The Longest Days
Applejack
Applejack’s first sight as she stepped onto the surface of Mylock was a hulking green creature she recognised as an Ork. The creature was bigger than a man and far more hulking, a crude axe clutched in one hand, while an oversized pistol was held in the other. The creature had a look of surprise on its face as the Tau spilled from the manta.
“Waaa…” the Ork began, before it’s head exploded, Applejack quickly shifting her aim to another Ork and opening fire. Gone was the restraint she had shown against the humans, now all she was thinking was how she could maximise her efficiency.
“Applejack, you and Valnoth take the left flank, push up towards the perimeter wall, Diaoh, Gra’us and I will take the centre, the other squads will push up on the right,” Ko’Min called over the radio. “Keep it tight, we need to keep the momentum going.”
“Looks like it’s you and me, Applejack,” Valnoth called as she dived into cover, propping her rifle up on the top of the wall and laying down a stream of plasma fire into a horde, Applejack following her lead as the Orks began to return fire, letting out crude warcry’s even as they were scythed down.
“Just shoot ‘em,” Applejack grunted as a shot ricocheted off her shoulder.
“Deff Dread, dead ahead,” Valnoth pointed it out. “Applejack, take it out.”
Applejack didn’t need to be told twice, already propping herself up on the wall and zeroing in on clanking monstrosity, her helmet and armour quickly running calculations to bring both of the guns into optimum firing position.
“Got you,” she grinned, before firing, twin beams of blue light lancing out and striking the machine dead centre, peeling away armour like it was nothing, revealing the Ork that was clearly fused with the machine. A second later Valnoth fired, her shot flying true and striking the head of the Ork, melting through it and bringing the Deff Dread to a shuddering halt, before it keeled over backwards.
“Good shooting,” Valnoth called as a pair of Crisis suits slammed into the ground, hosing down the remnants of the horde before taking to the skies once more.
“That was my kill,” Applejack shot back as she leapt forward, her armour working with her to increase the speed of her galloping charge, Valnoth just about keeping pace beside her.
Suddenly a shadow fell across Applejack, and she only just managed to avoid the careening Ork as it slammed into the ground, its jetpack spluttering as it stood up.
“Whatz this then? You ain’t one of the squishy blue ones,” the Ork laughed, hefting a massive hammer above its head. “I’m gonna crush you like a bug.”
“Yeah, fuck y’all too,” Applejack snarled, before turning and bucking hard.
Applejack felt the shuddering impact travel up her legs, the sound of crunching bone and screaming meeting her ears as the Ork flew backwards, it’s chest a bloody crater. Applejack couldn’t wait to savour her victory however, the other Orks that had landed recovering from the earth shattering landing.
Applejack twisted again, lashing out at the Orks as they tried to reach her. A few of their blades came close, but with the armour working with her, her bucks were faster than ever before, the Orks barely having time to react before they were put down. Finally, Applejack stood amongst their corpses, panting hard as Valnoth approached her.
“Not bad,” she nodded slowly. “It’s…odd to see a Fire Warrior win against a group of Orks in close quarters.”
“Ah ain’t a normal Fire Warrior,” Applejack pointed out, looking around at the encampment.
The last of the Orks were being mopped up, Crisis Suits firing rapid streams of plasma into the disorganised groups, while Broadsides focused on the few remaining vehicles, stalking through the smoke with a grace that was almost unnatural for machines of their size, especially when compared with the walkers of the Orks.
“Applejack, Valnoth, regroup near the outer wall,” Ko’Min ordered over the radio. “The Orks are broken, we have a few that are attempting to run, but the day is ours. We must stay on our guard however until we can properly strengthen the walls.”
“We’re on our way,” Valnoth nodded. “The new suits seem to be holding up very well, Applejack just took on a squad on Stormboyz alone.”
“Is she hurt?” Diaoh asked, a sense of urgency creeping into his voice.
“Just a bit shaken by the looks of it,” Valnoth glanced over at Applejack. “You should see the other guys.”
“Just get over here,” Ko’Min cut in. “If there are any encampments of Orks nearby who caught wind of our attacks we will need every available warrior to fend them off.”
“We’re on our way,” Applejack nodded, setting off at a gallop towards the wall.
