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Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut





Prologue

Under armed escort the ship steamed, terminology so ancient that its origins had been lost to history, for the planet. On board men and women of the Icarus sub-sector paused in their preparations for battle. Long separated from the rest of the Imperium, the 4 stars and 5 planets of the sub-sector had formed a polity and had prospered safe from the horrors of the galaxy. Now, reconnected with their brethren, the people of Ithica recognized that a debt had to be paid, sacrifices honored, and blood spilled. So, they steamed. One ship of hundreds, seeking battle, seeking redemption.
On board, no one slept. On coming voidsmen had crawled out of their racks; watchstanders paused, their attention divided betweens their duties and the 1MC above them; groundsmen waited, listening with rapt attention. All held in their hand a glass with 50 ml of stross; a hard liquor locally produces in their sub-sector, typically 100 proof. The captain was speaking over the 1MC, giving a speech of sorts, and he was coming to the end: “...for too long have we shirked out duties, for too long have we not carried our burden, failed to do our duty for humanity, for too long have we known peace. We have forgotten that there is only war. Humanum imperii Imperatorem!”
As one, 7 thousands heads shot back, draining their glasses. About half coughed, even more had their eyes water, maybe a dozen didn’t react at all. Before them laid a world that was unknown to them, a world on which many of them would be buried.


Spoiler:
So, I am writing, lets call it a short story, about my IG army. Or rather I am writing about what I want the guard to be. I have no formal training in writing, and limited knowledge of actual GW literature, worse yet; the regiment in question is noblebright. It is still set in the grimdark 40k universe though. In many ways, this is a critique on how grimdark has gotten in its own way and become...silly, in other ways, this is just me goofing off. If this was an imgur post I would ask for upvotes before the next installment, it is not; instead, if you are interested in reading this please leave a comment. If you you think it sucks say so and I'll stop posting, if you like it I'll post more. Thanks....and if this is the wrong place for this thread let me know.

fide et honore  
   
Made in gb
The Last Chancer Who Survived




United Kingdom

Should go in Dakka Fiction, and needs a topic-specific title.
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut





Thank you.

fide et honore  
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut





Chapter 1

Sgt. Ramirez was nervous, he wasn't afraid; but, he was nervous. Just an empty feeling in the bottom of his stomach. He paused and scanned the maintenance deck, tanks and APCs were driving outboard to their lifts, while mechanics and loaders scurried about checking energy cells and munitions levels.
Ramirez open the air tight door and went through into the ladder well, sealing the door behind him. The non-vertical ladder had two wide wells designed to rapidly transport troops, but; the space was empty except for Ramirez. He had stayed behind at the equipment locker to make sure that everyone had grabbed their issued gear. By now, the rest of the platoon, if not the whole company, would be formed up in formation waiting for their brief. Ramirez jogged down all ten flights and then exited onto the flight deck; again, making sure that the hatch sealed behind him.
The space he entered had struck him as huge the first time he had seen, now he wasn't sure. APD, commonly referred to as the Erinyes, hung suspended from the bulkhead above. Some were low enough that their landing supports took weight, others were 30 meters up.
The Erinyes sat in threes, Airman ran checks, making sure that the birds would fly and the weapons would fire. All of Sam company was drawn up, each platoon separated from the others. The LTs and their staff SGTs were off to the side having a powwow with Captain Hendrickson. Ramirez hugged over to his own platoon and fell in with his squad. He did a last minute check on his own equipment, making sure that the laspistol had a full charge and that the chainsword was sharp, and then assumed a position of at ease. His timing was good, as the captain broke and all the LTs started walking back to their platoons.
"Atten-tion!" Intoned one of the other sergeants, and the platoon snapped too.
"Gather round" called the staff sergeant as she and the LT drew near. They broke ranks and formed a semicircle around the LT, she normally held briefings like this as she didn't like having to get loud. A quick glance told Ramirez that at least 2 other platoons were doing quarters this way, while a third was still in formation. LT scanned the platoon slowly, looking each soldier in the eye, she cleared her throats and said: "we are going planetside, we're going in for a drop"

Spoiler:
I want to see if I can make something more grimdark by placing something not grimdark into the 40k verse.


