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Da Boss Of Da Dead Prologue | |
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Da Boss Of Da Dead Prologue
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From his vantage point Autarch-General Aelliran watched as his troops began to march through the portal and back into the webway. They marched in well-ordered columns with their weapons held at their shoulders, their bayonets fixed to the muzzles of their rifles purely for show. Many of them had been fresh troops when they had arrived here, but now every last one of them was a veteran of a bloody campaign. Aelliran himself had fought against several of the enemy’s most powerful champions and narrowly escaped with his life each time. He had come to this world with over two hundred and fifty thousand soldiers, including more than five hundred seers. They had been equipped with the finest technologies available to the eldar species, howitzers, machine guns and even fifty of the new tracked combat vehicles in addition to the more conventional wheeled armoured cars. As powerful as his force had appeared on paper the technology of the y’ngir was as far beyond the eldar’s weaponry as the eldar force’s weaponry was beyond the primitive spears and lances that the early eldar had been armed with when they too had fought this ancient foe. Now he had fewer than one hundred thousand troops under his command. The rest, along with most of the army’s vehicles had been lost to the near endless y’ngir hordes. But despite these grim figures Aelliran had considered what he had achieved here a success. The great enemy’s leader had been defeated, entombed forever in his own lair and the continent had been secured. All that had remained was to fortify the eldar’s captured territory against counter attack while reinforcements could be sent before travelling to the world’s other primary continents and finishing off the forces that remained there. By all accounts this was a larger force than Aelliran had faced here, but without the level of co-ordination provided by their leader they would be easier to deal with. But then word had come via a courier from Aelliran’s superiors and Aelliran’s assessment had changed suddenly. The webway had been breached by the nameless horrors that had begun to appear in the alternate reality of the warp and the pathways between this world and the reinforcements that Aelliran so desperately needed to finish his work here were unsafe. With no guarantee that any reinforcements sent to him would make it here safely Aelliran had no choice but to withdraw his troops. Though their withdrawal was well ordered and the y’ngir had made no attempt to prevent it, the eldar warriors knew that their gains had been for nothing. All they saw was defeat. They had paid a terrible price in blood for this place and now they were leaving. If the eldar returned to this world at a later date they would have to start all over again and many thousands more would die for the same land. But to stay here was foolish. The y’ngir, though quiet for now would regroup and attack and Aelliran did not have the men or arms needed to hold them off indefinitely. The sound of a galloping animal caught Aelliran’s attention and he turned to see one of the surviving seers approaching. “Autarch.” The seer greeted Aelliran, “The rear guard has sent word, the y’ngir approach.” “How many?” Aelliran asked solemnly. “Four of their flying machines. They crossed the coastline a short time ago and are heading directly towards us.” “What of Immirian’s force?” Though unmolested by the y’ngir so far, Aelliran had not been lax in his preparations just in case they should decide to launch a sudden attack and he had ordered his subordinate Immirian to remain further behind with a rear guard of a thousand troops. “They were engaging the enemy.” The seer told the autarch, “But the enemy is not slowing down. Even if Immirian had any aircraft he would not be able to keep up with them.” “The
activation of the portal has drawn their attention.” Aelliran said, then
he paused to consider what course of action to take. He looked back at the
line of troops marching through the glowing energy vortex into the webway
before turning back towards the mounted seer, “Tell the soldiers to
continue the evacuation. I will not let the y’ngir keep us here a moment
longer than necessary.” “Then we will fight one last battle before we leave. After that the protection of this place will fall to those who come after us.” |
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Copyright Notice The Warhammer 40,000 universe is the intellectual property of Games Workshop Ltd. The fiction presented here is a derived work. It is completely unofficial and Games Workshop Ltd has not endorsed any of it. |
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