Writer's Note: Those interested in the series, be sure to check the full thing out over at fanfiction for even easier viewing!
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8630257/17/Playing-with-Chaos
Something was wrong, Countess could tell that much almost right away as she remained hidden behind a large clunk of metal debris; ruin that had been left behind by the Ork raiding party.
Until now the Orks had been putting up a decent fight while holed up in their captured barracks, taking crack shots as soon as one of the Eldar dared show themselves. With nowhere for them to escape the Orks fought like animals backed into a corner, and their wild shooting made getting any closer to their hideout slow. Worse, the barracks had a clear line of fire for nearly 20 and 30 yards, which gave the shooters opportune targets from nearly any firing hole they defended from. But Countess and the rest of the Harlequin troupe were determined to rout the greenskinned brutes, and dug into their own positions around the barracks.
However, a few moments ago something seemed to come over the cornered Orks. As the Eldar renegades attempted to penetrate the Orks' defenses with feints, and other daring maneuvers, more and more bullets seemed to find their mark in Eldar bodies.
What had previously been a panicked mob of brutes suddenly seemed to have become a trained military force. The Orks were now quicker to detect their ploys, and their shots were fired with much greater efficiency. Several of the Harlequins already laid dead or dying, their blood seeping into the thirsty sand around the barracks. Those who remained of Jester's Troupe started to grow discouraged by the strong resistance they suddenly found themselves facing, and it took all they had not to turn away in defeat by the seemingly impenetrable fortress.
One of those who had fallen did so near where Countess kept hidden. Unfortunately when they died misfortune left their body in plain sight of the barracks. Knowing that the poor fellow might have much needed resources on his corpse, the death jester slowly started to peek around the corner of her barricade. Yet, almost as soon as she did so, she was forced to duck her head behind safety after a quick burst of fire came from the building and bullets rattled against her cover.
Countess swore at the sudden ferocity she and the troupe found themselves dealing with and, with nothing else for her to do, she checked how much ammo remained in her guns.
When Countess and the rest of Jester's troupe blew open the walls near the town center things seemed to progress according to plan. Lulled into a heightened sense of security by Arhriban and his warlocks, the Orks had been badly shaken by series of explosions. This made it easy for the band of warlocks outside the walls to get inside the minds of their foes and make their panic all the greater; there had even been some greenskins who stood petrified in fright as the Eldar bore down upon them.
However, though terrified, most of the Orks retained enough sense to fight back after their initial, especially when the bullets started to fly. Still that had been the easy part and, while the fighting had been bloody, victory couldn't have been more decisively in the hands of the Harlequin troupes. As this dawned on the greenskins they all but entered a full retreat back to the barracks, and while many Orks fell during their run, many more made it to the safety of their veritable fortress.
Then, once the Orks were inside, the trouble began and, no matter how much ammunition the Eldar tried to make the Orks use up, they seemed to have an unlimited supply on hand. To Countess it started to look as though a stalemate hung overhead as neither side stubbornly refused to budge. Then she spotted a familiar figure jogging toward them from where the human homes once stood before they were gutted by flames.
With a dagger held backward in each hand, Jester made his way toward his bunkered down forces. His arms and chest, and a bit of his mask as well, were covered in blood. As the mime drew closer, Countess also noticed that his mask was cracked badly on the forehead near his left eye. Though Jester moved quickly through the ruins, he did so with a caution that was almost paranoid; peeking around corners and constantly turning his head whenever he was exposed.
Still holding her guns, the death jester raised a hand into the air, careful that she didn't reach above her cover, and waved at him. Jester spotted the movement from around the corner of a wrecked home he was looking out from and nodded at his friend. With the coast seemingly clear he fixed his gaze on Countess and ran for her at a fast sprint. However, after he moved beyond the house, he was put in view of the barracks and he found bullets raining down on him. Jester quickly spun to his left and continued his sprint as the sand he previously stood upon was peppered with bullets. A line of fire trailed after him, but he moved too quickly for the Orks to aim at him accurately, and he slid behind cover with the death jester.
