Hunting the Pink Ork

Intel
Pirate leads:
 * 1) Mystery!


 * 1) Suspicion that someone is using imperial codes to trick supply ships destined for frontier colonies into lowering their guard or going off-course, e.g. using Mayday transmissions
 * 2) No sign of Chaos; only Imperial ships to make it back have been those that ignored all distress signals and other transmissions
 * 3) Imperial Navy stretched too thin to handle it
 * 4) Violence! 


 * 1) One of the frontier colonies has been hit by brigands!
 * 2) They claim to be part of the Red Claw pirate company - notorious brand of up-start pirates who only take on human crew. Fight with utter savagery; not chaos but straight-up bastards.
 * 3) Their leader, Gruzzkill Redfang, although never having been confirmed sighted, has a hefty bounty on him.
 * 4) Major thorn in the side of some of the High Lords; at least one assassination attempt against him has failed
 * 5) Colony has a one-month warning before the Red Claws come; ordered to turn over all their valuables
 * 6) Two weeks estimated warp travel time
 * 7) While digging, we find out little on the captain but find multiple references to him as the “Pink Ork”. Their tactics are brutal, discipline is lax and their approach is simple and straightforward. The noble families have taken interest and won a few battles. They appear to be totally human and untainted.
 * 8) Thrills! 


 * 1) One of the furthest parts of the Gaianan Stretch, there’s a small spacefaring human civilisation that hasn’t yet been inducted into the Imperial Creed. Local Administratum is taking a light touch currently. They trade with the Imperium but are functionally independent.
 * 2) They’re norse style raiders and raid the lesser planets outside Imperial reach
 * 3) Their admiral/emperor has just died and it’s election time!
 * 4) They do elections via ritual races across the main continent of their planet with convoluted and byzantine rules to it, but basically everyone cheats and that’s accepted as long as they don’t get caught
 * 5) WACKY RACES - main contenders will sponsor many racers to provide guards and flankers for their primary candidate
 * 6) Race takes place in two months
 * 7) One month estimated warp travel time
 * 8) We identify the three main front-runners and the route


 * 1) Top runner is nephew of dead admiral, using his influence to trick out his ride and get loads of support runners. They’ve been buying a lot of materials
 * 2) Second is a local celebrity, ex fighter pilot involved in their first contact event, now a folk hero and media icon. His exalted status makes him somewhat immune to dirty tricks, so he’s favoured in the polls.
 * 3) Number three is a dark horse - Dirk Dansterdley. Arrived on the even of the admiral’s death then ran off laughing. Has lots of automated security. Rumours abound that he’s the representative of the planet’s downtrodden.

Stalk the ork
'''Niko and Koll head off after the Violence! option, making the warp jump in a record single day subjective (and real) time. Koll is fucked with psychically by Cyclopis or some weird presence associated with him, but doesn’t flinch whatsoever. Reentry is bumpy and they end up crashing back to reality dangerously close to the planet Drakon V, almost skimming the atmosphere'''

'''Drakon V has been under pirate threat for a generation but it’s recently gotten worse and the pirates have basically taken over the moons. The pirates have held their own and driven off some local orks'''

'''The Drakon V PDF gets on the vox and demands identification. Niko’s all “fuck you we’re rogue traders” and the scared lieutenant passes them up to Angus MacDougal, previous leader of infamous mercenary company, the Highland Raiders (cityfighters extraordinaire). Seems to now be some higher up in the local PDF.'''

Angus reveals the enemy ship disposition - the Pink Ork is no doubt gonna make an entrance over vox.

'''Niko sees one of the random acolytes on the bridge die of chronic warpstone poisoning. They elect to deal with it later.'''

'''Tracks in the stars reveals an additional fleet that is in the system. Active augury also shows: '''

Pirate fleet near Drakon V:

Imperial ships, orkified - crude and brutal

A smattering of xenotech


 * 4 raiders


 * Iconoclasts - p28 BFK
 * 1 light cruiser


 * Defiant - p26 BFK


 * Carrier

Pirate fleet near moon:
 * 6 raiders 


 * Iconoclasts - p28 BFK


 * Dual macrocannons
 * 2 light cruisers


 * Endeavour - p26 BFK


 * Snipers
 * 1 cruiser


 * Tyrant - p153 ItS


 * Bombardment cannons, heavy macrocannon broadsides, close-range bruiser. Armoured prow

Admiral Redfang, the “pink ork”, voxes them

They enter combat, bursting into the system using the DAKKAR DASH; skimming past the planet and bouncing off the atmosphere, void shields rumbling and crackling as they hit the rarefied gas

Surprise round:

Allure

Navigators perform tactical positioning (+1DoS for one BS test)

Niko aids machine spirit to enhance man (+70 man)

Pilot maneuvers (6DoS)

Fires las broadside and skaven lances, fucking up a raider and damaging engines

Koll interferes with sensors of Canem Belli (5DoS: -10 to detection for 6 rounds)

Round 1:

Allure

Pilot maneuvers up the ass of the Canem Belli

Niko aids machine spirit, +75 to lock on

Augur ops lock on, 10 DoS; +30 to BS for one weapon

Broadsides fire; 5 DoS - 36 dmg plus crit - takes out a launch bay

Skaven lance locks on, 3 hits plus a crit; -20 man

'''The Canem Belli catches fire from the warpstone blast and the fire spreads quickly, overwhelming the ability of the crew to contain it and reaching the mine bay, which detonates. The ship is torn in two and hulked.'''