***
“Take cover!” Ko’Min bellowed at the top of his voice, ducking his head beneath the ramshackle wall, before getting back up and firing blindly into the sea of green approaching the walls.
Applejack and the rest of the squad were beside him, adding their firepower to his, felling hundreds of Orks, and yet barely putting a dent in the horde. There were hundreds of them, if not thousands, all screaming and firing their crude weapons at the wall, the massive rounds bouncing off harmlessly for the most part. Luckily for the Tau, the Orks attacking them were only slightly above feral’s in terms of technology, relying on numbers to win the day, with hardly any heavy weapons, those that they had started the attack with now being little more than smoking wrecks.
“What’s the estimated time on our air support, Shas’Vre?” Diaoh called out as the Crisis suited warrior landed beside them, a flurry of missiles flying into the horde.
“We have seven minutes until Sun Shark support,” the Shas’Vre replied. “They have no air defences, one pass will break them.”
“We’ve got to survive seven minutes though,” Applejack pointed out.
“We can do that,” Ko’Min assured her. “Just stay focused and…”
Ko’Min was pitched from the wall as a bullet slammed into his helmet, his head snapping to the side before he landed in an unnatural heap.
“Ko’Min!” Applejack roared, making to jump down after him, only for the Shas’Vre to stop her.
“He’s dead! Stay on the wall, we need your guns, Applejack, and your squad needs leadership,” he roared, firing his burst cannon for a few moments, before fixing his gaze on Applejack. “Stay here, coordinate defences on this side.”
With that, he took to the sky, soaring across the fortress and out of view as Applejack turned back to the battle.
“Ya heard the Shas’Vre!” Applejack called out, finding her voice. “We have six and a half minutes until a bit of relief, so keep yer heads down, we ain’t loosin’ anyone else, y’all understand?”
***
Applejack watched impassively as a pair of modified Orca’s descended towards the fortress, a series of Tidewall’s suspended beneath them. True to the words of the Shas’Vre, the Sun Shark’s had quickly broken the fighting power of the horde before returning to the ship in orbit to refuel before going out again. The fleet only had a few wings of the bombers, and every part of the strike force on the planet was crying out for aid. This hadn’t been unexpected, the first few days were always going to be the hardest before true defences could be set up, and the estimates hadn’t been off. They had already repulsed two hordes, now things would hopefully be slightly easier.
Ko’Min was dead, just like the Shas’Vre had said, the bullet had torn through his armour and turned his head into a pulp. His body had since been burnt, there was simply not enough available air power to lift out corpses for storage on the ship, and he certainly couldn’t be kept in the camp, the last thing they needed was disease running rampant through their new home.
“Applejack,” Diaoh walked towards her, his helmet slung at his waist. “The Shas’Vre wishes for you to oversee the installation of the railguns on the east side of the fort.”
“Ah’m on mah way,” Applejack nodded. “Go back to the wall, ya still have two hours watch until yer relieved.”
“Yes, Applejack,” Diaoh nodded, before turning and jogging to the wall.
Applejack turned as he left, breaking into a canter as she headed towards where the first sections of the Tidewall were being placed, quickly arriving to see a score of Earth caste engineers exiting one of the Orca’s and getting ready to oversee the construction of the wall, under the watchful eyes of the sentries and the two pathfinder teams acting as their early warning system.
“Which one of ya is in charge here?” Applejack called out, an Earth Caste engineer turning around.
“I am, and you are?”
“Shas’La Applejack,” Applejack replied. “Ah was sent here to make sure the railguns were installed properly.”
“They will be,” the engineer nodded, his lips pursing tightly. “But I am not here to answer to a member of the auxiliary. Where is my liaison?”
“Ah’m it,” Applejack glared at the Tau. “And ah ain’t a member of yer auxiliary.”
“You’re an alien,” he pointed out.
“And by order of the Ethereal, ah am a full member of the Fire Caste,” Applejack cut in. “The Shas’Vre put me in charge of makin’ sure our defences are up and runnin’, so tell me good news.”
The engineer paused for a second, before relenting and pointing to the various parts that were being deployed onto the planets surface.
“The wall is made of a light yet strong material known as Ununseptium, which is capable of turning away all but the most determined anti-tank fire. This in turn is bolstered by a series of shields generated by generators mounted in individual sections of the wall, so that no one attack can destroy the integrity of the whole defence.”
