Forum:Snake in the Grass

Do not post. RP is currently Inactive, awaiting completion of Tales of Heresy.

Guidelines

 * Use the Rpt Template. It's there for a reason.


 * Avoid short, pointless or disruptive posts. Repeated incidents of such will earn the boot, regardless of status.


 * Do not Mary Sue, if your character shouldn't be able to do something, they probably can't. If your character shouldn't know something, they don't.


 * Read the damn thread before posting. I cannot stress this enough.


 * Use proper spelling and grammar. Good post content can be ruined if it's illegible/an eyesore.


 * Post your faction and their motivations in the Factions section BEFORE posting in the Roleplaying section (Act 1 etc.).


 * Do not double post.


 * Don't dive into battle at the drop of a hat. Just like in real life, a bit of preparation is needed. Such reckless action can be punished, just as such reckless action would have dire reprecussions in a genuine battle.
 * Punishment severity will depend on post quality, likely enemy preparedness and plausibility of the attack.


 * This list can and will be expanded/added to as and when I see fit.

//--Run4My Talk

Setting

 * Gorbal III, Gorbal System, Eastern Segmentum Ultima.

Gorbal III was once a lynchpin Cardinal World. The Gorbal System's Administratum Headquarters were centred in the Planetary Capital Vex. It was also the centre of System Worship, almost covered in Cathedrals and ruled over by a Cardinal. Then the Orks came. Making planetfall in 854 M41, Warlord Gorfangz and his Blood Axe horde ravaged the planet for several weeks, butchering the PDF in a series of ambushes and savage close-range battles. Seeing the carnage, the Imperium moved a Regiment of Guardsmen to keep the Orks occupied while they defended worlds that seemed like less of a lost cause. However, when Gorfangz' ships captured an Imperial Stratego, the war on Gorbal III became significantly more draining to the Imperium. It became clear that the Orks were beginning to use strategies specifically tailored to counter Imperial Strategies for the intended battlefields. After scouts reported that Gorfang was consulting with a human, the Imperium decided enough was enough. A group of cut throats to rival the Orks themselves were needed. The 5th Penal Legion were geared for war and made planetfall two years after the war began.

Tango Squadron, a band of rogues, even among the craven ranks of the 5th, akin to the Last Chancers, were tasked with the destruction of Gorfang and his human consultant. A suicide mission by any mans standards, but if the Tangos survived, centuries would be cut off their sentences. Led by the murderous Deacon Coletrane and the sadistic Virgil Vasquez, Tango marched into Ork-controlled territory under cover of darkness and began the long trek to Gorfang's camp.

Welcome to Hell convicts.

Briefing
The following is a recording of the squadron briefing Sergeant Major Deacon Joseph Coletrane delivered to the unit designated Tango Squardon, His Glory's 5th Penal Legion, on Thursday, January 14th, 940 M41, Terran Calendar, 0800 Hours, Terran Time.

[Volume has been altered to protect sound equipment. Coletrane's frequent shouting damaged the recording equipment.]

Class is in session, Tangos, take your seats! I said, take your seats!


 * [Coletrane punches subject, Jared Richter, in the stomach before he can sit on one of the benches lining the room. Coletrane then resumes pacing and shouting.]

We've been ordered to hunt down this Ork and this strategist. D-Day is dawn in three days time. Same as always, we're gonna worm our way past the Orks. Anyone firing without my order will cost the shooter a fingertip. I'll take it off myself with Aslk's wire cutters. Aslk, you have no fingertips, so I'll have to settle for loosening a hydraulic link here or there or wherever. If someone gets trigger-happy or paranoid, and I run out of fingers, I'm gonna start rippin' off ears. Understood? This is an infiltration mission. Barakus, you're here if we need to throw a demo charge in a window or something.

No vehicles. Sorry LeGuie, I know your armoured division feet aren't strong enough for real footslogging, but deal with it. Richter, if you cry about blisters this time, I'll burn 'em off with a heated knife. Vasquez, try not to antagonise people too much. You might have to kill someone in self defence. Again. Airborne recon puts Ork positions about two clicks either side of our planned path, so I guess the flyboys are good for something. Mines are dotted all over the path, so the Orks won't be coming at us in any big numbers. We're only likely to run into the odd Commando or Grot patrol. Shouldn't pose too muc trouble. Barakus, I know you're more accustomed to blowing shit up, we'll need you switching those butterfly mines off. I don't want to have any more scars on my gut, you can barely read the tattoos any more. You're on bomb-squad duty too Richter. P'tar, don't go haring off like you usually do. You might get your legs blown off in a mined building, and I sure as hell won't carry you to Balderin's door and back.

