She snaps to attention and gives a salute which is immediately answered by the Valkyrians and automatons watching before teleporting back to the bridge.
Esdeath leans against the bike, clutching her arms tightly, a twisted grin hidden by her hair. Esdeath was… a distorted Valkyrian. Sure, there were millions of Valkyrians that liked war, and thousands that loved it, but very few of them could match the sheer LOVE for war like Esdeath could. She craved violence like a drug as without it, she would not be able to operate outside of her station. It's one of the reasons Queen Yggdra, Under-Supreme Primal Frija, and Outer Heaven's Grand Primal Commander unanimously agreed to make her permanent post the Ship Primal (Captain)/Warden of Cocytus where all of the most depraved war criminals were held; war criminals since the Valkyrians didn't have any local crimes.
Now, after so many years of just torturing prisoners, she could finally dive herself into the throes and carnage of war, and with a race that loved fighting as much as she did no less! A frost creeped up the lengths of her arms in response to her emotions. It's been so long since she's been able to cut loose.
"We are now breaking through the atmosphere of Justification. Scramble all fighters and drones. Attain air superiority across the planet. Squadrons from ten of the thirty Transport Carriers will be devoted to providing escort for the Type-33s. The 20,000 Buzzards and all 5,000 Type-22s of the remaining Transport Carriers will be used to attain planet-wide air dominance. Enemy does have air support ranging from frigate weight to heavy cruiser weight. Do not let these ships leave the atmosphere.
It went unsaid that the Leviathans wouldn't need fighter protection given the number of guns and shields they had, as well as the psychokinetic manipulators. While the manipulators were built upon past experience against psychics, there was enough similarities to the Orks to know how much to adjust them to be effective against the greenskins. No unshielded fighters would be able to get near without having their minds go crazy. However, the insane psychic jumbling effect of the WAAAGH! would most likely keep their focus, if just a bit. The Queen's interference with them by using Outer Heaven as an amplifier must be giving them hell right now.
"Prime Luvos Primal Esdeath, prepare to drop in eight minutes."
"Well, that is my last notice." She looks at her hoverbike lovingly. "Let us carve another path of death and carnage, my dear TATSUMI."
As those words doubled as a password, the bike automatically started up and the cockpit opened with the shell folding in and out at different parts until enough room for Esdeath to fit was made.
She ignored it for now and turned around to find her entire personal unit prepared and awaiting her commands. The Sky Razers were decked out in their signature heat-protectant armor while attached to their backs were the collapsible thruster wing pack. Each of her soldiers carried two weapons uniformly: the left hands held large, anti-armor laser rifles while the right arms were equipped with a pyroclasm-grade phosphorus thrower. Like a flamethrower, it was meant to throw ash cloud-like walls of black phosphorus fire at enemy emplacements. Only the most heinous weapons developed were allowed in her unit.
This black phosphorus shouldn't be mistaken for the black phosphorus that was more like granite that Humans used—it's a case of same names but different objects, aka a homophone. You can't expect two completely different and unique alien civilizations to have the same name for the same object, right? The human word for "chair" might as well mean "bitches" to the aliens. "Greetings, I would like to thank you for coming to this meeting of peace. Let's have a (bitch)." Yeah, that would be a hilarious disaster waiting to happen.
Anyway, this black phosphorus fire acts like a combination of napalm, in that it sticks to whatever surface it lands on, and absorbs all the moisture within a nearby air like white phosphorus, making it a double-dealer of death. Any fleshling caught in one of these black firestorms usually experiences the excruciating pain of being dehydrated like deer jerky and turned into a mummy before the flames burn away all traces of their remains. Blood, sweat, water, ice, gels, salt water, atmospheric moisture, etc. are all potential victims of this fire. Since it's the moisture that is consumed, even kinetic and energy shields aren't designed to save one's life.
Esdeath turned her attention around to see her three hundred personnel group standing in formation of several ranks and files. All of them were emitting a palpable bloodlust that would rival that of a Sister of Battle in the middle of a Chaos Space Marine camp. She looked about and didn't even need x-ray vision or the hive link connecting them to her to tell that they were all grinning at the expected battle. Each of them have gone over the info and it was a great elation to them to find such a battle loving foe, one that would keep fighting as long as there was something or someone to smash. Hell, she knew even the A.I. automatons were smiling with their cybernetic vessels.
"I need not say anymore than what the Grand Primal Commander has told you all," she began. "I'll just say this though. We are the Sky Razers ."
"THE SKY IS OUR DOMAIN!" they responded in practiced unison.