“That’s good and all, but ah want to know that that,” Applejack pointed to the massive twin-linked Rail gun that was currently being lowered from the Orca, “is going to do its job properly.”
“The gunrig will do its job just fine,” the Engineer nodded. “It has a slaved drone hardwired into it, and tha drone talks to the ones controlling the generators, which all talk back to the droneport we will be installing in the centre of the fort. This will make sure the guns are efficient, and they will never run out of power due to the walls shielding. Any shots that hit the shields that do not destroy it outright impart some form of energy when they impact, be it kinetic, light or some other form. The shields can absorb this energy, feeding it back to the droneport, which in turn feeds power to the generators and the gunrig. In essence the shots they fire at us will be fired back at them, and I can assure you, our weapons are far more deadly.”
“And because it’s a drone controllin’ the gun, it never needs to rest,” Applejack checked.
“Correct. The gun will never tire, never stop, it will scan for targets day and night, and as soon as it finds one it will fire and move on. It is efficient and it is deadly.”
“Then make sure it gets dug in quick, we need the extra firepower if they attack with anythin’ more than bodies next time.”
***
Applejack groaned as she walked back in the massive gates, a pair of drones instantly descending on her, their guns armed as they scanned her, before recognising her as a friend and floating off again. They had been here for almost three weeks now, and the attacks had not got any weaker. If anything they had increased in ferocity, tanks, Killa Kans and Deff Dreds now coming in higher numbers, and it was only because of the gunrigs that they hadn’t been overwhelmed yet. The other sentry turrets helped too, increasing the amount of burst guns they had access to had certainly helped to level the playing field between their small numbers and the vastly more numerical Orks, but even so armed the fight was still brutal and costly.
“Get some food in you and rest,” Applejack ordered. “I want you to get at least five hours sleep before we go back out there. Understand?”
“Understood, Applejack,” Diaoh nodded, walking off with Gra’us in tow.
“You too, Valnoth,” Applejack looked at the female Tau. “You’re not immune to fatigue or hunger.”
“Neither are you,” she pointed out. “I’ve noticed that you haven’t been eating or sleeping as frequently as the rest of the squad, and I don’t want you to end up like Ko’Min because of that.”
“Yeah, I know,” Applejack sighed. “Ah’m coming this time though, ah don’t have any tasks from the Shas’Vre. Ah haven’t always had the time what with running the east wall.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Valnoth shook her head. “You’re coming to eat now, and then you’re going to get some rest. No excuses.”
“Fine, fine,” Applejack nodded, before following after Valnoth.
They quickly got to the building that was serving as the food storage outpost, joining the short line of other Fire Warriors who were queuing up to get their rations, a stocky Demiurg handing out the food packets.
Applejack waited silently as she queued, taking the packets and slipping it into a pouch on her armour, before walking off to sit against the wall with Valnoth and the rest of the squad, before digging into it. The rations were actually fairly good, the bags self-heating the food once they had been exposed to the air.
“Dig in,” she muttered, pulling out her fork and shovelling the vegetable mash into her mouth quickly, the protein powder mixed in with it getting to work on her tired muscles. “Is everyone ok? Ammunition, wounds, grenades? Anything.”
“I’ll need to go and get more power packs, but I’m good for everything else,” Diaoh nodded in between mouthfuls after quickly checking his pouches.
“I’m good,” Gra’us rasped, his voice always unnerving Applejack on the rare occasion that she actually heard it.
“As am I,” Valnoth finished her rations as she spoke, before standing up and stretching. “I will see you when our watch starts again.”
“As will I,” Gra’us rasped, following after Valnoth, leaving Applejack alone with Diaoh.
“Long day, huh?” Diaoh chuckled. “Think I got a few more kills than you did though.”
“Ah killed two tanks, ah think ah won,” Applejack retorted, the ghost of a smile flicking across her face.
“Wow, you almost smiled, that’s a rarity,” Diaoh smirked. “I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen you smile.”
“There aren’t too many things ta smile about right now, are there?” Applejack pointed out. “Orks breathin’ down our necks day and night, thirty nine percent of the original force is dead, and I’ve gone from obscure to fourth in command of the east side. Livin’ the dream.”
“You know you don’t have to be such a hardass,” Diaoh folded his arms.
