful of artillery units the PDF is aiming from the city center.
So, the good news is enemy numbers are rapidly decreasing.
Less good news, the vox just informed you that the enemy's last remaining Mega Dread is headed your way.
"Launch the smoke bombs!" comes Flint's voice. Seconds later, the street is filled with opaque gas.
"Won't that also stop us from seeing them, your holiness?" the PDF soldier asks you, even as she takes a break from firing her Lasgun.
"The smoke doesn't stop infra-red," you tap your goggles.
"Infra-what?"
"Heat vision." And the Joes were equipped with such, specifically for moments where the cover of smoke proved necessary.
And then you hear the massive rumble as a wall breaks due to the Mega Dread walking through it.
Hoo-kay. This thing is (hopefully) blinded by the smoke, but that won't stop it for very long…
[Remaining Orks: 34,224]
You stare through the smoke at the thermography of the massive war machine.
Well now. That bit of frontal armor in the shape of a lower jaw… it's running weirdly hot. Comparing to the heat circulation on the rest of this thing… and mentally cross-referencing everything you know about Ork mechas…
"Flint!" you call through the vox. "This thing has critical machinery behind the jaw shield! We manage a clean hit there, the whole thing goes down!"
"In that case…" Flint rapidly barks orders, and everything then happens very quickly.
First, Lady Jaye, under cover of smoke, uses a Grav-Chute to fly up to the Mega-Dread, and throw a javelin at the right end of the jaw shield. …A javelin whose spearhead is apparently a Melta bomb.
As soon as Lady Jaye gets clear, Flint's Lascannon and both Basilisks all fire at the left end of the jaw shield. The sheer impact leaves the crumpled shield barely hanging by one spot… until that spot gets hit by Sci-Fi's Plasma Rifle and falls off.
And you, having moved your Multi-Melta to the very end of its rail, now have a clear shot.
You aim at the white-hot piece of machinery.
And you make it hot enough to explode.
The smoke is illuminated by lightning bolts as the Mega-Dread's generator goes boom, and the mechanical monstrosity collapses, crushing multiple Orks beneath its weight.
The smoke clears, and the Orks, seeing the dead mecha, are suddenly a bit less enthusiastic about their chances.
[Remaining Orks: 29,460]
A Tankbusta.
You vaporize him.
A Flash Gitz.
You vaporize him.
A Killa Kan.
You shoot the Melta ray right into its cockpit.
Meanwhile, the Hellhounds are roasting the bogeys by the thousands, and…
Ohhhh. Looks like G.I. Joe's battleplan is entering the endgame. They just released the synthoids.
Synthoids with the shape and size of Nobs.
Who are running away from battle, passing by all the other Orks, while screaming bloody retreat in a panicked tone at the top of their metaphorical lungs.
Before you joined the military, you remember laughing along with everyone else at some footage someone had obtained of Cobra Commander shouting retreat in that raspy voice of his.
As you learned later on, the ability to properly organize a fighting retreat is actually a rare, important military skill. George Washington was great at it, and if he hadn't been the colonies would likely have lost the American War Of Independence. Cobra Commander was great at it, and that was a major factor in why the Cobra War lasted as long as it did. Retreating without getting massacred by what you're retreating from is a difficult, complex endeavor.
And when these fake Nobs get some of the Orks to start retreating, it's a completely disorganized, chaotic route. The Orks who are running away from G.I. Joe are getting in the way of the Orks running toward G.I. Joe, the resulting traffic jam making them all easy pickings for artillery, and the panic among the bogeys just grows. Soon enough, the number of Orks retreating grows larger than the number of Orks still trying to fight.
Which is when the air force begins dropping the Imperium's napalm-equivalent, turning the Ork retreat into a bigger, deadlier mess than it already was.
[Remaining Orks: 17,985]
At this point, the Orks are routing.
But G.I. Joe isn't letting them escape. Hell no.
This is the point where all the Leman Russ tanks, Chimeras, and Valkyries are brought out, and Joes and PDF soldiers get in and start the pursuit.
You, naturally, perform some quick impromptu repairs.
First on Lift-Ticket's Marauder. It took a rocket hit in one of its bombing runs.
Then on Chien Du Forgeron. No time to fix all the dings and dents Rolande's Knight took in the fighting, but you can slap quick-fixes on the parts that would slow it down.
Lastly, you repair Paragon's Lemann Russ. It got dented by a Tanbusta at some point, and you make sure it's up and running.
