Regular Dakkanaut
England
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here's part of the first chapter of a short story im writing. It's only first draft so will no doubt be improved upon a few times.
Just a Job
The ready room was bustling with activity. With enough space to comfortably accommodate twice the number of men in it, the room would?ve looked empty if it weren?t for the stacks of ammunition, grenades, tube charges, batteries and other supplies taking up the bottom half of it. The room had a large cargo door at the top end with a high ceiling and cold steel walls, it clearly wasn?t designed for comfort but the occupants didn?t mind one bit.
Spaced along either gunmetal grey wall of the bare room were 8 men checking weapons and equipment, a large pack laying open on their temporary bunks with various items spread across the floor from it. Looking out of place in their jungle fatigues and black body armour, these 8 men were the first squad of the Blackhawk mercenary company, the room was on their looted cobra class destroyer and they were preparing for planetfall.
Master Sgt Tanhauser sighed to himself as he methodically checked his kit.
Plasma pistol clean and charged? Check.
Power sword same? Check.
I?m tired of this. He thought to himself.
All plasma bottles full? Check.
Fresh batteries for microbead, tactical illuminator and whatever else need them? Check.
It should be over by now. He continued to remind himself. The colonel said it would be over by now. He made us renounce our oaths, our emperor for his revenge and it still isn?t over.
Camo-paint correctly applied? Check.
All pouches secure? Check.
7 years. It?s been 7 years since we started this and we are still going. I?ve saved enough to buy myself a nice piece of land on Seleca 3, maybe open a pub with Draken and Morley, but he won?t let us stop ?til he?s had his revenge.
The ?he? he was referring to was Colonel Grim, leader of the Blackhawks and the ?revenge? was the murder of the now General Kirsk, who sold the unit out all those years ago on Massil. The colonel had vowed to hunt him down and kill him to honour the regiment. Unfortunately that had been harder than expected and the unit, previously known as the 5th storm trooper special ops battalion had been forced to undertake various side missions for contractors to pay for ammo and supplies on the black market. The longest of those jobs was working for the bizarre tau race in the defence of one of their colonies from a space marine assault. That had taken 2 years and resulted in the famous ?immaculate indent? awarded to them at the end of the engagement. The tau had used their advanced technology to gift the colonel whatever he wanted for the men.
At the time many thought he might simply ask for land to settle down and be done with the constant fighting but he did not. Instead he asked for improved body armour, augmetic neural enhancements and customised autogun/linear accelerator hybrid weapons.
Master Sergeant Tanhauser sighed. He was a tall man in his mid forties, with wide shoulders and a muscular frame. He wore his greying hair shaved close to the skin and his hooded green eyes were those of a vastly experienced soldier, somehow seeming both determined and dead at the same time. Like every other members of his team, Sergeant Tanhauser had spent his entire life as a soldier, being brought up an orphan in the Schola progenium to be a storm trooper. He felt he had suffered everything the Galaxy had to throw at him, and was nearing the end of his patience.
He looked across the room made eye contact with Morley, who gave a barely perceptible nod in acknowledgement. The veteran vox operator was a tall, well built man in his late forties, his grey hair shaved high and tight in a severe military crew cut. He sat on his bunk, smearing his face and bare arms with cam cream. Morley never wore sleeves, he said they restricted movement.
Morley was Tanhauser?s closest friend, they had been comrades since a young age when they first met in the schola and had been the only other member of the company to openly oppose the colonel?s heresy. Tanhauser was no fool, he knew that the colonel had put them in the same team to keep an eye on them. It was the same reason they were team 1.
The teams were numbered according to the colonels preference, with a team?s number changing based on performance. This served a number of purposes, it gave the colonel a solid core of troops he knew he could depend on in a pinch and it kept the teams sharp, always trying to out do each other as the higher you ranked, the better jobs you got. It was a simple system and it worked well.
The colonel had made Sgt Tanhauser team 1 to keep him sweet, hoping that flattery would keep his dissident nature in check. As Tanhauser would grudgingly admit, it worked. He didn?t want to lose his premier status any more than the other Sgts wanted to get it.
