Chp 14: Flat Run

Location: Hunting fields, 5 Clicks to contact.

Date: Error

Speed: 200mph

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Out of the gloom the rhythmic roar of the engine, echoed. The land train thundered towards the battle still raging ahead.

Adam's knuckles whitened on the steering wheel, small dents forming in it from his armour argumented strength.

Far ahead through the narrow vision, the dark cracked ground flashed by, the occasional bright flare of explosions and gunfire ahead lighting up the dust particles heavy in the air around them.

The sound of battle slowly grew louder than the sound of the train.

'Booom' an Ork morter struck ahead.

'Pop', the sound of Gretchen small fire echoed like firecrackers.

'Crack' An Ork big shoots shot out rounds.

But one ever rising sound did rise.

WAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH

Finally, they broke through the dust, like a bullet through a rifle smoke shooting up behind them.

'START ter Turn' shouted down Kôrv.

Grasping the wheel hard, Adam wrenched it to the right only to be surprised as the wheel almost refused to move, fighting it with his whole body weight the train began to drag off it's course it's great mass still wanting to go towards the battle ahead.

'ARE ALL VEICHLES THIS HARD TO STEER' shouted Adam up to Kôrv.

'NO, the trains got no power steering, this front carriage was damaged a few years ago and we had to scavenge the drive train from an imperial baneblade' shouted Kôrv back down, 'lever steering doesn't translate well to wheel steering, sorry lad'.

'Lets puts some music on it might be the last we hear' called Kôrv, almost talking to himself as they took air over a pile of Ork corpse infrastructure on the edge of the battlefield.

The rivalry by Running Wild starts to play

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'Cçcccrrrrr Th-this is Ymmê four Ork gargants facing away, spotted direct ahead 800 hundred meters, adjust course to 270 degrees now'.

'That'll put us straight into the ORRRRKKKKS.'

'We've got no choice' shouted Kôrv from above.

'Dammit' Adam bashed the wheel with his hands, snarling.

Yanking the steering wheel back left, the whole train snaked as it's weight shifting wildly as it was still recovering from the inertia of the last turn.

'Cçcchcrrr What's happening up there, I was damn near slammed into a wall'.

'Copy Skalfi, adjusting course to avoid bogeys, prepare to engage any stragglers'. Said Kôrv ' prepare for evasive manoveurs, out'.

'Five hundred meters, three hundred, 150 meters, contact in two, one'.

Kôrv pulled a cord.

'BOOOOOOMMM'

A half ton shell spiralled out of the barrel.

The train shuddered as the gun shot back, it's inertia slowing them down by almost twenty miles an hour.

'wwwhhooooo - BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!'

'AWAY' screamed Kôrv, which Adam barely heard over the ringing sound in his ears.

The entire viewport flashed white blinding Adam.

If he could see, Adam would have seen the thermobaric explosion, mushrooming out and expanding, before rapidly contracting back in deleting a fifty meter circle at the back of the Ork formation.

Adam felt like a horse kicked him the chest as the train passed through the concusive blast seconds later.

'Engage full throttle' shouted Kôrv breathing hard, the heavy Clunk the only indication of another round being loaded. The smell of cordite filling the cockpit below.

Adam pushed the throttle full ahead, the whole train wriggling as it put on a burst of speed the axels below wineing in a worryingly high pitch tone, the straining creak of metal plates growing louder.

Adam watched as the speedometer ticked up as the train plowed through ranks of Orks there ranks flying up into a green mist when they collided head on vaporised by the sheer momentum or burnt away on the plasma plow.

'Don't breath it in'.

190 mph

212 mph

218mph

220mph

Bullets began wizing off the armour plating, thousands of tracer rounds from tens of blitz gatlers mounted to stompas crisscrossed the view port. The whole carriage ringing like like a bell as it was showered in combined fire of hundreds of Orks.

' CCCCRRR THEY'VE noticed us now' Ymmê howled down the line.