"When faced with certain death, beings often look up to the sky for hope," she continued.
"SO WE HAVE TAKEN THAT FROM THEM FIRST!"
"Let no man or woman look to the sky for salvation."
"FOR THEIR PRAYERS WILL BE MET WITH ASH AND HELLFIRE!"
"This universe is only for the strong and worthy," Esdeath said again, her voice coming out with breaths of mist as cold as Death, her smile twisting upwards as her heartbeat quickened. "So we declare this…"
"THE UNIVERSE IS OUR HUNTING GROUND! "
"The pure and innocent will be spared by principal."
"WHILE THE TAINTED WILL BE HUNTED DOWN AND EXTERMINATED! "
"They will be slashed, strangled, and slaughtered..."
" BEATEN, STABBED, AND CRUSHED! "
"Garroted and impaled…"
"SHOT, BURNED, AND EXECUTED!!"
"And Nebladed without mercy !" Esdeath finished, the word "mercy" coming out like venom on her tongue."You all know your roles. I expect you all to outdo yourselves from last time. Ophinl Ripley, fall in into the Generator. I will greet you on the planet."
She spoke to the 2nd-in-Command of her company-sized Sky Razers. While these 300 were nowhere even close to a fraction of the total number of units under her command, this would be the maximum she'd need for this operation. The Valkyria-Major Ripley met her dismissal with professionalism tainted by sadistic bloodlust. The woman turned her head to the left to face the Company.
"SKY RAZERS, AT FIXED POSITIONS!" From their positions of attention, they all smartly and uniformly snapped their feet. "MAKE READY FOR MATERIAL DECONSTRUCTION!" All of the soldiers' chest and back armors lit up in several places in a blue glow. The ones behind the others checked their front counterpart's equipment before turning around and doing it vice-versa. When they finished, they all returned to the former fixed position. This all happened in an efficient ten seconds.
"ALL EQUIPMENT FUNCTIONAL. BLOODED PRIMALS, SOUND OFF!"
"FIRST PLATOON, CONFIRMED!"
"SECOND PLATOON, CONFIRMED!"
"THIRD PLATOON, CONFIRMED!"
"FOURTH PLATOON, CONFIRMED!"
"FIFTH PLATOON, CONFIRMED!"
The Ophinl Ripley was pleased. This Generator method of logistics was, like many other things lately, in the early combat testing phases. Under the authority of Frija with her rank of "The Archive of Knowledge", she wanted real battle data concerning her latest line of creations. Valkyrians, especially the Sky Razers, weren't afraid of a moderate explosion with dangers from shrapnel, but being torn apart to their very atoms and stored within a digital file to await being reassembled atom by atom in an entirely different area was a new frontier even she had second thoughts about.
However, her job wasn't to cower in the face of the unknown. By the Queen's blessing, she still hopes it works.
"COMPANY, 90 DEGREES, RIGHT!" As one, the 300 soldiers turned in a classic military "Right, Face" movement, facing the far wall where other shuttles were being prepped for troop deployment. Shuttles were being tended to by automatons with a Generator lined behind each of their cargo ramps. Legions of A.I. and V.I. automatons were preparing for deconstruction across the whole fleets of Transport Carriers and Leviathans. The automatons were less worried since if their bodies were destroyed, their intelligence was still in the form of digital data and could simply be uploaded into a new body.
"RANK, MARCH!"
The order given, the company began marching off in a single line in order of platoons. Their destination: the Generator standing vertical a few meters by Esdeath's TATSUMI. It was shaped like a needle spire about ten feet long, silver metallic body covered in patterns of detailed carvings that served an unknown purpose since they doubted Frija cared for aesthetics much. At the least, it was just a ten foot needle instead of entire ships; not like anyone in the universe has ships built with completely impractical aesthetic designs anyway.
Across the entire current galaxy, all the captains of ships within the great fleets of the Imperium of Mankind were struck by a sense of unknown heresy. Not only were the humans pondering the feeling, but the Necrons hidden throughout the galaxy and Immaterium felt insulted for some reason and would use this unpleasant feeling to justify the future destruction of said enemy.
Back to the Generator. From its pointy top spouted an electric current that danced around the needle. Esdeath sat against the side of her bike in a form of passive overwatch of the process.
Despite their minuscule doubts, the first soldier stepped within the field of electricity and the arcs of energy wasted no time in latching on to the body where they deconstructed it within a second, leaving no time for the soldier to ponder the sensation. To the others, it looked as if the Valkyria's body was ripped apart into tiny puzzle pieces that quickly shrunk too small for the naked eye to see.
