Vulture Gunships and Valkyrie Transports
"The Valkyrie airborne assault carrier is the aircraft issued to storm Trooper units and drop troopr regiments for airborne attacks. It has vectored engines for vertical take-off and landing, allowing it to hover and giving it high manoeuvrability, although it lacks the high top speed of a true fighter aircraft. as well as carrying troops, it can also carry heavier equipment such as a sentry gun or the Cyclops demolition vehicle
Whilst the Valkyrie is a transport vehicle, the Vulture is a multie-role gunship, replacing its transport compartment in vafour of extra weapons, Vultures fly in close support of valkyries, providing heavy firepower for drop troops who lack the heaviest weapons"
Scroll down for pictures, click here to see the rest of the TITAN LEGION!
Another day in the Corp...
The soldier carefully peered over the top of the trench, he was rewarded with a hail of incoming fire raising plumes of mud only inches from his face, he quickly ducked back down.
“Damn it” Sergeant John Grimm surveyed the remains of his squad huddled in the old trench works, this was meant to be a simple forward recon mission, things had gone from bad to worse quicker than the blink of an eye when they had run into the Ork Convoy. Not even head intelligence had foreseen the presence f this much heavy armour this far forward. Grimm's lightly armoured Recon squad simply didn't have the means to take out the heavily armoured vehicles and when they walked right into the oncoming Ork force things went belly up. Those among his force who were seasoned veterans new exactly what to do, drop, cover and lay down fire while the rest of the squad did the same, the newly enlisted rookies were not so lucky, several froze, some simply fired on the spot, all were mown down in a wall of fire and cut to pieces in seconds. Since that encounter Grimm's remaining men had managed to retreat to the abandoned trenches, most of the heavy vehicles couldn't follow but a horde of angry, bloodthirsty Orks were hot on their tail.
Grimm had radioed for an immediate evac and it was only a matter of minutes before the boat would arrive and get them out of this hell, John hoped…
‘Sir think you should take a look at what we got incoming” the soldier looked pale, even through the layer of mud on his face.
Grimm moved a few feet to the left and carefully looked over the lip of the trench, his eyes widened as he saw a column of Ork Dreadnaughts closing in on their position.
“Damn it”
“ What's the ammunition situation son”?
“Not good sir, few rounds each, 2 frag grenades”
Grimm took a drag on his cigar, “Looks like its down to me Soldier” He patted his belt and looked down to the melta-bomb hanging there, he knew this was the only thing that would slow down the advancing Dreadnaughts and give his men the time they needed to withdraw to the evac zone.
“Listen up men, soon as you hear those suckers go bang you hot tail it over to the evac zone, don't look back, don't wait for me, that's a DIRECT order, do you understand!”
“Sir yes Sir” came the united chorus from what remained of his squad.
Grimm un-hooked the grenade from his belt and prepared to go over the top, suddenly he heard a deafening scream from above, looking up a blue streak shot by not more than a hundred feet above, the tell-tale thundering of auto cannons filled the air.
“I'll be damned,” he thought to himself, he didn't truly know who had called in the air cover but the timing was nothing short of a miracle as the marauder destroyer ripped open the Ork machinery in front of it. As quickly as it appeared, the destroyer streaked into the distant horizon. Grimm's men looked at each other, each one trying to take in what just happened, a couple of the men started ‘whooping', “looks like we're gonna make it after all sir!” The private began to stand…
“NO, STAY DOW…” it was too late, no sooner had the soldiers head cleared the cover of the trench it was exploded like a melon, pieces of skull and brain showering the two men behind him
“DAMN IT” Grimm screamed, “OK these Green skins are really trying my patience”!
“Plan as discussed, execute in 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 -”
Grimm launched himself over the top and into no-mans land, a scene of utter carnage lay before him, several burning dreadnaught wreckages sent plumes of choking black smoke skywards, body parts lay everywhere, one or two Orks still writhed in death throes, the Destroyer had lived up to its namesake, something caught his eye to the left, one Dreadnaught remained and headed straight for him, raising its weapon arm Grimm dived for cover into a nearby crater, the incoming fire he expected never came. He looked out from the lip of the crater and to his amazement realized why, the weapon arm ad no weapon, simply a jumble of wires and burning metal. The Ork pilot had realized this too and unluckily for Grimm its close combat claw was still very capable of tearing him into tiny pieces, it slammed shut repeatedly as the Ork cackled manically and charged towards him
“Damn it, this is gonna HURT” Grimm pulled the pin on the Melta-bomb and prepared for the worse, he pulled himself to his feet and looked for an opening between the huge snapping claw, the Dreadnaught was nearly upon him, he could see the yellow teeth of the pilot, grinning as it closed for the kill.
Suddenly there was a blinding flash, he closed his eyes and felt the heat on his face, opening them again for the second time today he felt the amazement spread across his face, before him was a smoldering crater, a few twisted scraps of wreckage lay at his feet, all that remained of the Ork killing machine. Suddenly his full senses returned to him and he heard the whine of turbines behind him, Grimm looked round and hovering around 50 feet behind and above him was a Vulture Gunship, his intercom burst into life
“Hey John you crazy old man, did someone here order a shake n bake?”
“Sergey! Does your mother know you're out this late?” Grimm chuckled to himself, Sergey had thought with him many years back in the polais campaign, they had become firm friends in the field and stayed in touch as Sergey had trained and become a pilot in the air cav, if there was anyone he would want covering his back then this was the man.
“ Get the hell out of there John, Mr. scrappy is right behind me and he got a whole world of hurt to rain down on those little green scum suckers”
Grimm didn't need telling twice, he spun on his heels and sprinted towards the trench, overhead another gunship came into view, in an instant it unloaded its deadly ordnance of high explosive rockets into the remainder or the enemy column a maneuver affectionately coined as a ‘shake and bake' by the air crews, Grimm felt the heat on his back and could still make out the screams of dying orks over the explosions and roar of the gunships engines “Beautiful” he thought to himself
“How you like em John, nice n crispy?” Sergey's Gunship “Chow Hound” joined the slaughter; it juddered as it spat out high explosive death into the chaos below
“Head to the evac zone John, your carriage awaits”
Grimm's squad had formed into a defensive circle around the rising column of green smoke that marked the evac zone; John joined them “pleased to see you again sir”
“Not as pleased as I am to be here son, I can promise you” Grimm pulled a fresh cigar from his top pocket, bit the end off and plunged it between his lips, the soldier offered up a light, Grimm took a long slow drag and blew the smoke high in the air
“Remind me when I get back to buy these fly boys a drink, maybe start going to church again, think I owe the big guy one too!”
“Recon 1, this is BIG CHIEF, did someone down there order a ride out of here?”
The Valkyrie descended with surgical precision, it was still rocking on its landing gear as the last Guard boarded
“ You may want to man those door guns people, we got a lot of angry Orks incoming, I think you stole their taxi!”
Grimm leapt over to one, cranked the cocking handle and drew a bead on the approaching orks, the heavy bolter burst into life and cut a swathe of destruction in the sea of green below, he could hear the second door gun behind him chatter into life as it delivered its goodbye present too.
The “Big Chief's” engines screamed as the pilot opened the throttle, the Valkyrie rose skywards bullets ricocheting off its armoured skin. A few guards leaned out of the back expending the last of their ammunition; two frag grenades tumbled earthwards exploding amongst the orks tearing into unprotected flesh.
The rear doors slammed shut and the Valkyrie clawed its way into the sky out of harms way
Grimm took a long slow drag on his cigar “Yup, another boring day in the corp”
|