Guard Heavy Weapon Crewman
|
Turn to the Jungle
It was a black night, and as padded across the clearing towards me, I knew it was either gonna be me or him. Seeing me, he lunged, but I already had my bolter to bear. As I pulled the trigger, he was thrown bodily back across the clearing his life blood spraying through the air around him. I dashed across the clearing, and put a final slug between his eyes to ensure he was dead. I had no respect for the treacherous bastard lying on the floor before me. He had betrayed his Emperor, his Brother's and Race. And all so that he could gain a little more power and hold onto life for a thousand more years. I spat at the corpse and turned away.
I called to the rest of my team, but got no response. I stilled as I heard bolter fire in the jungle behind me. I spun round and slammed against a tree, expecting bolter rounds coming my way. But there was nothing around me. As I listened, the firing grew more sporadic, until it stopped completely. I tired on the radio again, but still no response. Checking the area around me was clear, I headed back to where I had last seen the team.
The sight that met me there was appalling. There were two battle brothers there, they seemed as if sitting, but their chests had been ripped away, and their heads lolled in the cavities left. A little way back there was another one, but he had no head, it had been shorn away, the ragged tear still spurting blood, stopping now though. My squad hed been decimated in a matter of seconds. I had scouted ahead, to return to this scene of bloodshed and carnage. I turned on my radio...
And all the Field Command heard was a wet squeltch as the bullet burst out of the Marine Sergeant's skull. And a thud as the body hit the floor.
Bravo Enroute
Mission Log: Operation Huskhound
Time: 0230
Officer: Sergeant Luther Konral of Bravo Squad
Squadmates: Battle Brothers Augustas Cormak, Braitad Lombax and Burmak Petchenko
When command imformed us we were heading into the jungle to find a missing squad, I was pretty dubious about the importance of the mission. But seeing as it was either that, or go on clean up around the city, we packed up and headed out. On the way to the Raven, I quickly briefed the squad,
"Listen up men, we're being sent into the jungle to find a missing fire team. They went silent around 2 hours ago, just before midnight. They were in quadrant Alpha 3 Tango when they last radioed in, heading north. We are going to find them. Assess their condition, and in the chance they are fine, we are to assist them in their mission."
"Sarge, what if they aren't ok, and in fact are all dead?"
"Well, aren't we optimistic?."
I waved a hand to quell the retort.
"In that case, we are going to retrieve the scanner they were carrying, and finish their mission for them. And then bring their bodies back or retrieve their gene seeds'. Do any of you have any medical knowledge?"
A chorus of "Nope", "No" and "Nada" sprung up.
"In that case, I guess we are gonna have to bring the bodies back with us. Now, get onboard, we've got quite a flight ahead of us."
Time: 0258
As we hit the ground, the pilot sent me one final transmission,
"The sun will be rising soon, and this area is a no fly zone during the day, so if things go tits up, you're on your own. Good luck Brother and Good Hunting."
I nodded to him, called my team, and we headed out on the hunt. The first 20 minutes were uneventful, as the major nocturnal hunters were starting to drift off to sleep, and the massive reptiles that hunted by day rose with the sun. But as the sun rose, we started to run into bigger and bigger problems. The clearings presented the fastest routes through the undergrowth, but with reptiles the size of Rhino Transports using them to sunbathe, each excursion was one fraught with danger.
As we passed through the first clearing, the light of day just creeping over the trees, we heard the stirring of life inside one of the numerous warrens that littered the edges of the clearings. We headed away from it, but from the one directly in front of us a roar emmited, followed by a Borshak lizard on its hind legs. But it had made one vital mistake, between it and us was a fallen tree trunk. As we dived for cover, the Borshak jumped over us, exposing its soft underbelly. We opened fire, bullets peppering its softer hide, but even so, nothing penetrated it. Just as it began to turn to face us, Cormak opened fire with his minigun, the armour piercing rounds ripping through the soft belly scale like a Tau Railgun through one of our tanks. A think green-blue blood misted the air around the Borshak as it let out a high pitch scream. It fell to the ground, its legs giving way as its guts dropped to the ground around it.