"Alright, pick up the pace. I have to be launched out in five minutes," Esdeath commanded.
Per her order, the rest of the company began filing into the field, each successfully disappearing and being stored within the device's body. It took three minutes for the whole company to be stored in the Generator. The last was the Ophinl, Ripley. They gave a salute and silent nod to each other before the company X.O. walked into the field to be joined with her soldiers.
"Well, that was interesting. All it needed was some inspirational music with a rising tempo and it'd be worthy of a movie scene. Time for my favorite hobby though." She taps some commands into a wrist armlet of her armor and the field around the Generator shuts off. She grabs the needle and the artificial grav lift shuts off, putting the pressure of its full two ton weight on her hand.
With an ease and precision that betrayed the weight of the device, Esdeath twisted it and it collapsed into a shorter five foot form. She leaned into the cockpit of her TATSUMI and secured the Generator for later use. She wouldn't dare risk her women's lives by strapping it to the outside. Her body followed soon after, her legs spreading open as she laid forward to settle comfortably within the gelatin-like cushion material of the seat.
She steadily sank into it until the front half of her body from the tip of her head to the bottom of her boots was submerged. Unseen to the naked eye were billions of microscopic veins sprouting from the gel into Esdeath's armor and exposed skin, digging into her body to create a whole new synaptic system where the bike's actions would answer as if they were now a literal extension of her body; one that she was very intimately familiar with.
Within the gel, Esdeath's eyes were closed though she now didn't need them. The bike was her new body now and its eyes were her eyes. Numerous texts of data on her bodies panned across the screens of her eyes, her eidetic memory cataloging all of it within milliseconds.
Operational battery life: Full (1,298:10:28:23:58:29:03388-)
Left PPB: 100%
Right PPB: 100%
TATSUMI Structure Integrity: 100%
Overshield: 100%
AT Field: 100%
EM Field Generator: 100%
Weapons: Left Gravitic Railgun (1): 100% Energy Charge: 0%, Left Gravitic Railgun (2): 100% Energy Charge: 0%
Left ADMM Silo: 100% Ammo Count: 150 Right ADMM Silo: 100% Ammo Count: 150
Right Gravitic Railgun (2): 100% Energy Charge: 0%, Right Gravitic Railgun (1): 100% Energy Charge: 0%
SHEAR Blades: Left Body: EM Field: 100% Temperature: 3,082,502 degrees Fahrenheit. Right Body: EM Field: 100% Temperature: 3,082,502 degrees Fahrenheit.
Front (1,2,3,4,5): EM Field: 100/100/100/100/100 Temperature Range: 3,082,040-3,082,603 degrees Fahrenheit.
That's my darling; always ready for me.
With a thought, she had the TATSUMI glide forward until she was idle in front of the open hangar bay, the outer energy field that keeps the atmosphere from venting into the vacuum of space, or in this case, keeping any unwanted potential boarding parties from entering the Erubetie. The floor beneath her split open thinly to reveal a rail. Underneath her bike, a mechanical arm extended and locked onto the bottom of TATSUMI.
"Esdeath is secured. Charging magnetic catapult. T-minus 10 seconds.
9…
7…
3…
Catapult charged. Orbital insertion in 5… 4… 3… 2…1… Launching TATSUMI."
The arm holding TATSUMI flew forward, accelerating from 0 mph to 250 mph within the three seconds it had to reach the opened bay door. When it hit the end, it stopped and TATSUMI was thrown forward.
"Esdeath is away!"
Esdeath looked through the monitors to see clouds becoming blurs underneath her body.
Underneath her, she could see hundreds of flak clouds and beams from lasers as the forms of the Type-22s and Buzzard drones were in a massive dogfight with much smaller figures. Locking onto one and enhancing the image revealed that those "enemy fighters" were actually Orks strapped to red-painted rockets. Esdeath couldn't help but laugh uproariously at the cartoon-ish sight. Still, the multiple, rotating body parts of the Type-22s made it impossible for the Orks to latch on and the Buzzard swarms could produce a massive volume of fire with their vulcan cannons firing anti-matters munitions that would eliminate the incoming "Fly Boyz" easily.
Her body's speed began slowing down enough to begin a gradual descent. Soon she was nose diving through the clouds. Her visibility was lost so she switched to infrared. The screen lit up like a Christmas light with red figures moving across the screen. Many were heading towards the previous dogfight, completely unaware of her presence five miles above them.