ᚨᚲᛏᛁᚢᚨᛏᛁᛜ ᛞᛖᚠᛖᚾᚲᛖ ᛊᛁᛊᛏᛖᛗᛊ Echoed in the speakers.

Like a roar of thunder, all the automated points defence systems flipped out of their housings, opening up like a charging battleline. Streams of fire spitting from across the length of the train.

The heavy thud of the bolt cannons the base line to the brutal stecato of the whizzing ion weapons.

A blossoming green spray flew up into the air ahead and beside the train.

230 mph

235 mph

238 mph

239 mph

241 mph.

The axles screamed like they were about to come off their hinges.

Ahead of the train, Adam saw the burning mass of demons meeting the Ork line ahead in an orgy of rabid melee combat.

One orc brought his chopper down bisecting a bloodthirster as another bloodthirster took its head off as it's blade was still dropping.

'Waaaarrrggghhhh' a massive Ork audible from hundreds of meters away in the centre of the battle line roared turning away from the demons ahead. Spittle flying from between it's massive tusks.

Locking onto them with it's beady eyes, it screamed. Pointing it's power klaw.

'Big truck' 'bring big fight', 'Tuska smash'.

A ten foot green walking wall of muscle launched itself towards the train in great a bounding leap.

'WAAARRRGGGGH'

'Evasive action' screamed Kôrv 'I can't get a bead, on this motherfucker, the point defence isn't doing shit, it obviously believes hard enough that bullets can't hurt it'.

The bullets seemed to just deflect around the warboss like an invisible field as it moved like a meteor across the battle field tearing up great tracts of land as it landed only to leap again.

Without warning, as Tuska passed the wreckage of a destroyed defiler, his arm darted out grabbing one its spider like legs with his power klaw, before flinging it like a trebuchet at the oncoming train.

Thrones areshole, thought Harry as he desperately turned the wheel as far as he could to the right to dodge the incoming tank sized projectile.

The wheels screeched as they fought to turn.

'Smash'

Part of the defiler slammed into the top of the front carriage, tearing a large section off the top left of the front carriage. Hot air blasted in as the battle grew even louder, with the carriage open to the elements, seconds later bullets started pinging around the carriage.

Turnnnnn dammittt

The train veered slowly to the right.

'WAAAARRRRGGG'

Turska flew by missing the train by bare meters, the ball of violence visible through the gash in the ceiling.

More and more demons came into view through his viewport blood thirsters, their generals, khornite berserkers and demon engines of every make and model even a few mid sized titans could been seen far in the distance through the burning smoke of wrecked vehicles. The noise of demons baying for skulls tremoring over the still loud deminished roar of the Ork waaaarrrgh.

'CCCCrrrr Large deployment of Lord of skulls sighted 310 degrees line of site to be established in 10, 9, 8'.

'They're gonna shred us to pieces like a heretic on a death korps commissars firing line, we need to turn away' said Kôrv above him.

(Lord of skulls: Insane, monolithic creations – a mechanical vessel for a truly mighty daemon, fuelled by boiling blood and dedicated to slaughtering in the name of Khorne. These colossal constructs plough through the enemy's ranks, crushing infantry into paste beneath their tracks, hacking tanks into kindling with careless cleaver-strikes, and hurling brazen projectiles or burning ichor at the survivors - Khornite bezerker + tank = Lord of Skulls; Couldn't find their exact size but from stacking space marine against them in artistic depictions they seem to be around 10 meters tall and 6 meters long.

'Cccccrrrrrrr- we've got company, the warboss and the whole waaargggh is right on our tail, crrsshhh, shit, shit, shit, a round just missed my nuts'.

'We need more speed push her as hard as you can', encouraged Kôrv.

The train thundered over craters, bouncing along like a skier in a mogul field, straight down the fightingine where the armies met, through the most intense carnage, the Orks on their right swarming after them and the demons on their left; far ahead a firing line of Lord of Skulls stood ready with their heavy weapons already lowered, Hades Gatling canons ready to cut them to shreds, their gorestorms canons readied to fire a torrent of high pressure boiling blood over them to boil whatevers left alive.