The Unholy Legions of Anti-Sanctus Chaotica, a Warhammer Online Destruction Regiment, A message delivered

"Take this message with all haste to the Greenskins on the other side of the Valley. Make haste, but ensure you go around rather than through the valley. We wouldn't want to alert our dear friends to our limited presence." The black haired Druchii Disciple said to the young druchii warrior as he mounted his horse.

"Do not fail me." The disciple said in menacing tones, the molten bronze colored orbs stared intently at the young Druchii. He handed the message to the mounted knight and turned back towards the other five druchii who were sharpening weapons and fixing bits of armor, fletching crossbow quarrels and otherwise preparing for battle.

The young Druchii tucked the note away in his belt pouch and kicked his mount sharply in the ribs, tearing out of the camp at breakneck speeds upon his horse.

A magus under Zemok's command hovered over on his disk while watching the young Druchii ride off, the pounding of hooves already receding into the darkness of pre-dawn.

"What is it that is so important to send a message to the greenskins? I doubt any of them can read it anyway." The magus said in bored tones.
"Oh, that message is not for the greenskins." Zemok said with a half grin that appeared both amused and menacing.

The magus tilted his head at Zemok as the disciple finished strapping on various weapons and armor pieces, fitting his vambrace on over his padded human skin gloves.

"If not for the greenskins, then who? Have we another ally nearby?" The magus asked.

Zemok glanced in his direction, focusing intently on the magus' face for a moment, then shrugging. "Someone once told me that all play games."
With that he walked away and began barking orders to the other Druchii, all of whom were warriors of one sort or another.

Zemok watched his small band and thought it was a pity he did not have a Druchii sorceror on hand, but instead the inquisitive magus. If the magus valued his life he would listen more and speak less.

Zemok braided his long black locks and strapped his half faced helm into place, the metal plates of the helm covering the lower right half of his face, plates fashioned in the likeness of finger bones reaching out to spread over the right side of his face, leaving the left side of his face exposed.

Strapping his twinned ritual blades snuggly into place he picked up his holy chalice and hung it from his baldric by a specially made hook carved from the knuckle bone of a dwarf.

As the squad assembled Zemok addressed them "My fellow Druchii...and magus. You all know what to do, move quickly and stay out of sight. We need to be in place by predawn tomorrow."

With that, Zemok mounted astride his mutated warhorse, a gift of the Dark Lords. From a distance, it appeared to be a normal midnight black warhorse, but up close you could see the venomous stare of blood red eyes, hide that was tough and scaled more akin to a Cold One than a horse. Its teeth were razor sharp and in place of hooves it had three thick toes with wicked Talons at their tips. There was no mane to speak of, only small ridged spines, and the tail was a thick, meaty affair with rows of small, thick bony spines protruding down the length. It was not the same as riding a cold one, but at least he didn't have to cover himself with that noxious goo anymore, Zemok thought.

The squad nodded silent agreements and wordlessly they spread out through the trees, the only sound a faint whirring of the magus' disk and the soft plodding steps of Zemok's nightmarish mount.

*******

The lone Druchii knight continued his mad dash across the valley entrance, taking the trails that the Disciple Zemok had shown him on the map. It was imperative that he get this message to the greenskins in order to complete whatever inventive plan the Khaine maddened Druchii had come up with this time.

He knew he needed to pass the crossroads before the sun rose, or the warriors amongst the men would be up and about. He came tearing around a bend in the path and felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. Looking down in amazement he saw the quivering shaft of an arrow jutting from the shoulder joint in his armor. Before he could react, the angry bark of a pistol shattered the quiet of the pre dawn, and something slammed into his chest, knocking him from his horse.
Even as he struggled to regain his breath and struggle to his feet, Human warriors were closing in on him rapidly. He managed to gain his feet with a snarl, whipping his blade from its sheath and swinging it in a broad arc before him, catching the first warrior by surprise as the wickedly sharp blade cleaved through his throat.
It was a hopeless battle, but the Druchii Knight snarled savagely in defiance, determined to take as many of them with him as he could.

