“There
is still a lot of interference down here, please repeat,” restated Lt. Ulricht
as she surveyed the chaos around her.
Pvt. Soizey and several others scrambled about trying to keep the series
of signal boosters and the power supplies operational. Sparks flew off the power cores as the vox lights
flickered brightly but erratically.
“We
can’t get a fix on your location from your vox beacons, no pick up is possible
at this time,” squawked the on duty fleet officer aboard the Imperial Grand Cruiser
Harbinger.
“You
can’t just leave us down here,” pleaded Lt. Ulricht.
“Ma’am,
yes we can and yes we will.”
The
voxes internal wiring had begun to overheat and smoke ascended out of the
casing. Pvt. Soizey cracked it open with
his trusty multitool to cool and ventilate the vox and bought a few more indeterminate
operational moments. “Look you sniveling
little pole pusher, patch me through to Captain Stotten or somebody who matters
now or I’ll…”
“Alright,
alright. Patching now.” A few breathless moments passed until the signal returned.
“General
Oren here. Who is this?”
“General,”
Lt. Ulricht startled that the little pisser of a duty officer transferred her
all the way to the top, “We are stranded on this planet. The evacuation of Echo company was a
failure. We were nearly at the
rendezvous point when we made contact with mutants who disrupted our
communications and we have encountered some other humans but they must be
traitors because the opened fire on us.”
“That’s
a shame, Lieutenant, but we have greater priorities right now. Something is headed toward this planet and it
will be here soon. I’ll be honest with
you, you are the least of our worries now.
We are preparing for the warp jump as we speak.”
Sparks
flew from the power cells as the cables that connected the serial voxes and the
power cells began to smolder. Pvt.
Soizey did what he could to keep it going by having the squad fan the melting wires
with their caps. Soizey shook his head
and Lt. Ulricht grasped for straws, “Sir, we have important information about
what’s going on here. This information
would be very valuable to the Imperium and would make another token of our
faithfulness when we reestablish contact, but sir we can’t keep our signal
strength this high for much longer. We
need a way out.”
Oren’s
message boomed in the minds of all who were within earshot, “Get to the landing
platform in sector 7B. Activate the
platform’s beacons when you arrive. If you are not there within 6 hours exactly
we,” the final death throws erupted from the vox as it shot off an eruption of
white hot sparks.
Without
hesitation Lt. Ulricht spun on her heels and faced the company. She shouted in the
loudest voice she could muster, “We’ve got 4 hours to cover 24 miles of the
some of the harshest conditions many of us have ever seen, but we carry the
name of the proudest fortress in all the Hoth system. Shed all unnecessary equipment, carry some of
the minor wounded’s weight for them, and euthanize those that are too far
gone. The memories of our ancestors who
served before us give strength, the Emperor lends us his will, and I’ll be
damned if I’ll be the final officer to lead the greatest company in the
greatest regiment in our proud corps. Emperor forgive all in our way because
nothing will stop us now.”
******
Three
hours and 18 miles into Echo Company’s journey they had returned to the city
designated 18AG by THeX command. The locals called it Grabache and from what Lt.
Ulricht had seen of it so far she thought that it was perfectly suited. She and
her command company had found their way into a breached bunker and climbed to
the top to get a better view of what lie ahead.
She scanned the horizon for any sign of activity with her monocular. She could see her destination, the landing
platform 7B, as it jutted up from the cities ruins and gleamed as a beacon of
rescue. She was so mesmerized by the
promise of salvation from this horrid planet she neglected to spot the enemy
auto cannon set up on the ravaged landing platform just across the street.
The
shower of ferrocrete shards and the screams of her command squad as they were
blown to pieces caused her to instinctually throw herself against the cover of
the ledge. She reached her hand out to
pull Specialist Tungst toward the cover only to pull back the bloody pulp of an
appendage. She took two deep controlled breaths
then she screamed out, “Autocannons to the south on the busted landing
platform, two other squads beyond the fence moving right toward us. Fire heavy weapons on the first priority,
now,” she paused a brief moment then continued, “Lasfire, on the seondary
targets now!.”
She
could hear the rapid spitting of the heavy bolters and the thumping pulse of
the autocannons but nothing in the way of lasfire. She crawled through the blood and gore of
what used to be her command squad to peer over the broken rooftop only to see
her exhausted squads slowly trudge through the broken landscape of craters and
building debris. She spotted Lt. Cragg
lazily traipsing through the debris despite having the best footing of all
those she could see. “Cragg, get you and
your squads to the archway! You have no
heavy weapons, so there are no excuses.