Next to Morley was Draken. The heavy gunner was in his mid thirties, was another long term friend of The Sarge, and was even taller and more heavily muscled than Morley. His blonde hair was cut in the same way as Morley?s, an old school military cut and his handsome face was marred with a deep scar running horizontally across his cheeks underneath the eyes. Draken checked his heavy bolter, cycling the powered ammo hopper over and over making sure the mechanism ran smooth as he tracked the barrel from left to right. The autosense link on his headset overlayed a transparent image from the weapons optics in front of his eye, allowing the big man to accurately fire the cumbersome weapon on the move.
At the other end of the room were delta fireteam, the other 4 members of team 1 going through the same checks. Tanhauser?s second in command, Koal Harkon raised an augmetic thumb in greeting, the mouth on the half of his head that was still real splitting into a big grin. The dark skinned warrior had lost his left arm and part of his head to a bolt round against the astartes Partway through the Tau contract. His speech suffered as a result but otherwise he was still an excellent leader, a career soldier through and through. The three other members of his team were nearly ready, ?Gunnar? the team?s light gunner slammed a fresh drum mag into his support variant assault carbine and Hawkins Checked the scope on his sniper rifle, the heavy calibre weapon settled on the end of his bunk with bipod legs extended. The slim man?s camo cloak was rolled up and sat neatly on top of his webbing, ready to be deployed at a moments notice. Neffron connected his underslung grenade launcher to the lug on his assault carbine, the single shot tube locking into place with a loud click. Team 1 was very heavily armed for a unit of it?s size, toting enough firepower round for round to match a space marine force of equal numbers. The assault carbine was easily a match for a bolt gun, a small linear accelerator increasing the lethality of a standard issue autogun round a hundredfold. Coupled with mobile heavy bolters, grenade launchers, sniper rifles, plasma pistol and all manner of other weaponry, the Blackhawks did not take to the field under equipped.
Finally, Tanhauser looked at the man next him and felt a chill run through him as he engaged eye contact. After a lifetime of war, pain and death, seeing things that would drive a lesser man insane, fighting all manner of foul enemies from orks to daemons, nothing scared the Sarge.
Except Corporal Nathan Krause.
Krause was striped to his waist, his wiry, well muscled torso covered in numerous scars, both from combat and surgery. Team 1 joked behind his back that Krause was a marine wannabe as he spent practically every penny he earned on surgical upgrades. He got a taste for it after the Tau contract when the whole regiment was upgraded with neural enhancements to increase reflex speed. For Krause this had proven to be merely the start. He had gone far beyond that initial operation, getting his body implanted with strength enhancers, titanium bone plating, nocturnal optic membranes and all manner of other enhancements on the black market. As a result his bones seemed unusually prominent and his muscles constantly twitched in a seemingly random pattern giving him a disturbing, inhuman quality. Wearing his black hair in a short mohican, Krause?s grey eyes seemed to be stuck in a permanent stare, glaring menacingly from his gaunt face. Krause was busily checking his kit, robotically going through the motions at speed, kneepads, thigh plates, thigh pouches, vest, combat jacket, body armour, assault rig, gloves and camo all being readied in seconds.
Tanhauser didn?t like Krause because the lead scout, for all his admirable skill, was clearly psychotic. The man lived for war, caring for nothing but bringing death to whatever was deemed his enemy at the time. He always carried an immense amount of ammo for his carbine and bolt pistol, his augmented body barely registering the weight of the ammo pouches strapped all over his body, as well as a short barrelled combat shotgun slung down his back. For a short term op it was SOP to carry six rifle mags, 2 grenades and 3 bolt pistol mags, Krause carried at least double this. Fully kitted up in under a minute, the corporal?s furious activity stopped as suddenly as it started. His head turned smoothly to one side and looked at Tanhauser as though he was a sentry turret locking onto a target ?Ready Sarge.? He stated bluntly.
Krause was one scary son of a grox.
Darkchild
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Regular Dakkanaut
England
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I'm amazed, i havent been here in 3 years but my fluff is still on the first page.
Here's the rest for anyone who's interested.
Tanhauser glanced at his chronometer.
“ok men, make your way to deployment bay 5 while I have a final talk with the boss. We drop in 15, make sure your good to go.”
Seven voices chorused in acknowledgement.