“And y’all don’t have ta be so insufferably unaware of our current situation,” Applejack snapped. “Get some rest, that’s an order.”
“Yes, acting Shas’Ui,” Diaoh muttered sarcastically, before turning and walking off.
Applejack glared after Diaoh, before letting out a growl and slumping against the wall, deactivating her bionic eye. She wished that she had brought he hat down from the ship for this so she could pull the brim down and shield her eye from the light, but there was no point crying over things she couldn’t change. Even with the mid-day sun streaming down on her, it didn’t take her long to drift off to sleep.
***
Applejack bellowed in pain as a bullet passed through the meat of her forehoof and out the other side. The feeling of suddenly having a hole in her hoof was painful, but it was mostly just an intense feeling of cold which spread through her leg.
“You think that’s enough for me?!” Applejack roared back at the tide before her, getting herself back into position and firing into the closest Orks.
This was the largest attack to date, everything before her now being covered in a sea of green seething bodies, broken up by the occasional form of a tank or battlewagon. Everyone was on the walls defending the fort now, even the few Earth Caste engineers had taken up arms, sticking close to the turrets and ensuring they stayed operational.
The Tidewall was proving its worth once again, shielding the majority of the Tau from the Orks fire, while the railguns were spitting out death at an amazing speed, targeting tanks with a destructive force that Applejack couldn’t hope to match with her railrifles.
“Applejack! Are you ok?!” Valnoth roared, ejecting the spent power pack from her pulse rifle and slamming home another.
“I’ll be fine, I’ve had worse!” Applejack shouted back. “Incoming Nobz, target the big ones and disrupt their forces.”
“These aren’t Tyranids, they’ll keep fighting!” Diaoh called, but did shift his aim, pouring plasma into the Nob squad.
Applejack snarled as she took aim at the biggest Nob, the two crosshairs in her helmet coming together over his head as he guns shifted, before she fired, the twin beams turning the head into a fine red mist.
“Diaoh, get on the link and tell the Shas’Vre we immediate support. Air, Crisis Suits, Broadsides, anything he can spare or beg for,” Applejack ordered, twisting and bucking an Ork that had leapt over the barricade, sending him careening backwards.
“I’m on the link, Applejack, I can hear you,” the Shas’Vre replied over her helmet. “We just lost two Broadsides on the west wall, and Shas’Ui Wenik just dropped out of contact, you’re third in command. Move towards the North-East corner and take charge of both walls. I will meet you there.”
“That’s great and all, but the East side will fall without support,” Applejack repeated. “Send whatever you can, I’m moving to the corner now.”
Applejack let the link go dead, gesturing for the rest of the squad to follow her as she galloped off, ducking low as bullets streaked over her head, skidding to a halt as an explosion peppered her with debris. Wiping the worst of the rocks from her armour, she looked around at the Tau who were trying to fend off the Orks on the North side.
“Focus fire on the ones with close combat weapons,” Applejack shouted, her helmet amplifying her voice. “The shields will protect ya from their guns, not from their swords.”
“We’re working on it,” one of the Tau called. “There’s too many of them to focus fire on.”
“We’ve got incoming!” another Tau called, before the loudest explosion to date shook the battlefield, the shield wall and a lot of the Tau behind it simply ceasing to exist, including the Tau who had shouted.
Applejack had to turn away from the blinding light, turning back to see the carnage caused. Bodies of both Orks and Tau littered the field, some completely torn apart, reduced to hands lying in the crater. Applejack’s eye counted twenty one dead Tau in total, including the head of a Crisis battlesuit, bearing the markings of a Shas’Vre.
Applejack shook her head as the ringing stopped, the Waaagh! cry of the Orks growing louder as Applejack finally saw what had fired the explosive shot. It was huge, a towering metal monstrosity that looked like a cross between Ork technology and a human titan. The Orks around it were already cheering as it began to advance forward, spraying bullets as it went.
“Stompa!” Valnoth roared. “Concentrate…”
“Everyone fall back inside the forts walls!” Applejack cut in, amplifying her helmets speakers to the max. “We can’t hold the Tidewall.”
“We won’t be able to hold them off without the gunrigs, and if we abandon them we have no chance at taking out that Stompa,” Valnoth countered.