So we're moving in through the rear of the Ork camp to deal with this Balderin guy. Word from the spooks is he's got a bodyguard of some of the burliest Orks in the camp. Means we'll probably need to bomb him or make a long-shot. That'll be my job or Barakus' job. Tough shit on the rest of you who can't hack the range or the boomsticks. We ice the traitor, then pull back and wait for the Warlord to show up to see what's left of his pet. Then we hit him too. Intel says he wanders around with twenty not-so-jolly green giants. Big fuckers. One o' them looks like a war boar bolted to the top of a big Ork. That's the one who carries the banner. Big dumb motherfucker with more biceps than sense. Word is he's never dropped that banner, and the superstitious greenies think it'll be a bad omen if it ever does fall. I want someone to blow his arms off so that thing hits the dirt. Whoever manages it gets a reward.


 * [Coltrane clears his throat enthusiastically as he mentions the reward. Additional Guards were posted at the Officers' Mess in case of a robbery.]

Once we deal with those Orks, we gotta exfiltrate and make our way back along an old sewer system linking the Ork-held city and our own stronghold. It passes right under no-man's land and comes up in a trench system we had to pull out of when Gorfangz brough a Squiggoth along. The Squiggoth was dealt with last week by Artillery, so we don't need to think about that. Snipers say the trenches are completely abandoned. We wait for nightfall, then enter the trenches, cross the dirt wall and make the eight hundred yard dash back to our own lines. Any questions?


 * [Sergeant Virgil Domingo Vasquez raises his hand at this point. Coletrane does not wait for the question.]

Yes Vasquez, the Draverean Armoured will ride in when we're done, roll over the leaderless Greenskins and steal all the credit.

Warlord Gorfangz Blood Axe
"We can lurn from da Oomies. Dey're smart, and we's tuff. If we get smart like da Oomies, and stay tuff like da Orkses, nuffink's gonna stop us!"

- Gorfangz' reasoning on using Imperial Tactics in battle

High Warlord Gorfangz Blood Axe has been a plague on Imperial Forces in the sector for over two centuries, and his warband appears to have been at the heart and nerve-centre of dozens of atrocities and massacres. It has also run at the forefront of Waaaagh Zaffnikz for almost eighty years as the horde ravaged systems all along the Eastern Fringe. This has led to it containing disproportionate amounts of large, heavily-armed Orks, well-versed in Imperial Doctrine and counter-tactics (or Tiktakz, as many Orks refer to them).

Gorfangz himself can be considered a strategic genius by Ork standards, perhaps even on a par with the likes of Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka and Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub. He has taken a Bad Moons outlook on battle, and has convinced the vast majority of his forces that if an Ork aims, his gun will not only make just as much noise as not aiming, but is more likely to cause a loud and spiffy explosion, or mangle drastically higher numbers of humans. As common practice dictates Orks do not aim at all, this is cause for concern among Imperial Officers, and figures show regiments fighting against Gorfangz' mob have a life expectancy of three or four hours, significantly lower than the common fifteen.

In combat, Gorfangz is extremely dangerous, wielding an immense chainaxe that extends his massive, ape-like reach to ridiculous proportions, making him all but untouchable in melee combat. On the one occasion where an Imperial Colonel cut the head from the chainaxe with a power sword, Gorfangz impaled the hapless officer and used his body as the head of his new hammer. Gorfangz is always accompanied by his standard bearer, Hurgha Too-teef, a hideous beast almost as large as the Warlord himself, but lacking any ambition for taking over the warband. Gorfangz' banner changes from battle to battle, but Hurgha will wield it like a weapon regardless. And with a creature like Too-teef using it, it matters little what hangs from the steel signpost when the Ork caves your head in with it.

Stratego Balderin Telemachus
"In battle, a man's head is more than just a place to keep his helmet."

- Balderin, ever the advocate of the thinking fighter


 * Date of Birth: January 23rd, 577 M41, Terran Calendar


 * Date of Death: As soon as possible, please


 * Height: 6' 1"


 * Weight: approx. 77kg


 * Rank: Magos Stratego

Balderin ranked as one of the Bathos Sector's greatest strategists and tacticians, confounding both Ork and rebel forces with clever ruses and double-bluffs. He was being moved to combat Waaaagh Zaffnikz when Warlord Gorfangz Blood Axe's flotilla attacked his ship. Gorfangz himself boarded the ship and coralled the tacticians, offering them a choice between service and death. Balderin was the only one who chose to live on, originally intending to feed the Orks terrible strategies until a rescue effort could be mounted.

At some point, something went terribly wrong with Balderin. He began to sympathise with the Orks, believing that they were merely fighting for survival when Mankind did nothing but attempt to destroy them. He even began to behave like an Ork, ensuring he had the largest, foulest bodyguards in the horde, aside from those guarding Gorfangz himself. And he put his retinue's muscle to use, bullying other Orks into submission until he had formed a reasonably large group of parcel-runners and messengers for running battle-plans to and from the Warlord. He began coming up with counters to every Imperial Strategy he could think of, and Gorfangz' horde became the premier line-breaker force in Waaaagh Zaffnikz.

His assassination was ordered by the Adeptus Terra two years prior to the 5th Penal Legion's arrival, and now Tango Squadron must bring him down.