Sgt Tanhauser couldn’t help feeling uneasy about this, after all it was not every day that you went back to the place your regiment died.
Massil.
This was going to be a strange one.
Second Lieutenant Keltsin gulped as he took in the sight of the Inquisitor and his retinue. A slight man in his early twenties, Keltsin was the latest in a long line of Departmento munitorium officers from his family line. He didn’t really like the job, he never wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps as a practitioner in logistics but he had had no choice in the matter. Looking uncomfortable in his stiff grey Dress uniform, Keltsin and the 2 guardsmen next to him Saluted awkwardly as the inquisitor approached.
Inquisitor Fellon, A tall, powerfully built man with hawkish features and a shaven head stood still in front of the young officer, waiting for the departing dropship’s engine report to fade into the distance away before speaking.
Wearing a long leather coat which covered the tops of his knee high black boots, the inquisitor was remarkably unremarkable in his appearance, the only hint of his immense authority being a tiny inquisitorial symbol fastened to his coat lapel. Inquisitor Fellon did not need to appear threatening to impose his authority, the two huge, power armoured space marines flanking him performed that task admirably. Rain dripped freely from their polished black armour, as they stood perfectly still, boltguns held at a position of attention. Stood behind them was a heavily augmented scribe, two men in simple robes clutching large books who Keltsin took to be priests and a sinister looking young man dressed to look like an identical copy of Fellon.
“Lieutenant Keltsin.” Fellon said loudly, raising his voice over the rising storm. “let’s get inside out of this weather shall we?” He continued, gesturing to the firebase with a gloved hand.
“Certainly sir, right this way” Keltsin replied nervously, eying the marines warily as he keyed in the access codes to the outer bulkhead of his firebase. “Lord, im honoured that you chose My firebase to conduct your inspection…” Keltsin begun as he led the way inside, feeling thankful to be out of the rain. “My team have prepared accommodation for you and a late meal is available in the mess for you an-“
“there is no need for any of this, Keltsin.” The inquisitor interrupted. “just show me to the vault so I can begin my work.” The young Lieutenant looked flustered for a moment, then regained his composure.
“Yes of course, my lord.” He said with a smile, bowing slightly as he spoke.
“And make sure nobody disturbs me, failure to do this will not be taken lightly, do you understand?” The Inquisitor drew out the last three words to emphasise their importance.
“ye, yes sir.” Keltsin stammered. The group Made their way to the vault without another word being spoken. For the love of the throne. Keltsin thought to himself. The sooner this is over the better.
Inquisitor Fellon smirked to himself as he read the blunt’s thoughts, ironically enough it would be over for all of them soon if his suspicions were correct.
Tanhauser was cold and wet. Despite the muggy atmosphere and warm temperature, lying motionless on the sodden jungle floor eventually took its toll. Taking another look through his pocket scope, Tanhauser observed the track fifty metres to their front as the patrol advanced towards his position. They had been observing for 4 hours now and the sun was beginning to set. This was the third patrol he had seen in that time and they had not been at regular intervals, this was a surprisingly combat savvy tactic for a bunch of rear echelon logistics troopers. Indeed, why did a firebase perimeter need to be patrolled so frequently in a supposed friendly environment over 150 klicks behind the front line? Tanhauser checked that the suppressor on his stub pistol was locked tight and gestured for his men to do the same. While still feeling a general sense of unease at the situation, Sgt tanhauser decided that now was the time to act as he was getting impatient and felt like getting out of the weather. As the ten man patrol moved across the concealed men’s path, Tanhauser reached down to his throat mic and scratched it twice.
This was the signal to move.
6 hours earlier:
The sgt strapped himself in and got comfortable in the heavy duty dropship seat before looking at his data-slate. Ten minute’s previously he had had a brief talk with the boss, Colonel Grim, before deployment.
“You know the basics of this mission already so I’ll not go over it again. Here is some additional intel for you to analyse before you hit the ground.” With that, he handed the Sgt a dataslate and left.
