[MOD]
Decrepit Dakkanaut
Cozy cockpit of an Archer ARC-5S
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Note from me, the author™: These two chapters are supposed to go in between a bigger, ongoing story involving an entire regiment of drop troopers, but this is what's done for now. Enjoy.
=== BAD LANDING ===
She flipped off Martin as she jumped backwards out of the Valkyrie with a cheer from the others, making a perfect somersault before going level. She strained to look up, expecting to see the rest of her squad following suit. Instead the Valkyrie was gone, replaced by a black cloud and flaming debris flying everywhere.
With a gasp corporal Elise Konig shot awake, bathed in sweat.
Not again, third time this month. Glancing round she noticed that the others were still asleep with the exception of one. Byron's bunk was empty again. With a sigh she quietly got out, softly padding along the corridor of bunks to the door leading outside. Once outside she felt a slight but pleasantly chilly breeze of the night go over her.
'Hey Elise.'
She noticed Byron sitting with his back against the wall, pencil and a notepad full of scribbles on his lap, he was contently looking at the night sky. Unlike Konig he was still in his jump suit, only minus the bulky flak armour they usually wore over it. She joined in with his stargazing, leaned onto the rail of the porch and looking at the vista of bright lights for a moment. For a brief moment she wondered which one was Elysia, but she knew she was light years away from home. But you could always dream. She picked the brightest star and for a moment imagined that it was home. After a moment's thought she looked back down at Byron.
'Thought you might be here again, don't you ever sleep John?'
'Sometimes, but most of the time I just feel that I can't sleep at all. So I sneak out, have a seat and look up. Stars are sometimes comforting to me in their ancient but simple beauty. At other times they scare the living crap out of me.'
'Why that?'
'One of those might be a future warzone for us to play on. One of those might hold my grave. Though I plan on postponing that as long as possible.'
'Never figured you such a fatalistic career man John, at least not like that.'
Byron let out a laugh and shook his head. He was something of a mystery to Konig. Before he enlisted he had everything: good education, a wealthy family and the promise of a bright future on Elysia as anything but a drop trooper. Instead he threw that all away to enlist with one of the most dangerous occupations in the Imperium: a drop trooper. Death rates during training were already notoriously high at thirty-five percent and the death ratios during actual operations were even more frightening. She noticed that Byron was studying her and for a moment she thought that he was admiring her derrière as she wore nothing more than shorts and a shirt. But no, John wasn't like that. From what Drake had told her and what she noticed was that John Byron wasn't a ladies' man. With a frown she reminded herself that no man would love her ruined face now, running a hand over the bandaged part of her face.
She noticed that his face was serious again and he asked the one question she dreaded to hear:
'Elise? What really happened down there?'
+ + +
Landing went like a textbook instruction, rigorous training overruling any remaining shock and sorrow she had moments before at the sight her squad's demise. Konig performed a perfect landing: touching down, performing a roll and ending on all fours, the armour on her knees and elbows taking most of the brunt of the sudden stop of motion. With a shrug the grav chute detached, dropping hard to the ground. She pulled her lasgun from her back and checked the charge, immediately raising it and aiming through the sights. She was in enemy territory now, danger could lurk anywhere. First course of action was to establish contact with the others.
She tried hailing other squads several times, but some sort of interference seemed to prevent her from making actual contact. She did catch snippets of orders being given and reports being made, but not enough to know what was really going on. Much to her dismay she noticed that the compass on her lasgun was broken. Despite that she thought she knew where she was and where she was going, having studied the map intently and memorizing most landmarks of importance.
Slowly she picked herself a way through the ruined city, staying away from the main roads, instead sticking to the winding alleys and ruined buildings for the most cover. Something made her stop dead in her tracks and scramble into a ruined store, quickly and quietly climbing to the second floor overlooking a rubble strewn intersection. Over the distant fire fights and artillery she could hear people calling out, their accents marking them as locals. Slowly the enemy patrol moved into view, men dressed in simple grey camo uniforms carrying bulky automatic rifles. There was something about them, Konig thought to herself as she carefully aimed at the first man. How could they call their selves soldiers if they walk in the open and disregard all safety by shouting out loud? Unless she was somehow behind enemy lines, where the enemy thought himself safe from enemy fire. She ignored the thought for now, counting six men slowly walking into the open.
