Kharadron Admiral Ordo Bjornssen stood before Team Sparkles, an overwhelmed leader in the midst of panic and chaos. Around him the many voices of the leader of The Expedition called for a multitude of responses to the various tragedies that had befallen the coalition. Most of them included some sort of revenge, and if truth be told, Team Sparkles certainly felt that, no matter what was needed, bloodshed at those that had betrayed them should surely be at the top of the to-do-list.
“Soulbound, I will admit,” Bjornseen said to the team, “that I am unsure of how best to use you, without sending you to your dooms needlessly. There is too much to do, not enough time, and not enough men.”
“I don’ts fink it matters to us Tinman,” Borgut replied, “we feel mad, jus like everyone else. Send us in, we’ll chop off the gitz head and be done wif it.”
“Agreed,” answered Zotikos, “As my good man says, we’re ready, tell us who needs to be offed, and we’ll get it done, or die trying.”
As the admiral looked over the team, he could see the fire in their eyes, the mark of betrayal across their faces. “Okay then, well, if we want to continue our fight against Chaos, that should be our goal then.”
As the Duardin stretched out over the map, he began by pointing down at The Breach, and near it the corpse of the Ur-Whale. “Our intel tells us that Irkut and Sarn are well and truly working in tandem to complete their goals. While Sarn’s forces tangle for the Ur-Whale’s corpse near the center of the Breach, Irkut is looking to shackle its dispersed soul. Honestly, right now, we are not sure where Irkut actually is, but we do have news that may have something to do with the ritual nonetheless.”
“Here,” the Admiral said, pointing to a mark near the Ur-Whale “we’ve heard tale of a horde of Skaven coalescing nearby. We are not sure if the Wretched are working with, or against, their fellow Chaos followers. But as we send the majority of our forces to combat Sarn and Irku, we need to be sure we aren’t stabbed in the back, or have the ritual go off regardless from the paws of a damned Skaven runt. Hunt down this ritual, and bring us that much closer to victory.”
“Look ‘ere, I love me some rat-krumping, same as the next Orruk, but dis ‘ere may not do much see? I heard yous got your eyes set on some leader-killing. Can’ts we get our hands on that there mission as well?”
“Well, I mean… there is a chance we could knock the head off of the Skaven threat at this second ritual. But I do see what you mean…”
“Well, I might have something you could use…” the admiral mused, motioning for one of the Khemists near-by to come forward “this here is my personal revenge option. It’s the biggest one I’ve ever caught, and to be honest, if you drop this within the Soulmuncherz and Undivided… well… I can not think of a better use of it.”
As Errrr leaned in close to the outstretched glowing vase, handed over by Bjornssen, he gasped. “I know what this is…. this here is one of those Endless Spells… I can feel it coming off this vase. It’s…. amazing…. deadly…. how in Allarial’s name did you come by this?!”
“I hunted her myself,” the Admiral said, staring at the crew, “I lost half my crew doing it. But that there is a Purple Sun…”
_______
As the Sunship, a Kharadron Ironclad, made its way down the side of a now half-empty Lake Bykaal, Team Sparkles stood at the helm with a young Duardin by the name of Bitsandbobs.
“I was thinking…” Zotikos noted to the captain, “were going to be going near the primary force of Wretched on the way. Why not take this ship for a little spin and play some target practice….”
And that is exactly what the team did. As they flew high above the clouds and the Wretched forces near mount Nagas’au they let off every bomb the huge ship had, carpet bombing the forces below, killing untold amounts of rats, and sending the force scrambling for cover as they attempted to avoid the bombing, while also battle against the Perpetual forces in front of them.
_______
It was midday as a Team Sparkles flew over the lake towards the destination that Bjornseen had indicated. They were a much happier bunch at this point, revelling in their new-found freedom at being able to strike out and fight, rather than sneak about covertly.
“So, the plan is set,” Zotikos said, “there’s just one more thing missing. How are we going to move that many rats from here, to there..?”
“Well,” replied Borgut giggling like a child, “I must admit, I haves somefing for dat!”
