Along with the shipment of several crates of Grim’s sour mash sent to the blood legion imperator Ruinbringer, the primus sent along a radio made by Poppler Swizzlestix as well. He didn’t know if the range would be great enough to pick up anything from the front in blood legion citadel, but thought the device might be appreciated if it did work as intended. It was still a primitive device, but useful in certain circumstance.
Coming up on a cliff face between Liberation Dell and Simurgh Timberland, it seemed quiet, almost too quiet. ‘Hold up here,’ Dinky leaned in to Lefty’s ear and said above the engine, riding on the same tank next to Ironpaw. ‘BEEEYOOP APDAT, WHOOAH!’ Lefty hollared, motioning a circle above his head & making a fist, then slamming on the brakes, the other tanks stopping next to him. Dinky turned to the charr next to him with a skeptical look and raised eyebrow; Lefty looked at him, popping the eternal cigar stub back into a huge grin on his flat mug and puffed away.
They could hear the fighting off to the south, it sounded like things had picked up in a big way. Shredskin and a few soldiers had begun recon to the west, circling their crew. Suddenly she yelled ‘INCOMING!’, with gunfire being seen and heard, pointing to approximately two dozen flame legion lead by two smoke shaman coming from The Toughstone direction to the west, bullets ricocheting off trees and rocks, dirt kicking up all around them.
‘Half circle the tanks in front of this cliff!’ Dinky ordered, motioning where and jumping down, the engineers and thieves running forward to lay cover fire for Shredskin’s return. Mid fight, the radio they brought came to life making noises; no one knew what to think but Grimpaw Grindgear, who grabbed it ducking gun and arrow fire and listened. ‘Li….ank, it’s Big Ta…, what…..or loca…?’
Area where Dinky and some of the 12th Battalion were pinned down by flame legion, between Liberation Dell & Simurgh Timberland
In Blood Legion Citadel, imperator Ruinbringer’s new communications officer struggled to understand what he was hearing, it sounded almost like code in between breaking up. He sent a soldier to get Bangar to hear it himself. The imperator ran up to the radio, ‘What’s going on?!’ he ordered. The officer replied, ‘I don’t know, sir, they just started speaking. Sounds like some kind of code but it keeps breaking up, hard to understand.’ Ruinbringer leaned down to the radio, ‘You said you knew how to communicate last night, what the hell kind of communications officer don’t know how to communicate? Give me that!’
Grimpaw transmitted: ‘Big Tank, this is Pyro One with Little Tank. We’ve got two maybe three flame warbands found us at the circle cliff between Liberation Dell and Simurgh Timberland. We need to get rid of them before they alert their buddies on the other side of this rock. Over.’ Poppler Swizzlestix had caught up to the Primus as he was moving out to the northwest toward Highland Thaw; between he and Grim, they were able to piece together through the broken signal that things were heating up with Dinky and they may need help soon.
Listening to the broken exchange on his radio up north in blood legion homelands, the imperator exclaimed ‘Liberation Dell? That’s at the north wall of Fireheart Rise, behind them all! Who is that?! Who cares about the other legions, with blood legion like this we HAVE no enemy!’ He turned to a guard, ‘Soldier, get my warband, we’re going to Fireheart Rise!’
His ‘warband’ consisted of his warband, and five more warbands, a battalion, as imperator guard. That didn’t include the rest of the huge army he kept at the citadel as residents in the blood legion homelands.
‘Poppler, go to legionnaire Wrathclaw and tell him I want the 12th to head toward legionnaire Dinky near Liberation Dell, right now, and I will be with them shortly. I have to make sure the others with us are on the mark here before I leave. For your friend Grimpaw GO, NOW!’ Poppler snapped to a charr salute, ‘On my way, sir!’ then turned and sprinted toward the six war wagons and nine tanks in the distance. Grimcrotch strode toward the centurions of the 1st, 5th and 7th battalions; secure the soldiers in Onager Bivouac first, he was sure they needed help.
‘Lefty’ Ironpaw war wagon driver, Wrathclaw warband, 12th Battalion
Bullets and arrows kept ricocheting off the cliff to their back, but Dinky’s crew stayed defended behind the tanks returning fire, with Lefty and his other two drivers unloading two gatling guns and a flame thrower, holding the axe fiends and other flame legion melee troops at bay or simply killing them. Ironpaw sat with his head poked out of the hatch, shaking with the recoil of his huge machine gun and yelling, ‘YEAAA, YOU WANT SOME?! COME GET SOME!! BLOODY 12TH YOU FOUND, BIG MISTAKE CUBS, HAHAHAHA!!’
Flame legion bodies ripped to pieces from the three tanks, the few trees not burnt to stumps were cut in half; ammo in the gatling guns was so incendiary when it bounced off boulders behind the flame legion, the shower of sparks caught fire to everything including rocks and dirt around them. Dinky began to laugh, turning to look at Grimpaw, who was doing the same while shaking his head. He didn’t even have to shoot anything, every time he tried and drew a bead, his target fell over already killed by a tank.
Shredskin was smiling as she crouched behind a tank with several soldiers. ‘Who did Wrathclaw get him from again?!’ she yelled to Dinky. ‘Don’t know, but I’m glad we found him, haha!’ he replied. While they were laughing and talking, the tanks were keeping up steady fire, with Ironpaw the only one with his head out in the open, still yelling at flame legion. ‘COME ON CUBS, I THOUGHT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE TOUGH OUT HERE!! STAND UP AND FIGHT, QUIT DYING ON ME!! HAHAHA!!’
A minute later the bullets and arrows stopped bouncing off the cliff behind them, so Dinky stood up to look around; there was literally nothing there but fire, a couple of flaming stumps, and body parts. ‘Alright Ironpaw, you can stop!’ he yelled. No response as the gunner kept firing. ‘DAMMIT IRONPAW, I SAID YOU CAN STOP!’ he yelled, popping Lefty in the back of his head; when the other tankers saw his gatling gun stopped, they did too and climbed out. Grimpaw, Shredskin and the other soldiers moved out to scout the area again.
Ironpaw climbed out of the tank, jumped down then turned to Dinky & saluted, saying simply ‘Woofwoof!’, stoking his stub, and still with the huge grin.
Grimcrotch.com 
You must be logged in to post a comment.