General Hawk had the Baneblades actually perform a sortie and exit city bounds right before the synthoids got the Orks to retreat, so they were able to massacre bogeys on the way out. Now… now their numbers dwindle as artillery, armored vehicles, and air strikes take them out.
Less than twenty minutes after the Orks started retreating, the last bogey is down and out. General Hawk orders everyone to return to the city and help extinguish the fires.
You can't help but notice a very distinct "holy shit we're alive" sentiment about the PDF.
[Remaining Orks: 0]
"The 5th battalion has reported a successful drop in zone delta-five, sir. They control that strip of road." The full term was 5th Battalion of the 2nd Platoon of the 3rd Company, but that much was understood from context, naturally.
"Good", Colonel Ormuzd nodded, still staring at the map. "That's the only spot the greenskin heavy vehicles can come through. Losses?"
"Fifteen fatalities, eighty-seven injured, thirty-one serious."
Ormuzd grimaced. Dropping in the middle of enemy territory was dangerous business at the best of time, but, with preliminary aerial recon and the cover of night, he had been hoping for losses half that large. No luck, apparently. He'd the Lieutenant for details later to figure out what had gone wrong, but that was a concern for tomorrow. "Well, they can't stay there. Tell them to plant their mines across the road, Epsilon pattern. That should buy the 501st a couple of days, at least. We might even be able to take out some of the smaller Ork formations while their heavy vehicles are stuck elsewhere."
"Yes sir."
"Any reply from General Leonidas?"
"No sir."
Blast it. Almost three days now of trying to contact high command. The first day, he'd been trying to raise some reinforcements on the Organitron 1st's behalf - losing the best, most honorable soldiers on the planet so stupidly was grinding his gears. The next two days, he'd been trying to explain a bit of tactical insight he'd had - how, if the PDF 305th and 790th both moved to the mountain peak in zone gamma-eight, they would be able to use their extensive artillery (by PDF standards) to bomb almost any Ork position on the board, while the Imperial Guard forces moved quickly and dealt with the greenskins up close.
By his back-of-the-envelope calculations, that approach would allow them to take the mountains with 25%, maybe 30% less casualties than the current battle plan high command was pushing.
Not a word from high command about it. Because he was Kiboutani? Because the plan was using the PDF as something other than ablative armor for the Imperial Guard? Because General Leonidas just didn't like someone under his command suggesting a battle plan other than his own? All of the above, probably.
Whatever. He, and the men and women under his command, would do what needed to be done with the hand they'd been dealt, no matter the-
"Sir, there's a call on the vox for you. It's General Hawk, of the 1st Organitron Expeditionary Regiment."
He blinked.
Hawk had actually survived?
"Put him on."
Apparently, Hawk had, in fact, survived.
"General. I'm pleased to see you in good health. I was under the impression you were planning to remain on your positions." Perhaps high command had sent them new deployment orders in time?
"We stayed there until the threat was removed, Colonel." Wait, what? "Following which, we stayed for another day for clean-up."
(As well as to perform what hasty repairs they could to the city, set up tents for citizens rendered homeless, and leave behind compensation money, large stores of food, and a new electric generator for the town. But General Hawk saw no reason to mention that.)
Ormuzd stared. "…How did you survive?"
"Air supremacy, artillery supremacy, an early decapitation strike, and control over the battlefield," the General said like he was describing basic tactics rather than how he'd beaten a force that outnumbered his own over a hundred times over. "Regardless, we are being redeployed to assist you."
"…Then we are more than a little grateful for the aid."
General Hawk nodded. "I believe I have an idea for how to take these mountains with minimal losses, Colonel, but I'd like your expert opinion."
Colonel Ormuzd laughed. "Good to have you along, you lunatics."
"Oh, hey, soldier," you give a salute, recognizing the PDF gunner who fought by your side recently.
"Your holiness," she returns the salute, perhaps more energetically than you did. But then, this PDF unit tends to react like that to G.I. Joe. "I am here to visit Corporal Diaz." She pauses. "He's the soldier whose injuries you treated."
"Huh? Oh, right. The one who got cut by the Stormboy."
"He's expected to make a full recovery. So is everyone. It was a miracle," she says.
"It was a hard battle," you say. "Anyway, Doc told me to report for another go at treating my rib. It'll be a few days until I'm able to get back to the action, but at least I'm not confined to bed rest."
She just stares at you.
"…Is there a problem?"
