Well, this is my first ever fanfiction and really my first proper attempt at publishing any sort of creative writing. I doubt anybody will read this and I doubt even more that they will find it up to standard but It's been in my head for a long time and I just decided to publish this for the sake of it. If anybody does actually read this and enjoy it, reviews are appreciated.
I am sure this is a type-ridden mess but oh well. Here we go and I hope you enjoy :)
This is a Warhammer 40k story giving some more detail in how the Tau acquired so many ex-guard human axillaries, especially from from the 19th Brimlock dragoons focusing on Jeakim and my OC tau character.
Disclaimer: Sadly I do not own anything to do with Warhammer 40k (I hope that's good enough)
Jeakim was scared, more scared than he'd ever been in his life sitting in a damp imperial guard bunker, listening to the distance screeches of kroots and the odd crack of a lasgun, most likely a nervous sentry firing blindly into the darkness. The 19th Regiment of the Brimlock dragoons, his regiment, had been participating in the Damocles Gulf Crusade and he had been proud to be a part of it, proud for a chance to kill the hated Xenos and please the Emperor he once praised so freely. Now? Now he was just afraid. The rest of the crusade forces had been rapidly withdrawn to deal with the sudden appearance of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Behemoth, leaving his regiment alone to face the Tau forces.
His regiment had set up a command post on a hill in the middle of a large field on a largely undeveloped world with not an indigenous human in sight, they had already gone or had perished in the previous large-scale battles against the Tau and their auxiliaries forces. Around the command centre trenches had been desperately dug and bunkers placed in an attempt to shield the guardsmen from the Tau snipers hidden out beyond the Imperial lines, everyone knew they were out there, always watching and waiting for the right moment to strike and the guardsmen hated it. In an attempt to bolster the morale of their forces, the Commissars decided to give them a boost in the only way they knew how, beatings, suicide missions or executions in a desperate attempt to keep their fighting force fighting.
The Commissars, oh he hated them. At first he had considered them holy, extensions of the Emperor's will on the battlefield and their orders should be followed without question, now he was only following them in the fear that if he stepped out of line, he would be the next to be executed. So they waited, and waited, periodically sending out desperate Vox calls for help but there was never any response, the guardsmen felt abandoned and helpless and this is why the thoughts of desertion, mutiny and freedom entered their minds and as their losses slowly piled up, the more and more they wished it all just to end.
As he sat there, helplessly trying to get some sleep along with twenty other guardsmen crammed into a bunker, he nearly had a heart failure when one of the regiments hated Commissars stepped without warning into the bunker, identifiable immediately by his glowing red bionic right eye and his faintly glowing power sword he proudly displayed at his hip. "Guardsmen" He barked out, immediately waking the more dozy inhabitants of the bunker and they all rose unsteadily to salute him wearily, dreading what he was about to announce "We have stayed too long here under the eyes of the Xenos, tonight we break out and we will scour these aliens from the face of the planet, you have five minutes to prepare yourselves, and do not fear. The emperor is with you" He finished dramatically before striding out of the bunker, leaving Jeakim to slump down against the wall and one of the younger recruits, just a boy in armor to mumble quietly "This is it, our final orders. It's over for us".
He was met with silence from the guardsmen until the grizzled sergeant in the bunker with them attempted to raise their spirits "You heard him lads, five minutes and we will be free from this Xenos filth, do not fear them" He looked around the gloomy bunker before sighing slightly in defeat "He's mad, we're all dead.." He dropped his voice in fear of being heard "That Commissar is going to kill us all" At this Jeakim looked up "What is he suggesting? disobeying a direct order? That's treason.. tainted with heresy" he thoughts to himself, slightly worried and even alarmed when the rest of the guardsmen all nodded or showed their agreement somehow, he just shook his head slightly and checked his Lasrifle for the hundredth that week, just out of habit and waited for the inevitable call to do his duty.
After five minutes the sergeant muttered a few quiet words to himself, sounding like a hushed prayer before walking over to the exit of the bunker "Come on then, can't keep the Commissar waiting". At the sheer thought of displeasing the Commissar, Jeaken and the rest of the guardsmen filed out of the bunker into the night and the six-foot high trench the bunker was seated in. The guardsmen walked through the trenches, attempting to ignore the decaying corpses of multiple creatures lining the walls of the trench on into the unofficial staging area of this attempt at an attack. Jeaken was surprised with the numbers this Commissar was able to muster for his personal attack, the Colonel must really be crazy or just helpless to allow a single Commissar so much power. There must have been at least a hundred of so guardsmen and a handful of sentinels, all standing in rows as if they were on parade, but probably just to bolster the commissars already inflated ego, thought Jeaken before mentally slapping himself, warding away and treasonous thoughts.
The commissar stood up on small mount of earth, looking down on the massed, hungry and exhausted guardsmen and opened his mouth "Do not fear guardsmen, this is your finest hour!" He drew his power sword and thrust it out towards the darkness on the other side of the trench "The God Emperor is watching over us all and he shall lead us to victory, guardsmen, forward!" Some of the guardsmen erupted in cheers, ready for action while others, including Jeaken were for focused on how their opponents must have undoubtedly heard him and will be prepared. With a last "Forward!" The Commissar strode down from his makeshift podium proudly and out into the fields beyond the trench, followed by the ranks of guardsmen, marching forward proudly and sentinels, rushing past as if they were running, illuminating the way in front with the lamps mounted on the side of their canopies. Jeaken marched onwards, alongside the rest of his platoon, slightly unnerved by the silence apart from occasional shouts from the Commissar and the sounds of marching, the occasional guardsman stumbling in the darkness before being hoisted back into line by a nearby comrade and also the sound of muffled prayers, mumble out desperately to seeming deaf ears.
The silence did not last long, after a minute or so of marching onwards the field in front of them, photon grenades suddenly burst among the ranks of the guardsmen, sending many of the stumbling or to the ground and the sound of plasma carbines discharging filled the guardsman's ears. Naturally, the Tau knew they were coming and pathfinders had been waiting for them, lurking in the darkness beyond the imperial camp and now they had their pray.
(A few seconds earlier) Shas'la Karis, dropped to a prone position in the dense undergrowth on the right hand side of the field the Imperial Guard were blindly marching across, he took a small marklight marker from his utility belt and fired an invisible beam straight into the heart of the ranks of the guard, his carbine's sights calibrating to the distance and he knew the pathfinders around him and more distant fire warriors weapons had done the same. Smiling grimly, he sat in silence before hearing through his helmet's communication system the one word said by the nearby Tau commander that would seal the fate of the blind force marching onward past them "Commence". As soon as this was said several pathfinders of both sides of the guards ranks through photon grades overarm blindly towards them with a soft grunt of effort before kneeling or taking cover in the undergrowth, waiting a few seconds before the photon grenades detonated. Karis watched gleefully as the grenades detonated, sending many guardsmen to the ground or reeling backwards, completely disoriented and he set his sights on the chest of a haggard-looking guardsman and squeezed the trigger on his carbine. The shot impacted the guardsman in the centre of his chest, even the relatively low powered burst of plasma burning straight through his flak-jacket and burning through flesh below, he let out a surprised grunt and fell backwards to the ground, twitching erratically. The rest of the Tau around Karis and on the opposite side of the field opened up, filling the air with bolts of Plasma.
If anyone made it to the end of the first chapter without giving up on this half way through, I hope you enjoyed :)