Operation: Pacifica, Storm the Beaches
by CyberPyro (deadlock@one.net)


 [Note: please see the island map located in the Pacifica Archives for a detailed
  description of the terrain for this story.  It is assumed you have reviewed
  this map prior to reading this story to save time with lengthy
  descriptions.]


 [Time: 0532 hours]
 [Place: waters outside of the Pacifica straits]


 The DTT _Wolfbane_ sliced through gentle, dark waves before the
  looming island.  A heavy mist shimmered over the ship's hull as a darkened
  phalanx of hovercrafts pulled ahead of the vessel.  Useful on water,
  beaches, and moderate terrain, the DE fleet's assault hovercraft were the
  ideal choice to spearhead the attack.


 A member of the phalanx whined loudly, shuddered, and shot ahead of
  its fellows.  The other hovercraft revved their fans up to full throttle and
  sped after their leader.


 Farther out to sea, delicate pre-dawn silence shattered as deck
  guns across the DE fleet thundered to life.  Shells and missiles arched
  across the sky as they chased away the faint starlight.



...




 The commander of the lead hovercraft glanced at his watch: 30
  seconds until they would enter the straits.  Ten seconds later, the first
  barrage from the DE fleet landed in the spongin military complexes.  He
  smiled: everything was right on schedule.



...




 "Reload!" ordered Captain "Bazooka Bill" Williams.  A moment later
  the _Iowa_'s entire deck shook as its sixteen inch guns fired.  The shells
  burned across the sky, whistling towards the spongin military bases.


 Williams lifted a set of binoculars to his eyes and zeroed in on
  the target locations.  The northern wall of a central control tower
  shattered inwards from one of the _Iowa_'s sixteen inch shells.  It exploded
  a split second later in a thick column of flame and scattering debris.


 Another shell ripped through the center of a fuel depot, caused
  metal to sharp, and ignited the newly freed fuel.  An instantaneous
  firestorm howled across the spongin base carbonizing soldiers on contact,
  imploding buildings, and hurling vehicles aside like dandelion seeds in the
  wind.


 "Target: 175, 121. Reload!" ordered Captain Williams.



...




 [Place: Troop Hold, DHT _Xerxes_]


 Nearby outside, a shell exploded.  White light flared into the
  hold, revealing 50 motionless suits of BattleArmor.  The face of Commander
  Sheridan Iscarius, leader of the Chosen of Khorne, cast a harsh shadow on
  the shoulder of his armor.  He, like every man and woman with him, was lost
  in meditation and prayers to Khorne, the Blood God.


 The deep rumbling of the shell's explosion echoed through the hold
  without the slightest acknowledgement from the Chosen.  Almost like a child
  throwing a tantrum who suddenly discovers no one is paying attention to it,
  the light and noise disappeared without further attempts at disturbance.


 _Xerxes_ sped onwards through the rain of debris and chorus of
  explosions.


...




 Much to the hovercrafts' captains' surprise, they had encountered
  little resistance crossing Pacifica Bay towards the spongin city.  A group
  of patrol boats had attempted to block their path, but were promptly plowed
  under the waves.


 Ahead on the beach, small contingents of spongin could be seen
  milling about aimlessly.



...




 _Xerxes_ hummed from the ocean surface to soft, golden beaches in a
  cloud of swirling sand.  It slowly drifted to a halt as its command crew
  checked up and down the landscape for resistance before the remaining
  phalanx of hovercraft arrived.


 "THERE THEY ARE!  GET 'EM!" boomed a spongin commander's voice
  through his bullhorn.  Soldiers poured out of darkened buildings across the
  beach, pointed their rifles to the sky, and opened fire.


 "NO! NO!! GET *THEM!*" screamed the commander as he pointed down
  the beach towards the Jihaddi hovercraft.  His spongies promptly lowered
  their rifles and fired several hundred rounds into the sand thirty yards in
  front of the hovercraft.


 "No, no, no..." cried the commander as he cradled his head in his
  hands.  Making one last effort, he snatched the bullhorn from where he'd
  dropped it.


 A small group opened fire after their leader screamed directions
  for the third time, the concept finally understood in a rudimentary fashion.
  Bullets began to pepper the hovercraft as more spongin, always just a bit
  too slow on the up-take, figured out what to shoot.


 In response, _Xerxes_' commander released the clamp on the troop
  hold.



...