'Come on..' she whispered, her finger curling around the trigger. She waited another heartbeat and opened fire, the pop-crack of her lasgun cutting through the seemingly sudden silence as she gunned down who she thought to be the man in charge. As he went down the others went for cover with cries of anger and surprise. One of them froze up, looking at the body in shock. Konig made sure that it was the last thing he'd ever do, ending him with a quick double tap. She quickly scanned the piles of rubble, waiting for one of them to make a run for it. She could wait out for them, though a part of her was screaming for her to run. Maybe just a few more seconds and then leg for it?
There! Movement, just one more shot.
'Filthy rat!'
Someone slammed into her back and made her lose her grip on her weapon, the momentum causing her to drop it out the window. Something cracked against her helmet and Konig fell forward, two strong hands grabbing hold of her and turning her around, the hands now around her neck, trying to strangle her to death. From the look she got the man was hell-bent on killing her with his bare hands, his face a grim mask of controlled rage. Without thinking she chopped her right hand into the throat of her assailant, blocking his windpipe. She shoved him away, kicked his feet out from under him and brought her boot down hard on his neck, crushing the windpipe. For good measure she stomped down on his nose three times, killing him outright. It seemed those merciless close combat drills she had to endure were good for something after all.
'Mother-' she managed to cough as she wiped away tears.
'Andrei?'
With a curse Konig looked for a weapon, dismayed to find out that her assailant was unarmed. She went for her only remaining weapon: her knife. She quickly hid behind the door, deciding that it was better to hide than fight superior numbers with guns.
'Andrei? Did you get that bastard? We found his gun!'
The footsteps slowly ascended the stairs and Konig held her breath as they drew closer.
'Andrei? Didn't you hear me?'
The utter lack of training shown by the soldiers was yet again obvious as the man saw the dead body. All caution was thrown out the window as he entered the room and knelt down besides the body, letting out a gasp of horror at the sight of the crushed face. He turned to leave, making eye contact with Konig.
A split second passed as both sides looked at one another in surprise.
The man reached for his gun but the knife got to him first, thudding into his unprotected chest. Armour was another thing these locals seemed to lack dearly. What the man didn't lack was a pair of lungs as he let out a long scream of pain and horror. Loud enough to make his comrade barge in and forget about any threat. Konig decided to make the best of it and slammed the door shut, hoping to unbalance the man. The impact disoriented him for a moment, all she needed to tackle him, jump on top of him and beat him senseless, the armoured panels on her gloves aiding her with her savage blows. As a coup de grace she wrenched his head to one side, taking him out for good.
Panting she turned to the screaming man, who was on the ground now but still screaming.
'Shut up already!'
He didn't shut up. With a grunt she pulled the knife free and plunged it into his throat, reducing him to a bunch of wet gurgles that grew fainter after a few moments. She then grabbed his rifle, checking the weight and studying it for a moment. It was a bulky slug burper that was set to full-auto. It would seem that breaking away from the Imperium not only made their soldiers a lower quality, but also equipped with primitive weapons.
*creak*
Startled Konig spun round and emptied the clip of the bucking weapon into the door and wall, fist-sized holes punched into the material with ease. Something thumped down the stairs and landed at the end with a thud. A careful glance down the stairs revealed the ruined, twisted and bullet-ridden corpse of the sixth man of the patrol. Lying not far from him was her lasgun, still in functional working order.
As she went down to retrieve her weapon she checked her hour piece, sighing as she noticed that hardly an hour had passed since she jumped from her transport.
It was going to be a long day.
+ + +
'Elise? Are you okay?'
She blinked and looked down at Byron, concern etched on his face.
'gak happened John, a lot of gak.'
He sighed and got up, stooping to pick up his pad and pencil.
'Okay, I get it. But Elise, just so you know: if you ever want to talk about it, we're there for you.'
'I know.'
Byron left her to her own thoughts, finally heading inside for his bunk.
Elise Konig did want to talk about it, but not now. Nor was she entirely sure how to talk about it. She could deal with it, for now.