“The Stompa just opened up a hole in our line, we can’t plug that breach,” Applejack insisted. “The outer wall is lost, ah want everyone still alive to stay that way fer as long as possible.”
“Fall back then,” Valnoth nodded, before raising her voice. “Fall back to the inner wall!”
The cry was quickly taken up by the other Tau as they began to fall back into the fortress gates. Applejack barely made it through before the drones slammed them shut, the Orks on the other side howling in rage at being cheated a quicker victory.
“Where is the Shas’Vre?” one Tau called, looking around.
“He’s dead!” Applejack bellowed back. “Rulfod? Qre’Na?”
“Both dead, Applejack,” Diaoh shook his head. The South was lost with all hands, and Rulfod gave his life to give his men time to get in from the West side. You’re in charge.”
“Fuck,” Applejack swore quietly. “Everyone up on the walls, we take as many of them with us as we can.”
“We’re not getting out of this alive,” Diaoh pointed out as they ran to the parapet.
“That’s why ah said take as many of them with ya as ya can,” Applejack snapped. “Just…”
More explosions suddenly rocked the battlefield, dozens of blue explosions ripping through the Ork horde. Applejack was almost thrown from her feet by the powerful shockwaves, looking in awe at the devastation the plasma explosions had caused.
“What the…” Applejack began, looking upwards in awe, only to see two rapidly approaching dark shapes.
A second later, two huge walkers slammed into the ground, this shockwave actually pitching Applejack and many of the other Tau from their feet. Straightening up, Applejack recognised the forms of the two sets of KX139 Supremacy Armour, the three huge guns on their back swiftly moving into position and firing.
The Stompa simply ceased to exist, along with hundreds of the Orks around it. Without hesitating, the two suits began to walk, firing indiscriminately into the horde as a wing of Manta’s swooped down beside them, five smaller KV128 Stormsurges deploying from them, along with a small host of Fire Warriors.
“Open the gates!” Applejack roared, a genuine smile spreading across her face. “Pa’Laa’s here, and we are not going to sit here while other Tau fight!”
Applejack and the rest fo the squad let out a cheer as they ran, heading out of the fort and towards the broken Ork horde, Many squads broke off to perused the Orks, while Applejack headed towards the Manta’s, a trio of Crisis suits exiting them as she ran.
“It is good to see some of our warriors still alive here, we did not know what to expect,” the centre Tau spoke, a Shas’El by his markings. “Who is left in charge here?”
“Ah am,” Applejack nodded. “Acting Shas’Ui Applejack. Shas’Ui Rulfod, Wenik, Qre’Na and… Ko’Min were all killed in action, as was the Shas’Vre.”
“Then we must ensure that we do not lose any more this day,” The Shas’El proclaimed. “The horde will be destroyed, do not allow yourself to fall, I believe Shas’O Shan’Ta will wish to debrief you, personally.”
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6563424
Nope, because then I know exactly where the mistakes are that he's pointing out and can edit them far far easier
Awesome you brought in the Supremacy suits those things are so bad ass
Is that a tau and tyranid pic as the cover?
6565936
Yep
Oooh, incorporating the new units I see. I like it!
Kauyon Spoilers:
Shadowsun kills the Chapter Master of the Raven Guard, the Imperium has finally upgraded the Tau from 'local threat' to 'something that needs to die'. Massive Cohorts of the Mechanicum, entire conclaves of the Sisters of Battle, countless numbers of Imperial Guard and entire Space Marine Chapters are being redirected from other warzones in the Ultima Segmentum to deal with the Tau. (and that's not including Knightly Houses and Titan Legions...)
You can take the Imperium's backwater worlds. You can play all you want in it's unused, marginally useful lot. But when you shank one of the higher Peers of the Imperium, a Chapter Master of a First Founding Chapter, well... You are going to get fucked.
AS for this story, I'm mildly worried for Applejack at the moment. Though, I suppose it's not named 'Descent into Sunshine and Rainbows.'
6566316
Hey, that's my line
I wonder if the Tau realize that they will attract the attention of the Sautekh Dynasty, which is rapidly expanding from the Eastern Fringe, at any moment if they keep this up. At this rate they are going to be forced into a two front war with the Necrons and the Imperium.
Also, I liked the use of the new tech in this chapter.
6566739
Well the new tech is awesome.
