Da Karhold Job

The city of Vladstock was burning.

Thousands of screaming Imperial Citizens swarmed the streets, climbing over wrecked vehicles and their own dead in a desperate attempt to flee the ravening hordes behind them, but the warriors of Chaos are not so easily evaded.

The PDF were well equipped and very well trained by Imperial standards. Among their officers and commander was many an Imperial Guard Veteran, and the Governor himself a former General who had commanded his men under the skies of a dozen worlds in the Emperors name. In every mountain pass, in every plain, from city to city the Karhold Planetary Defense Force bled the Chaos armies for every foot of ground, but it would not be enough. For not even the most disciplined, loyal, and fierce soldiers could stand against the legions of Traitor Guard, Chaos Mutants, and corrupted Astartes arrayed before them.

There were simply too many.

Planetary Governor Alexander Rikeman considered this fact in the depths of the command bunker he had ordered built beneath the Governors Palace when he first assumed the worlds throne. The screaming horde of Heretics was tearing up through the center of the main continent, with lesser elements tying up forces elsewhere on the planets surface, preventing them from behind re-deployed to reinforce the primary defensive line.

He could not have prepared better, he knew that much. He had built up infrastructure and military in equal measure, funding new reactors and factories as well as great walls around his cities and fortified bunkers to relocate his PDF bases to. In his time in the Guard he had learned just how vital such preparation could be in determining whether a planet stood or fell.

His would fall purely out of ill luck.

There would be no escape, no reinforcements. A great howling Warp Storm cut them off securely from the outside, he wasn't even sure if his distress call had gotten through. The people of his world were trapped with the invaders for the duration, and that was looking to be a very long time.

The situation appeared to be utterly hopeless when the small Space Hulk entered the system.

"Sir, the ship is hailing us. They appear to be Orks."

Alexander buried his face in his hands "Excellent. That's EXACTLY what we need now."

"Well sir, it's a fairly small ship. There can't be THAT many of them on-board. They might even attack the Chaos forces instead of us."

Alexander sat up suddenly, memories of a particularly brutal campaign against the Tyranids flooding back to him. Maybe, just maybe... If they made the Chaos advance falter, if they bought just a little more time, it might be the difference between victory and death for Karhold.

"Put them on, I have an idea."

An aide pressed a button and the holo-projector before him fizzled to life, displaying a massive Ork dressed in tattered patches of armor, presumably from defeated foes, and draped with dozens of coffee mugs and the remains of a Tau Ethereals formal robes. He didn't look quite like the other Warbosses Alexander had encountered in his career, but he figured that there were likely to be exceptions to any rule in such a big galaxy.

"Good afternoon, Warboss. What brings you to this system?"

"Dats Warboss Urtylug Titanloota Dursnik to you, ya' Umie' git. An' don't you ferget it."

Titanloota? As in a looted Titan? Could he still have it in his possession? Alexander disliked seeing such a mighty War Machine in the hands of Xenos as much as any loyal Imperial, but even a small Titan would be of immense help. "My apologies, Warboss Titanloota."

"Dats better. Now, we was goin wiv' Gromkills Waaagh! to fight dem Tau gitz, but we came out ere'. Dem Blood Axez gitz keep sayin' dat a good Freebota' mob can work for Umiez an' still be Orky, an' I'm willin' to give it a go. You got any gitz need krumped good?"

Amazing, just amazing. A Freebooter Warband with at least some Blood Axes branching out into working for Humans for the first time, and possibly in possession of a looted Titan or Gargent, appearing here when he most needed it was nothing short of miraculous.

Then again, there had been several miracles on that Tyranid campaign to, and the hand behind them turned out to be far from the providence of the Emperor, he gritted his teeth as he recalled several ghost-readings of ships at the furthest edges of the system just before the Warp Storm sealed them away from the rest of the galaxy. Well, if this was the path those meddling, arrogant bastards deigned to present to him, he would damn well take it, but he would also keep the handful of Shadowsword tanks that the PDF had acquired from a Rogue Trader close behind any Engine they fielded, call it fire support.

He put on his best diplomatic smile, which was probably sufficient to appear diplomatic to an Ork if not a real diplomat: "Warboss Urtylug Titanloota Dursnik, you have come at an extremely opportune time for 'Krumping Gits', as you put it..."