+ + +
=== SCARS ===
'Okay, glad you could make it.'
'Really Smithy, work on the opening line there or you'll never pick up a nurse or two.'
Corporal Elise Konig sat down on the edge of the operating table as Doc Smith, the former platoon medic turned drop company physician, lowered a set of surgical lights and aimed them at her head.
'This won't take long corporal, just try to sit still this time.'
Doc Smith carefully peeled away the gauze, studying Elise's head wound for a moment. As always Smith muttered quietly to himself, gently but firmly going over it. He sported a scar of his own across his chin, claiming that he got it from a medical exercise gone wrong. She suppressed a chuckle at the thought of medics settling their disagreements with scalpels. It looked like he lost that one.
'Looks to me like things will heal up quite nicely, scars withstanding. Any pain or bothers from the eye?'
Elise shook her head, trying not to wince. She was still a bit woozy every now and then, plus the healing wounds ached from time to time. But those were just minor nuisances, she wanted to get back into the action, or at least fully partake in squad exercises again.
'Okay, that's a good sign then. Give it a little more time and I think you're ready for the field once more.' Doc Smith leaned against a cabinet opposite of her so his eyes were level with hers, his face etched with worry. 'Elise, how are you doing up there? You've been through hell haven't you? Tell me, are you really okay?'
Elise closed her eyes as she unwillingly thought back.
+ + +
'Hey, you okay?' Elise awoke with a startle, her gaze shooting across the dark interior of the store she had used for cover. When she recovered her lasgun from her previous skirmish she decided to hide in a ruin for a moment, just to catch her breath. To her shame she must've dozed off and now it would cost her dearly. Standing at the blown open wall was a soldier, aiming his weapon at her. She could vaguely make out the boxy helmet and compact lasgun. Hoarsely she used one of the three code phrase assigned to all squads.
'I've scaled the reaches.'
'And I've brought back a memento,' the trooper finished with a sigh. Whoever devised the code phrases needed to learn a thing or two about shortening them, blurting them out in enemy territory was not a great way of quickly identifying friend from foe.
Cautiously the soldier approached, his weapon still at the ready. Elise slowly raised her hands, showing no harm. As the soldier got closer he saw who she was, lowering it. 'Hey, you're that Elise chick right? It's kind of hard to miss when you're about the only girl in the company.'
Elise sighed in relief as she nodded, trying to but failing to show appreciation and happiness for finally linking up with one of her fellow company members. She didn't recognize him one bit, nor could she make out his platoon number, dust coated the fellow drop trooper from head to toe.
'Eddie? What’s going on in there?' Someone hissed from the street. The drop trooper named Eddie turned to face the street, using a poor imitation of a bird species found back home. After a moment two more drop troopers carefully entered the ruined store, both of them taking up position facing the street. They were coated in dust as well, probably deciding that going through the ruins is better than the fast route along the streets.
'Where is the rest of your squad?'
'Dead,' Elise sighed. 'Dead before they even hit the ground. AA or something tore our bird apart, I was the only one who got out.'
'Damn, talk about some damn bad luck. You can tag along with us, we've been trying to link up with the others for some time now but without a vox it might be a bit tricky.'
Eddie pointed at the other two dust caked troopers.
'Guy with the busted vox is Manfred, the small guy is Benny and there's me, I'm Eddie.'
He stuck out his hand, which she accepted. Eddie pulled the weary Elise up. She checked her lasgun and adjusted the strap of her helmet.
'What's the plan?'
'Plan? We're making this up as we go.' Eddie chuckled. 'Best we can do now is head for the noise and link up with any other strays.'
'Sounds like a plan to me, best one I've heard in hours.'
'Tell me about it. Come on.'
Benny took point, Manfred falling in behind him, Eddie beckoned Elise to fall in as well, while he took up the rear. Slowly the squad picked its way through the rubble, staying away from the streets. To Elise their progress was at an excruciating slow pace, she wanted to object at several points but decided against it. So that was how they advanced to the centre of the city, slowly traversing the blocks as the precious hours ticked away.
Somewhere around noon they hit the border of the district they were in, a large debris strewn road some ten metres wide between them and the next district. A quiet argument came about as to how best to move on.