As he leaned against the metal barricade and panted for breath, Countess looked upon her bloodied friend. On impulse she dropped her guns and flung her arms around him.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing?"
"I've been hoping you would come any minute now! It's been horrible over here without you Jester! The Orks are firing at us too quickly, and none of us know what to do. We just can't seem to get any closer to them…" The death jester released her friend and leaned away to look him over again. "What happened to you? You look awful."
"Huh? I've been killing Orks. What else would I do out here?"
"Jester, your helmet is cracked?"
"What?" The master mime dropped his daggers and reached a hand up to feel his head.
Grunting in response, Jester raised his other hand. After finding the mass of cracks near his eye and tracing some of the longer ones down the side of his cheek, he wailed in despair. "Nooo! That foul greenskin ruined my beautiful face!"
"When I entered through the front gates there were two Orks stationed there. The first one went down easy enough, that's where most of this blood came from actually, but his companion a bit tougher. He must've been an older veteran, that or something happened to Arhriban and the others. One moment the brute was too terrified to move, and the next thing I knew he was coming at me with everything he had." The mime hung his head shamefully. "I feel so humiliated!"
Despite their situation, Countess chuckled lightly at her friend's sorrow. "I'm glad that you're alright Jester, but I fear you may be right about the warlocks. Everything was going so well right up until the Orks hid away in that barracks, and even then they were terribly disorganized! But, and I really hate to say it, they've recently been shooting back at us with aim close to our own."
"Oooh, that's not good. So they have the place locked up nice and tight then?"
She nodded. "Yes. There appears to be a backdoor into the barracks, but nobody has been able to get in close yet, and the front is covered just the same."
"We've been trying to distract them so that somebody can get in close and plant a bomb on the wall. A few of us got together and pooled our explosives together, but the runner we picked went down just on the other side of where we're hiding."
"Did he now?" Jester hummed in contemplation of the situation, and, looking down, pressed a thumb against the metal chin of his mask. When he next looked up at Countess he almost sounded amused. "Then I guess it's up to me to get those bombs since I'm the fastest one here."
"Can't you just use telekinesis and bring them here?"
"I could, but what are the chances that an Ork might notice a few bombs strapped together floating in the air and decide to shoot at it? I don't want to take that chance and waste any more resources than we already have. What are the explosives in?"
Countess sighed and shook her head not liking his idea very much, but ultimately agreeing with her companion. "You're right… We put the bombs in a satchel for the trouper to carry them in – it should still be clipped to his belt. But how are you going to get the explosives? There will be too many shooting for you to try blocking their fire with a shield."
"I'll have to run from cover to cover of course, but first I'll need a distraction. When I got beat by that Ork from earlier he broke my com device, could you call out and have a few guys who are up further jump out and start shooting? While the Orks are dealing with them I'll run over to the other block of debris just over there," Jester pointed to another chunk of metal several yards behind Countess. "That way I'll have a straight run to the body, we'll get another distraction in, I'll get behind here with you again. After that I'll just have to worry about getting up to the barracks in one piece."
Placing a few fingers on her collarbone, the death jester gave her friend one last look. "I hope you know what you're doing."
Nodding her head, Countess pressed down on a small bit of padding on her outfit. "This is Countess. I need whoever is to the left of the barracks front entrance to shoot at the building and draw the Orks' fire."
Countess, this is Rooshal responding. Might I ask why we're going to try distracting the greenskins?
"Our leader has arrived to the battlefield and intends to retrieve the explosives. We're going to give blowing their wall down another shot."
I hope he knows what he's doing…
A moment later Countess and Jester heard several gunshots from up ahead, which was answered by many more just a few seconds later. At the first sound of bullets firing Jester sprang forward for the new cover. The master mime managed to move so quickly that he was already close to the chunk of debris when the Orks became aware of his movements, and their shots sank into the sand behind him. As he leaned against the debris, which was tall enough to let him remain standing, Jester looked into the sky and let out a thrilled laugh.