Then, we heard a chorus of roars, and as we looked around we saw at least 12 fully grown Borshak lizards prowling across the clearing towards us. Rather than expose ourselves, we hugged the underside of the fallen trunk, and waited. The lizards came closer. And closer. But then, ignoring us completely, they started to devour their still living bretheren we had gutted. At that point we turned, still keeping one eye on the gathering of lizards, and slowly crept across the clearing towards the jungle. We were less than 30 metres from the jungle vegetation when one of the smaller Borshak pushed away from the feast saw us. It let out a roar, and ran towards us. Time slowed down as i screamed at my squad to run.
"Run! Run for your fething lives!"
As I screamed at them, I stopped running, dropped flat and rolled onto my back. As it ran over me, I drove the Chainsaw Bayonett of my bolter up and into its stomach. I rolled, but wasn't fast enough, and was rewarded with a showering of lizard blood. While I hadn't killed it, I had seriously hurt it and it decided that we weren't worth eating after all. It retreated slowly, still facing us and roaring patheticly. That was when the bigs ones finished eating, smelt the blod dripping from the young Borshak and tore it limb from limb. And while that was happening, some of the biger ones who didn't get to the youngster in time, smelt the blood on me, and began to run. I jumped up, and saw my squad mates in front of me.
"What the hell are you still doing here? I told you to bloody run!"
I screamed at them as I ran. Looking past me, they saw why I thought it important, no live saving to run. And then they ran, following at my heels. As we ran into jungle, creepers grabbed at our armour, thorns snagged on the leather pouches, but we kept running. Just behind us, I could hear the lizard pack smashing through the trees to get to us. As the canopy rose higher and higher above us, the light intensity grew less and less until we were running though what looked like thick green water. Suddenly I remembered what the thick green vapor was.
"Stop breathing! Don't breathe unless you have you helmet filters activated. This vapor is toxic, breathe in more that a couple of breaths, and your hard will stop within the minute."
There was a faint but audiable hiss as the filters for four different helmets cut in simultaneously. Then, one bright spark decided to turn and open fire as the lizards began to stumble around the clearing. And instantly we were consumed by fire, the green vapor having ignited, then exploded.As the fire burnt through the leather straps and pouches we were wearing, we watched as the lizards became dragons, with fire exploding from their throats.
"Well, who knew, the vapor from the memoralis lycandium is highly explosive. Who'd have figured? I guess that explains the random forest fires that occur."
I heard the Team Controller speaking in my ear.
"Well, you took your time. Thanks for the assist Anya."
I could hear the sarasm in my voice, but I didn't regret it. She was supposed to assist us and relay infomation, but instead we had been 'abandoned' for want of a better word.
"I'm sorry Luther, the solar flares are pretty hot today, I can't guarantee permanent comms. On the other hand, I can let you know that you are now less than two clicks from where we have traced fire team Omelia to. You have two options. You can continue to travel through the jungle, or just over 200 metres up ahead, there are a series of abandoned warrens Omelia travelled through. The far end of the warrens is pretty close to where we expect your objective to be. Your choice."
"Roger that Anya." "Listen up men, up ahead there are some abandoned animal warrens that we are going to travel through to bypass more jungle. At the far end we should be pretty close to Omeila. The thing is, we don't know if they are actually abandoned as Omelia never reported in afterward, so there may be hostiles. I want you all to swap to either melee or close range weapons and Burmak?"
"Sir?"
"You're taking point."
"Sir, Yes Sir."
I watched as Burmak pulled two shotguns that had been slung round his neck. And with one in each hand, he led the way. I just need to add that any normal marine can only wield one, but when Burmak got the hormone treatment, something went wrong. And he ended up being about one-and-half times the size of an ordinary marine, so it was his job to weild the big guns. In open combat his weapon of choice was a machine gun that normally had to be opperated off of a fire platform. And becasue of that, he changed his name to one similar to that of the Brumak, the more fierce hunter on the planet.
He strode ahead, cutting through creepers as thick as tank barrels and young trees as wide as a full grown mans waist as if there weren't even there. As we reached the warrens, a leaping colagur jumped at him. He dropped to his knees, caught its' head between his outstretched hands, and casually crushed its' skull. And it wasn't a small colagur, about the length of a scout bike, and the height of a kroot hound. Then, after attaching a torch to the side of one of his shotguns we descended into the warren.