Allure fucks off into stealth mode then blindsides the remaining two raiders from the first squadron, disabling both

It’s now initiative 2 - the Allure just finished its turn

'''The Endeavour light cruisers fire off a barrage of torpedoes, forcing the Allure to bank towards them. Meanwhile the remaining functional Fangz group up into a squadron. The Allure opens up on them, doing mostly superficial damage but impeding the maneuvering of one.'''

The Fangz cluster up and join onto one another, three of them maneuvering as one mass.

'''The Endeavours fire another brace of Torpedoes, further hemming in the Allure, and the Fangz make an attack run, landing a couple of solid hits on the Allure. The Allure fires back, crippling one ship and causing some damage to another.'''

It’s currently The Allure’s turn - it has moved and fired its weapons, but not yet resolved its fighter/bomber/assault boat squadron deployment

'''Allure fucks up the Heart of Absolution. Radio silence from it. The remaining fangz are squabbling'''

'''The Hand of Regret manages to ram into the Allure, smashing its prow into the rear starboard quarter, piercing one of the hangar bays. It disgorges pirates, who are quickly beaten back by Niko and the murder servitors teleporting in (meanwhile, three thousand ratings die unnecessarily due to the lack of medical treatment)'''

Niko is planning to bamf into the Hand of Regret next turn

'''Niko slashes through the bridge but the HoR goes to self-destruct. He manages to take our two of four nodes but the last two shatter the HoR in two. He gets back safely to the Allure.'''

Allure turns port, aiming to outmaneuver CK but failing and leaving themselves open to a potential ram

'''Allure takes down void shields and sets the prow bombardment cannons aflame with warp fire. A squadron of assault boats attempts to make a landing, defended effectively by fighters, but fail to make a beachhead.'''

'''They bamf into the warp to avoid CK’s gunnery. Shit gets fucky and madness wracks the ship.'''
 * Snitch has a new dark obsession
 * Fezzig is into the whole “flesh is weak” thing
 * Captain of skaven lance is paranoid and shooting randos
 * Ballistics expert becomes super despondent and tries to kill himself (Koll and Niko stop him)

The Allure survives the failed ramming attempt and point-blanc fusillade, but much of the crew is maddened and their main gunner is out of action

It’s the Allure’s turn

'''They turn to port and target the weapons, although the Skaven lance is down due to madness. They land a solid hit with the las broadside, damaging the CK thrusters. After a bit more maneuvering (and a nasty hit on the Allure) the Allure gets off a shit-hot sniper lance shot, taking out sensors, then totally outmaneuver the CK and almost disable the whole ship.'''

The CK lurches forward and turns to face the Allure, then the asteroid embedded in the prow blasts off towards them, disabling of the CK.

'''Niko teleports towards the asteroid alongside the murder servitors but gets deflected by the anti-teleport field, so they end up floating in space. Niko skitter-jumps about 10,000km onto the asteroid and arrives with terrifying skaven entity things.'''

Koll orders the Allure to fly away from the small Rok and open up with weapons, but the las broadsides miss and the Skaven lance chief gunner is gripped by madness

Onboard the Rok, Niko is faced with about 200 orky dudes with a miscellany of weaponry

Niko brings down a shitload of stalagtites on the orky group

'''The Pink Ork rallies, shouting about taking out “that one from the Emperor’s Zeal” - he seems to have confused us as being with Von Holstein? This might be an attack on us resulting from our actions in Tau space?'''

'''Niko hits him with six warpstormbolter shots. Hallucinations take over “I SHALL BE A HAWK(ORK)” and tries to fly. It doesn’t go well for him.'''

Right arm is shokk gun; left is power klaw

One round hits left arm - 16 dmg done

One round hits chest - 20 dmg done

One round hits head - 9 dmg done 

Niko takes more hits but is still on his feet

'''He finally takes down the Pink Ork, shooting the shit out of him. But the fungus entity infusing the PO jumps to a different “ork”'''

The firing abates momentarily and it turns out the orks have a tracker and thought the Allure was the Zeal on the basis of an Inquisitorial agent telling him so

Niko takes the original PO’s skull and bamfs out, then they obliterate the Rok

While the Allure is repairing and dealing with the humanitarian crisis on Drakon V, a mini-rok escape pods jets off the Heart of Absolution in the direction of the outer-system big Rok.

'''Niko and skaven check out the HoA. It’s completely empty - the weird fungus seems to have cleared it out'''

'''HoA machine spirit is willful and demands only the best crew, but otherwise it’s totally workable. Sensors and shield are damaged, and the hull needs some repairs, but overall it’s in good shape.'''

Screwtooth Cogblight - Klink “captain” of the Heart of Absolution; renamed Alchemist’s Heart