His repeater crossbow was unfortunately still attached to his horse, which had galloped away, stupid beast.

Shrugging and painfully drawing his second sword with his wounded arm, he charged the group of warriors who were rapidly approaching on foot, followed closely by one of those damned Witch Hunters.

The center warrior rushed the Druchii head on, babbling something about Myrmidia. He wore heavy bronzed armor, with a large shield depicting a blazing sun sigil. In his right hand he weilded a large ornate sword. The dark Druchii and the Knight of the Blazing sun met with a clash of steel. Sword clashed against sword, the Knight of the Blazing Sun efficiently blocking the Druchii's quick strikes with his shield or his blade, the druchii blocking the counters with his own blades or nimbly dancing out of the way.

The Druchii was running out of time, the other humans were getting impatient, the Witch Hunter had reloaded his obnoxious pistol. With a deft feint to the head of the Human knight followed by a spinning slash to the exposed thigh of his foe, the Druchii shouted in victory as his opponent fell with a gasp of pain.

One of the human warriors charged in from the right and the Druchii reversed his spin, burying one of his blades into the seam of his foes armor beneath the armpit, and hamstringing him with the other.

As he turned to face the third warrior, the Knight of the Blazing Sun grasped the Druchii's ankles with both hands and pulled viciously, taking the Druchii's feet from beneath him. The surprised Druchii hit the ground with a dull thud, grunting in pain and astonishment.

The Witch hunter walked up and casually pointed his pistol at the Druchii's exposed head, shrugged and pulled the trigger.

*********

As Zemok's small party made their way into the valley through the dense woods, in the opposite direction that the messenger had been sent, they heard the sharp report of a Witch hunters pistol, followed by a few screams and shouts, followed a couple minutes later by another concussive boom from another pistol shot, then silence.

One of the Druchii turned to Zemok with a questioning look on his face, and Zemok simply shook his head and pointed in the direction they had been heading.

Shrugging, the Druchii moved forward, and the party continued on in silence.

**********

Graug squinted up at the afternoon Sun, idly scratching his armpit beneath the heavy iron of his breastplate and wondered how much longer he would have to wait. Apparently the others were thinking the same thing. Tur'uk, a small goblin squig herder approached the massive Black Ork nervously, eyes twitching about and refusing to make direct contact with the huge battle hardened Ork.

"Um..we's gonna kill dem hummies? Where da skinny elf go? He said hummies wi..." His questioning ended as he caught a backhand from the Black Ork warband leader that sent him tumbling across the rocky escarpment the Black Ork stood on, nearly sending him careening to his death.

Graug snorted and said,"We kills em when we kills em. Not killin dem before. Dey come like da skinny one sayz. We wait."

With that, the Black Ork clunked away back to the encampment.

**************

The humans rode at breakneck speeds through the woods, their fallen comrades straddled across the backs of their mounts. As they careened madly into camp the Witch Hunter leapt from his horse before it had even stopped, sprinting to the Unit Commanders tent.

"Sir!" The Witch hunter panted, as he tore open the flap of the Commanders tent.

A large, gruff man still struggling to pull his clothing on snarled," What?! Can't a man get dressed before you barge in on him? Damn.!"

He ran a hand through his graying hair, idly rubbed at the matching stubble on his chin then sighed. "What do you want? It better be important."

"Dark elves. Over 500 of them, according to this. A full fledged raiding party, and they know where we are. They will strike at dawn." The witch hunter said as he tossed the intercepted message onto the commanders rickety field desk.

The grizzled Commander frowned and picked up the letter, looking over its content's. "How did you come by this?"

"We intercepted a Druchii messenger going from this party to whoever the recipient was supose to be. Possibly some Chaos cohorts. There have been roving squads seen in the direction this dark elf was heading."

The commander nodded. "We are only 200 strong. We cannot take double our number of Dark Elves. Do you believe this to be true?"