Indeed, Tanhauser did know the basics of the mission, hardly enough to deploy with but it was enough. That was the nature of fastball ops, you had to make much of it up on the ground. The mission history went something like this:
The planetary commander is making huge gains in the war against the orks, working in conjunction with imperial commanders to retake Massil. Tacticians predicted that the war would be over by next candlemas and all that was left was the mopping up of smaller, isolated ork tribes that were left behind in the fighting. Deep in the jungle there is a firebase which has been fitted with a long range vox as well as higher than standard grade security equipment at the command of the planetary commander. Seismic surveys show that this base also has a second, subterranean floor below the main complex, consisting of extra troop accommodation and a large room that is resistant to all known types of scanning equipment. While the placing of the firebase was nothing out of the ordinary as there are many small “magazine” type firebases dotted across the continent, this one was unusual. Although attempts were made to carry out the construction of these extra facilities in a clandestine matter, they did not escape the attentions of the local inquisitorial representative. The planetary commander, who remains nameless for opsec (operational security) reasons found out hours ago that inquisitor Fellon intended to inspect the facility.
Coincidentally, (yeah right, was Tanhauser’s reaction) Massil’s largest criminal family has employed the Blackhawks to take out Inquisitor Fellon plus retinue and make it look like an Ork attack, obviously taking out the entire firebase’s crew in the process.
Wondering what the hell was in that underground chamber, Tanhauser browsed through his data-slate as the dropship cycled through it’s launch procedure. Apparently the firebases main defence came in the form of an automated, twin-linked heavy bolter turret mounted above the main entrance. This turret was armoured and its independent machine spirit was resistant to jamming. Patrols were frequently seen searching the base’s perimeter for enemy activity and were saved from a gory death via heavy bolter by IFF tags around their wrists, identifying them to the turret as friendlies. The firebase itself had one entrance other than the 3 feet thick hardened plasteel main door, and that was a small maintenance hatch for the vox array on the roof. No rear security was necessary as the only possible approach route was via the tarmaced road leading to the entrance. The rest of the perimeter was surrounded by intensely thick vegetation, which in turn was saturated with booby traps so anyone approaching from any other way would be picked up miles away by the base auspex sensors as they crashed through the undergrowth.
Or blown up.
The data-slate also had a detailed schematic of the base and “most likely” patrol routes.
Tanhauser mused to himself as to where this intel had come from as he passed the slate round for his comrades to study. Seemed to him that the only people with access to that stuff would be the site manager or planetary commander.
Oh well, hopefully the weather will be nice and warm.
He thought, keeping his spirits up before the inevitable heart stopping covert drop and long march in.
Unfortunately, the area was suffering the worst rains for 7 years.
Fellon wasn’t expecting this. The huge, heavily armoured door to his front stood defiantly closed, his inquisitorial access codes having no effect on the cogitator controlling the locking mechanism. Luckily for him his scribe Caruthal was adept at bypassing security systems, a by product of an augmented brain, and was making slow but steady progress at the data terminal. Fellon paced back and forth, impatient to get inside and confirm his suspicions.
Pashus, the twenty year old interrogator and Fellon’s first trainee, was not used to seeing his master like this. The inquisitor stalked back and forth, eyes fixed on the door, muttering under his breath. Having no warp-borne powers of his own, Pashus trusted his lord when he told him that there was a great evil inside the vault and that the planetary commander would burn as a heretic for harbouring such a thing.
“Fellon, you should be patient, Caruthal will succeed. He always does.”
Fellon’s eyes met Pashus’s with a hard stare before replying.
“You have yet to understand the magnitude of this situation Pashus, do not give advice when you do not hold all the facts.”
Pashus was abort to retort when Fellon cut him off
“I cannot let you know the secrets of this vault until I am certain I am right. If I am wrong, I would rather that you are shielded from this threat for now, lest it taint your young mind.”
Fellon continued to pace as Pashus looked on. The Adeptus Astartes stood motionless, observing the door.
Colonel Grim was alarmed, to say the least. Teams 2 and 4 were formed in a semi circle, training their assault carbines on the small robed figure to their front. 16 red dots danced over the head and torso of the covered individual as he stood motionless in cargo bay 3 of the Cobra.
No ship had been detected approaching and there was no physical evidence of any other craft within 2,000,000 miles. This was simply unexplainable.
“Who are you, and how did you get on my ship undetected?” Grim asked the figure as he aimed his plasma pistol at the thing’s head area.
