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CHAPTER ONE

"They've stitched you up sir"

Hearing the pitch of the engine change and the floor of the Valkyrie to shudder, the lone Naval officer began to stir and adjust is uniform as the pilot called out they were about to land. Bright sun light lit up the hold of the transport as the door opened and the crew began off loading cargo to the waiting guardsmen.

"Lieutenant commander Ursus!?" came a voice.

"Yes!" He shouted, squinting as he stepped of the ship.

"Guardsman Dixie sir, the Captain sent me for you, this way please." The young guardsmen said, reaching for one of Ursus's bags.

As he followed the young guardsman through the landing area and into the wider base, he marvelled at the sheer number of troops and equipment gathered. He'd never seen an Ogryn up close and stared as a squad lumbered passed, dwarfing the regular sized men around them.

"Best not stare sir" whispered Dixie "they get angry or at the Ratlings either"

Ursus hadn't originally noticed the squad of squat abhumans gathered around a tent, rifling through a kit bag, presumably not theirs. Following his guide they passed several lines of tanks and other armoured vehicles, all preparing for the upcoming offensive. They eventually arrived at an open transport, its dropped ramp shaded by camo netting. Dixie pointed and the door and gestured to enter. Before his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, a gravelly voice welcomed him.

"You must be my new O.O.F "said the voice, "I'm Cpt Kychec, welcome Lt Cmdr. I'll keep this short and sweet for you. You'll be following me and the command element of the 9th company, I'm guessing you weren't told anything about the upcoming Op so don't worry too much about it, I'll give you an overview but all we are doing is taking a bridge, all you need to do is stick with me and call in the air support, we'll take care of the rest."

Ursus spent another half an hour or so being briefed by Kychec, as clambered out of the vehicle, Kychec shouted.

"Dix, take him up to the stores and kitted out"

"Follow me again please sir, we'll get you squared away before we drop."

"Drop?" said Ursus, looking slightly bewildered

Dix shook his head "They've stitched you up here sir, they not tell you we are an airborne regiment. Guess not. Not to worry sir, we'll look after you so long as you look after us."

"No Guardsmen Dixie, they failed to mention the nature of your regiment, my posting was rather rushed, I've just completed my training. Now what exactly did Cpt Kychec mean about kitting me out?"

"Well" said Dix "You will probably want to swap your Navy uniform for one of ours Sir. It's safer. Last thing you or any of us standing near you want is for you to stand out to the enemy. Attracts fire you see"

"What do you mean 'attracts fire' guardsmen?"

"Our Regimental Naval liaison officer is with the Colonel, in the base, organising transports and such, you're stuck with us in the thick of it sir"

Dix dropped Ursus off at his assigned quarters. It had taken most of the day to gather all his gear. Thankfully he hadn't had to carry it all rather it had been dropped off for him. His room was small but neat a desk and chair against the near wall, a locker in the far corner and a footlocker at the bottom of his bed. Neatly laid on the bed was his new uniform, 2 pairs of khaki combat trousers, 2 khaki shirts and his white combat body armour and helmet. In his footlocker he found his new Bergen along with a water canteen, a knife, a mess tin and spoon and a personal medic kit.

After spending the next hour packing his Bergen with all his new kit as well as the personal items he'd brought in his naval kit bag, he pulled his chair outside his habhut and sat watching the rest of the army go about its preparation as the sun dropped in the sky. He pulled a data slate from his pocket and flicked through it, just reminding himself of the procedures he would have to follow in calling in the air support. Happy he had it all firmly in his mind, he looked up to see Dix walking to him, carrying a small crate.

"Here you go sir" smiled Dix, placing the container at Ursus feet. "I know you would normally carry a laspistol sir, but I reckon you'd be better off with this"

He popped the lid, revealing a folding stock lasgun, several ammo cells, 2 frag grenades, several smoke grenades and a laspistol. Dix dropped the lid, said goodnight and ambled off towards the mess hall.

Ursus grabbed the case and dragged it inside, laughing to himself, wondering what had happened for the Emperor to have cursed him like this. At least his Father would be proud; he'd wanted him to join the guard after all. Ursus, looked at the picture of his parents, the one he'd wedged into the lining of his helmet, smiled and placed it back on the desk. He climbed into bed, he knew he wouldn't sleep much, his stomach was doing cartwheels about what lay ahead, with a little tossing and turning he fell into a fitful sleep.





Chapter 2

"When the door opens, stay in your seat"

Ursus awoke to the face of Dix staring at him.