After taking a moment to look over the Eldar's corpse and locate the satchel containing the explosives, the mime signaled for Countess that he was ready for the next distraction.
Jester watched as she made the same movement as before and listened for the sound of shooting to follow. As soon as he heard the Orks return fire he once again jumped from cover and sprinted for the fallen trouper's body. Yet, this time the Orks inside started to fire at him almost as soon as he revealed himself, and he swore while realizing that they must have been directed to keep an eye on his position. No matter, he was still moving faster than the Orks could keep up, but he knew that safety would only be temporary for he'd eventually have to slow down to grab the explosives.
However, as he drew closer to the corpse a new idea came to him. Reaching a single hand forward and making a swiping motion with it, Jester used his telekinesis to cause a large cloud of sand to kick up. While he was blinded by the action, so too were the Orks inside the barracks, only he still remembered where the body lie.
As shots flew wildly through the sand cover, Jester came upon the fallen Eldar. He quickly stooped down and – with knife in hand – cut through the bonds that kept the satchel fixed to the trouper's belt and retrieved the explosives. Just as the cloud started to dissipate, the master mime was already turning the corner and dropping into a crouch next to Countess.
"There, that wasn't so hard."
"They almost caught onto what you were doing."
"No, but I'm sure they have an idea of what we're up to now."
"That's true, which is why, for this next part, I'll need almost all of you to leave cover and shoot at whatever holes they start firing from. Just please try not to hit me."
"But it's all we've got left! After those last two runs I don't expect them to take their eyes off of our position, so now we'll need to try and blind 'em while I make a run for it. Now, how do I get this thing to go off?"
Countess watched as Jester turned the satchel upside down and slipped the explosive out of the bag. Sure enough, there were five grenades all stuck together. On one side there was a strip of metal shaped like an X with small hooks at the end of each end, and on the other were the grenades. As Jester looked at the device it appeared that the four grenades on every end had their pins connected to the fifth by a wire coming from each.
"So all I have to do is stick this thing to the wall, and pull the pin from the middle grenade, right?"
"That's how it should work."
"Should? Well that sounds comforting…"
"We're improvising as best we can, Jester."
To Countess' surprise, her friend reached forward and cupped her chin in his hand, raising her face so that he was looking into her eyes from behind his mask. "I know you are, and you're doing wonderful… Make the call."
Too shocked to pull away, the death jester placed a hand on her collarbone. "I need everyone surrounding the barracks to reveal themselves and open fire on the building. If you see shots coming from one of the windows, or anywhere else, cut them off. Jester is going to make a run with the explosive and knock a hole in that building."
He wants us to do what? Does he realize how many of us could die doing this?
"It is risky, but this is our last shot at wiping these things out. Be quick when you see one and do your best to stop them from shooting first."
If these are his orders…then we'll obey them. May luck be with our leader. We'll be ready to go when you give the command."
"Open fire on my count." The mime pulled away from Countess and moved to the edge of their cover as she started the count down. "Three. Two. One!"
From all around the barracks Harlequin troupers leaped from their cover and rained fire down on the building from all manner of weaponry: handguns, rifles, machineguns, and whatever else they had on them. Likely puzzled by the display, it took the Orks a moment to retaliate, but, before long, they did their best to return fire. As the area became filled with the sound of constant gunfire, Jester readied himself to make a run for the barracks. Countess too prepared to join the assault, and, seeing this, the mime looked at her before rushing off.
"I do love the tone of your voice when you're giving commands… You sound so strong."
The death jester cocked her head, wondering where this was coming from. "What?"
However, Jester only answered her with a laugh as he took off running for the barracks wall, bullets immediately trailing after him as he left cover. Countess swore and jumped out after him to provide him covering fire. With expert precision she shot at the firing holes that dotted the barracks wall wherever she saw a flash, quickly exterminating the gunmen inside. Though she knew it to be foolish, Countess looked away from the building to glance at friend's back as he made his mad dash to plant the explosive. As she stared after him, Countess found herself hoping he'd make it through the rain unscathed.