The creature, it’s features completely hidden by it’s robes, took a step forward. Instinctively, all the Blackhawks took a step back at the same time.
“Surely the question should be why I am currently on your vessel.” The creature said in a quiet, almost soothing voice.
“You need to know what I’m about to tell you, Colonel Grim. Its importance is paramount to the survival of this sector of imperial space.”
The Colonel wanted to respond, but found he couldn’t. His mouth simply refused to move.
“As ironic as this may seem that I am entrusting a unit that has forsaken their emperor with this knowledge, I had no choice as you are in the best position to act.” Every fibre in Grim’s body wanted to blast this abomination from the deck of his ship but he felt compelled to listen.
“Leave.” Said the creature.
The blackhawks retreated in perfect unison, leaving the cargo bay empty but for Grim and the visitor. Grim thought that they probably didn’t leave willingly.
“Wheels have been set in motion on a scale that you will find hard to comprehend so I will not bother you with irrelevant details. Just know this, in 500 years a man known as Khygor Sorphus will be born. He will be a psyker of rare ability and will ally himself to the ruinous powers. These forces will persuade him to destroy the emperor’s presence in this sector. The next hour will decide whether he succeeds or not.”
Somehow Grim could not help but believe the thing’s wild claims, feeling only the urge to serve the best he could.
“What do I need to do?” The colonel asked, suddenly able to speak again.
“Your task is simple and you are already in the process of completing it but I must reiterate its importance.” The creature said, locking Grim’s body and mind rigid again with it’s words, his only possible reaction being to listen.
“The vault under the firebase must not be opened. Fellon must be despatched, lest his bloodline be used unwittingly to assist the chaotic vermin. Even if it means destroying the base and your own team from orbit, that door must remain closed. You will contact your team to relay the importance of this, do you understand?”
Grim nodded.
Trooper Halp puffed furiously on his L-ho stick, huddling under the meagre cover provided by the HB turret above his head. The rain was getting harder now and the muddy ground surrounding the building’s immediate perimeter had turned into a swamp so Halp had decided to spend his sentry time on the track.
This detail’s completely pointless
He thought to himself as he took another drag, the red cherry glowing brightly in the evening gloom. He had a point, the complex sensor array would pick up any intruder way before he saw them in the dark, and with the torrential rain he couldn’t hear anything either so it was pretty stupid to have him out there. The HB turret rotated rapidly to the left, locking onto something Halp couldn’t see. “Emperor damn this place!” A voice shouted out of the darkness, accompanied by a series of splashes. Trooper Coldwin stepped up onto the track and joined Halp under the turret. Having just completed a perimeter check, Coldwin’s waterproof gear was slick with wet mud and he shivered in the comparative cold. Halp handed him the L-ho stick and he took a long drag.
“Least you’re outta here next week.” Halp said grumpily.
“I got another 2 months ‘fore my rotations up.”
Coldwin Chuckled as he handed the stick back.
“Yeah, but what am I going back to? Every where’s like this now.” He gestured out into the sinister looking jungle.
Coldwin gazed out into the trees for a moment then turned to speak again. Halp’s L-ho stick was on the floor.
Squinting in the darkness, Coldwin could just make out the dark shape of a body lying there.
“What th-“ His body jerked as he was hit twice in the chest by large calibre stub gun rounds, followed immediately by one to the head.
Before the body had hit the floor, Krause had holstered his pistol and stalked forward in a combat crouch, scanning his arcs with his carbine. The rest of the team, all wearing IFF tags taken from the patrol, followed and took up defensive positions around the doorway covering a 360 degree frontage. Morley moved up to the door access terminal and switched off the mobile jamming function on his Tau manufactured vox unit. It needed to be off for his gear to work, and it was only for a minute or so. Yanking the small maintenance hatch open under the door terminal, Morley jacked his palm top unit into the main socket of the panel. A dull green display lit up on his palmtop as the sophisticated xenos tech deciphered the relatively primitive Imperial cogitator’s access codes. After about 20 seconds there was a loud click as the simple system gave up and the base door slowly slid open. Switching his jamming gear back on, Morley gestured to Tanhauser to move, he in turn ordering the team to move in with Draken on point. Like a well oiled machine the small unit changed formation and silently advanced into the complex.
