PreGame Faction Mission 2- The Continent of Dead Quall 1

Ar'yay HiveQueen watched through the eyes of Captain Khalnahatan Redhorns. She mused to herself how those quall born with naturally red horns were so rare and considered quite a prize by the Queen who bore him. Captain Khalnahatan had been an Earther military officer on the planet Mars three thousand years earlier when he gave his human life to the hive in service as a host to Queen Ar'yay as part of a sanctioned military experiment run in cooperation between Republic Iron LLC's cloning labs for Military Vets. He was cloned offered as a host, and sent home without being the wiser as to the eventual fate of his clone.
But this brave Quall had stood on the fields of battle during the Cloner wars one thousand years ago in I.R. Space, and Captain Khalnahatan Redhorns had served Ar'yay bravely in many skirmishes against rival hives as well.
During the rise of Magra HiveQueen it had been Captain Khalnahatan who had led the force to flank the assaulting airships of Magra with Iron Republic starships with extra heat shielding. It had made the HiveQueen so proud.
She was even more proud when Captain Khalnahatan had volunteered to lead the assault force. He stood up in his eight foot Quall N'drone glory, made nigh ten feet tall by the massive Red Fist power-armor/life support system he wore. He had bowed low and demanded to lead the defense force.
How sad Ar'yay had to be to tell him the defense force was already being led by Sector General Deer's Horn Starcruiser under Colonel Heims, an Earther.
But she had a special mission for him, and like the good soldier he was, Captain Khalnahatan Redhorns now found himself looking out across the lava sea towards the imposing cliffs of the Continent of Dead Quall.
The Quall Captain gave an involuntary shudder. For over two thousand years what he now looked upon had been pristine lava, bubbling, moving and frothing as a sea of heat. Before that the Continent of the Fire Spirits had been here, and it had been beautiful. Towering natural fortresses chipped from the obsidian by Fire Giants, and wide ravines of lavarock, where the many species of Fire Spirits had hunted each other. He remembered the many Quall settlements that dotted the Continent of Fire Spirits, even the grand city of Trolopolis, home to ten billion Quall Warriors who served the highest of the Quall HiveQueens, The Queen-Progenitor, most regal of the Queens to ever been seen on the distant shores. Flaming tears dripped from Captain Khalnahatan's alien eyes. There were few things Quall feared, but the planetkiller missiles that reigned down upon the Continent of Fire Spirits hurled down on them by their foe the fallen Falosini Lord Azrael, destroyed all life there.
Many species of Fire Spirit were wiped out, the continent shattered, and hundreds of trillions of Quall perished.
Ar'yay could feel her Warrior's anger growing.
Captain Khalnahatan raged silently as his eyes traced the craggy and seemingly unassailable wall that barred the northern edge of the Continent of Dead Quall. This Continent of Dead Quall was a mockery of the Hive, it was a mockery of the Horde, it was a mockery of the greatness of the Quall N'drone species.
"Wait", calmed the voice of the HiveQueen in his head, "Soon enough we will have our revenge".
"Yes my queen", replied the Captain telepathically, "Today just serves as a stepping stone".
"Soon Deer will give the order", said the HiveQueen's voice in his head, "Wait until the defenses are leveled, then the first and second waves will attack. Then we will see if these Iron Republic Furies are everything Deer claims they can be. If and only if they fail as well is your team to move in and secure the sample of the Frost Generator. We need only one at the end of the day, for this entire operation to be a success."
"Yes my queen," said Captain Khalnahatan, "But what of the thousands of Flayers and Pit-mongrels who will die? The Brethren? All for a simple piece of technology?"
"A simple piece of technology that prevents us from bringing our powers directly against the enemy. That is the only reason they have successfully gotten this foothold. It cannot be allowed to continue. We must discover this technology's weakness or find a way to make the hive immune to it," commanded the HiveQueen telepathically, "If every warrior committed to this fight dies but we return home with a working prototype, this will be a success. Remember Captain, you are saving the lives of ALL future Quall N'drone, of our Hive, and of all Hives."
"Yes My Queen," said Captain Khalnahatan, "The Battle begins!"
Above him a modified Horn Starcruiser, reinforced with heavy sections of thermal shielding, pivoted on its massive hover emitters and turned its modified Domebuster towards the wall of the Continent of Dead Quall, made by the waves of lava that drench its shores on a daily basis and harden in contact with the frost generator root systems.
The Horn Starcruiser's cannon fired, lobbing a heavy projectile across the sea of fire. The alloy projectile cracked a hole deep in the obsidian wall, and exploded. Its liquid nitrogen core flash froze the nearby obsidian causing it to crack and flake away under the weight of the solid wall above.
Huge pieces of obsidian ripped away and slid down the cliff face to the lavarock beaches below. Many of the shards were still razor sharp and a platoon of defenders directly below the wall were cut apart by falling volcanic glass. The trenches around the beach approaches were struck next, and the round carved a half-pipe straight through the trench lines.
It was there that the first thousand pit-mongrels attacked. They were mutant olgogs warped by the Quall N'drone into monsters. They were also armed with artifacts that protected them from the heat, and their enemies cold, and allowed them to run across the Sea of lava.
