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With this chapter, I may slow down the Swarm of War and focus on Stargate: Galactic Imperium once again.
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Damn it... this Doc Manager is crap...
Chapter 7
The Warboss and the Orks found something as he led his Waaagh! and he stopped to take a look. It was a lone creature. It was about 3m tall and its eyes glowing red. It had elongated head and covered in hard leather-like carapace. It was like a snake, except for its two arms, each ending with three razor-sharp claws. It stared at the Orks, it opened its outer jaw and the sharp jagged teeth parted to reveal the inner mouth, also filled with teeth.
The Warboss paused. He was amused and interested. He had never seen a creature like this. It looked aggressive and dangerous, and dangerous was good for an Ork. The Warboss really liked the look of this creature. Its arms were so deadly-looking and its eyes so filled with hunter's gaze. The Warboss roared. Of course, he needed to test this creature first.
"You! Go kill that thingy!"
An Ork Boy, one of the Slugga Boyz in line for an upgrade to a Nob in several battles, nodded at the command of the Warboss.
"Yes boss!"
The Boy ran at the Hydralisk with his Slugga raised and his crude steel sword held high. The rest of the Ork forces watched in intrigue at the Boy fighting a vicious looking creature. The Hydralisk was expecting an attack so it raised its body for the combat and howled. The Boy shouted Waaagh! and the Hydralisk roared in its animalistic scream.
The Ork Boy fired his Slugga at the general direction of the Hydralisk. The accuracy of an Ork and the range of a Slugga was generally expected by the Hydralisk however, and it did not flinch at the noise like most 'normal' animals would do. Instead, it reared his head, and its carapace flaps opened in places to reveal red flesh with tiny spikes protruding from it.
Then with a single motion, the Hydralisk fired its powerful spines at the charging Ork Boy. With the sharp whistling sound, the spines buried themselves deep into the chest of the Ork Boy, who fell backward at the impact. The Hydralisk roared once more in triumph. This was one of the 'old' Hydralisks with the psionic upgrade, and its attack was more powerful than normal Hydralisk's attack.
The Hydralisk did not relax from that victory. It knew, both from its animalistic instinct and from the knowledge about the Orks from the Overmind, that an Ork is a resilient creature. Indeed, the Ork Boy groaned and stood back up, though his footsteps wobbled a little. The Ork shook his head, and then attempted to pull out the spines, only to scream in pain as the spine's serrated thorns took out chunks of his flesh.
"Ouch, dat hurts... I'm gonna... I'm gonna kill you!"
Bleeding from the three places he pulled out the spines, the Ork Boy instinctively charged at the Hydralisk, knowing that he was losing blood by the second and all he could think about was to hit the creature with his sword. The Slugga fired again and almost all of its shots missed except for two shots that hit the Hydralisk's head, only to bounce off with almost-metallic sparks.
The Ork Boy stumbled as the powerful poison began to flood his system despite the tough Ork physiology. Normally, the Terran Marine's power armor or the Protoss plasma shield would block most of the poison covering the surface of the spines. Normally, there would not be enough poison to affect an Ork so much. However, these spines were fired by a fully upgraded Hydralisk affected by the Khaydarin crystals. The sheer volume of poison was enough to turn a human into a mush.
The poison was a potent chemical based in acid, and the acid was designed so that it would flow through the blood vessels and affect the cells directly. The chemical would then dissolve the cell walls. Without the protective membrane to contain itself, cells would collapse or attacked by the immune system, which comes to recognize the affected cells as hostiles. Though it was the strange physiology of the Ork that had saved the Boy from instantly dying, it did affect him.
"Wot? Wot's dis? Why can't I... uhh... move me arms?"
The Hydralisk reared its body once more and with a triumphant screech, it fired again. The Ork fell backward and lay there for a moment before attempting to stand up again. If he was fighting a normal Hydralisk, the Ork Boy would easily have shrugged off the attacks and closed in on the Zerg creature. If only that was the case. The uber Hydralisk fired once more, much faster in firing rate than normal one.