 The hold's door fell open and embedded into the beach with a spray
  of sand.  Commander Iscarius looked out into the faint light of dawn and
  spotted spongin approaching their hovercraft.  In a motion unconsciously
  synchronized with all the Chosen, Sheridan closed down his helmet, lifted
  his weapons, and stomped forwards.


 "Blood for the Blood God!" screamed the host as it pounded from the
  hovercraft's hold.  Captain DarkSide leveled his Auto-Chunker in unison with
  nine men under his command, whirled its barrels up to speed, and fired
  steady streams of grenades at the b'harnate forces.  Scores of their
  projectiles blossomed into fiery flowers throughout the battlefield.


 Commander Iscarius, Lt. Comm. Windigo, and Sergeant Perazim, along
  with thirty two other Chosen opened fire, their XRifles[tm] set on full
  auto.  The spongin host panicked when it realized death was upon it.


 Sand exploded in fiery spheres in and around the retreating spongin
  only to be pierced by searing streams of plasma that carbonized clothing,
  skin, muscle, and bones before literally ripping apart what remained of a
  spongin's corpse.  The cries of the dying, always brief and high pitched,
  were drowned out by sounds of weapons fire.


 "They're getting away," frowned Captain DarkSide.  He lowered his
  Auto-Chunker.  Spongin reached the rickety beach houses, found they could
  not all fit in the narrow space between buildings, and trampled their
  kindred to escape.


 "I see," replied Captain CyberPyro as he and his four men pointed
  awkward, large-barreled rifles towards the sky and fired with a cascade of
  loud *FWOOMPs!*  The shells streaked across the sky towards the routed
  spongin military.


 Suddenly, the spongin stopped trying to squish through the
  buildings to get away from the Jihaddi.  Someone was whistling, so a
  musically inclined spongin, always known for leading the Hell Wyrm War
  Chants, began whistling loudly.  Since the musical leader started a song the
  other spongin stopped their terrorized run.  A few more started to whistle,
  and the rest joined in as a rendition of the War Chant began.


 "I luv.." sang their leader.  Six shells simultaneously exploded
  with each one blossoming into eight separate, star patterned explosions that
  ripped horizontally through the singing spongin.  The fire, burning bright
  enough to illuminate the beach as though it were noon, tossed spongin bodies
  about like leaves in a stiff fall wind before evaporating their flesh and
  dropping them indifferently into the sand.


 Lieutenant Commander Windigo registered more shells exploding
  behind the buildings.  Spongin slammed into the wooden walls a split second
  before the shockwave reached the structures and shattered them.


 "Impressive," smiled Commander Iscarius.  Burning planks of the
  buildings rained down onto the Chosen and clanked off their BattleArmor.


 The beach fell silent except for the hums of hovercraft and
  lappings of waves against the shore.  Fifty Chosen stood with smoking guns
  and grim silence mere seconds after opening fire.  Several hundred dead or
  smoldering spongin lay interspersed throughout the beach with debris.


 "Thank you, Commander," replied CP as he reholstered his FireBomb
  Rifle.


 "Commander!" yelled Captain Samhain as he and the 10th Company
  stalked across the beach.  The Chosen's officers exchanged brief greetings
  and fell into formation.


 "We need to get there," intoned Commander Iscarius as he pointed to
  the east, across Pacifica, towards where the Lyran Fortress waited for the
  Jihaddi, "We leave in three minutes!"



...




 "I want one," smiled DarkSide as he examined one of the latest
  productions from Zeta Squadron in TRES Corps.  He turned the weapon over in
  the hands of his Wrath of Arioch BattleArmor.


 "It's all yours," spoke CyberPyro as he clomped into the
  hovercraft's hold in his Nemesis BattleArmor, another of Zeta's recent
  productions.  He returned a couple of moments later.


 Each arm of his BattleArmor were locked inside a large cannon of
  strange design.  The armor's feet sunk into the sand up to their ankles and
  pulled back out as CP clomped across the beach with DarkSide.


 "I'm afraid to ask..." started DS.


 "I won't shoot you, silly.  Go ahead," replied CP.


 "OK, *what* are those things?"


 "Well, the first is..." started CP as the Chosen advanced in the
  spongin city.  Behind them, the Jihaddi landing force had assembled and
  began marching towards the Lyran fortress nearly 40 miles away and a mile in
  elevation above them.


 It was not going to be an easy trip.

        CP
Copyright, Pyrokinetic Productions, Inc. (1997)