"Let's go sir" said the guardsman "0300, time to get up"

Before he could shake the fog from his head and mutter a reply Dix disappeared through the door. Ursus rolled out of bed, rubbing his eyes, grabbing his wash bag he headed for the shower block. Back in his room, feeling a little more human thanks to the cold shower and cup of recaf in his hand, he pulled on his Truskan uniform. It felt a bit alien for Ursus as he walked down the track to Capt. Kychec's position, vox caster on his back, Bergen in one hand and lasgun over his shoulder, he could almost pass as a guardsman were it not for the constant rearranging off his armour and helmet, something he'd never had to contend with before. He caught up with Kychec as he was leaving the bunker followed by a squad of men.

"Good to see you made Lt Cmdr" nodded Kychec without stopping "Keep up lad. Now I know you aren't exactly trained for this, but emperor protects, you'll be fine"

This prompted a chuckle from the following squad. Struggling to hear the Capt., over the cacophony of vehicles and sergeants shouting orders, Ursus had his eyes glued on the Capt.'s mouth.

"Failing that" he continued "look to the lads and follow as they do. You already know Dix; he's my voxman, the skinny one, that's Guardsman Malone, my Medic. Little and large back there are the Graff brothers, best heavy weapons team in the regiment, Sgt Bors is just up a head with..."

Thud, Ursus thought he had just walked into a tank, looking up it he saw a massive slab of muscle with two curios eyes staring back at him

"Grox, my Ogryn security" said Krychec trying to keep a straight face. "Bors, Grox this is our new Officer of the Fleet, Lt Cmdr Ursus"

The Sgt snapped a salute while the Ogryn just stared. Ursus could see the cogs slowly trying to turn in that massive, dense head.

"C'manda Ur, Ur, Urs" the mountain struggled to say

Before he could correct the beast, Grox pointed at the stencil on the Vox caster O.O.F.

"Oof" said Grox, looking pleased with himself and turning to fall in behind Krychec "C'manda Oof"

"So that about sums it up, we take this bridge, the 2nd of 3 so the armour and supporting troops can have a clear run at the city. We aren't sure what weapons the heretics have, depends what the PDF left for them when they retreated. We shouldn't be on the ground for more than 3 days, 2 to take and hold the bridge and the 3rd to hand it over to our relief. Good news for you though, it should be taken by the time we land" shouted Krychec over the noise of the engines.

Malone was doing his best to calm the Ogryn who did clearly not like the experience of flying. The pilot's voice came over their comms, warning of 30 seconds till touchdown and that the landing zone was still hot.

"Cmdr Oof" shouted Sgt Bors "When the door opens, stay in your seat!"

"Why!?" screamed Ursus as the craft slammed into the floor and the ramp dropped.

Before he had a chance to think, Ursus saw the massive bulk of the Ogryn come charging past him, a terrifying experience in such close quarters. As the Ogryn ran off into the darkness wielding its ripper gun, the rest of the squad disembarked. No sooner had they left the ramp the transport took off again whipping up the snow. The whole squad sprinted as fast as they could to the tree line and cover. Ursus couldn't help but notice how easy the bigger of the brothers carried the heavy bolter on his shoulder like it was a mere lasgun. Breathless, they all jumped into the ditch. Gasping for breath, Ursus watched wide eyed as the squad began to organise, the Graff boys rapidly deploying their heavy weapon and laying down fire. Sgt Bors and Guardsman Malone blasting away with their lasguns. And Capt Kychec. Capt Kychec calmly standing there, using the hand held device on the vox caster, systematically demanding a sitrep from each of his platoon commanders. What struck him the most though was the grinning face of Dix, the young guardsman staring back at him as if he was actually enjoying it?

Slowly lifting his head, Ursus began to notice the father along the tree lines the rest of the 9th Company guardsman firing away, their las rounds flashing in the darkness. Suddenly a blinding light shot across his face, he felt the heat and realised rapidly that the laser show going off was a two way affair. Ducking back down, Ursus became aware of the voice in his ear saying all drop craft were clear of the air space.

Composing himself, Ursus removed the data slate from his pocket and the range finder from his pack. Looking through the scope of the range finder, he saw the muzzle flashes of the enemy tree line either side of the bridge entrance, the display showed the enemy to be 364m away. Keying into his data slate, he could see the newly marked enemy positions as well as those of the rest of the company.

"Any Vulture call signs respond" The calmness with which he spoke shocked himself as he could feel the adrenaline flushing through his system "Truskan 0-4"

"Truskan0-4, Vulture 2-3, what do you need sir?" crackled through his headset.

"Vulture 2-3, do you see the tree line running parallel to river either side of the south entrance to the bridge?"