“Whoa, what was that?” Ellis said, nearly jumping out of his seat.
“What was what?” Lieutenant Keltsin asked, striding across the ops room to have a look.
Ellis pointed to his auspex display.
“Monitor showed 8 blips outside the main entrance for a second, then nothing.
In fact, come to think of it, it’s not even showing the sentries now, sir.”
Keltsin thought about telling the inquisitor, then remembered his instructions and thought better of it.
“It’s probably nothing. I’ll detail 2 men to check out the main entrance and ask for a tech adept to come and check our “most holy” equipment in the morning.”
This was just typical, the equipment just had to start going wrong when an inquisitor was conducting an inspection.
Keltsin hoped that this wouldn’t affect his promotion prospects.
Inquisitor Fellon stood stock still, the muscles in his jaw clenching and unclenching rhythmically.
Caruthal had just informed him that the second of three security seals had been bypassed, the third would be finished in a matter of minutes.
Grim tried to contact the team for the fourth time in as many minutes. He knew that they were using jamming equipment so it would be a useless effort, but he had to try anyway.
He turned around to inform the creature that he would keep up the attempts but he was no longer there.
Looking around the command deck, the bemused look on this usually cold and efficient soldier betrayed the messed up thoughts in his head. He considered his options.
Should I blast the site from orbit? No, that was too inaccurate and would expose the Blackhawks presence in the area.
Deploy teams en masse to offer support? Not enough time. Wracking his brain for possible solutions, the Colonel slumped into his command chair and thought hard.
There was nothing, nothing he could possibly do to effect the situation further.
Colonel Grim just hoped that team 1 were successful.
The scene was the last thing the troopers had ever expected to see. As the chatting guards rounded the corner, standing approximately 20 metres in front of them were a group of men spaced out along the corridor. They were dripping wet and equipped with gear that seemed not quite right, appearing too heavily armoured with every exposed area of skin layered in camouflage. The guard froze, staring in disbelief for just a second, hesitating.
Draken did not hesitate.
In that confined space the noise was deafening, Draken letting off a quick burst of his HB that scythed the 2 troopers down as the mass reactive rounds tore through their bodies.
“Contact front!” The big gunner yelled unnecessarily, following S.O.Ps (standard operating procedures)
Krause immediately stepped past him and took up a crouching position at the corner where the 2 guards had emerged.
Tanhauser reacted quickly, ordering his team to split down into firetaeams with Charlie to take out the target and delta securing the ops room, then destroying the vox array on the roof.
They had lost the element of surprise as soon as they were forced to contact the enemy and now time was against them. Knowing that the imperial soldiers would be already reacting to the gunfire, the Master Sgt led his team away towards the stairwell as Delta moved out toward the ops room
Krause led the way through the base, having memorised the schematics from the data-slate previously. The firebase was standard in design, with thick rockrete walls painted in a dull red and metal grilled floors that would betray your position should you move too rapidly on their surface. Charlie fireteam was running at a near sprint. Morley switched off the Alien jamming equipment, the necessity for fooling the base sensors gone now and the teams micro beads burst into life.
“-to the stairwell. I repeat, Scramble all squads, 1 and 3 secure the upper floor, 4 move to the stairwell. I want you to form a guard for the inquisitor.” The links were picking up the imperial signal as whoever was in charge of the base deployed his troops. Tanhauser chuckled as he heard the panic in the man’s voice, and more importantly at how sloppy he was. The man hadn’t used any combat cant, broadcasting to anyone who cared to listen his troop locations. Also, Tanhauser though, he had told him how many enemy to expect, 3 squads in base, 1 were already dead leaving 1 that must be on patrol. Confirming his thoughts, the voice crackled again, ordering the remaining squad back to base.
The Patrol commander gave an E.T.A of 10 minutes.
Plenty of time Krause thought to himself with a grin.
“What in the name of the emperor is going on?” Inquisitor Fellon growled, his finger tip pushing the tannoy button so hard it turned white.
There was no answer.
The concussion of the blast made Harkon’s single real ear ring violently as he stood outside the ops room. Gunnar moved in before the dust could settle, the rest of the team rapidly filing into the room behind him in the aftermath of the tube charge.