"Aye, there is no way they knew where we were, I believe it to be true." The witch hunter nodded, tipping back the wide brim of his hat.

"We'll fall back to the entrance of the valley then. We can move into some of the caves in the area and defend ourselves if need be. Send a group of scouts to the village and tell them to move. We'll be back as soon as we can figure out how to outsmart those damned Druchii."

The Witch Hunter nodded. " As you wish, Commander."

With that, the Witch Hunter left the tent and began shouting orders to the human soldiers.

****************

Zemok's party had come to a small clearing in the woods, a short distance from the human encampment, not far from where the scouting party had passed earlier. They had, in fact, ridden right past the hidden party.

"It appears they have intercepted our messenger." The magus said crossly to Zemok as they watched the humans gallop past with a couple bodies draped over the saddle.

"Yes, it appears they have. Our plans have not changed." Zemok said nonchallantly.

"What do you mean? They know where we are now!" The magus nearly shouted.

"Do as you are told, and shut up. I will not tell you again. I will tell you what you need to know, when you need to know it, and not a moment before. Everything is going as planned." Zemok smirked.

"You..you KNEW he was going to get captured?" The magus said incredulously, his eyes bulging out of his head.

The magus felt a prick in his thigh, and looking down saw one of Zemok's ritual blades had barely pierced his flesh. Zemok stared intently at the magus, and watched with idle amusement as the blood drained from his face and he visibly weakened.

"Your life is forfeit with but a thought. In fact, you would be dead already if I didn't have use of your skills. Now, stop being a nuisance and do as you are told." Zemok said with a vicious sneer.

"Ye...yes, m'lord." the magus stammered.

"That is better. Now, remember, when they come...do as you are told."

Zemok glanced around the small party, they all nodded cautiously at the Disciple and spread out into their positions.

Soon enough, the human scouting patrol crept into view. They were fairly silent by human standards, but the Druchii heard them long before they came into sight.

Zemok raised one arm and five Druchii repeater crossbows were raised to shoulder. He held a moment, until they were all in view, then brought his harm down in a sharp gesture and all the druchii launched a barrage of bolts simultaneously at the blissfully ignorant human scouts.

Cries of pain and anguish erupted from the party as crossbow bolts ripped into them and their mounts. At a gesture from Zemok the Magus sent a ball of chaotic fire screaming into the limping Knight of the Blazing Sun that Zemok had noticed to be leading the party. A Sigmar priest ran up to tend the Blazing Sun knight and Zemok spurred his unholy steed to action. He bore down upon the priest at a dead run, leaning down off his mount he took the Sigmar Priests right arm off at the elbow with a hard swing of his Ritual Blade.

The priest fell to the ground screaming as Zemok wheeled around for his second approach. Several more fireballs whizzed by, exploding into human victims. Another barrage of crossbow bolts zipped through the air, thudding into the helpless human party.

As Zemok closed with the Sigmar priest warrior again, his mount tearing chunks of earth from the ground with his taloned feet. The priest attempted to square off against Zemok.

This time Zemok simply rode him down, the mutant horses Talons ripping through his armor and ripping chunks of flesh and intestines from the dying human.

One scout managed to turn his mount about and gallop back towards the human camp. Zemok held up his closed fist, signalling cease fire.

"Let him go, we need him to warn his companions that the dreaded Druchii have arrived."

Indeed, they had arrived, thought Zemok. Nearly twenty human bodies lay strewn about in various macabre poses indicating the last moments of their lives. Slain by six Druchii and a Chaos tainted Magus.

"Let us move. We have more work to do, and it wouldn't do to be caught here if they send reinforcements."

They slunk about the forrest the rest of the day, until they were within earshot of the human encampment. Then they settled down to wait.

******************

The men of Commander Graham's company were scurrying about, packing up camp as fast as they could. The scout he had sent to the nearby village had returned and was finishing up his report.

"....the villagers refuse to leave. They have seen no sign of Chaos or Dark Elves, m'lord." The scout was saying.

