"Because they're slime, Ryzoswski. The sewers are for slime, that's where they are, that's why we're here. Now cut the chatter and stay sharp."
Bronke decided to check in before the vox net went to pot due to the depth of the tunnels, "Tiger Two-One, this is Tiger Two-Niner. We just passed Checkpoint West One Five. Repeat, Checkpoint One Five is clear."
"Roger Two Niner, this is Two-One, copy."
Bronke looked down at his nav tablet and thought, "Great only 30 more to go."
+++
It was at the next check in that things began to go seriously wrong.
Command lost all contact with 2-8, followed shortly thereafter with 2-7 going silent and not returning any calls to check in. Initially, Bronke just figured that with all the metal and conduit wires hanging everywhere, that it was just a matter of time before a squad got deep enough into the tunnels and the vox nets stopped being able to reach them.
But not two squads in a row.
Then it all changed like a flash of lightning.
"Two-One, this is Two-Five, Two-One, this is [garbled]. I-I'm at Chec-[garbled]-een. Emp-[garbled]-ave us. I've [garbled]ot bodies every-[garbled]ere. It's a [garbled]-ing slaughter-[garbled]. DO YOU [garbled]-OPY?"
"Two-Five, this is Two-One, settle down and repeat location."
"Two-One, this is [garbled]-Five, [garbled]-e are loca-[garbled] at [garbled]-point South Nine-[garbled]. [garbled] you copy?"
"Two-Five, copy that, I have you at Checkpoint South Nineteen."
"Two-One, wait [garbled] somethi-[garbled] to the wall...light..<sound of screams>...."
"Two-Five, this Two-One, repeat last. Copy?"
[silence}
"Two-Five, this Two-One, repeat last. Copy?"
[silence]
"Two-One, this is Two-Three. Two-Four and Two-Three are moving now on Two-Five's last location. Will be there in One Five minutes."
That was the last Bronke heard of them as well.
+++
Always keep it entertaining.
However, during the slow parts of the show, I was able to finish the "Disciples of the Dragon" squad as well as two of the Gauss Blaster armed cultists.
Anyway, that should get me pretty close to 500 points for our upcoming "Blood in the Void" scenarios that are next on the slate. Also, since some of us aren't available for that weekend, I expect that we'll play this series of games over a couple of weekends so that everyone has a chance to get in on the fun.
What I am curious about is how effective the Tau will be in close quarters fighting. So far, in our smaller games, they've been very effective and this is translating into a strong position in the storyline. Unless one of the other factions deals them a set back or two, the Tau will continue to push their story points over the other factions.
I guess we'll see if the much vaunted abilities of the Astartes and Inquisitional forces manifests in space combat manifest themselves (consider the gauntlet tossed down).
In line with the theme of this week's episode, I acquired some bits from Mad Robot Miniatures and Kromlech that will allow me to build out a SWAT team. I suspect this will be the first of a few Special Response Teams that I build out, if not for this campaign, then to run along with my Elysians.
To that point, a few years ago I got an Arvus Lighter to convert/build into something that could fly with my Elysian Valks and act like a MH-6 Little Bird. I wanted to do things like:
More on that later.
+++
He knew he didn't have a lot of options going forward. Tiger Two-Six had told Command to "feth" off and exited the sewers. Based on chatter coming from other vox nets, Two-Six had been arrested by Inquisitorial security forces and were now in custody.
It didn't take a great leap of imagination to guess how that would end up.
Which left Bronke and his team to either suffer the same consequences as Two-Six, just because they wanted to stay alive, or continue trudging through the mess in the sewers and face whatever it was that had slaughtered all the squads in his platoon.
It took him approximately 10 seconds to make up his mind.
"Feth it", said Bronke to no one in particular while shaking his head, "If I'm going to go out, I'm at least going to go out shooting. Ok, Niners, let's move out. There's something beastly out there and we, by Emperor, are going to hunt it down and kill it. "
Bronke didn't bother asking if there were any questions.
"I want everyone to load up krak in their GL's. Moose, you take point with the melta. If anything as much as squeaks, you blast it. Everyone else, close up and watch your sector. We're going in slow, but we will kill anything that tries to mess with us."
At that moment, the tunnel flashed bright. When the after images had faded and his vision returned, he noticed that something sticky was dripping on him.
Bronke looked up and saw a rush of silver.