Many were taken down by the crossbows of the defenders before they even reached the shores of the remaning hundreds funnelled through the holes in the defenses and were deep into the continent.
Then they found the first of the coffins. From inside walked the Dead Quall, huge and menacing undead armed with swords forged with annihilator blood. Their blades cut down Pit-mongrels in droves.
At that moment the third shot left the barrel of the Horn's supercannon. It struck a similar line through the nearest fort walls, destroying a Lariat Autocannon about to target the pit-mongrels.
And a roar came up from the opposite coast as the skies darkened as a cloud of Flayers one thousand thick flew over the coastal defenses ignoring the defenders and assaulting the forts highest levels first.
That was when the 600 Praetorians hidden throughout the two defensive lines moved into position and begin their counter attack with salvo after salvo of elite micro-grenades.
As the attack began to break, a second wave of Flayers and Pit-mongrels joined the battle.
Meanwhile, the Neo-Flayer starfighters defending the Horn Starcruiser were hard pressed to push back the squadrons of Unity Sagittae Starfighters who threatened them.
30 Chaos Starfighters launched from inside the Horn Starcruiser and they cut right through many of the defenders' aircraft with their mach cannons. Then Sagittae aces with their hulls marked with symbols of the Illusive M.D. and the symbols of Garmin Fe joined the fray. They dived past the dogfighting starfighters and focused on the Horn Starcruiser. Splitting into three teams they used their Energy Lances in tandem to cut off the thermal shielding, opening sensitive sections of the Starcruiser to the oppressive heat of Kyrpos.
The Horn Starcruiser fired back damaging some Sagittaes, and destroying a few but not before its engines were exposed and its coolant lines cut. The Hover Engines overloaded and burned out, resulting in the Iron Republic Starship crashing down into the obsidian island below it.
With the Horn now destroyed, Garmin Fe and his Unity allies launched the final and decisive part of their plan. With thousands of Flayers and Pit-mongrels swarming the northern shores of the Continent of Dead Quall, hundreds of deep seismic charges activated. The continent's northern half cracked and split into smaller islands. Some of these smaller islands rose into the air, little more than frost generator root system encased in obsidian and topped by the Forts of the Quall Slayers.
Other sections were ejected upward, killing those attacking the islands and causing waves filled with frost generator sections that had broken loose to be carried onto the opposing shores along with armored coffins carrying Dead Quall.
The Islands that rose to form the Archipelago of Dead Quall now spread from the north end of the Continent of Dead Quall were not the only landmasses to rise into the air. In a feat that may forever scar the collective consciousness of the Quall Hives, the remaining Continent of Dead Quall rose into the sky as well, a huge obsidian landmass bristling with chilling spikes that froze even the moisture in the air around it. It was topped with many cities. Now it was raised high above the choking fumes of the dying Flayers and burnt Pit-mongrel hair as they drowned, forced under the lava by crumbling obsidian.
The sides of the Continent of Dead Quall and its Archipelago were studded with weapon emplacements and began to rain down weapons fire on the closest Quall Settlement that of Le-a HiveQueen, which was already reeling from the waves of lava filled with islands of frost generators. Her Hive was nearly wiped out, overnight she had gone from having 5 billion Quall under her control to having only 2 million who escaped with her to waiting I.R. ships. Her capital on Kyrpos lies in ruins, now infested with Dead Quall, and studded with Frost Generators making it deadly to all Quall N'drone.
Captain Khalnahatan Redhorns arrived at the energy bridge to the Starship carrying his HiveQueen near the Polar Expanse. The loyal Quall Warrior had survived a Unity Sagittae attack on their position, and thought themselves blessed by the First Queen herself when Frost Generators rained from the sky for a moment or two. Three of his Quall Warriors were also carrying Frost Generators. His commlink lit up. How he hated the technological devices, but he could admit he had only survived the mission due to the Red Fist armor's life support systems. The Quall Captain clicked it on and was annoyed to hear the voice of Sector General Deer.
"Khalnahatan you old bull headed fool, how are you?"
"Good Sir," replied the Quall Captain, "How can I help you?"
"You don't need to roll in. My Furies picked up three of the Frost Generators. Not bad for us little guys right?" asked Deer.
"Very impressive sir, what was that trade two thousand Flayers and two thousand Pitmongrels and over 100 cloned humans? For what sir, 6 Frost Generators total?" asked Captain Khalnahatan Redhorns.
"It was worth it," said the voice of his HiveQueen in his head, "We may have just saved the future of our species..."
"But Queen," said the Quall Captain telepathically while he ignore the foul humans prattling, "Even now the Continent of Dead Quall and its newly created Archipelagos move over the lands once held by our ally Le-a Hive Queen. Soon it will finish its destruction here and move on to the next settlement. We must begin an immediate retalliation."
"We are already planning it," said the HiveQueen with a telepathic finality that forced the Warrior's mouth shut his head down in submission and his hooves carrying him through the portal to deliver his Frost Generators to the storage and containment shuttles.