"Affirmative Truskan 0-4"

"Good, multiple enemy contacts in the tree line, I want a bomb run, moving east to west along the tree line, either side of the entrance. Ordnance, promethium incendiary, copy?"

"Roger that Truskan 0-4, 60 seconds out"

"Capt Kychec" screamed Ursus "Incoming airstrike, 60 seconds"

Krychec shouted to Dix to alert the rest of the company to keep their heads down.

Ursus heard the engines, faintly at first then it rapidly build to scream as the Gunship came racing in over the enemy position. He didn't even see the bombs drop in the darkness, just the blinding flash of fire followed a split second later of the sound of the roaring inferno engulfing the heretic position.


Chapter 3

"Oof Magic"

The incoming fire from the enemy died instantly as the promethium hit the tree line, replaced by the screams of heretics and the crackle of the burning trees. Imperial positions stopped shooting as Krychec bellowed for the guardsmen to prepare to advance. Clambering out of the ditch, the 9th company advanced over the snow covered meadow, Sergeants gathering together their scattered squads as the medics began sifting through and gathering the dead and injured from the landing zone. Ursus did his best to keep up with his squad, his vox caster seeming to be getting heavier by the second as the adrenaline high faded from his system. He was surprised to see Grox appear by Bors side, he'd for forgotten about the big lumbering Ogryn after it'd bolted from the drop ship.

The whole company took cover in the ditch the over side of the road to the scorched tree line. Ursus suddenly realised how thirsty he was as Dix offered him his canteen.

"Intense isn't it Sir, the first time?" grinned Dix

"That's one way to put it" laughed Ursus, swallowing the mouthful of water and handing back the canteen.

"Thanks for that Dix, I needed it and you can drop the Sir out here, somehow seems a bit meaningless" smiled Ursus. "Might as well cal me Thom"

"Oof did!?" asked Grox as he squeezed his massive bulk into the ditch beside Ursus, pointing at the blackened, smouldering tree line.

"Yes, well sort of" replied Ursus

The Ogryn grunted. Ursus was sure he could see the cogs turning inside that tiny brain as Grox stared back at the fire damaged trees, trying to grasp how one man had done so much.

"Oof magic" whispered Grox as the rest of the Command squad joined them in the ditch. The brothers setting up their bolter and tripod while Dix relayed Krychec's orders for the support squads to dig in with 3rd and 4th Platoon in the current location, 2nd Platoon to head back to the original ditch and to set up a proper drop zone. While 1st, 5th and 6th platoon were to advance the through the trees along the road and launch the first assault on the bridge it's self.

Ursus wedged his vox caster against the bridge side of the ditch and settled himself onto the rest of his pack. Pulling up the bridge of his data slate, he double checked his grid references, noticing a few flakes of snow beginning to fall. as the first guardsmen set off towards the bridge. Happy his equipment was still working; he looked up and saw few of the guardsmen removed their bayonets from their scabbards as they drew level with the tree line, before fading into the swirling mix of smoke and fog. Waiting to hear from the next call sign of gunships due over head shortly, Ursus looked up and down the line, watching Malone working his way through the troops, patching up any minor wounds, impressed how the guardsmen never looked away from the sights of their weapons as he treated them.

Dix perked up, holding his hands to his ear phones, a puzzled look spreading across his face. He waved Krychec over.

"1st Platoon says they've reached the far end of the bridge and its empty Sir" whispered Dix, not making eye contact as he focused on the voice in his ear. "All enemy positions appear to be abandoned. He says 1st and 5th are going to dig in on the far side of the bridge while 6th probe further forward" finally looking up at the Colonel.

"Right" barked Krychec "Bors, get everyone moving onto the bridge and find us somewhere for a command post, Dix, tell 2nd platoon to move up and occupy positions on this side of the bridge with the mortars and get the bolters onto the far side. Once that's done, check in with the CO and update him "

With the vox back in his pack, Ursus joined the line of guardsmen heading towards the bridge. He felt his stomach turning as he started to smell the burnt flesh of the heretics lying in the trees, the first time he'd seen the result of his airstrikes up close. He snapped out of his stare at the charred and mangled bodies as the guardsman behind him chuckled about being at the Emperors barbeque.

Really great start. This gonna be good...
I'm eager to read more.

Chapter 2 and 3 added

Well that doesn't surprise me nobody saw you coming"

Ursus was thankful Bors and put the command post in the tower at the side of the bridge, it provided him with a line of sight over all of the bridge and out to the landing zone. It was also keeping the rain off him that had been falling for the past couple of hours. Most of the guardsmen had sought shelter in the buildings and fortifications dotted around the bridge, no doubt erected when the heretic rebellion started. It was as he stared out through the rain and ever greying sky that he started to notice a deep, low murmur seeming to come from all around him. Usrsus looked at Guardsman Siimo, the sniper perched next to him.