Move, move, move!”
Cragg
shouted out to Sgt. Gannon who was at the archway already, “Gannon, you heard
first lieutenant! Move, move, move!”
Gannon’s squad moved quickly into the wide boulevard while Cragg tripped
and fumbled through the relatively light debris field. The squad in front of Cragg that slightly
trailed Sgt. Gannon’s squad emerged from the debris first and ran past the arch
way only be cut down by a searing shower of shrapnel and lasfire. A few of the infantry were able to crawl back
into the safety provided by the cover of the pitted ground and mangled
buildings.
*****
Lt.
Marcum, having recently been moved off of the frontline and given command of
the heavy bolter infantry squads, was at a bit of a loss. From his time as a private he was always
frontline infantry and he had never had any formal training with heavy
weapons. He wondered why Lt. Ulricht
would put him in charge of something he had no experience when he realized that
he, Ulricht, Cragg, and Thoms, who was on rear guard duty, were the last of the
officers in the company.
Marcum
and his infantry squads rushed through a despoiled alley. The broken wall just
to their south provided cover from the autocannon squads that ripped through
Lt. Ulricht’s squad. Marcum inspired his
men forward, “Emperor help any squad I catch up to because I will tickle your
throats with the barrel of my bolt pistol.
Hold position at the wall.”
They
approached the intersection cautiously.
He peered around the wall and could see the enemies’ autocannons on the
broken landing platform and could see the infantry a massing behind the ruined
building in front of them. His postion
was great for covering fire for assaulting infantry.
Lt.
Ulrichts voice rang through the ruins and very faintly it could be heard, “Autocannons
to the south on the landing platform, two other squads beyond the fence moving
right toward us. Fire heavy weapons on
the first priority, now!” Without
question the squads opened fire but it was little more that ineffective
suppressing fire as Marcum’s squad was not yet in position.
Marcum
order, “Autocannon squads get on top of that ruin, 4-1 move around to the left
and set up a heavy bolter on the south corner of the ruined tri-story.” Marcum
moved his squad to the corner of the wall to complete the deadly net of cross
fire for the intersection. “4-1, fire on
the target at 2.”
Cragg’s
voice echoed from behind the broken wall, “Gannon, you heard first lieutenant!
Move, move, move!”
Marcum
shook his head and thought that he couldn’t have heard the order right because
as they approached the intersection he could see the bulk of the enemy command
and infantry were right behind the broken building Gannon was headed toward.
****
“Cragg
fucked us again, didn’t he?” Private Soizey said as he struggled to catch his
breath to Sgt. Gannon.
Sgt.
Gannon surveyed the situation as his squad darted for protection against the
outer wall of a ruined building across the wide boulevard. He knelt at the outer wall of the building
then cautiously peered through the windows of the building and could see
several squads of the traitor guard advancing toward their position. He put his back to the wall and could see the
barrels of the autocannons sticking out of the upper floor windows of the
building they had just come from and Marcum’s squads in the alleyway setting up
for covering fire. Gannon shook his head in disbelief and the realization that
Cragg had ordered him too far forward.
“I
see one,” said private Grenholm, “correct that, two… no, three squads coming
from the south.”
“I’ve
got one coming in from the north,” said private Soizey.
“Another
one is crawling through the buil…” the voice suddenly trailed off as he dropped
dead on the spot as his face incinerated from a deadly accurate lasshot.
“Return
fire through the windows,” Gannon shouted and his squad responded immediately
by unleashing a fury of las fire into the squad that crawled through the
building ruins. Howls of pain and
rumbles of the building’s structure continued their decay as upper floors
collapsed on top of some of the opposing infantry.
Lt.
Marcum’s voice could be heard very faintly in the distance, “Concentrate fire
at the one o’clock.” The rapid spitting of the heavy bolters at Gannon’s squads
back provided a glimmer of hope.
The
hope was quickly quelled when a ferocious roar came up from the south side of
the building and a squad of raging madness surged from around the corner of the
building with bayonets fixed and weapons raised in striking position. “Stand ready,” Gannon blurted out as those of
his squad that were closest to the corner were skewered at the end of the
enemy’s bayonets. They responded with a
surge of their own as they crushed forward into charge to lessen the
brutality.