"This whole battle," she says. "It was the most insane, intense experience of my life, and I think that's a high bar, your holiness. Not just me, everyone in my unit. And to you… To you, it was Tuesday, wasn't it?"
"I wouldn't go that far. Even by G.I. Joe standards, that was a fairly tense battle. We don't care much for having to remain static while outnumbered a hundred to one."
"But it wasn't a life-defining moment for you. You've had worse."
You think back to the Decepticons. To the Battle Of Lake Superior. To the Day Of The Broken Fang. "I suppose we have."
She walks in silence for a few moments. "…Do you think it's possible for us to be like you? Like G.I. Joe?"
You smile. "I don't know, soldier. Maybe! For now, try to be like the Kiboutani. Or Cadians, I'm told that's a more common reference. And listen to Beachhead, he's an asshole, but he's actually a very good drill instructor."
"Yes sir."
And then you hear the arguing.
"…that card was in my hand five minutes ago! Are you stupidly lucky, or a stupid cheater?!"
"Who are you calling a cheater?! You're the one dealing from the bottom of the deck!"
"It's your deck, you crook, and you marked the cards!"
"You're the one who wanted to play!"
Yyyep. Definitely Leatherneck and Wetsuit. Story goes, Wetsuit ziplined on a Gorkonaut (or Morkonaut?) to attach a Melta Bomb limpet to its cockpit, but got shot on the way back, and Leatherneck waded through enemy fire to drag him back to safety. So now they're both stuck at the infirmary for the rest of the week, to the despair of their poor roommate, a PDF soldier trying to cover his head with a pillow.
"Hey, Diaz," your PDF friend says. "Still in one piece?"
"Not for long, Garcia," he mumbles. "If those two keep it up, I'm gonna end up separating my head from my neck just to get some peace and quiet."
Neither you nor Garcia can help chuckling a bit.
"Oh, hey, Menlo!" you wave at the robotics expert.
"H-hey," she waves back, drones disguised as Servo-Skulls accompanying her. "Um, th-thanks for your, um, your notes."
You sent her some notes concerning your observations on Imperium archeotech - Menlo's been studying the subject for a while now, and she's got some brilliant insights. You never know what might end up saving the day.
Of course, you're hardly the only engineers in the room. Breaker, Mainframe, Dial-Tone, Sci-Fi, Mirage, and several more.
Also present: General Hawk and Poker Face.
And then there's the other side.
The side that aren't pretending to be Adeptus Mechanicus, they are Adeptus Mechanicus - led by a genuine Magos.
"Magos Castillo. It's an honor," General Hawk gives a small bow, as does Mainframe.
"The honor is all mine," the Magos's electronic voice replies. "Tales of the Organitron's First's exemplary deeds in service to the Imperium and the Omnissiah have regaled many ears, and your Tech-Priests are second to none."
Castillo is…
Well.
You don't get to be an AdMech Magos by being a good person.
But there are degrees, and G.I. Joe's intel division has done its homework. Castillo at least cares about using technology to better the life of Cavitus's people.
Doesn't mean he doesn't user Servitors on an industrial scale. Doesn't mean he wouldn't have you executed for tech-heresy if he knew too much. But it means he's G.I. Joe's best partner to negotiate with.
"Now, General. Tech-Priests. All pleasantries aside, what is this all about?"
"The fate of Cavitus, your holiness," Hawk replies. "The tide of the war with the Orks may be turning, but we need to consider what happens after the war. Before the invasion, I understand the Duke of Almadero had been discussing with you the possibility of establishing a Hive-City in the northern continent?"
"Indeed, though I fear the war has rather thoroughly killed that project, for at least another century. The northern continent, ravaged as it is, cannot afford such an undertaking." And the King doesn't support it, since he doesn't want to empower his brother. And Magos Gama doesn't support it, since he doesn't want to empower Castillo.
"Don't be too certain," says General Hawk. "The politics of Cavitus may go in more complicated directions than anyone's expecting. However, there may be a call for you to establish certain new factories very soon."
The Magos's mechanical face has a motion that you think is equivalent to the quirking of an eyebrow. "What sort of factories do you mean?"
Mainframe steps forward, grinning. "I understand that various Forge-Worlds and Archmagi aren't very keen on sharing patterns with each other, but there are a lot of things Organitron still knows how to build - things only a small number of Forge-Worlds and Industrial Worlds know how to make. And if you agree to help us get Cavitus back on its feet, we'd be willing to share some of those secrets with you."
He takes a step forward. "So tell me, Magos Castillo - how would you like to build a Baneblade?"
