Traitor-Sergeant Edsin slowly opened his eyes. Something had woken him up. He could hear the same constant drizzle on the scrap metal roof above him that he'd heard when he'd passed out so it wasn't the sound that had woken him up. He looked at his surrounding when he felt something cold and wet hit this forehead. He frowned and looked at the ceiling about him to see where a leak had formed. Unable to sleep as he slowly woke up completely, he rolled off the bed and pulled on his boots, armor and grabbed his weapon. Three minutes later he was fully alert and stepped out into the pouring rain.

It was light outside, though given the perpetual grey of the sky, the traitor-sergeant hardly noticed. Edsin wasn't sure how long he'd been on this world, but he knew it'd been raining the entire time. He thought. He couldn't really remember and decided that he didn't care. He crawled out of the dirt bunker he'd been sleeping in and began moving through the trench works.

However long they had been here, it had been long enough to dig these trenches and put up some tarps that didn't quite keep out the rain Edsin noted as he shuffled past a pair of cultists wearing the long tan raincoats popular on this world. They were carrying a crate of mortar rounds and Edsin had no doubt that they'd need them soon. He moved past them and towards the frontline. For a fortification in the 41st millennium, the battlements were surprisingly quiet, their enemies weren't attacking presently, and they didn't have the manpower or equipment to mount one of their own. Edsin reached the frontline trench and got down prone and crawled into the observation ditch covered by a tarp.

"Anything?" He asked the man already laying down there. The man twitched in surprise and turned his head to face him. Edsin was greeted with a familiar smiling face.

"Good morning Sergeant." Irritus said. Edsin managed a nod in return and pointed to the tree line some six meters away.

"Any movement?" He asked. Irritus shook his head but didn't stop smiling.

"None at all. A bit odd for orks, but then that's orks for you." The cultist said. Edsin frowned, the news wasn't reassuring but he decided he didn't care. He noticed that Irritus was looking behind them. Edsin looked over his shoulder to see a figure in power armor approach them. After a moment Edsin recognized the person.

"Morning hun." The power armored woman said as she came up to the back of the ditch. Irritus crawled out and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Good morning, how'd you sleep?" The cultist asked. The woman blushed.

"Fine, here I brought you some recaff." She handed Irritus a cup and the cultist took it gladly. Edsin crawled out of the ditch and the former sister of battle acknowledged him. "Good morning sergeant." Edsin grunted in reply.

"Any word from the host Maria?" He asked. Maria shook her head.

"Still nothing since they left last month." She replied. "Looks like we'll be stuck babysitting this refinery for a while." Part of Edsin was disappointed that they were stuck here, the other part hadn't been aware that they'd been here that long. He decided that he didn't really care on either point and noticed that there was another pair of voices slowly getting louder through the rain.

"Believe me, you would find yourself between 118 and 122 percent more effective than you are now." The first voice said.

"Doesn't mean that I won't melt it next time I need to burn something." A second voice said. Edsin saw two more people in tan raincoats come through the haze of the rain. One was taller and had the sleeves of the raincoat rolled up. The other was completely wrapped up in the coat and Edsin could see where half of the man's face was metal. Irritus smiled as they approached.

Datave, Alain good morning. Are you two here to take over for me?" The cultist asked. Datave nodded to Irritus while the taller one, Alain, nodded to Edsin.

"Morning sergeant." Edsin gave the psyker a nod and Datave addressed the cultist.

"Any movement from the orks?" The heretek asked. Irritus shook his head.

"No, it's been quiet. I think that-" Irritus never finished that sentence. Before he could there was a loud, throaty sound. The sound came from the tree line about six hundred meters away. A sound that all five of the traitors knew too well.

"WAAAAAAAAHH!"

~/~/~

Immediately all five of the heretics sprang into action. Edsin cursed under his breath and unslung his lasgun, angry for the fifth time that week that he'd lost his hellgun. He took up a firing position along the trench and motioned to Irritus. The cultist nodded. Irritus grabbed a crude flare gun, aimed it at the grey raining sky, and pulled the trigger. Datave dove into the heavy bolter position next to the observation ditch and began putting the weapon into operation. As the flare exploded in the sky to warn the other chaos worshippers about the attack Irritus climbed into the position to help the hereteck. Maria took off towards the rest of the fortifications to retrieve her heavy bolter, the weapon was too large to carry through the trenches normally. Alain unslung a lasgun as well, his psychic abilities no use at this range, and took up a position next to Edsin.

"Good way to start the morning eh sergeant?" Alain asked with a smile. Edsin took the safety off of his lasgun and looked down the sights.

"Shut the hell up."

A/N: The Warhammer 40,000 series belongs to Games Workshop, and NOT me.