Vex Chronicles 3: Hunt

Solarite

Necron starkiller, command center

Gerrisat's sensors searched for his prey. But either the failing plasma weapon had damaged more than his reports told him. Or the haemonculus woman had outright disappeared. His cogitators ran through the recordings of his optics. And he had calculated all potential cover she could have reached. But she just wasn't here any longer. She couldn't be dead. A foe that could survive decapitation would never fall to an exploding plasma weapon.

The remains of Gerrisat's bodyguard squad searched between the consoles. Desmo-7 was still damaged. Aliz-1 and her plasma caliver were lost, claimed by the miasma. And the Desmo clones 1, 2, 3 and 6 had fallen to miasma and dark eldar guns. Gerrisat's bodyguard squad had lost half of its members.

And the rest of the battle wasn't looking well either. The Mendorant troopers had endured. But the forward front of their sappers had fallen. Their sacrifice hadn't been in vain. The smoldering remains of dark eldar anti-grav lined their overrun position. Heavy weapons and shoulder mounted grenade launchers had taken a heavy toll on the lightly armored dark eldar.

But the fall of the Mendor Guard's combat engineers had forced the rest to fall back. A gift the dark eldar had eagerly. They had claimed the first few steps towards the command center. The ballet of charge and counter-charge was slowly turning in the dark eldar favor. And the necro eldar still ran rampage through the rear line.

An uneasy feeling rose in Gerrisat. He identified it as a strong kind of worry. His initial calculations had been uncertain if the Mendor Guard had the firepower to hold their escape route off the fort. Now the logis had to worry if he would get the time to fire the starkiller at all.

"Another attack!," captain Caframus barked. "Center, fall back. Flanks, crossfire. Rear-center, necro hunt."

The captain had the Mendor Guard under control. And with everything Gerrisat had seen during this fight, he had to acknowledge that they were an elite force in their own accord. But even that could not change the flow of battle. Traditional tactics would not work...

Ideas that Gerrisat had banished from his mind returned to him. Those thoughts had been the reason for his degradation from 1st grade to 3rd grade logis. But Vex had brought them back. And again Gerrisat realized that sometimes you needed to use the weapon of the enemy against them.

<Cover me,> he send to his tech guard as he hurried towards the necron control controls.

The entire system was designed for ease of usage. And his previous knowledge with xenos technology helped. But in the end it was more luck than anything, that his eyes quickly fell onto the inner security gun controls.

"Captain Caframus," Gerrisat voxed over the command channel of the Mendorant. "Let your troops fall back. I have a plan."

The captain never questioned the tech priest's words. And he let the Mendor men fall back. It gave the dark eldar more room to maneuver. But Gerrisat could only switch the inner defenses on. He could not influence their targeting priority.

With a button press gauss flayer turrets unfolded from gun sarcophagus. And they opened fire onto the closest targets: the dark eldar forces. Xenos were disintegrated and their assault came to halt. Caframus immediately ordered his read line to turn around and use the brief pause to try and deal with the metal beasts of the necro eldar.

But the pause wasn't to last. The last active Venom anti-grav vehicle focused its fire onto the gun turrets. Other dark eldar warriors aimed heavy weapons at them as well. Gerrisat had only corrected the chances back to uncertain. And the metal haemonculus still stalked the shadows. The winner in the battle for the command center was still not set in stone...