The third time was the charm as one of the spines punched through the Ork Boy's right eye and injected its poison directly into the Ork's brain. The nerve cells in the Ork brain began to quickly dissolve into goo and within moments the Ork had lost half of its brain. The Ork fell. The Ork died.
That, however, satisfied the Warboss. He didn't care about the Ork Boy he had just sent to his death, but the Warboss was satisfied that this lone creature was something worthy to be fought. Yet, the Warboss was a coward. He has always been a coward at heart. His rule over his clan was done only through the brutal murders and executions of any Nobz who dared to show off. Then, he would hide behind his Nobz if any real fighting was to be done. He would send his Nobz to die and weaken the enemy before entering the fray.
This method was again used against the Hydralisk. The Ork Boy was sent first to test the creature as well as checking for any traps. Of course, there was no place where more enemies could hide, maybe except for the distant rubbles of a human town. Now that he was satisfied that there was no trap, the Warboss was willing to go down and kill the creature. Of course, he would let his Nobz in first so as to weaken the creature just in case its puny body contained powers he could not deal with.
"Dat thingy killed one of my Boyz! It's time to WAAAGH!"
At his command, the Nobz ran down the hill, their massive bodies trampling down upon the grass. They were immediately followed by the Warboss himself with the rest of the Slugga Boyz and Feral Boyz behind him. The rear was brought up by the Gretchins, and the Squiggoth was still on top of the next hill, and slowly moving forward.
"WAAAGH!"
The Orks roared as they charged. The Hydralisk did as it was commanded. It immediately turned around and ran.
The Hydralisk was quite fast. Though the Orks slowly gained on it, it moved its body to move as fast as it could. It eventually reached a decent distance from the town, and it continued on, running parallel to the long wall that faced south south west.
The town was not a big one, since it was constructed mostly to protect the baron rather than his people. The town walls were not that high, barely reaching 3m and made mostly of packed earth with a bit of brick covers. It was generally an elongated rectangular in shape with the longer sides facing south south west and north north east respectively. Its rectangular shape becomes a pentagon for the tiny slice of north-facing wall which is actually the 2 storey keep overlooking the tiny town.
The long wall, which the Hydralisk was running parallel to, was no more than 250m in length, and yet this tiny town was expensive for the baron and his family, at least when he was alive. The land down south was so hostile because of the roaming Orks and bandits that the fiefdom was one of the poorest in the entire kingdom, perhaps save for the other destroyed fiefdom, which bordered a series of barren mountains and produced even less of anything than this one.
The baron's great great grandfather was a count, and he had once owned six fiefdoms, including this one, the other destroyed one, and four adjoining territories to the north. He was unfortunately involved in a minor rebellion, and was made a baron at his deathbed and most of his land was confiscated and given to those who sided with the King. The baron's grandfather used what was left of his familial fortune to commission this wall around the village that formed around his rudimentary keep made of wood.
Even though it was quite unimpressive and was small to most of the other towns as they were defined, the cost was exorbitant and the baron's grandfather left his son a significant debt. The baron's father did his best to pay off most of the debt, which involved much sacrifice in almost all aspects of life. The baron was raised in a household no more wealthy than any of the commoners on his land. Yet, even the baron had some debts to repay.
This was a critical error for the kingdom to let the fiefdom at the southern edge of its territory to be abandoned so. They recognized the Ork threat but not as much as they should have. They thought that there were only few Ork clans that any moderately sized army could defeat. They did not know of the tens of thousands of Orks infesting the forests and the barrens to the south. Had they realized the danger of the Ork threat, they may have helped the baron to set up some defenses or early warning systems.
There were no real defenses.
The fiefdom had fallen swiftly.
The baron had only a dozen armed men, most of those being volunteers against the local bandits. Within an hour, the town's walls crumbled under the sheer weight of the Orks climbing over them, and the townspeople were so easily slaughtered that the Orks fought amongst themselves to ward off boredom.