Commander Graham slammed his fist onto his rickety table, nearly shattering it under his heavy gauntlet. "Damn them! They won't see until it is too late!" The commander continued muttering under his breath.

"No matter, we must move to a more defensible location. After we have crushed these Dark Elves, we will come back and see if any live. It is the best we can do." The commander sighed.

It had taken all day to pack the camp up, and dusk was rapidly approaching by the time they were ready to move. The Commander roamed the camp, roaring at his troops when they were slacking, offering words of encouragement where needed.

He approached the Witch Hunter who was talking with a Warrior Priest of Sigmar and a Bright Wizard who had accompanied this venture to protect the local villages from the increasing attacks from greenskins and Chaos raiders.

Glancing up at the darkening sky, Commander Graham addressed the motley group," I know it is nearly dark, but I think it best if we are moving before the Dark Elves attack. Who knows how close they are exactly, but I don't plan on finding out before we are in a more defensible location. We should be hearing back from our scouting party soo...."

His speech was interrupted by a shout from behind, accompanied by the sounds of thundering hoove beats.

Turning about, the Commander saw his scouting party, or more precisely, the one member who had survived. Druchii crossbow bolts sprouted from both rider and beast.

The scout somehow managed to dismount and stumble over to the Commander before falling to his knees in the dirt.

Coughing up blood, in between sentences, he gave his report. " They were everywhere sir! Crossbow bolts flying from every direction, some deranged Druchii on a Demon Horse killed Brother Doran. Chaos fire burned Sir Loran to death. They were everywhere! Like a plague of Daemon spawn!" the scout broke into a fit of coughing, alternately spitting blood and groaning.

"Brother Machelus, see to his wounds." The Commander said.

The Warrior Priest of Sigmar escorted the wounded scout away, leaving the Bright Wizard and Witch Hunter in audience to the Commander.

Glancing at each in turn, the Commander said " We move now, we should reach the eastern valley by morning and Sigmar willing find some terrain we can defend properly.

*****************

Dawn was rapidly approaching again. Zemok's squad had been tailing the human host through the night. Dawn was approaching and they were nearing the eastern end of the valley.

"Now," Zemok whispered, " we fan out into our positions. When they pass the outcropping of rock on the right, let loose your quarrels into their rearguard. Tan'rin, let something fly that will attract attention from the far side of the human host."

As the human host passed the designated location, Tan'rin, shaking his head in confusion, let loose a flaming ball of fire into the sky, high above the human host.

As the Druchii opened fire with their repeater crossbows a great shout of "WAAAAAAAGGHHH!" echoed throughout the valley.

Between the onslaught of Druchii crossbows, the fireballs of the magus and the charge of the greenskin horde, the humans were thrust into utter Chaos. Some of them screamed about death from behind, many saw the ork horde approaching, some realized there were only a few Druchii to the rear. All in all they lost all semblence of order.

The front lines were rather impressive, as tired and confused as they were, they formed up into battle lines and effectively repulsed the first wave of maddened orks to charge into them.

Then came the squig herders driving a flock of maddened squiggs in front of them. The squiggs leapt clear over top the front line of battle to create carnage and mayhem to the supporting ranks. The front ranks, lacking support from the rear could not hold against the second greenskin rush. Goblin shaman's unleashed their primitive, yet effective magical strikes.

The few Bright Wizards amongst the humans began to organize and retaliate, their flaming forms casting fiery death amongst the greenskins.

Cries of "WAAAAAAGH!" intermingled with screams of pain and battle cries of "SIGMAR!" and "MYRMIDIA!"

The five Druchii, now out of crossbow bolts had entered the fray, forming a cirlce of steel, each guarding the others backs, they weaved their way through the chaos, leaving blood and death in their wake.

Zemok breathed it all in with a pleased smile and spurred his mount into the fray, reaping souls and death as we went.