"Do you here that"? Asked Ursus.

"Mmm," nodded Siimo, "I can't tell where it's coming from though"

"What's that racket asked?" grunted the smaller Graff brother as he descended the stairs from the roof, water dripping from his sodden cloak. "Sounds like a ..."

"Shh!" snapped Siimo, tilting his head to one side.

Merlyn Graff knew better than to ignore Jadek Siimo, his skills were legendary in the ranks of the Truskans, more akin to a hunter than a soldier he had even earned the respect of the Catachans on their last deployment. Acquiring a nickname none of the others understood, the jungle fighters referred to him as Small Sly.

"Its voices, chatting by the sound, I can't tell what they are saying but it's no language I've heard before" whispered Siimo."It's coming from all around us though, we appear to be surrounded."

Ursus wasted no time, he scrambled to his vox caster, immediately calling for air support to try and get a look at the enemy. As he waited for the Pilots to check in to his area, Krychec walked in, immediately looking at Siimo. After hearing the snipers take on the situation, he ordered him and a squad from the 6th platoon to head out on a scouting mission and find the enemy.

"Negative Truskan 0-4" crackled the reply. "No enemy movement on our radar or that we can see from up here"

It was hard to hear the Pilot over the chatting that had grown louder and louder. "Thanks Vulture 9-9, stay on station as long you can and keep flying recon for us, Truskan 0-4 out," answered Ursus. He was baffled how such noise could be being made and yet no trace of the enemy could be seen. He shrugged and looked at Krychec, hoping the Captain had a plan for this. Suddenly a cry went up from the far side barricades; they rushed to the window Ursus and Krychec practically knocking over Dix in their haste. Through the drizzle, the scout patrol could be seen returning, one Guardsmen being carried by 2 others, the lower half of his leg a jagged mess, ending just after the knee.

When they reached the front barricade, the Command squad found Malone and another medic tending to the Guardsmen with the leg wound. The other two sat slumped against the sandbags. Krychec knelt next to the guardsmen and pulled his canteen from his belt. Know as tough and demanding leader, Krychec also cared for the men under his command. As he offered the canteen to the first Guardsman, Siimo leapt gracefully over the sandbag wall and landed on one knee next to the Captain,

"Well that doesn't surprise me nobody saw you coming Jadek" said Krychec with a half smile. "What's going off out there?"

"Can't explain it Cayn, we saw nothing" said Siimo, looking almost bewildered. A sight which left Krychec uneasy.

"Didn't matter where we went out there, the mist and the rain kept visibility low and the chatting was always, always around us. It's like they were following us but leaving no trace. I even tried going solo, found nothing. When I got back they were all that was left of the squad."

Krychec turned to the two Guardsmen, both sat with hugging their knees, eyes wide and staring. Before he could ask any more questions, a deafening silence erupted. Dix stood. Raising his helmet on his head to rub his brow.

"It's stopped" said Dix "But wh..."

Dix's last words were swallowed as las round slammed into his face, punching clean through his skull, splattering those near him with blood and grey matter. Before the voxman's body had hit the floor, several more guardsmen fell to las rounds zipping out of the fog. As everybody dove for cover, all hell broke loose as the heavy bolter gunners opend up in retaliation. As the other troopers joined in firing, Ursus poked his head up over the sandbag. He could see shadows forming in the fog, he quickly ducked again as round slammed into the sandbag next to his head.

"Truskan 0-4! Truskan 0-4! You've got enemy converging on your position, they appeared out of nowhere. Theres hundreds of them" crackled Ursus's vox.

Chapter 5

"Emperors' fire!"