2 spluttering figures staggered out of the smoke, grasping for freedom with blistered fingers, gunnar’s light support weapon raked them with hyper velocity rounds, the bodies crashing back into the debris that was the base comms equipment. Delta fire-team reported the room was clear of threats, then Drennen called out
“Hey Hark, look what I’ve found here.”
Walking over to see what Drennen was referring too, Harkon looked down to see a young, weasly looking man dressed in the uniform of a junior Munitorum officer, obviously the base commander.
The young man was rasping weakly, the piece of shrapnel lodged in his throat cutting off his air. His hands, slick with his own blood groped at his neck as he stared up at Harkon, a pleading look in his eyes.
Harkon gave him a big smile, his half a face making the gesture unnecessarily sinister, and said
“Bet you aint ever seen orks like us before.” Before double tapping him in the face with his pistol.
Harkon counted 5 bodies among the ruins of the room, that was all the vox-staff accounted for as well as the base commander.
Ready to move on, the squad 2ic thumbed his microbead to send a sitrep.
“Charlie, this is Delta, primary objective complete, moving to secondary, over.”
Tanhauser Acknowledged as another lasbolt whipped overhead, making him flinch for a split second.
Charlie fire-team had run into the next squad right at the top of the stairs as they were trying to get into position, Krause and tanhauser immediately dropped to one knee so that the 2 behind them could fire over their heads, forming a box of suppressive fire. The numerically superior logistics troopers faltered immediately as the first three of their number were cut to pieces by accurate fire. Blasting wildly in the merc’s general direction, the troopers fell over themselves trying to retreat down the stairwell, their numbers working against them in the confines of the corridor. Sending Draken forward, Charlie team moved up in pairs, keeping the rate of fire consistent as they steadily advanced behind the gunner. The HB roared again and again in long bursts, scything down the fleeing guardsmen in showers of gore. One man’s abdomen exploded as he was hurled into another, who in turn accidentally shot one of his comrades in the head as he tried to flee. The squad sergeant stood his ground, pressing himself against a wall, teeth gritted while he emptied his power cell down the corridor. A plasma bolt vaporised most of his chest and launched the remains down the stairs with a series of thuds. Finishing the remainder off in a matter of seconds, the team took a moment to change mags before advancing to the lower level.
Everyone stopped again as the sound of small arms fire echoed through the room. That was closer than the explosion, much closer. Fellon didn’t like it at all. The thunderous explosion had confirmed his worst fears, the base was under significant attack. It had also confirmed his suspicions, Fellon thought to himself, the damn planetary commander was a heretic!. It was too much of a coincidence that this isolated base would come under attack at conveniently the same time an inquisitor was inspecting the premises.
They were coming for him.
Ordering the 2 hulking marines to cover the door, Fellon continued to pace. He had come too far to stop, he figured he would just have to deal with whatever came through that entrance. Pashus unholstered his laspistol and nodded to Fellon.
“We shall smite whatever enemies are stupid enough to face us, lord.”
Fellon nodded back, leaving his weapons holstered for now.
Stepping over the charred remains of a squad sgt, Krause led the way from the stairs into the lower level, scanning his arcs with robotic precision as he went. The lower level was made up almost entirely by the vault, with merely an annex room and a corridor making up the remainder.
Morley felt uneasy as they advanced, and thought he should tell the squad leader.
“Tan, I think we might have a problem.”
“Go, on.” Tanhauser replied.
“Well just before Harkon’s boys took out the ops room I received a powerful burst transmission, encrypted, and it washed out all frequencies for a few seconds.”
Tanhauser thought about this for a second.“They were asking for help?”
“I think so.” The vox man replied.
“Ok, well keep me posted, until we know more we continue on mission.”
The fireteam reached the end of the corridor and stacked up, Krause primed a tube charge and Morley stood by the door controls.
In his head, Tanhauser counted to three.
The ops room was virtually next to the stairway that led to the roof, so Delta team had no trouble getting up there. Back in the pouring rain, Hawkins covered the stairway entrance, some twenty metres away as Harkon set about rigging the satellite for demolition. The huge dish was set in a chest high rockrete foundation and would require the team’s entire supply of explosives to take out of commission, the reasoning behind this being that if it were an ork Kommando attack, their priority would be to disable the powerful vox equipment. Gunnar and Drennen covered Harkon as he moved about the structure, watching his back in case any enemy decided to surprise them.