The Warren
Mission Log: Operation Huskhound
Time: 0320
Officer: Sergeant Konral of Bravo Squad
Squadmates: Battle Brothers Augustas Cormak, Braitad Lombax and Burmak Petchenko
The air was thick, musky and wet. There was a smell of stale dung combined with the fetid rench of rotting flesh. The walls glowed an unnatural pulsating blood red. Every step I made was accompanied by the constant crack of dry, brittle bones under my boots. As we trooped into the darkness I noticed small signs of life. Piles of fresh animal gak, half-eaten remains and many, many eyes watching from the far corners of the warren.
"Eh, Boss. I thought you said this place was abandoned?"
"Well remembered. I did." "Anya, what's going on? You said this place was abandoned."
"Well Luther as far as we were informed it was. I'm ripping your helmet camera feed now. Might I suggest that you stand your ground, and don't move or make any loud noises?"
"Thanks Anya. We sorta guessed that one. So, what the feth are they?"
"I can't make out much, but they seem to be some sort of subterrain dwelling insect, and they look well armoured."
"Roger that, see if you can find out more for us." "Listen up men, whatever they are, they are new, we haven't seen them before, but we sure as hell aren't going to let a couple of litlle grasshoppers stop us on our mission are we?"
"Sir, No Sir," Came the reply back.
"Good. Brait, look around, tell me if there is any way out. Burmak, make sure your shotguns are ready. And Cormak, you haven't got a couple of flashbangs handy have you?"
"Umm, lemme see sir. Incendary, Fragmentation, Krak anndddd nope no flashbangs. Sorry boss."
"Never mind, just going to have to improvise. Brait, what d'ya see?"
"Sir they've got us surrounded on all sides. And they don't look like they are here for fun."
"Damn. Ok, on my mark. Cormak lob a couple of Incendaries over to our left. Burmak, discharge one shotgun to our right, faint that way, but then I want you to blast ahead, then sprint through. Brait and I will support you. One we start, they are gonna pounce. So we gotta be fluid. Everyone run behind Burmak. Ok. Noowww... GO!"
The plan went of flawlessly, the sudden attack on all three front confused the insects. But the sudden movement didn't. Many pounced, but Brait and I kept them back, the rounds sending them spinning in all directions. I saw Burmak go, and I ran, tucked in behind Cormak as we ran and shot our way out of the warren. But then I heard a cry behind me.
"Noooooo" It cut off with a sickly wet ripping sound.
I turned around in time to see Brait being dragged back to the warren. The dark earth was being stained with the blood pouring from his throat as his head bounced wildly from side to side. I saw the others turn. I saw them start in the direction of the warren.
"Stop. We are not going back in there."
"He's our brother. We are going to save him."
"He's dead. You saw that as well as I did."
"No, maybe he's just unconcious. We need to rescue him."
"No, we are not going back in there. What would he want? Another person to die trying to recover his body? No. He'd want us to go on. And to rember him in our actions and our words. But now. We. Will. Press. On. Do you understand?"
"Yes Sir"
I could hear the bitterness in my teams voices. And I heard it in my head. But I knew that we needed to press on, no matter the situation. But then I swore to myself, that once our mission had been completed, we would come back. And we would recover.
Time: 0336
We had marched in silence. I knew the men were unhappy with my decision, but they didn't know what I did. They didn't know what was at stake if we were to fail.
"Ok, listen up Luther, I've got an update."
"Anya, I'm listening" My irrate voice spilled over the radio
"I've analysed those creatures and they seem to be some offshoot from the Tyranid Genus. My guess, they we abandoned when a hive retreated, and when they were out of its control they became feral. From there they have evolved into what you saw earlier."
"That's nice Anya, you got anyting useful for me?"
"I'm going to ignore your tone becasue we do." Her voice perked up, "Once you've located you objective, radio me becasue we've got a surprise for you. And trust me, you are going to love it. Anya out." She turned off the radio before I could interrogate her.
I heard a cry from the front of the miniature column, and fearing the worst rushed up. But my fears were misplaced. No one was in trouble, but we had found what was left of the fire team. The small clearing was covered in blood, some, the deep red of marine blood, but some was a dark purple, only seen in that which had been chaos tainted. Lying amongst the blood were the bodies of the marines. But they were un-recognisable, the animals had got to them, and the only body parts that laid untouched were those that were securely enclosed in armor.