Bayonets
and clubbing lasguns met one another in a swirl of carnage and death. The two sergeants’ chainswords whirred loudly
and the laspisols hissed as the sergeants cut through the crowd and moved
toward one another. One by one the
others fell into the slippery pools of the blood of friend and foe alike when
the two sergeants met. Their chainswords
clashed with a violent jerk as the chains dual counter spinning teeth pulled at
one another. Each sergeant fired their
laspistols at one another but both just barely missed so nearly that the smell
of ionized air stung their nostrils.
Gannon
took a misstep into a large pool of entrails and gore then slipped just enough
to open himself up for a mortal blow.
The opposing sergeant thrusted his chainsword forward when his feet were
pulled out from under him by the Thexian scarves wrapped around his boot by a
bloodied but conscious Prviate Soizey.
Gannon quickly regained his footing and buried his chainsword into the
prone enemy sergeant.
Gannon
reached a hand to pull Soizey up from the mess and saw the left side of his
face was severely burned and the left eye socket was missing its’ vessel, “I
never answered your question, Soizey.
Yes, Cragg has fucked us again.”
***
A
lock of Lt. Ulricht’s blonde hair had slipped from beneath her cap and Thexian
scarves as she crawled through the remains of her command squad. The blonde lock sopped up the gore left by
her ravaged squad. That single lock was
stained a bold bright red reminiscent of the fresh lava flows of Tetrahoth. She
dropped down from the ruined rooftop on the single story bunker where her
command squad was slaughtered. Her
uniform was smeared and dripping with the gruesome carnage of her companions as
she stormed across the cratered battlefield.
She shouted with the fury of a warp spawned deamon “Cragg! Move your squad
now, now, now emperor damn you!”
Cragg,
who did not notice her steadfast pace as she stormed toward his position,
shouted back, “we’re trying ma’am. The
debris is too hard to manage.” Cragg
felt a tap on his shoulder and turned, “What is it private?”
There
stood Lt. Ulricht and the butt of her plasma pistol as it careened toward the
bridge of his nose. It connected with
such force that the men standing at the in front of Cragg heard the breaking of
his nose and the cracking of the handle of her plasma pistol. Cragg writhed on the ground as if he had
suffered a grievous wound. “If you not
going to use them, allow me,” spit Lt. Ulricht in contempt, “I’d kill you now but
I am going to need every person I can get to carry the scores of wounded from
your incompetence.”
“Open
fire on all priority targets on my command,” Lt. Ulricht shouted. She whipped
her head around to Cragg’s squad which caused her blood drenched lock to
spatter and christen them with the gore du jour, “On my order we surge forward
to reinforce Sgt. Gannon.”
Specialist
Wesson, with fresh blood drops across his face, spun the knob at the end of the
line from the fuel tanks and opened the nozzle on his flame thrower and replied,
“We’re with you, Lieu.”
**
A
torrent of fire erupted from the line of Echo company across the street, which
caused screams and wails abound from the enemy in all directions around the
building where they stay. Gannon turned
toward Soizey, “Grab the flame thrower, cut the straps for the tank off of
Werst, but leave the tank on the ground, we aren’t going far.” Soizey grabbed
the flame thrower as ordered and crouched then moved to the north corner of the
outer wall of the ruined building. The
tank scrapped along the ground slowly as Soizey struggle to pull it through the
pile of bodies. “On my signal light the
place up through the window.”
Gannon
stood in front of the window. The infantry
swung their lasguns toward him and opened fire. “Go,” Gannon shouted as Soizey
propped himself against the window frame and pushed the barrel of the flame
thrower through the window. The enemy was set aflame though one lucky shot hit
Gannon and penetrated his shoulder armor and set fire to it then scorched his
flesh beneath. He dropped down to his knee out of the view from the window and
tilted his head away from the flames as his already burned left hand unhooked
the flaming piece of gear from his body.
Meanwhile,
Soizey had dropped the flamer as he leaned against the wall. Through his only eye he spotted another enemy
charge around the southern corner again straight toward them. Soizey solemnly said, “It’s been a pleasure,
sir,” and mustered the last bit of strength he had in him and threw himself in
front of the enemy. The action, while
valiant, was his final act as no less than three bayonets ran him through. His body collapsed on those of his fallen
comrades.
Gannon,
still kneeling, grabbed his pistol from the ground after he had shed his
flaming shoulder armor and shot from the hip, which dropped one and caused
another to stumble in the pool of gore.