***********************

Graug saw the fiery magik of the magus explode into the air, and he signalled his antsy troops into battle with a shout of "WAAAAAAAGGGHH!"

He led the downhill charge at the surprised humans. Graug howled with glee. It was just as the skinny elfy had said, they marched right to him.

His pleasure turned quickly to chagrin as the humans formed a battle line quickly, and Graug's charge ran into an unyeilding wall of steel.

Something sharp pierced Graug's armor and he roared in pain. As the greenskin line was thrown back, Graug saw the silly little squig herder he had smacked yesterday nervously standing at the back of the line, shooting arrows at the hummies. "Git in der! Ya skeerd?" Roared Graug at the skittish squig herder.

The squig herder's diminutive chest puffed out, "We showz yu!" he and his squig herder friends herded their squigs into action, which ran, scampered and leapt over the front lines of the hummies, wreaking havoc amongst the lines.

Graug smiled broadly, his porcine tusks glimmering with his saliva. "WAAAAAAGH!" He shouted again and charged the confused hummie lines with his great choppa raised high, howling with glee at each hummie he cleaved, bit, kicked and stomped on.

*************************

Commander Graham knew something was not right. Every instinct in his body told him this was bad. He could not go back though. He had seen the Druchii in action, they needed to find a defensible location if they had any hope of surviving. The east end of the valley had enough natural rock formations, ravines and caves that they could take on a larger force there, even defeat them if they planned properly.

They had been travelling for nearly 24 hours, trying to stay ahead of the menacing dark elves. Two rear scouting patrols had not returned, presumably slain by the dark elves. After those, Commander Graham was reluctant to send out any more scouts.

He was about to halt the division for a brief rest when he heard a chorus of deep booming voices shout "WAAAAAGGHHHH!" and he knew his deepest fears had been realized.

He hurriedly tried to rally the troops, but between the surprise of the greenskin attack and some commotion going on behind him, most likely the Druchii, his troops were in a panic.

Rushing to the front of the lines he rallied the troops into some semblance of order beefore the greenskin charge struck them.

"By Myrmidia HOLD THE LINES!" he shouted. His voice and presence seemingly lending courage to his troops, for the lines did indeed hold, repulsing the greenskin attack, slaughtering the first wave of them.

A large Black Ork who appeared to be the greenskin captain shouted something over his shoulder, and the next, and last thing Commander Graham saw was a flurry of reptillian claws and teeth as the chittering squigg herds leapt clear over the front lines descending upon the unprepared second line of defense, commander Graham included.

************************

The magus had apparrently been battling it out with the Bright Wizards from the looks of things. Two Bright Wizards lay dead, their soul's fire burned out like a used candle. The last one was shouting in glee as he continually torched a burning pile in front of him that was vaguely shaped like the Tan'lin's disk.

Zemok grinned, and approached the Bright Wizard from behind on foot, leaving his mount behind for the moment. He called out to the Wizard when he had closed the distance enough. The startled wizard turned around and his jaw dropped in shock at the sight of the blood drenched Druchii Disciple.

Zemok grinned crookedly and thrust his sword into the Bright Wizards gut, watching the fire dim and finally extinguish as he tore his soul from his body.

Zemok looked about, the battle was over, human corpses lay everwhere amongst a few orc corpses.

The five Druchii he had left approached him, still in a group. One or two seriously wounded. Zemok walked over to them, laying his hands on the wounds he sent fiery, painful magic coursing through his hands into the wounded Druchii, healing their wounds.

One of the Druchii gestured at the molten lump the use to be a disk of Tzeentch.

"Yes. A pity. He was just starting to prove himself useful." Zemok shrugged. Even if he had wanted to ressurrect him, there was not enough left.

Zemok walked off without another word, mounting his Chaos steed and making his way through the bodies of the human host to the leader of his newest greenskin recruits.

Kutulu should be pleased with the greenskin tribe he had been sent to convince. What better way to convince a bunch of smelly orks to join your cause than to deliver an unsuspecting army of empire humans to them?

Fin