Who knew that the wall, now without most of its masonry gone, would serve as an excellent platform for the Zerg. Without the thin stone plates for the wall, the compacted earth with the weeds growing on was perfect hiding spots for the Hydralisks. They would burrow into the walls themselves, or hide under light rubble. Fifty Hydralisks and twenty five Roaches spread themselves across most of the 250m-long wall.
The Zerg had made an excellent ambush position with the help of the Drones. The Drones had harvested timber from nearest forest and tumbled them down to the battlefield. Massive logs formed a wall that loosely resembled a landslide. The wall of logs would hopefully funnel the Orks into a narrow corridor of about 400m width and the distance of 200m. The 400m x 200m corridor between the two walls was going to be the death field of Orks.
The morning sun was still young, and the leaves were yet moist from the morning dew. However, none of that calm beauty could stop the quake. The stomping footsteps of nearly eight hundred Orks and five hundred Gretchins were thunderous. The ground shook as they rushed down from the wide low hill toward the lone titillating creature that aroused the aggression of the Orks.
"Da Waaagh!"
"We gonna kill ya!"
"WAAAGH!"
Orks shouted various war-cries but the Zerg were not intimidated. The Ork army was about to face an enemy that they have never faced before.
The beginning happened with the uber Hydralisk turning around at the end of the kill-corridor. Screeching in defiance, the Hydralisk let loose its spines. The Nobz were stronger and tougher, and some of them even used the large hammer or axe to block the spines. Of course, the spines were shot at such velocity that it could penetrate neo-steel, and simple iron hammer or primitive steel axe had the spines stuck in them.
Suddenly, right behind the Hydralisk, five large bloated creatures exploded out from the ground. The Infesters made nasty clicking sounds then sprayed the Fungal Growth at the incoming Orks. Five groups of Orks were suddenly sprayed with strange fungus spores. An Orks was a moving fungus, and now they were sprayed with a different fungus, and this fungus, though not like an Ork spore, was equally virulent and even more vindictive. Within moments of landing on the skin of the Ork, the Zerg fungal spores exploded into action and its roots dug into the Ork flesh with their tiny roots expertly drilling in between the cells. Then the roots expanded and grew. The roots grew deep and wide, and any Orks trying to pull them out often found their own flesh torn out with the fungus.
The Warboss and the Nobz still charged even though about half the Nobz and half the Slugga Boyz were sprayed and were stuck to the ground. Then like magic, the Infesters and the Hydralisk dug into the ground and disappeared. They were immediately replaced by three uber Roaches. They squeezed out their powerful acid with such force that the three Nobz in the front that were hit with the acid were knocked back. They screamed as they got back up. Their face and any part hit with the Roach acid steamed as the skin and flesh were dissolved into gas and liquid. The Nobz had thick leather for skin, and despite one of them losing both eyes, the others roared in defiance as the Roaches changed targets with each shot.
The Roaches were only able to get two more shots each when they were finally within the range of the Ork guns. The large Sluggas of the Nobz fired at the Roaches, and the Roaches were peppered with bits of metal. The Orks on this world were mostly feral and their capability to make guns and ammunition was severely limited. Only the largest of the clans had the ability to make any guns, and their ammunition was no better than the primitive guns of early human civilization. Though better than a musket, they could not really penetrate the thick and powerful carapace of the Roaches, since Roaches were particularly known for their thick armor. Yet, the Roaches were hit with so many bullets that even their tough constitution could not help stop them from shying their faces away from the incoming bullets. After all, a bullet in the eyes was deadly almost all species.
The Roaches turning their heads was a sign of victory to the Orks, and they charged. It was a fatal mistake. With absolutely synchronized motions, hundreds of Zerg units appeared all around the Orks. Unwittingly, the Ork spear head was now well contained in the death trap. The rear sections continued forward, oblivious to what was happening, and they were now crowded together and packed into groups. The Boyz, both Slugga Boyz and the Feral Boyz as well as the spear-wielding Huntas were packed together behind the Nobz, and they were the first of the major casualties. From beneath their feet, green and purple explosions literally showered them with powerful acid.
