Extraction

Created by Cedu Kuru Qan

The tides of war can be fickle and the besiegers of Scarra had found their luck had turned leaving them pulling back from the city in disarray. As the lancing of a pustulent boil produces a wave of pus, the breaching of the walls of Scarra had loosed upon the besiegers a tide of the Chaos scum that had been bottled up within. The Allies fought to maintain a disciplined withdrawal from the mayhem that ensued, the Iron Peacocks a rock amidst a sea of disorder. The mortal forces of Petrichor clung to their flanks, in danger of being swept away by panic or hordes of the Blood God’s followers. “Lord Thunderstar!” A loud voice attracted the Lord Arcanum’s attention, the Knight Azyros Tel’Makhos Starward hovering in the sky above, pointing off to to their left. “There’s a force over there, ahead of us on our left, moving through the bloodwood copse!”
“Sigmar’s Blood!” He cursed furiously. “Hold them up Tel’Makhos, we need time, we need space!” The Knight Azyros thumped a fist to his chest and raced toward the copse, his wings flashing furiously with speed, the light glinting off the silver of his celestial warblade, ready to do his utmost in delaying the foe at all costs. Aichmos it seemed, had thought of everything, and now they were to be beset on all sides.
*** Traehelian looked back at his small company.


Their journey had been longer, and the past few weeks far harder and more exhausting than they could ever have expected. But then, they had all volunteered to help the Rodrigans find the city from their home pocket Realm. How could they not? These strangers had arrived in Avelorn, fought and died defending Traehelian’s home and people, even helping broker a tentative ceasefire with their beastherd enemies. How could Avelorn have refused to help them find their own people amidst the everchanging lands of the Interstice?
Then their goal had shifted. Some weeks back the lead battle mage for the Seventh REF, Istarian Havard, had returned from the Red Paradox Lounge with stunning news. He had made contact with a mage from the city that they were seeking, and they were neck deep in a conflict with the Barbed King, Aichmos.
Their searching was over, and their headlong rush to assist their fellow Rodrigans had begun. Knight Captain Gorfist, the Expedition commander, had summoned Traehelian then and asked of him the impossible. Traehelian had refused at first, but the Knight Captain had pressed and, cognizant of Avelorn’s debt, the aelf had eventually acquiesced.
Traehelian had no intention of getting involved in a war with Aichmos, the thought of bringing that monster’s wrath down on his battered kinsfolk left him sick to his stomach. He had, however, agreed to lead the Rodrigans to Scarra. He and his company had shown the Rodrigans the back trails, long forgotten paths, and routes that were thought to have been impossible for an army to utilise. His scouts ensured there were no prying eyes to take word of their approach to Aichmos, silently slitting throats or splitting hearts with their arrows when needed. Traehelian delivered what the Knight Captain had asked of him, taking the Seventh REF practically to the gates of Scarra undetected.
And they had arrived not a moment too soon. Knight Captain Gorfist stood beside the aelf, silently surveying the scene unfolding before him. Stormfury’s forces were being tumbled contemptuously back from the breached walls of Scarra by a daemon, drawing a muted gasp of horror from the mage Istarian Havard. Without expression Gorfist watched the defenders of the city pressing their advantage hard and the near rout of the besiegers. His mutated beastman hand clenched around the hilt of his sword until the knuckles cracked. With the other, more human hand, he gripped Traehelian’s shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze of thanks.
“Rodrigos stands in your debt, Traehelian. You have all surpassed yourselves. Now it is our turn to exceed expectations.” He turned his head and called his orders to his officers and the Stormcast. As they ran to comply, he drew his sword, eyes fixed on the terrible scene before him. The movement of the Seventh deploying in response to his orders had attracted attention, he could see a winged Stormcast flying toward them, sword drawn, ready for a fight. He gestured for the advance, the battle drums rolled out a wall of noise, a drumbeat of rumbling thunder and behind him the Seventh gave a deep-throated cheer.
“RODRIGO!”
***
Before the Knight Azyros could reach the strangers moving through the sparse, parched copse, battle drums boomed out from their ranks. A rolling thunder of angry noise, and emerging from the rough scrub of the Pyrelands was another army. No great warhost this, no grand alliance of nations come to compel obedience by strength of arms, but more importantly to Tel’Makhos Starward, no Chaos ally either. “RODRIGO!” They roared out and the realisation that the people of Petrichor were not cut off from Rodrigos and alone in the Interstice left the Knight Azyros blinking back tears in surprised wonder.
An unexpected development for the Barbed King and his foul allies and a welcome sight for the righteous Stormfury. Though relatively small in numbers these were hardened veterans of the Spiral City’s wars. Rodrigans fresh from the battlefields of Avelorn, survivors of the madness of the War of the Woods. Late to the fight, the 7th Rodrigan Expeditionary Force were keen to make up for lost time.
Captain Pavel 'the Goat' Ivansget and the 11th Rodrigan Handgunners stood to the fore. A bristling gunline ready for the enemy, these troops had survived the betrayal at Riverwatch and fought their way to freedom through the onslaught of the undead. They had battled every step of their retreat to Avelorn, buying precious time for their allies to rally the defenders of the Aelven city and they had repeatedly faced down treacherous vampires and their zombie hordes. Not an inch of ground had they surrendered without extracting a steep payment in blood.
Sergeant Baltus led the Tollpayers in the absence of their Captain. Completely encased in their heavy armour they loosed bellowing roars sounding more akin to Beastmen than a Freeguild unit. They had captured and then held the walls of Doomshank Port against all foes and vile magics, raining down fire and fury upon beastherds and the vampiric undead in the long, drawn out, desperate siege of the Beastherd city.
Brother Inigo's Intermitted Incarcerants howled wild battle cries, unfazed by the odds against them.
They had also survived the betrayal at Riverwatch and had spearheaded two valiant assaults upon the stronghold nest of the Valencourt vampires. Sworn to die in reparation for their crimes against Rodrigos, no mere Chaos army could shake their nerve.
The Stormcast Eternals of the 7th Rodrigan Expeditionary Force emerged from the ranks of their mortal allies and the Knight Azyros beheld friends he had not seen for many years, foremost amongst them the frightening Knight Vexillor Arioch Tungholcraeft.
With a ferocious shout of defiance, the Knight Vexillor planted his Meteoric Standard and called down a hailstorm of blazing sky-stones and meteors. Whole Khornate units were either pummelled into panicked, fleeing mobs or wiped out in their entirety. The Chaos army’s advance began fracturing as their flank suffered beneath this punishing assault. The 11th handgunners let rip with a vicious rolling volley, their ranks firing and reloading in turns, the 22nd and 59th handgunners following suit, and then suddenly, silence. A quiet moment for the blood-soaked oppressors of Scarra to think that they had weathered the worst, before the thunder of Raemsey Starcleaver’s Vanquishers and the Tollpayers charging into close combat drowned out the frantic orders of the Barbed King’s commanders.
Rhynn stood almost as astounded as their hated enemies and yet he had been partly responsible for orchestrating the timely arrival of the 7th with the Mage Istarian Havard. Like two drunks wrestling, trying to land a punch when interrupted by a third, the armies of Stormfury and Aichmos shifted awkwardly in response to the sudden and devastating arrival of the 7th REF. The Khornates were knocked back onto their heels for the moment and Stormfury’s allies could now see a route out of the dire circumstance they had found themselves in.