_______
It was easily the strongest Bright spell that Zotikos had ever formed. And a good thing too, as what was required of it was so much more than they usually had the need for. “Here it goes!” he screamed at the rest of the team, as he let off a massive flaming phoenix, its spirit stoked to a searing heat that bent the air around it. The phoenix soared ahead of the diving ship, cutting a massive swath of cliffside, and severing an outcropping below them. Below them, a massive swarm of rats were cut off from a smaller group out on the outcropping.
Following on from Zotikos’ phoenix, Errrr pulled at the local winds of magic as hard as he could. Ethersea poured from around the severed cliffside, flowing into the flaming gap, and whipping up a massive wall of boiling sea spray and steam. And it was behind this wall that Borgut, aloft the crow’s nest, held out a massive piece of warpstone. The thing glared out through the spray, humming and electrifying the air around the ship.
“If you want it!” bellowed the Orruk, “come get it ya gitz!!”
And come they did. Hundreds of rats attempted the jump across the new cavern; they burned, drowned, screamed, and best of all, died. Some made it across, usually leaping over their flying, falling, melting brethren, but not many. And certainly not enough. As Team Sparkles drove the ship past the ethersea death trap, the pulled up against the outcropping, shouting in deviance, and glee at the remaining Skaven, astonished at what had happened to their force.
Screaming, a single Skaven stretched out his tiny hand at the crew, “You defy-defy the great Snifskit!? Death to you! Death and paaaaaiinn!!” and with that the seer whipped out a piece of his own warpstone, biting down hard, and struck out with a massive wave of wither.
Borgut fell to his knees running towards the left-over Skaven. Throwing up as he fell, he bellowed in rage as his body refused to do his bidding. Errrrr, even atop the floating Sunship that was pulling away from the outcropping wasn’t spared. The seer seemed to understand what was going on, cutting down any support that could be lent to the warriors that had dropped down into their midst.
And then, as if on cue, dozens of rats poured down onto the two team members. Zotikos, unencumbered with the Skaven spell, fought off the horde, protecting Borgut as best as he could as his friend struggled to his feet, lifting Ghyranis to his mouth at an attempt to ward off as much of the effects of the spell as possible.
“We need you big guy,” Zotikos exclaimed over the din, slicing four more rats that came for his kneecaps “we’ve got to stop the seer, but first, I need you to help be survive this swarm see….”
“Bluddy… damn…. rats… I hates them!” Borgut bellowed at the swarm, struggling with his shaky legs, but drawing up nonetheless.
And so the pair tore through the hoard, slowly at first, but getting stronger and stronger as the spell wore off. And although it did not take long at all, it seemed like hours of fighting later that Borgut and Zotikos finally tore through the remaining rats towards the screaming seer at the top of the outcropping.
The leader had poured all that he had at the pair, but now that they knew what to look for they managed to avoid most of the attacks, especially with a revived Errrr deflecting and unbinding many a deadly spell.
And then, they were atop him. The leader bounded for Zotikos first, claws scraping across his face, tearing at his eyes. And then, before Zotikos could strike back, the seer leapt out throwing a ball of lighting at the Borgut from mid-air. Borgut, roaring with defiance instinctively blocked with his forearm, and the spell took him straight on.
Straight on to warpstone hanging from his arm that is. The stone shattered immediately, tearing at the fabric of reality for a moment. The seer saw his chance and bounded towards the hole, desperate escape in his eyes. But the hole was there for a fraction of time, and certainly, obviously, not enough of it as the hindquarters of the seer dropped to the ground with the front section of the Skaven through the hole, most certainly dead.
_______
“Well, step one done lads,” Borgut said, breathing heavily on the Sunship, “you got it in you to do just one last hoorah today?”
_______
And so many hours later, as dusk streamed across the sky behind the Sunship, that a purple glow rose from below the happy binding. Two great armies clashed far below them, but they also screamed in terror as souls in the hundreds poured free of their mortal bodies. And Team Sparkles felt very, very, good about that indeed.