As we approached, a couple of rats scurried out of the chest cavity of one marine, but they didn't make it far. One was shot, the bullet ripping through it, spraying its guts across the floor. The other was crushed as Burmak slowly crushed it under his boot. I let them deal with them as I already had other targets in sight. I caught sight of the Sergeant across the clearing so I went over. I rummaged his body, but it was gone. Either the animals had taken it, which I doubted, or whoever had gunned down the fire team, which seemed far more likely. I activated my radio.
"Anya, come in Anya. We have located fire team Omelia, but there is no sign of the bomb, whoever killed them must have taken it."
"Roger that Luther. Send me your co-ordinates, and I will send you the necessary assistance. Have you had any luck with recovering any gene seeds?"
I sned her the co-ordinates then replied, "No luck, the animals have already gotten to them. Sorry Anya."
"No problem, you tried. If you hang around, we have an aerial drop for you. ETA 35 minutes."
"Roger that Anya, we'll be here. Luther out" I snapped the aerial down, deactivating my communicator.
I pulled off my helmet, taking a deep breath of the thick jungle air. I turned to my squad. It was time to tell them the truth of what was going on.
The Truth
Mission Log: Operation New Dawn
Time: 0342
Officer: Sergeant Konral of Bravo Squad
Squadmates: Battle Brothers Augustas Cormak and Burmak Petchenko
"Ok men, listen up. I have been cleared to inform you of the true nature of our mission. Fire team Omelia had been sent out here to deliver a bomb into the heart of the Chaos camp. They were to disguse themselves as Heretical Space Marines and deliver the bomb. They failed. So now that mission falls to us. But there is a serious problem. The Heretical Marines have aquired the bomb. So we must first recover it from the Heretics, then devliver it back to them."
"Uhh, Sir, couldn't command activate the bomb and just leave it at that."
"Nice idea. But where would the fun be in that? I'm kidding. They’ve tried. But while they can locate it, they are unable to activate it. Most likely the Heretics have removed the fuse. So we also need to re-arm it. It's been traced to what looks like a weapons stockpile. We have sent in scouts, but none returned and all our UAV's were all shot down."
Time: 0417
We were having slight problems with our supposedly secure perimeter when Anya's present arrived.
There was what sounded like a fighter high above, we looked up, and watched as three large crates slowly drifted to earth, large silken parachutes spread out above them. Within minutes they had landed in the clearing. Quickly and efficiently the metal crates were taken apart to reveal three Jungle Panthers. The Jungle Pathers are the latest addition to the ever-expanding vehicle options of the Blood Dragons. Driven by one man, they had been designed for agile flight between trees in the jungle. They were armed with twin-linked lascannons and an underslung heavy bolter. Back to the Panthers later.
As I was saying, our perimeter had been slowly pushed inwards until it vaguely resembled a circle. But rather than wait around, I ordered the men to fire one last sortie of lead into the oncoming Heretics, before ordering them into the Panthers.
As we took off, the noise of the engines was deafening and combined with the rapid bursts from the guns, the sound level was through the roof. I shouted down my headset,
“Ladies, we don’t have time to dilly-dally, so pull your fingers out and follow me!”
With that, I quickly brought my Panther around 180 degrees and fired up the lascannons, mowing down a couple of heretic grunts that weren’t fast enough to jump out the way. I glanced in the rear view mirror and seeing my team behind me, gunned the throttle.
As I tore through the trees, the Panthers’ automated flight system took control, leaving my hands free. I reached to my side to grab a replacement communicator, my original having been blown away in the last firefight. I looked up in time to see a branch as thick as a grown man’s wrist hit me squarely across the face.
Time: 0432
I woke up. I could see the trees above me lit up. The lighting flickered and wavered. The ground was soft beneath my armor. I felt tired, I wanted to sleep, but then I heard Burmak shouting at me,
“Oi! Boss!! What d’you think you’re doing? Lying on the floor when we’ve got a job to do?”
And as he said those words, it all came back to me. I jumped up, remembering why we were in the jungle. I tried to walk, but I couldn’t see a thing.
“Has your night vision gone too? I can’t see a thing.”
“Boss, your helmet caved in when you hit that tree. Both lenses are completely shattered and the electronics are screwed. It no surprise your can’t see. Try taking it off, I’ve got a spare pair of NVG’s.”
|