fide et honore  
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut





Space was vast in ways that were more than just hard for mankind to understand thought LT. COL Pitcher as she looked up at the holo display. Pitcher was the executive officer (XO) of the Void Assault Ship (VAS) Coriolanus, and she spent a lot of time thinking about range. The planet, Corbin IV, was about 800,000 kilometers away. Well within the actual range of the ship's mass accelerators--macro cannons, she was suppose to call them macro cannons now--but; outside the macro cannons effective range.
Any rounds launched now would be spotted and avoided, those rounds would then continue and strike the planet. And it was a human planet, the orks had only infested parts of it. The lance batteries were another option, a weapon that travels at the speed of light has the advantage that by the time you've seen that it has been fired it has already hit you, but; Pitcher wasn't sure she was happy with the energy cost. That left torpedos, 60 meters long 5 meters wide packed with any number of warhead options, torpedos were self guiding and had a good degree of maneuverability (something that their proper IoM counterparts lacked) and more than enough range. They also had some distinct disadvantages; far slower than the lance batteries or the mass--macro cannons, and large enough to be shot down. Nevertheless, they were her best option, she order fire control to draw up a few firing solutions and the Weps to bring her a recommended payload loadout.
She spared a glance at the captain, by tradition older than the IoM itself the commanding officer of a ship was always referred to as captain. Which is why Col. Sloveki was sometimes addressed with the same title as a company commander. He was over at one of the secondary displays examining potential landing sites on the planet. With him were: LT Col. Williams, the XO of the ground detachment; Maj Payne, battalion A commander; Maj Hauck, battalion B commander, and the twins. Almost none of them looked happy. Not that Pitcher could blame them, the ship only carried a fifth of a regiment, and the rest of the wolf pack was spread out which made it unlikely for the whole division to gather anytime soon. Not to mention that the rest of 3rd expeditionary was at least a week out. All in all, going ground side now was not in the best interest of the troops. Rather, it would be better to remain space side and pick off the ork ships, remove their void and air superiority, while waiting for reinforcements.
And that had been the plan, but then; two previously undiscovered IoM frigates had made contact. When the leading commander of those frigates learned that the Coriolanus was a troop transport they insisted that those troops be landed the help the beleaguered planetary defenses. The captain hadn't spent to long on deciding what to do, the Ithaca systems had only been recently rediscovered many of their beliefs could be considered heretical and state sponsored destruction was around every corner. All suspicion, all question of loyalty must be waylaid. The ship would have to commit now.
"Thoughts XO?" Asked the captain.
"Weapon ranges sir, we have two irk warship approximately 2 and a half light seconds out. I would like to hit them with torpedoes. And then open up with lances and mass accelerators once we are one light second out."
"Macro cannons XO, macro cannons. Proceed with your plan, sound general quarters"
"Aye sir"

fide et honore  
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut





It was only ten years ago that everything had changed. For millennia the 4 stars of sub-sector Ithaca had been cut off from the rest of humanity, unsure of the outcome of the great heresy they had waited. When demons had come flooding in they had thought it was the end. But the people of Ithaca had beaten back the monsters, retooled their industries, and began training on a massive scale. It was then that the inquisitor had made contact. Using arcane methods that were unknown to the Ithacans he had devised when the storms would abate, and determined when contact could be made.
Though only a voice through the void the inquisitor already knew so much. He knew that Ithaca had been cut off before the court ding of the Imperial Religion and thus followed the Imperial Truth. He knew that the Ithacans still had the Imperial army and a unified chain of command. He knew that there were no commissars or priest. That Chaos was actively talked about, that children learned the signs, so that it could be crushed before it grew. He knew enough to damn all five planets, enough to call down exterminatous on all of them. He offered them a deal, they were to tell him the things he didn't know and fight for humanity (so that they wouldn't die in vain) and he would do his best to hide their sins.

fide et honore  
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut





The klaxon had stopped going off a while ago, and down here in the main hangar bay the only way to tell that anything was going on the as that every few minutes the ship would shudder with another torpedo launch, but; they were in combat. The war was being fought. Ramirez sat on the deck leaning against his transport his gear next to him and the rest of his squad spread out around the bird. The co-pilot drank coffee while the pilot sat in the cockpit, his headset tuned to pick up the internal ship comms.
"We got another one." He said.
"That makes 3 now? Right?" Asked Ramirez.
"Yeah, but they got one of ours."
The pilot shifted, sat straighter and looked over at Ramirez "get your men up" he said. The sergeant didn't wait to hear why. He was up and barking orders. Ramirez had the squad up and in re-breathers; nifty gadgets that covered eyes, nose, and mouth and contained 2 hours worth of air; before SSTG came over to issue the same order.
The squad clambered into the "Erinyes," the large transport that could be used to carry 24 groundsmen or a whole tank, and waited. A klaxon went off, an amber light flashed and voids men scattered about making sure that the launch deck was clear. The whole company mounted up, every last man and woman of them. Then the deck split open.
Slowly at first, then faster, retracting to port and starboard; the Erinyes suspended above the void. Void shields retained atmosphere, but everyone in the hanger wore rebreathers. Ramirez took one last look down before sealing the Erinyes and saw that the ship had rotated so that the planet was below them. The world beneath him was burning. He sealed the hatch.