Ursus grabbed his lasrifle. He darted back towards the tower. 40 yards. 30 yards. Bang. The tower exploded. He dived for cover behind the nearest sandbags, landing on top of a wounded guardsman. Lasrifle buried into his shoulder, he aimed down the sights and pulled the trigger. Click. As he flipped over his gun he found a piece of metal buried into the magazine. He screamed for a medic as he unslung his vox and tapped away at his data slate. He grabbed the handset and brought it to his mouth to speak. The vox was ripped away from his hands as he was hurled back by the blast, the noise left a ringing in his ears as he struggled to free himself from the collapsed sandbags. As the dust cleared from his eyes, he saw a robed person advancing on him. Ursus scrambled for the knife in his boot as the heretic was almost on him. Ursus stared into the eyes of the chaos worshipper as it raised its weapon and aimed at him. The mouth beneath the robe broke into a grin a spilt second before the whole head disappeared in a red mist. As the corpse hit the floor a larger shape filled its place and lifted Ursus to his feet. Relief washed over the Fleet Officer as he recognised the big hand belonged to Grox the Ogryn. Grunting, Grox turned and lifted another cultist off its feet with a swing of his rippa gun. Ursus looked towards the front line where hordes of cultists were climbing over the barricades. Hand to hand fighting was raging around as he dug through the sandbags for the vox. Krychec tackled Ursus out the way as a Chaos brought down a spiked club where Ursus had been knelt. Before the cultist could lift its weapon, Sgt Bors thrust his bayonet through its back, pinning it to the floor before firing two rounds into the struggling corpse. Krychec spat mud from his mouth and drew his knife as he launched himself into another enemy. Ursus scrambled back to the pile of sandbags and dug out the vox.

"Emperors' fire!" screamed Ursus into the vox "Emperors fire! We are being overrun!"

"Roger that" crackled the reply

Ursus grabbed a grenade from his belt and launched as far as he could into the mass of enemy.

"Drop everything you have on the green smoke" said Ursus before hurled the vox to one side and reached for the cultist rifle by his feet. The defaced Imperial eagle burnt his hand; he ignored the pain and began pumping rounds into the enemy mass.

Jet engines screamed over head as the rockets streaked through the air. 4 warheads struck the ground meters from the swirling green smoke. The force of the explosion ripped through cultists and guardsmen alike, throwing limbs and debris into the air. The ensuing blast wave hurled Ursus and the guardsmen around him to the ground. Before the dust settled basilisk rounds whistled over head and slammed into the ground. As the surviving guardsmen clambered over the rest of the sandbags to take up new defensive positions, more cultists surged through the artillery round explosions. Krychec bellowed at the survivors to open fire. For every cultist felled by las and bolter fire and the scores ripped to pieces by the falling shells more kept coming. Clambering over their own dead and dying, Ursus couldn't believe his eyes. How could there be so many.

The Chaos worshippers making it trough the fire storm began taking up positions and firing at the guardsmen. A guardsman yelled out and collapsed at Ursus's feet. He grabbed him by his armour collar and began to drag the wounded soldier across the bridge. A medic joined Ursus to help pull the wounded man across the bridge. Halfway across Ursus was dropped; a round had caught him in the back of the leg, just above a knee. Ursus looked up; both the medic and the wounded guardsmen lay motionless. He dragged himself over to the side of the bridge and used the hand rail to clamber to his feet. He felt the rumble through the floor of the bridge as he tried to staunch the flow of blood from his leg. He smelt the promethium before he noticed the hellhound rumbling across the bridge. As the tank groaned to a stop behind the beleaguered defenders its cannon erupted with a streak of flame, incinerating everything its fiery tongue touched. A second Hellhound arrived next to the first, adding its own inferno into the fray. The wall of fire started to beat back the cultist attack, trapped between the fire and the shelling the enemy were soon wiped out. As the promethium stream and basilisk shelling halted, a surge of blue uniforms surged past the battered and bleeding Truskans. A young Mordian officer approached Krychec and handed him a data slate before disappearing into the crowed.

The surviving truskans trudged of the bridge and back towards the landing zone. Huddling together into the ditches they waited for their transport. A single drop ship landed, climbing into the hold, the troopers occupied just over two thirds of the space. Krychec used an old scarf to wipe the sweat and grime from his face; he stared out over his Company, well what was left of it. He wondered what would happen with them. As he looked around, he caught the eye of Ursus, the poor lad looked knackered. He nodded towards the Fleet Officer and closed his eyes.

Ursus returned the nod from Capt Krychec, he tried closing his eyes but sleep wouldn't find him despite how his tired body ached. He called a medic over. After a whispered conversation the medic pulled an auto injector from his pack and jabbed Ursus in his good leg. It didn't take long for the medical induced slumber to overtake his body as he drifted off, head propped up on the Ogryn next to him.

Ursus bolted up as the pilot screamed over the intercom

"Brace, Brace, Brace! Incoming!"

Wow, again, really cool pieces. The overall pace, the setting, the characters. Honestly, it's really good. I write a bit fluff myself and hope my pieces will be as readable one day.

 Pyroalchi wrote:
Wow, again, really cool pieces. The overall pace, the setting, the characters. Honestly, it's really good. I write a bit fluff myself and hope my pieces will be as readable one day.

Thank you for your comments, glad you liked it.