Night Raid

[Vaxillus]

Been meaning to write this for a while but haven't had time untill now. This is based off a game I had against Wayne. I'm no English major, so go easy on me.



A figure crested the hill, framed against the quickly fading glow of the setting sun. The wind howled as it gusted into the man once shielded bu the rolling dunes, causing his cloak to unfurl and reveal the strange array of tubes and containers lacing his body. Some pulsed like veins and arteries, pumping strange chemicals throughout the network of vials and tubing. The man, a Kaustic of the Cult of Toxic, surveyed a small town just beyond the base of the hill as the rest of his collegues reached the top.

The Kaustic had brought with him only a small contigeant of tribesmen and women. The town that was their target was small and unimportant in the eyes of their enemies, the Forsaken, and he suspected that they would put up little of a fight. Thus the party consisted mostly of Buzzblade scavengers, with the company of two Toxic Mistresses should the defenders manage to dig themselves in. More unusual, however, was the collosal beast which had chosen to accompany them. The monstrosity Raze had followed them from their camp. The Kaustic had simply presumed it hungry, though he knew little about its motives or temperments. Whatever the case he had no reason to complain about its presence.

It was getting darker by the minute, and the Kaustic didn't relish the idea of fighting in the freezing night temperatures. He gave the order to charge.

***

The Forsaken warband had been travelling all day in the atrocious heat. They had been exhausted and dehydrated when they reached the small town and had quite thankful for the food and water provided by the townsfolk. The Warwind especially had been thankful for this as rarely were her troops met with such a warm reception. She thought it better not to question such kindness, but wished she had once the first ferocious screech reached her ears.

Jumping to her feet and pulling on her armor, she began barking the orders to prepare for battle. Skarrd raids were not infrequent, and she hadn't been the only one amoung her troop to recognize the warcry. Her detachment consisted primarily of Banes and Coils, many of them veterans of the northern barrens. Her superiors had also placed an individual who called herself Deadlock under her comand, as she aparently knew the wastes better the the Warwind. She had heard rumors of this fighter but had never seen her in action. It seemed this battle might be the same as the masked female was nowhere to be found. She only hoped the rumors were true as she rushed out the door of the shanty, her heavy Brimstone pistol in hand.

***

The Kaustic hid within the band of ravenous screeching Buzzblades as they charged down the hill. He had motioned for the two Toxic Mistresses to guard the flank as he didn't relish the idea of having one of their tanks rupture anywhere near him. Raze had wandered off on its own despite his orders, but he figured it could at least cause a distraction if not directly aid in the battle.

He heard a clink and something metal zinged past his head, causing him to stumble in his stride. He heard another metalic clank as something metal embedded itself into the metal plate on of the buzzblades was using as a shield. He had heard a Death Disk being fired before and knew its presence could only mean that their sworn enemies had taken up occupancy in this town. While some might curse their luck at having to face a Forsaken warband, a twisted smile crossed the Kaustic's face. He relished the idea of being able to tear his most hated enemies to pieces.

More Death Disks zinged by, some tearing limbs off of the first few Buzzblades. It seemed the Buzzblades shared the Kaustic's zeal as they continued running, undetered by the death of their comrades. The dead were simply more meat for the table anyway. A deafening crack resounded over the battlefield followed by a howl of frustrated pain. It was a human cry, and the Kaustic felt a sense of joy as he realized one of the Forsaken's weapons must have malfunctioned and injured its user. This feeling of joy didn't last long and the next thing the Kaustic knew he was on the ground, pain shooting up his side and a ringing in his ears. The last thing he could remember was the sound of something falling in the sand next to him.

***

The Warwind stood up, bleeding heavily from the bullet hole in her shoulder. The pain didn't matter much though as she watched the destruction caused as a Bane threw a grenade into the midst of the charging barbarians, knocking them flat and causing them to panick. It seemed they had bitten off a bit more than they could chew. She aimed her pistol at one of the standing Skarrd, but paused as she noticed a female clad in a gasmask spe out from behind a rock to her right. It aimed a strange contraption at her which gouted out some sort of sickly green fluid. The last moments the Warwind knew wer shear agony as her skin was melted from her bones. Many of her fellow soldiers faced the same fate.

***

Deadlock had felt an insettling presence as soon as she had arrived in town. The townsfolk were too kind and something just didin't seem right. The sinking feeling had gotten worse as the day turned towards night, and her worst fears had been confirmed when she saw a pack of her once kinsfolk charge over a hill. She had readied her machine pistols for battle as soon as she had seen this and was ready to flank them, her rage at her kin already beginning to build, when she had been distracted.