6565858 ok thanks allot
Hmm, I can't help but feel that the Tau strategy for this campaign is not very Tau-like. Still, made for a cool enough fight so I'll roll with it.
6568663
How so? Holding the enemy in place until they can deliver the perfect knockout punch? Killing blow right there.
Just instead of waiting for the right moment to present itself, they created the opening themselves.
Fuck yeah buddy! That was fucking awesome
6568899 True, but the Tau don't usually dig in to defend points that often, but it does happen.
6568899 Because against such overwhelming numbers the Tau would be more likely to run around chipping away at the orks until they can knock them out. I won't deny that Tau will hold positions if they have too, but that's only when they can't afford to lose the ground, ie there are civilians or other vitally important people or objects in the ground, they never seek such confrontations because that removes one of their chief advantages, their mobility. In fact the codex's go to great lengths to explain that they will not dig in unless they absolutely have to. By digging in the way they did they consigned themselves to a battle of attrition, and I don't think I need to explain why that is ill advised against Orks, even with such a disparity in the casualty ratio.
Killing blow isn't about waiting for the opportunity, its about seizing the opportunities that come with incredible and overwhelming force. In this instance a more traditional use of Killing Blow would have been to run about isolating pockets of Orks, annihilating these pockets and then moving on before retaliation arrived. Even with the casualty ratio so heavily in their favor, it's still a battle of attrition to fight like this, and that favors the Orks while sacrificing many of the advantages the Tau possess. This isn't Killing Blow, this is Hammer and Anvil, and while that is employed heavily by the Imperium, it's not something the Tau use, because they have the mobility to not need an Anvil, and lack the sheer staying power of the Imperium's armies. Now all this being said, I can easily see a more radical Tau commander employing such tactics, but that would be an exception if it where true.
6569196
This is based on a board game, Warhammer 40k, although there are also books, video games and even a (shitty) film about it.
6569028
I guess I can see that, I may have made a small mistake then with having them dig in, but I wanted to do something where they had no chance to pull back and consolidate so AJ could get command experience.
6569420 Understandable, for the purpose of drama it works well enough, so I didn't have much problem with it, just a minor point I had.
(Apologies by the way if I came off as too aggressive in my response, wasn't my intention)
At start there is
Ork Drednort
i suppose it should have been dreadnaught, killa kan, ork dread, or something like that ;) ;)
Great chapter as always though
6569028
Yeah, this more of a Farsight Fighting Style, standing your ground and just shooting your foe to death, even at point blank range. Most other Tau see last stands and standing your ground as a tactical failure because you trapped into a situation where you couldn't out-maneuver your opponent. And a waste of resources as you can re-claim land later on if you can run away to re-group.
6571202
I thought an Ork Dread and an Ork Drednort were the same thing? Because that's what I was going for. Bigger than a killa kan but smaller than a mega dread
6572548
well, i move around w40k universe for pretty long and i m pretty sure i never heard about something called drednort.
And since even google cant find it i m pretty sure i m right ;)
6572670
Ah yeah, I see now. I'll change it. Thanks
6575159
Technically I did change the one Bazing pointed out, I just forgot to press save
6578186
Well, Pinkie Avatar person, it depends on the "Edition" Rulebook really. The faction started out as the "Ultrabright" faction of the Grimdark 40K setting, but as time went on, the faction became less idealistic and more cynical in later editions/writing. I would alas, argue Grimderp at times w/ the Conspiracy Spiel w/in the Tau. I still enjoy the faction though, I just don't care for some of the "fluff" from the later editions.
6582465
Well, the author if fine w/ it. That's the main thing.
My feels on this story and prediction on what is going to happen to RD, with the new wing when she gets back to Equestria it is going to let the rest of the universe make it through the gate
Don't think a material that loses about 99.9% of its mass in less than one second due to decay can be particularly strong.
Yes I'm being nitpicky. I just really dislike when "scientific" terms are thrown around with little regard to what they actually imply. Please just use some fantasy name that does not have a real life counterpart for such things. Or just ignore me, as like I said, I'm being really nitpicky. But I feel like I need to at least point it out. Sorry for that I guess.
this chapter and the one before it are kinda stale, they feel a bit too rushed and it's more like your describing a scene instead of telling a story. I didn't feel immersed like I did before Applejack lost her eye