'We should move back a bit, see if we can find a more dense section to use for crossing,' said Benny. 'This could be a potential death trap.'
'We move!' Elise hissed with barely concealed agitation, she was fed up with the slow advancing, the overly cautious movements, the needless wasting of precious time, this wasn't what they were trained for. 'The longer we idle the more time the enemy has to do something about the main zones. We need to link up, not play hide and seek!'
'It could be dangerous out there!' Benny hissed in return.
'Dangerous? Are you FETHING kidding me? You're a drop trooper, danger is ninety percent of the job. Well guess what? Tough luck, we are at war, sometimes a risk needs to be taken. Either we all go across or I'll go on my own, I've had it up to here with this pathetic display of soldiering. Have you lost your guts on the way down?'
Benny shot a look at Eddie, then Manfred. Both didn't say a thing in their defence. With a huff Benny sighed and nodded, relenting. Eddie motioned them to form up, with Manfred carefully peeking across the street for several long moments.
'I bet you'd make a good sergeant,' Eddie whispered to Elise.
'She'd make a better hangman' Benny retorted angrily.
Manfred waved "all clear" and they burst from cover, running as fast as they could to the other side of the street.
Almost there!
Something nearby screamed and exploded. The force lifted Elise off her feet, casting her across the remaining stretch like a rag doll. Her head connected hard with a wall, the crack of the helmet hitting the wall the last thing she heard and felt before all went dark.
+ + +
'Father would be proud of you..'
'Foolish girl! Why would you do something like that? Do you have a death wish?'
'Go on, go away, don't you ever come back now you hear!'
'WAIT!'
+ + +
She cracked her eyes open, half her vision gone. Slowly she got up, dazed and confused. There were training sessions that drilled many things into a soldier, even sessions on how to deal with a confused soldier. However, those sessions normally rely on there being several soldiers to hold the confused subject down until he had regained his senses. Elise stumbled for a bit, wondering why half her vision was blotted out. Pain lanced through her as she ran a hand along the side of her face. Looking down she saw blood, her own blood, drip to the ground. She could feel a warm line dribble down her neck. With some effort she managed to pull her helmet off, casting it aside clumsily. More gingerly she probed her face, trying to find the wounds. As she found them more pain lanced through her. At least the pain drove off the drowsiness.
'Easy now.'
She flinched at the voice of the enemy. The accent gave it away. Slowly she turned, slightly swaying on her feet. Facing her was a lad. No, not a lad, but a boy. He wore the same uniform as the other enemy soldiers, his rifle slung across his back. He was smiling, nothing wicked, leering or cocky, just a kid smiling. He held up his hands in a disarming manner.
'It's okay, I don't want to hurt you. Come on, I can take you to a doctor, we have one not far from here, we've taken your friend there as well.'
He half turned and pointed to a small yellow flag fluttering from a tall chimney. Intel had made a note of the enemy using flags to denote certain strong points and locations. It wasn't that far off thankfully.
'See, not that far.'
Elise made a step forward but stumbled. The boy caught her gently, supporting her.
'Easy now, let me help you with tha-'
The knife was in his gut before he could react. He blinked once, tried to scream, tears rolled down his cheeks. His eyes looked at her accusingly.
Why?
That's what his eyes seemed to say as he quietly pleaded for his mother. Elise simply looked back with her remaining eye, watching as life left his.
Because..
It was easy. Natural even. Sergeant Striker was right, when you were pushed far enough killing was as easy as breathing. She twisted, then wrenched her knife free, dropping the limp body to the ground. Without a second thought she stepped over him, retrieved her lasgun and made her way to the building the boy indicated.
She saw Eddie laying by the road, dead. Someone or something got him good, his chest torn apart by something. No sign of Benny, though she did spot a mangled lower leg. It appeared to have been torn off, probably by some sort of explosion. The ragged boot on the end of that leg was a standard issue drop boot. Could the body have been flung aside? She didn't know, nor did she decide to care. As she stumbled on she saw the body of Manfred, his vox missing. He seemed to be okay, his pose suggesting that he was asleep. She carefully toed him over, instantly regretting it as a mutilated, destroyed face looked up at her, his shredded torso wasn't pleasant to look at either. It looked like he was hit up by something. Maybe an explosive device? It didn't matter. Elise resumed her stumble towards the building, deciding that people would pay..