His chainsword roared as he stood to meet the charging squad. He swiped at the first to approach with his
chainsword and lopped off his arm, then another moved in and stabbed Gannon in
his exposed right shoulder with the bayonet.
Gannon dropped his chainsword and stumbled backward. He tried to control his stumble so that his
back would be against the wall but he backed into another enemy. He danced to
his right but only found another enemy.
He glanced to his left only to catch the butt of a lasgun with his jaw. He dropped to the ground and disappeared from
the view of Lt. Marcum.
Lt.
Marcum, who had watched the heroic display of valor of Sgt. Gannon and Pvt.
Soizey, could do little to save them as there were too many other priority
targets to deal with and could now only take vengeance. “4-1 fire at the 12!” The exploding shells of the heavy bolter and
the searing shower of las fire painted the outer wall of the ruined building
with the innards of the offending enemy infantry.
*
The
bursts of autocannon fire chewed up the street all around Lt. Ulricht’s squad
as it ran across the wide boulevard toward the last stand of Sgt. Gannon. She had saw Gannon fall and she had seen the
revenge brought by Lt. Marcum. One of
her squad fell to the burst on autocannon shell and rent his leg from his
body. “Keep moving forward,” ordered Lt.
Ulricht when they finally made it across the street.
Spc.
Wesson and Spc. Graham brought their load to bear on the squad that lingered
along the south wall of the ruined building.
As Lt. Ulricht moved through the flaming remanants of the squad she observed
a star shaped mark seared into the head of one whose face was still
intact.
She
paused at a window to peer inside. She
could hear rummaging and the occasional order being delivered but little else
when she spotted what she determined to be the enemy commanding officer alone
and watching the movement and position of Lt. Marcum’s squad. She turned to her specialists, “Climb through the
window. I am going to creep forward and draw his attention this way. I want the
two of you to flank around the rear. When
I come forward, light him up.”
Lt.
Ulricht climbed through the window. Wesson and Graham stalked quickly but
quietly through the outskirts of the ruins to approach from the rear. Lt. Ulricht crept slowly through the
rubble. She had a hard time gaining her
footing as much of the rubble was still loose as if the building’s collapse was
recent. Hidden in the darkness she
stopped in front of a pool of light that flooded the area from a hole in the ceiling.
The burts of autocannon fire hit the
building and caused a bit more dust shake loose and fall through the ceiling.
One
especially hard hit burst through the wall upstairs as a bit more of the
ceiling collapsed just behind the enemy commander. He turned to see what had a happened and stared
for just a moment toward Lt. Ulricht’s position. Lt. Ulricht froze in her place. He took a few steps over the freshly
collapsed ceiling and moved toward the veil of light she hid behind. She backed away slowly but the movement caused
a shift in the fallen rubble which caused her foot to fall into a pocket of
loose shattered ferrocrete and become trapped beneath the shifting debris. She quietly struggled to pull her foot out
but it would not budge.
The
enemy commander continued to move toward her.
He drew his bolt pistol as he silently stalked forward. Lt. Ulricht, plasma pistol already drawn,
pulled the pin on a krak grenade. She
waited silently as the commanding officer approached the veil of light. She saw him penetrate the light and could see
his eyes widen as the grenade flew passed his face and up through the hole that
caused the light to shine on the floor.
He stepped backward and shot wildly into the darkness while Lt. Ulricht ducked
and fired her plasma pistol up toward him.
The bolts exploded around Lt. Ulricht with bits of ferrocrete shrapnel
flying. A piece lodged in her singed hip
from the first encounter with the traitor guard and she cursed the pain. Suddenly, the krak grenade that she threw
through the hole in the ceiling exploded.
A
large section of ceiling collapsed on the enemy commander while a smaller chunk
crushed Lt. Ulricht’s leg. As the dust
settled Wesson and Graham moved in and secured the area. Lt. Ulricht was pinned, in pain, and alone in
the darkness. She could barely hear the
soft sounds of pattering feet on ground over the rumble of building further
parts of the building collapsing. The
urge to close her eyes was overwhelming and despite her best efforts she succumbed
to her overpowering inclination.
“I
think I see something over here Wesson,” Spc. Graham whispered, “Yep, here she
is.”
“Is
she still alive?” Spc. Wesson inquired while keeping with the same sullen tone.
