Post by Belisarius Vilebroth on Jun 29, 2024 6:09:49 GMT -8
Rheumy yellow eyes leered through the visor slit of Festerbile's antlered helm, piercing a veil of battlefield smoke and pestilent insects that flocked on mass to the morbidly obese plague champion's putrid form. Virulent drool pooled in the bottom of his helmet and dripped from the grill slit as beads of black infectious ichor, spraying as a mist each time the figure's swollen form exhaled a diseased breath. He lowered Rotbringer, his nanogene spore infested mace, down to his side while raising a filthy gauntlet to his brow in order to shield his pus tearing eyes from a brilliant barrage of light descending from the sky. Righteous turbolaser fire speared down through the clouds above like the angry wrath of the gods, descending as a crimson hammer that punched into the packed earth, boiling and obliterating everything in its path in a blast wave expanding out from the point of first impact. Hordes of techno-beasts were swallowed up and incinerated by the growing conflagration, their fleshy parts crisped to ash, while the sinister electronics symbiotically joined to them were fused together as the heat melted them to slag before finally evaporating what little remained into vapour. That first blast was followed by another blinding flash of light as a second impact detonated off to opposite side of the Techno-Wyrm, unearthing a tidal wave of terrain as the planets crust was rearranged by the Victores' cannons, transforming the battlefield into a valley of cinder and volcanized glass.
SNAP! The Plague Reaver cracked the reigns of his cyber-reptilian mount with an audible snap, urging more speed into the thick muscular legs of the diseased war dragon, causing it to trample the techno-beasts in front of it as the Great Sloth raced towards the rear of the Techno-Wyrm he had been marching behind, trying to outpace the pyroclastic clouds rolling towards his position. Then the sky disappeared beneath an intense ruby glow as a third bolt descended from space, this one actually striking its target, as the powerful turbolaser bolt erupted against the top of the Techno-Wyrm's boring head. The kinetic energy transferred from the point of contact flattened those technobeasts marching across the ground, pounding them flat while the backwash of energy scoured the Brothlings from the surface of the monstrous groundborer, scarring the monstrous war machine's armour plating a carbon scored black. Riding behind the chimaric cybernetic construct, Festerbile was largely shielded from the blast by the animate vehicles armoured bulk, allowing him to close the last of the distance as the long slithering mechanical serpent began to take evasive action. That last blast caused the front of the groundborer to dip, biting into the terrain with its snarling drill teeth, tunneling its way into the earth while under the cover of the resulting clouds of sulphur and ash. The fat sausage link fingers of the Plague Reaver's gauntleted left hand snagged a handhold on the rear hatch, allowing him pull his revolting form up to safety, opening the armoured door with a slap of his thick palm, and none too soon.
Inside his armour, Festerbile's diseased and pustule covered rolls of fat flesh blistered and baked from the heat, until the he entered the Techno-Wyrm and the hatch slammed shut behind him. His mount raced behind the descending groundborer for another few seconds before its scales began to turn into ash and flaked away, abandoned by its master to the recently created caldera of hell just outside Jai'galaar. Unfortunate. The cybernetic mutant steed had been a gift from his Foetid Lord, Commander Poxus of the Plague Knights of Runnelsore Keep, upon Festerbile Bubonicus' elevation to champion. It had come with him all the way from the Xeraxus, a former Rakatan colony in the Unknown Regions that now served as the adopted home of the diseased legions of the Reaper Prime. While the Plague Champion cared nothing for the beast, the implied insult demanded an act of retribution, and he knew just the target to vent his ire upon: Jai'galaar. Filthy deck plates vibrated beneath the pounding armoured boots of the Plague Reaver as he worked his way from the back of the burrowing groundborer towards the front. Spinning teeth chewed through dirt and rock, slipping the final few inches of the way beneath the surface as the last of the terrain just beyond the walls of the city was swallowed up by ruby fire, orbitally cleansed into a vast sea of glowing orange, visible as a tiny brilliant mote from space.
Brothlings and other diseased wretches scattered from bulbous Bubonicus' path as the infuriated Plague Reaver reached the compartment serving as the Techno-Wyrm's command centre, setup similar to the cramped bridge of a C-9979 landing craft, with the commanders throne overlooking two subordinate stations manning the semi-sentient war machine's controls. A pair of hideous cyborgs worked in tandem at those stations, their bodies quite literally fused with the groundborer at the waist, their lower halves had long since rotted away and been discarded. A mess of cables snaked down from the ceiling and plugged into sockets implanted into their diseased grey flesh, symbiotically linking them to the Techno-Wyrm's systems. They had felt the impact of the Victores' cannons across the dorsal bow of the groundborer like a strike against their own flesh, suffering searing pain as electrical impulses fed back through the cables joining man and machine. Festerbile seated himself in the throne with a wet squelch as the recently risen heat blisters on his backside popped and oozed out between the joints of his filthy armour plate. He slammed a closed fist on the arm of his throne, causing his jowls to shake even over the rumbling of the groundborer's churning teeth.