Laying perfectly still, his camo cloak draped over him, Hawkins lined his crosshairs over a helmeted head as it slowly appeared in the doorway, cautiously glancing around to spot the Mercenaries. The head filled his scopes entire aperture at this range and he could pick out the individual beads of sweat on the man’s face.
BANG.
The face disappeared into a red mist as the corpse tumbled back down the stairs, a few seconds later 2 screaming troopers charged up through the doorway.
BANG. BANG.
Hawkins thought they probably wouldn’t try that again.
Krause stepped into the door and hefted the heavy tube charge with all his might. He stood there just long enough to see the inquisitor pitched off his feet as the charge smacked him full in the face. Krause ducked back with a grin on his face as a hail of bolter shells whanged down the corridor past him. At that point, Krause yelled.
“They’ve got space marines!” But his voice was totally drowned out by the explosion. Oh well, he thought, they’ll find out soon enough.
As debris was still flying through the door, Charlie team stormed in. 2 to the left and 2 to the right, the men fanned out and took stock of the situation. Directly to the front were 2 massive space marines, the one on the left had nothing below the elbow on his left arm and was standing upright looking at his stump, the one on the right was down on his knees shaking his head, maybe experiencing some problem with his autosenses. The inquisitor was lying in a crumpled heap next to the vault door, flanked on either side by the bloody corpses of his 2 priests. Another man lay to the right, dressed exactly like the inquisitor, an apprentice, perhaps?
Tanhauser fired his plasma pistol at the left-hand marine, the bolt punching a fist sized hole through his chest and throwing him into the vault door where he remained, dead. The other three opened up on the remaining marine, punishing full auto fire from the potent assault carbines and HB driving him back. The huge warrior jerked like a rag doll as dozens of rounds penetrated his armour, ricocheting inside and pulverising his powerful body. The massive warrior slumped silently on his knees and there was an agonising silence as all 4 men realised their weapons were empty. Tanhauser began the process of replacing the bottles on his plasma pistol just before a lasbolt smacked him in the right arm, spinning him round and dropping him to the ground. The unidentified man was stood leaning against the wall, his arm outstretched and gripping a laspistol. Draken was in the middle of swapping the drums on his heavy bolter, Morley fumbled for his bolt pistol, Krause reacted faster than any of them. Dashing forward with his weapon slung, Nathan Krause open palmed the man’s firing hand to one side, the next lasbolt spanging harmlessly off the vault door. Continuing his momentum, Krause followed with a spinning backwards elbow to the head which sent the man crashing into the wall. The man’s head bounced painfully against the wall and timing it perfectly, Krause jumped into the air and met the head with a crushing knee, shattering the man’s face with the impact.
“Room clear.”
Draken put a burst into into the scribe at the door panel, smashing the man-machine into pulp as Morley gave the sarge medical attention. The round had passed straight through the arm, shattering the bone and immediately cauterising the wound in the process. Morley Pulled an insta-splint form his trauma pack and strapped Tanhauser’s arm to his side.
“You ok, Tan?” The vox man asked.
Tanhauser replied through gritted teeth. “Yeah, let’s get on.”
The sarge struggled to his feet and walked over to the inquisitor’s immobile form.
“Not a scratch on him.” Draken pointed out, a situation that was highly unusual for someone that had been next to a detonating tube charge.
Tanhauser pointed to his collar.
“See the smoke coming from his coat? Conversion field, the blast must have shorted it out and fried the poor bastard.”
He was dead, no doubt, he didn’t even need to double tap him to make sure.
“Ok, let’s bug the hell out-“
Tanhauser was cut-off by an incoming transmission so powerful, even the microbeads picked it up.
“Firebase echo six this is Brother Captain Lucien of the Maledictors. We have decided to respond to your distress call and are despatching a strike force to assist, E.T.A 15 minutes. Emperor be praised!”
Tanhauser looked across at Morley. The maledictors were a chapter of space marines, the adeptus astartes, the chosen of the emperor.
“Oh gak!”
|
"fear me but fallow"
I did it! I pulled the pin!"
"Throw it you idiot!"