Spc.
Graham took out his medkit and waved some smelling salts under her nose. Lt. Ulricht shook her head, disturbing a
large quantity that had settled on her. “Glad
to see your still around, Lieu.” We need to get moving. The remaining infantry are falling back.” Wesson and Graham removed the ceiling rubble
from her leg.
Lt.
Ulricht tried to stand on her own but in addition to the shard of ferrocrete in
her hip, her leg had broken just above the knee. Spc. Wesson dropped his flamer fuel tank and
allowed Lt. Ulricht to use him as support. “Wait, before we go, I want to see
him.” Wesson walked Lt. Ulricht over to
the enemy Commander. With her plasma pistol
trained on the commander she questioned, “Graham, is he still alive?”
“Barely,
ma’am.”
“Wake
him up,” she said. Graham knelt beside
him and brought out his medkit. The commander’s
eyes flickered open. “Why are you doing
this? Why are you fighting us? The enemy are the mutants that have overrun
this planet. Why do you not stand with us?”
The
enemy commander coughed a weak cough that sent a spattering of blood to add to
the growing pool of blood on the floor and blew a small cloud of dust away from
his mouth. He gargled in a wheezing
voice that struggled for air, “We … can’t let you … leave. Can’t you … feel it? You’re … tainted. Wherever you go … your people will … carry
the impurities … with you. We can ... not
allow this.”
Indignantly
she responded, “We are tainted? You command over troops that bare the mark of
the renegade and traitors to the imperial cause.”
“You
have no ... idea what is headed ... this way. I’ve done what was nec... essary to protect ... our purity ... and because of Their pro... tection we remain pure. You are not ...
We will find protection with .. the warp.
Your soul ... will be erased ... your body ... will become seed.”
“Pathetic
traitor!" Lt. Ulricht summoned from deep in her throat a wet ball of bloody mucus and spat directly onto the commander's cheek. "I may not know what is coming but I know you won't be there." Lt.
Ulricht reloaded her plasma pistol and leveled it at the commander.
“It
has … already begun. At least ... I die unspoiled. Will you … be
able to say … the same?”
Awesome write up man. Love the tie into the Traitor Guard I'll never get around to working on. Very good story dude, lots of violence and mystery. Love the end, could of been a movie...and would of been better then Prometheus!
ReplyDeleteSo who does Lt. Ulricht look like anyway, well in your mind when you write?
Agreed! Apologies for not posting sooner. I actually read it twice. I must say, the format is very similar to the twenty or so 40k novels I've read. Time for the next step brah!
ReplyDeleteSeriously.. what do Lt. Ulricht's ta-tas look like? Is she attracted to Gannon? Will she be raped by a chaos daemon? Tell! Tell!
That's one of the downsides of writing war porn/battle reports is that the characters are a little flat. I really haven't thought of a specific look for the characters other than Ulricht being blonde because I am focused on trying to get to the next sequence. I guess I kind of picture her as a butchy femme. If you will picture in your mind:
ReplyDeleteLt. Ulricht’s face is hard as granite because of her sharp nordic features, piercing ice blue eyes with a 20 yard stare that could knock a man down, and thin pale pink expressionless lips that often dam the spouting of her true assessments about some of her subordinates. Her long bob blonde hairstyle is an indication of her patient and meticulous nature as it is usually pulled back not in a bun but more how two gentle rivers merge together where one just slides underneath the other. When dressed in combat gear her uniformly strong physique blends in with the rest of her squad being the average height of the THeXian male but slightly gaunter than average. In her PT gear or dress uniform she displays a distinctly feminine silhouette because of her childbearing hips and practical bosoms.
Not that I have thought about it much…
Seriously, now that you have made me invest even further in her it is going to be difficult to write her death.
Justin: What do you mean next step?
Publish something...
ReplyDeleteProblem with that is everybody wants to write and nobody wants to read.
ReplyDeleteI don't know. A few years ago black library did open submissions for Fear the Alien book. I thought about submitting something and had a few ideas but never got around to writing them. If they did something like that again maybe I would submit something.
If I could come up with a good original idea that would be something. Problem is the long stuff I write just meanders along and I feel I am being repetitive. Hell with a few of these I already feel like I am repeating myself when it comes to describing the goriness of it all.
Am I repetitive as I feel sometimes?
Sure... battles, in general, become repetitive. Still quite entertaining as a whole.
ReplyDelete