Chapter Twenty-Four: The Last Hold (Part II)

A council of Living Ancestors, Guild Masters, and Hold-Lords assembled within each League. Planning the defense of each network of Strongholds and the entire Homeworlds. Even the smallest Strongholds were fortified and defended immaculately. The Dangers of the Age of Strife and existence upon these Heavy-Worlds had forced the Squats to master the art of defensive warfare. This factor would be central to the Squat strategy. The Strongholds would become anvils to pin the Orks in place, allowing the Generation Fleet to strike wherever the Greenskins were weakest.

The masterful skill of the Squat Void-Masters reaped a grim toll upon the Orks. Who did not seem to mind at all. Happy to engage in the brutal warfare they were built for. Squat splinter fleets were used to lure the Orkish fleet towards the most heavily defended Strongholds and away from their weaker kin. The Squat fleet fought much as they mine. Using powerful ordinance to blast holes in the Orkish battle lines. Splintering the greenskin "formation" letting hulking armored Squat Ships charge the displaced parts of the Orkish Fleet. Grinding them to dust with withering fire and in some cases weaponized mining equipment. The powerful Las-Drills used by Squat void-rigs were designed to punch through Asteroids. Space-Hulks and Orkish "Roks" was similar enough.

The first battles went well for the Khazkhun Alliance as the united Squats called themselves. With millions of Orks and their ships directing their wrath on the Diamond hard Strongholds of the Squats. The battles that took place during these mighty sieges were legendary. Such as when the Land Train Dureks Shield dueled a dozen Gargants to protect a supply convoy traveling between strongholds. Or when the Hearthguard of Gorri Rock-Skull held a compromised mine-shaft for three weeks by themselves.

Yet these efforts were not enough to stem the tide of Greenskins. The Orks applied the entire force of the WAAAGH!!! To each individual stronghold, they attacked. To claim any individual stronghold took years or even decades of fighting. Slowing the Orkish offense to a crawl, but a steady one. This suited Grunhag the Flaya just fine it seemed. The Ork took great enjoyment in watching each Stronghold weaken and die under his armies chokehold. Grinding the deep-homes of the Squats to ash and dust. The sheer bloodshed and aggression the Orks were producing, had a twofold effect. Calling out through the Warp to the Greenskins of the Galaxy. Attracting billions more Greenskins from the Beast-Boss Empires and scattered lesser WAAAGH!!! Secondly, it dredged the Neverborn spawn of Khorne (PA8) into the Squat Homeworlds. With some entire Strongholds losing their minds to the bloody whispers of the Warp. Throwing open their gates and charging to death against the Orks.

The continuous materialization of Neverborn and the possession of some Orks are theorized to have been part of Grunhags plan. The Neverborn and "unOrky" Orks providing plenty of entertainment for the WAAAGH!!! during the slow periods of the Sieges. By Orkish, and even human standards Grunhag was something of a savant for cruelty. The Warboss turned each siege into a game. Seeing what it would take to make each Stronghold crack. Unlike true humans, the Squats do not fall into despair or misery in hopeless situations. Instead they go mad with rage and grief. Becoming almost as brutal as the Orks themselves. Which was exactly what Grunhag wanted. Like a simple animal working to crack open a shelled meal. Grunhag would work to make each Stronghold break, and provide an excellent fight for the Greenskins.

Squat sagas and ballads are glutted with accounts of Grunhags evil. Using captured children from fallen Strongholds as shields or entertainment in full view of Squat defenders. Carving a crude drawing of Gork or Mork onto a Moon with stolen Squat mining gear and then launching the moon to crash into the world below. So the occupying stronghold's last sight was the cruel grin of the Orkish gods leering down from the heavens. Other events were banal by Orkish standards. Like the flaying of Squat champions in front of surviving civilians. The tanned skin was then stitched onto Grunhags "Big Banna." A thirty-meter tall flag composed of the skins of Grunhags kills and the origin of his epitaph.

After the fall of the Great Stronghold of Maran-Duur the Squats reconvened the Council of the Khazkhun to plan new strategies against the Greentide. Against the ruling of some of the more conservative members a blanket distress call to any surviving allies from the rest of the Galaxy. Next, a series of blitz-attacks against the Warboss and his Nobs was planned. Hoping to eliminate Grunhag and drive the WAAAGH!!! Into chaos. While many of the Warbosses favored lieutenants met their fate fighting death-pact bound Squat Kill-Teams. Grunhag managed to survive every time. In a desperate measure, the Living Ancestors called a great Diaspora. The Squats would evacuate to the oldest and greatest Squat worlds. These ancient homes of the Khazkhun could withstand anything and hold nearly the entire Squat race if needed. They had been constantly expanded over thousands of years in the case of an event such as this.

With great bitter grief Stronghold after Stronghold was emptied. With only the most aged and stubborn Squats staying behind. Ready to make the Orks pay for every inch of their ancestral halls. With the natural and automated defenses of each Stronghold remaining. The hope was each empty stronghold would tire out the Orks and bore them. Giving the Hold-Worlds of the Squats time to prepare for what was coming.

Millions of Squats across hundreds of worlds fled to the Seven Hold-Worlds of the Squats. A heptarchy of close-knit worlds that traced their lineage back to the first colonists of the Galactic Core. Nearly a quarter of the Squat fleet was lost in the desperate battles to protect the refugees. The seven Hold-Worlds existed along a chain of systems near the galactic core. With a single stable Warp route connecting them all. The first of the Hold-Worlds was Linnar-Khaz. A fortress of uncomparable hardiness. Where the Squat Fleet and the forces of a thousand strongholds would break the Orkish hordes.