"They've boiled away our technobeast army!" Exclaimed the gargantuan gangrenous toad of a knight angrily. He scraped away rust flakes from his helmets strained chin protector as he considered their position. Ninety percent of the forces were just cooked. At most maybe a few stragglers and technobeast outriders might have survived, hardly enough to assault Concord Dawn's capital with, even if they managed to make it across the molten no-mans land. That pretty much left the Techno-Wyrm and whatever diseased minions resided inside of it. "No matter." The Plague Champion gurgled resolutely, pounding a fat fist into a shockball mitt sized palm. "We shall simply have to make more. Fortunately I know just the place to restock our troops." His disfigured maw split in a pestilent grin.
SNAP! The Plague Reaver cracked the reigns of his cyber-reptilian mount with an audible snap, urging more speed into the thick muscular legs of the diseased war dragon, causing it to trample the techno-beasts in front of it as the Great Sloth raced towards the rear of the Techno-Wyrm he had been marching behind, trying to outpace the pyroclastic clouds rolling towards his position. Then the sky disappeared beneath an intense ruby glow as a third bolt descended from space, this one actually striking its target, as the powerful turbolaser bolt erupted against the top of the Techno-Wyrm's boring head. The kinetic energy transferred from the point of contact flattened those technobeasts marching across the ground, pounding them flat while the backwash of energy scoured the Brothlings from the surface of the monstrous groundborer, scarring the monstrous war machine's armour plating a carbon scored black. Riding behind the chimaric cybernetic construct, Festerbile was largely shielded from the blast by the animate vehicles armoured bulk, allowing him to close the last of the distance as the long slithering mechanical serpent began to take evasive action. That last blast caused the front of the groundborer to dip, biting into the terrain with its snarling drill teeth, tunneling its way into the earth while under the cover of the resulting clouds of sulphur and ash. The fat sausage link fingers of the Plague Reaver's gauntleted left hand snagged a handhold on the rear hatch, allowing him pull his revolting form up to safety, opening the armoured door with a slap of his thick palm, and none too soon.
Inside his armour, Festerbile's diseased and pustule covered rolls of fat flesh blistered and baked from the heat, until the he entered the Techno-Wyrm and the hatch slammed shut behind him. His mount raced behind the descending groundborer for another few seconds before its scales began to turn into ash and flaked away, abandoned by its master to the recently created caldera of hell just outside Jai'galaar. Unfortunate. The cybernetic mutant steed had been a gift from his Foetid Lord, Commander Poxus of the Plague Knights of Runnelsore Keep, upon Festerbile Bubonicus' elevation to champion. It had come with him all the way from the Xeraxus, a former Rakatan colony in the Unknown Regions that now served as the adopted home of the diseased legions of the Reaper Prime. While the Plague Champion cared nothing for the beast, the implied insult demanded an act of retribution, and he knew just the target to vent his ire upon: Jai'galaar. Filthy deck plates vibrated beneath the pounding armoured boots of the Plague Reaver as he worked his way from the back of the burrowing groundborer towards the front. Spinning teeth chewed through dirt and rock, slipping the final few inches of the way beneath the surface as the last of the terrain just beyond the walls of the city was swallowed up by ruby fire, orbitally cleansed into a vast sea of glowing orange, visible as a tiny brilliant mote from space.
Brothlings and other diseased wretches scattered from bulbous Bubonicus' path as the infuriated Plague Reaver reached the compartment serving as the Techno-Wyrm's command centre, setup similar to the cramped bridge of a C-9979 landing craft, with the commanders throne overlooking two subordinate stations manning the semi-sentient war machine's controls. A pair of hideous cyborgs worked in tandem at those stations, their bodies quite literally fused with the groundborer at the waist, their lower halves had long since rotted away and been discarded. A mess of cables snaked down from the ceiling and plugged into sockets implanted into their diseased grey flesh, symbiotically linking them to the Techno-Wyrm's systems. They had felt the impact of the Victores' cannons across the dorsal bow of the groundborer like a strike against their own flesh, suffering searing pain as electrical impulses fed back through the cables joining man and machine. Festerbile seated himself in the throne with a wet squelch as the recently risen heat blisters on his backside popped and oozed out between the joints of his filthy armour plate. He slammed a closed fist on the arm of his throne, causing his jowls to shake even over the rumbling of the groundborer's churning teeth.
"They've boiled away our technobeast army!" Exclaimed the gargantuan gangrenous toad of a knight angrily. He scraped away rust flakes from his helmets strained chin protector as he considered their position. Ninety percent of the forces were just cooked. At most maybe a few stragglers and technobeast outriders might have survived, hardly enough to assault Concord Dawn's capital with, even if they managed to make it across the molten no-mans land. That pretty much left the Techno-Wyrm and whatever diseased minions resided inside of it. "No matter." The Plague Champion gurgled resolutely, pounding a fat fist into a shockball mitt sized palm. "We shall simply have to make more. Fortunately I know just the place to restock our troops." His disfigured maw split in a pestilent grin.
"HO HO HO HO HO!"
Booming laughter filled the bridge of the Techno-Wyrm as the groundborer burrowed beneath the surface towards the city, causing the ground above to rattle and quake.