Orks were so tightly packed together that Banelings and Gorgelings were able to deal maximum damage to the maximum number. Thirty four explosions dotted that small area of death trap. The green and purple acid sprayed themselves across the skins and flesh of the Ork, and their crude weapons. The Zerg did not expect their acid to kill entire groups of Orks, as Banelings and Gorgelings were distant from each other in that attack. However, the point of the attack was to disable the Orks. Unlike in the computer game, a unit does not simply fight relentlessly when he is injured. A Terran Marine would shoot at the Zergling even though his health would be red, but in truth, a Terran Marine whose health is on red would already be crippled and barely able to move.
Orks were no different from this. Not only did they not have armors, their weapons were crude. Their simple steel swords and iron axes were quickly turned into gnarled pieces of metal that could hardly called a weapon, and the Orks were blinded by the acid that went into their eyes and burned their skins. Those right on top of the explosions were entirely consumed by that spray, and the Ork physiology had allowed them continued survival for a while. Dripping with acid, those Orks screamed in pain that they had not felt before, and they collapsed to the ground as the acid burrowed into their blood vessels and dissolved muscles, organs and bones. Each explosion sprayed acid over Orks in numbers between 10~15, resulting in overall impact of over 300 Ork Boyz disabled and nearly 60 Orks dead.
The simultaneous attack did not end there. To their left, 120 Roaches appeared from the ground and fired their own acid into the crowds of Orks. Unlike in the game, any acid that fell away from the main stream got on other Orks. Yet, like their biological design based in a dimension not as dangerous as the Warhammer 40K, the Roaches continued to fire their acid streams in single volleys. The Roaches fired their acid at one target each, and to the nearest Ork. The attacked Orks were pushed back at the sheer pressure of the liquid acid and their skins began to bubble and melt away. The second volley added more acid, taking away outermost muscle tissues.
At that same moment, 50 Hydralisks and 20 Roaches appeared from the Orks right flank above the large earth mounds that used to be the castle wall. From their high ground, the Hydralisks relentlessly fired their spines at the Orks. Aim wasn't really necessary as there were simply too many Orks packed into tiny formation. The Hydralisks did aim for heads though. Their Overmind was very meticulous in the manner of attacks since the uber Hydralisk tested out the power of the spine against an Ork. Supported by the twenty Roaches, the Hydralisks began to pick off tougher looking Orks, directing their powerful spines at the Ork heads.
In the front, the Warboss had sent his Nobz right in front of him and surrounded himself with plenty of Slugga Boyz. Yet, even the front had its own surprise. As the Warboss turned around to see the source of the screams from behind him, he saw the Roaches and Hydralisks. He roared in anger as he realized that fell into a trap. Yet, he was confident. He only needed to crush those few enemies in front of him and get out of this death trap. His confidence quickly abated when he heard sounds of explosion and screams from the front. His Nobz were almost wiped out.
The 400m corridor itself was plenty wide, but the Nobz banded together and charged at the three uber Roaches. At the exact time that the Warboss turned around, 30 Banelings and Gorgelings shot out from the ground and rolled toward the Nobz before the big Orks could think. The very front line of Nobz were showered with acid, and being only 75 in total number at the start, there were only 29 Nobz that met the 30 Banelings. Banelings exploded, and the Nobz shared the acid. Like all acid, it took time to eat its way through any object and they would cancel out the object and would eventually stop when acid ran dry. This attack had not only showered the Nobz, but bathed them in acid, and let them stand in a pool of acid.
To make the matter worse, the second line of Nobz, numbering 33, were suddenly faced with explosions from right beneath their feet. Like their brother Nobz, they were attacked by the suicidal explosions of nearly 30 Banelings and Gorgelings. The two lines of Nobz, totaling 62 were showered, bathed, swam and died in acid. Before the Warboss could even roar the scream of surprise and frustration, five hundred Zerglings shot out from the ground all over the death trap and immediately attacked the nearest Orks. The real battle had just begun.
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