It took the Orks centuries to smash their way through the abandoned holds. Increasing the petty rage of Grunhag with each empty fortress. Buying the Squats valuable time to fortify Linnar-Khaz. During the diaspora, the Squats had taken everything of value they could. Including weapons and Void-Ships devastating potency. The thousands of years and thousands of strongholds of Squats history came together to create a fortress that could even rival High Terra itself.

When the first Ork ships exited the Warp they faced complete annihilation. Mined out Asteroid belts were turned into mazes of death. Where every rock could hold automated defenses or suicide charges. Floating cities designed for Gas-Giant mining were repurposed as colossal artillery platforms. Hiding in the thick atmosphere of Linnar Systems outer worlds, ready to unleash moonlet cracking firepower at a moment's notice. The Squats fleet patrolled the system, creating a system of moving kill-boxes. Great cryo-vaults were assembled upon Linnar-Khaz. Massive temporary tombs where millions could be kept in cryo-sleep, freeing up supplies for the siege. Great Brotherhoods of Squat Warriors marshaled. Throngs hundred thousand strong and eager to spill Orkish blood.

At first Grunhag simply sent a steady stream of Orkish ships through the Warp route to Linnar-Khaz. When this did not work he started assembling fleets of his maddest Orks to use the uncharted warp to travel to Linnar-Khaz. Avoiding the defenses built around the Warp route by passing through the frenzied Warp currents that were beyond navigation. Grunhag thought to combine the sheer numbers of the Orkish fleets deployed and the psychic resonance of said fleets psychotic Orks. Making it somewhat likely a few of the fleets would survive the trip. The Warboss was correct, and the Squat fleets faced numerous inclusions across the System from insane Ork Ships.

These strategies were proving too slow for Grunhag. Methodical and patient by any sentient standards, even he was growing bored of the siege. Having to continuously crush insurrections led by terrified Nobs. Fearing being fed into the meat grinder that was assaulting Linnar-Khaz might have also had something to do with it. Despite what the Squats and many of his fellow Orks believed. The Warboss was not sending millions of Orks to certain death for a cheap laugh. They were a distraction while his secret weapon was finished.

Grunhag had long dreamed of creating a tool of destruction so formidable and utterly mad it would force his rivals on Ullanor and Gorro to acknowledge him as an equal. For thousands of years, the Ork leader had designed his weapon in fever-dreams of Gork and Mork given inspiration. Now with the resources of the conquered Squat homeworlds and a veritable army of Mekboys in his thrall. Grunhag had all he needed.

As the siege of Linnar-Khaz bore on for dozens of generations the Orcs of WAAAGH Grunhag worked on a mechanical monstrosity that could break the stalemate. In his lifetime of war and raiding, Grunhag had acquired a truly massive amount of loot from the countless planets he had methodically destroyed. The machines, ships, weapons, stations and general equipment of these worlds would form the core of this Orkish doomsday weapon. Like many Warbosses, Grunhag used a modified space-hulk as a Flagship of sorts. Now the Orkish Warboss intended to upgrade his vessel. For hundreds of years, swarms of Gretchins and Mekboys added onto the Space-Hulk. Bolting and attaching everything and anything that caught their beady eyes. Entire void-ships were peeled apart and added to the space-hulk. A dozen Squat mining orbitals were turned into a jury-rigged keel for the monstrosity. Asteroids were caught in huge nets and reeled in like schools of fish. The cosmic debris was mined of everything of value and lodged into the labyrinthine structure. Becoming additional segments of the ever-growing ship. A combined thruster system that when fully ignited was brighter than Sol itself was strapped to the Super-Hulk's back. Ramshackles cities of Orks sprung up across Grunhags magnum opus. Fleets of Orkish ships circled it like pilot-fish. One particularly insane Orkish Dok created legions of "Killa-Kans" to stalk the hulks' surface as additional defenses.

Scholars might be tempted to compare Grunhags monster to the Attack-Moons of the Beast Wars. This is not an accurate comparison. The "Bigga Hulk" as the Orks started to call Grunhags new vessel was not a modified planetoid, designed as both fortress and relay. This leviathan of a Space Hulk was quite simply the end stage of the evolution of such celestial trash-heaps. Nurtured and cultivated by the Greenskin tyrant much like he might a favored Squig. After nearly a thousand years of construction, the Bigga Hulk was considered finished by Grunhag. It measured more than half the size of Luna and looked like a comet of wreckage. With Grunhags personal symbol covering the front half of it. The effort to send the Bigga Hulk through the Warp caused nearby systems to be engulfed in Warp Storms. After hundreds of Weirdboyz reduced to pink-mist and many death threats directed at Grunhags Mek gang. The Bigga-Hulk careened into the Immaterial and rode the Warp-Rift towards its destiny.

For the months it took to travel to Linnar System, the Hold-World was plagued by nightmares and strange psychic phenomena. The spiritual equivalent of the tide going out before a Tsunami. Then after weeks of apprehension, the Bigga Hulk arrived. Ripping into the material like the vomitus of an angry god. Its presence instantly affected the gravity of the system. Orkish grav-tech and its own bulk sending minor tremors across the Linnar-Khaz system. The Bigga Hulk did not so much destroy the first lines of the Squat defense, but literally crash into them. Entire Squat ships and Star-Forts crushed under the Orks flagship, their ruined frames adding to its armor of wrecks.