The Culture explores 40K II: Now With 100% more Fanfiction

[jseah]

part 6.5 Orks - Finale (Necrons finale, not the orks)

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A Note: the teams deployed to the planet surface are Contact & SC. And about 2/3 drones. SC teams refers to this, apologies for omission.

Since the SC teams have set up defensive emplacements outside the entrances, they have come under attack from Orks. The Necron Lord appears uncooperative despite our help.

One of the Orks frontline leaders issued a challenge to the SC team along the largest entrance to the Necron tombs, saying that he will fight the leader in single combat. While the teams do not have a hierarchical structure of command and we have no intention of honouring the result, no matter what happens, this is an excellent technique to stall for time and one of the SC team members, who is an personal combat hobbyist, has been encouraged to take the "bait" and draw out the battle.

The combat between the SC agent and the Ork "boss" (as he calls himself) went on for over three hours as the SC agent repeatedly disabled the "boss"'s weapons and damaged his limbs without critically injuring him. Reportedly, the SC agent finds it great fun to spar with the Orks since they appear to be incredibly resilient and blows that the agent would have easily killed any citizen with (and was thus restricted from using them in sparring sessions) the large Ork merely shrugs off with a broken bone that appears to heal very quickly.

The combat, which has gathered significant attention from the Ork camps, included a few of the sub-commanders who have tried to also join the battle and were killed or driven off either by the "boss" or the SC agent. This was interrupted when three Monoliths (name from IoM records) of the Necrons teleported around the SC defensive site and began attacking the SC team.
The monoliths unloaded a large number of Necron warriors and "floaty things" (name attritbuted to Memis Trayer), as well as a lesser number of more specialist vehicles or infantry, both identified and unidentified.

Shortly after the battle started, Large Sticks Speak Softly decided to rate these Necrons as hostile and decided that a large demonstration of power was required to gain their attention. SC teams were given clearance to use maximum force, with an attention to a showcase of the Culture's military superiority.

An initial salvo of plasma weaponry were attenuated by a triangular energy field projected between the three Necron monoliths. Readings and specifics of this field have been taken but the field projector in the monolith is nearly undecipherable. While the attacks of the SC team were hindered by it, they managed to disable large portions of the Necron force within a few seconds, but they displayed significant regeneration capabilites powered by the field. It was noted that in high shot density areas, the "floaty things" could indeed be destroyed if they reappeared while a shot was passing through them.

At this point, the GCU decided not to risk SC team casualties, which would spoil the superiority effect, and destroyed the monoliths with one shot of a high-energy x-ray CREW each. (an SC agent reported that it looked like a pencil thin column of light from the sky that made the monoliths explode)
The "floaty things" proved susceptible to displacement and were forced into orbit, where they appeared to survive unhindered and teleported back to their underground tomb.

The rest of the Necron forces were easily dispatched without loss, using a combination of battlefield displacement and mirror field-guided weaponry to rapidly provide unlimited angles of attack that the Necrons (and orks) were unable to respond to.

Unfortunately, knife missiles proved unusuable against Necron armour unless equipped with a plasma sheath penetrator. In any case, the Necrons appear unfazed by simple decapitation strikes, being able to quickly regenerate from such damage on the battlefield. Full vapourization or explosive disintegration of the body chassis is required for their deactivation, which unfortunately, requires the self-destruction of the knife missiles.

No green marks were seen, that and traps appear to be the primary cause of the SC team casualties from Curiousity Saved the Cat. Why the Necrons did not employ the green-mark weapon this time is unknown.

So, how would I fight a flashy ground battle with Culture level tech and a dug-in SC team? Simple.
Bury a short-range displacer in the ground, have everyone wire to it to displace.
Every person fires one shot and immediately displaces somewhere else to fire another. Drones can use mirror fields to bounce back missed shots or direct CREW fire around obstacles to more important targets. Knife missiles find primary targets (battlefield commanders and supporting forces) and self-destruct their antimatter power core.

The result is a force that is tactically mobile with direct fire weapons that can skid round corners and with a cloud of 10cm long micromissiles each with a maneuverability and independence to find and target key points.

A decentralized style of fighting that exploits opportunities and flexibly responds on each member's initiative. Every man is his own squad and commander, fluid and impossible to pin down. An archetypally Culture style.

Guaranteed to cause sheer chaos which the style excels at coping with.


Wonder how the Orks will respond to THAT?