Screams and cries of anguish came from the building. A lone sentry was looking in through the broken door, probably enjoying whatever kind of event was taking place there. As quietly as she could Elise closed in on the man, her knife once more in her hand. She could've gone for her lasgun, but stealth might be more appropriate at the moment. The pain in her face dulled as her heart pounded in her chest, adrenalin filled her system, her senses seemed clear again. She stood behind the enemy, trying her best to keep her breathing quiet. Kicking at the back of the sentry's knee she pulled him back, ramming the knife into his chest several times until it got stuck. Elise pulled her knife free, dropping the body unceremoniously.
She was really getting the hang of the knife work, reminding herself once again to thank sergeant Striker when she saw him again, his drills and lessons on the matter had proven quite useful. With the slick and blooded knife still in her hand she entered the building, following the cries of pain.
'Now then, Ben wasn't it? About those positions..'
'I already told you, check the red grids on the map. You promised you would ease my pain.'
'I will Ben, I will. Now about this transmitter, what is the decryption key?'
'159783645! Please stop the pain now!'
Elise stepped into the room, the knife held by her side. She called out with a rather oddly chosen "hey there", startling the doctor, who dropped the vox in surprise. She'd look like a terrible thing, bleeding from a head wound and red from her own blood, Elise thought to herself as she took a step towards him. The doctor looked round for something, anything to use as a weapon. In the corner were the discarded lasguns of the others. He tried to make a run for those but Elise got to him first, ramming the knife into his chest, twisting it as the guard prevented her from going any deeper. With a knee to the gut she pulled her knife free, panting from the exertion.
Benny wasn't pleased as punch by her rescue effort.
'You dumb bitch, he was going to help me! Ease the pain, help me survive.'
She looked at him for a moment, resisting the urge to shake her head. Both his legs were missing, each stump tied off with a belt, his gut and groin were a mess of bandages and compression packs. He wouldn't be getting out of this in one piece. Elise leaned against the wall, feeling woozy again. Nor could she carry him in this state. Not that she would.
Or should she.
'Benny, shut it!' Elise straightened herself and stood besides the table, looking down on him. 'You just crossed the line. You betrayed us. I heard you squeal before I barged in, it's a good thing there's no working vox around for them to use. Otherwise they might be exploiting those markers and codenames you gave away just now.'
'The pain! This hurts, I'm in a lot of pain, he promised me! He would ease the pain, surely you can understand that?'
Her eye hardened, her hand went over his mouth, her knife in the other. She leaned in close, her voice but a whisper that sent shivers down his spine.
'I will send you to the Emperor and ease your pains in the process. If it were up to me I'd let you suffer here for your treason, but you'd be a liability then, you could be found by the enemy again, made to talk once more.'
He tried to shout, thrashing against his restraints, shaking his head wildly. terror in his eyes. The smell of urine mingling with the blood as he released his bowels in fear. She slashed his throat, forcing herself not to look away, witnessing the final moments of a comrade slain by her own hand.
She released her grip when his eyes glazed over and rolled back into their sockets.
She dropped the knife, it clattered across the floor dully.
She needed to sit down for a moment, things were getting hazy.
She just needed to rest for a bit.
+ + +
A hand shook her shoulder gently, it was Doc Smith, a worrying look on his face.
'You okay? You zoned out there for a bit.' He knelt down in front of her, looking her in the eye. 'You can tell me, I'm a doctor, I can help. I promise that everything discussed here will remain amongst the two of us.'
Elise declined, as she had with John some nights before. Doc Smith sighed and shook his head.
'I can tell that there's something going on in there, I'm only trying to help, I don't want someone like you to suffer because of it. These things can eat you up, break a person to a thousand pieces.'
She declined again, more politely this time as she got up and left his office. This was something she would resolve on her own.
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"THOUGH I FACE THE SHADOWS OF THE WARP, I SHALL FEAR NO EVIL, I SHALL FEAR NO FOE!FOR I HAVE MOAR DAKKA THAN YOU, BITCHES!" 