Chief Warrant Officer Dillon sat next to his copilot on the Erinyes. His small craft hung suspended in the hangar bay while the planet floated below them. He turned the ship wide line down on his radio so that it became a background hum and turned up the flight decks volume. He could see the traffic controller in his cupola and wanted to make sure that he heard all instructions.
The controller for the assault hangar deck was silent at the moment, but the controller for the attack hanger bay was keeping the line filled. Air superiority craft and ground attack craft were being launched, but; not yet being allowed ground side yet. Ships fire control broke over the line asking if ships shadow (that is the air and void space directly under the ship) was clear. The attack controller gave an affirmative and then the ship shudder. 8 rounds, all weighing 5.8 kilograms speed to the surface at an appreciable fraction of light speed. In the grand scheme of things 5000+ men and a hundred or so tanks weren't going to have that much effect on a planet wide conflict, orbital bombardments on the other hand would.
Cartography was earning their keep, updated maps were already coming through the hard line Dillon had to the ship. Of course the dust was to think for anything useful in the visual spectrum, but; there was some interesting stuff on infrared and radar. Dillon forward the maps to the squad in the compartment behind him, they would need them more and downloading them from the ship's wireless was time consuming.
The assault controller started speaking, and the Erin's ahead of Dillon began to uncouple and drop. A moment later he heard the hiss of hydraulics and steel slamming together, followed by the shudder and drop of release. The bird fell; it was this particular maneuver that made Dillon understand why people got sick flying; the bird fell, propelled by the same gravity that people had been walking around with for months, but; once it passed a dozen or so meters beneath the Coriolanus it stopped being affected by the ship's gravity. Technically it was under the effect if the planet's gravity, but they were far too high up to really feel anything. Then Dillon keyed the thrusters and angled the nose down. A moment ago gravity was pulling him down then he was weightless and now thrust was pushing back into his seat, wear up was just a moment ago.
Like starlings leavening a shaken tree en masse, so did the dropships fall from the Coriolanus. A small number is of air superiority joined them and "down" planet side they speed.

End chapter 1

fide et honore  
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut





Chapter 2
Corporal Numan laid on the ground, his head supported by a rock or a loose brick, he wasn't really sure which. He had been the leader for second fire team, squad 3, 4th platoon, Bravo company. His platoon was the first, and so far only to get planetside. They had landed in the remains of a small town. The town sat in a bluff overlooking the joining of two rivers. The larger of the two rivers was almost two kilometers wide and joined the planet's major industrial center to the planet's largest spaceport. Both of those cities were still in Imperial hands, the town had not been.
Coriolanus had hit the surrounding countryside from orbit, decimating the Ork ranks, but; the town was to be taken mostly intact. Which meant that it was still infested with orks. Humans squad had taken cover as soon as they had hit dirt, and they had poured fire into the waves of advancing green skins, when a group of the buggers had caught the squad from its flank. All but 2 of the beast had been taken down by concentrated lasgun fire. One of those 2 had cut sarge in half. Numan and Kewinski, one of the squads privates, had taken that one down; Numan by stabbing it repeatedly with his combat knife and Kewinski by beating it with the butt of his lasgun. Then, almost insultingly, the other ork had backhanded Numan. The blow had sent him flying, literally, almost 2 meters at which point a stone wall had brought him to a sudden stop. If he hadn't been wearing his helmet he would have bashed his brains out, as it was he knew had a concussion, several broken ribs, two broken arms, and possibly internal bleeding. Wouldn't know for sure till a doc got to him.
So now, while the rest of the platoon fires from cover, Numan laid here. His head propped up on a rock, high off his ass on painkillers, watching the stars fight above. These stars were bright enough to see even though it was local daytime. They sat in the sky shooting smaller stars at each other, there had been many but now there were only two; one stationary one closing. Just before the moving star hit the stationary one it, the stationary one disappeared and a new star came into existence behind the moving one. A moment later the moving star got really bright and then started to fade.
Numan blinked, and wonder just what was going on up there. He also wondered whether or not doc had made it planetside yet. He didn't hurt, but he itched and he want to see if doc could fix it.

fide et honore  
   
 
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