A strange sihouette was moving in her direction. It was only vaguely humanoid and in all her time she had never seen anything like it, even amoungst the deformed Skarrd. What surprised her most was its shear size. As it began to run towards her she turned to face it, figuring her allies could handle themselves. She unleashed her pent up fury in a hail of bullets. No matter he large this being, experience had taught her than nothing could withstand the constant hail of bullets her guns could produce. She began walking slowly towards the massive creature, firing burst from her machine pistols in a effort to soften its charge. To her utter disbelief, most seemed to simple glance off its bare flesh. One of two lucky shots seemed to penetrate, but it cared little and continued its charge. At the last minute it diverted its movement behind a building, perhaps intimidated by the amount of metal flying its way.

Deadlock was not about to let her quarry get away though, and loaded new clips into her guns as she ran towards the building. She rolled around the edge of the building, pointing in the direction she figured it would be and holding down the triggers on her pistols. Her intuition was correct and the beast was sprayed with bullets. However, it simply lowered its head, which she now say was clad in a heavy spiked helmet, and charged. Deadlock barely had time to roll out of the way and the best slammed into the corner of the building, bringing down the entire section. It was far from done, however, and rose up out of the rubble, raising its buzzsaw axe up above its head and bringing id down into the sand where Deadlock had been just an instant before. Sand and dust pinwheeled in all directions. Deadlock continued to pepper the beast with bullets, but could do little to stop the beast as it pushed her back with its mighty axe. Finally, a blow stuck her, and tore her side open. Deadlock fell into the dusty earth, her lifeblood flowing out and quenching the parched earth red. Raze brought its axe up for a final overhead blow but stopped. The din of fighting had since ended and the cries, human cries, could be heard getting closer. The beast turned and left, its heavily silhouette disapearing into the cold and dusty night.

As Deadlock began to loose conciousness, she swore she would survive to get her revenge on that beast and all the Skarrd who had caused her such pain. As the beast finally passed out of sight, Dealock's last sight before passing out was of the face of a Coil standing over her with a look of concern, something she knew the Skarrd could no longer feel.

[Wayne Rogers]

Very cool, Vax!

[Osiris]

One word: Wow. Nice characters, smooth transition & I love the ending.

Looking forward to seeing some future work (and hopefully I get it signed

Cheers,

Osiris

[Vaxillus]

Glad you all like it! I actually like to write short stories like this, so expect more in the future. Ironically, I rarely read books though or even other people's work outside of rulebooks (a bit of a hypocrit there). Must be that my creativity is uninhibited by the bias of other writing styles. Unfortunately, my spelling is also uninhibited by an English dictionary :P .

[DA_Magpie]

That

[Pr0fane]

Yes, I quite liked that, Vax.

My only real comment would be this; I would name your personalities. In this case that would be Kaustic and Warwind. By referring to them as their generic type, you don't feel their loss so much when they're taken out. And maybe, to really make it pang, add what Warwind's last thought may have been as she fell to the ground. Perhaps she would feel regret that the child she suspected had just started growing in her womb would not be born, or relief that it would not see this desolate world.

[Vaxillus]

Good point Profane. How would one come up with Skarrd names though? I know biblical names fit for the Forsaken, but there are only four named characters for the Skarrd, two being what seem more like nicknames and Raze's likely not being Skarrd originated (I always pictured him as coming from some forgotten lab, being some Golem and getting his name from his, er, packaging). Do Skarrd Make up their own names or do their parents care enough to actually name them?

@ Magpie: Thanks for the complement, seems I'll be writing a lot so Im glad I'm off to a good start.

[DA_Magpie]

How would one come up with Skarrd names though?

First thing I came up with, what about demons? From Exodus we learned that the first leader of the Baniss was called Baphomet, and demons names are always cool sounding. Just steer clear of famous names (ie.

[Vaxillus]

That's a good idea, thanks! Now to get some book on demonology...

As for Raze, his description hints that his origins aren't strictly Skarrd since his Buzzsaw Axe doesn't match up with the Skarrd's weaponry. Maybe 'golem' isn't a perfect term, but I meant it more in the sense of some sort of creature being constructed from more or less scratch or having all traces of its previous existence obliterated by its remaking. Perhaps this is good fodder for fanfiction, since I'm not sure how much we'll hear about his origins in future books. Then again, perhaps he's sorta a preview for a new race...

[Pr0fane]

perhaps he's sorta a preview for a new race...

Getting warm.