SNIPER
"Listen in men, orders have just come in. We have been tasked with taking the position over the hill, we are to take it and hold against enemy forces to provide cover fire for the big push on the enemy line." The Sargent of the squad explained as he tried to get his holo-slate to load a picture. The younger men of the squad closed in to look at the slate while the more experienced man kept one eye on their surroundings. Without warning the Sargent head exploded covering the closest men with blood and brain matter causing them to freeze with fear which lead another three to their deaths.
"Sniper, get down." One of the men cried as he dove to the ground as pinpoint accurate Las rounds dropped his squad mates one after the other. The few men left started firing their weapons at anything they could see but the sniper had already left to stalk another target.
"Hunting the Guard used to be such a challenge but now they are mere shadows of their former glory. I need to get some bigger game, They do not even have a decent counter sniper unit on this plant." Thought the blood pack marksman as he made his way north through the jungle, He had heard rumors of space marines operating in that area and could not resist the challenge. Saul had made the blood pact thirty years ago but due to the gifts from the dark gods had never aged a day. His whole body was covered in ritual scars and combat wounds apart from his trigger finger, one small oasis of perfection in a sea of scar tissue. He still carried his long-Las that was issued to him when he was a imperial guardsman but it had been so heavily modified to suit him it was barely recognizable. He marched north for three weeks taking the occasional kill, more for fun than anything else until he reached Nostova one of the biggest barracks on the southern continent. He slowly crawled his way through the swamp on its western side dodging the searchlights and occasional patrols to get into the perfect position to observe the activity at the camp.
"Generals on the front line wear standard issue clothing now, since my arrival on this planet has caused so many of them to meet their corpse emperor prematurely. But the other soldiers still stand a little bit straighter and move a little bit faster when they are near. It is too easy." Saul said to himself as he started to slow his breathing as he rested the cross-hair onto the forehead of the general. Saul let out a breath and squeezed the trigger which released a hot shot Las round right through his targets head and into his second in command shoulder tearing the arm from the body.
"Two kills with one shot, Not bad if I do say so myself. That will stop any movement from this base for a while." Saul congratulated himself as he lay stationary in the stinking swamp. Another gift from chaos was his total lack of hunger or thirst, He could go months without food or water barely breathing let alone moving and this was how he had evaded capture for so long he simply slept away the time until his enemies gave up looking for him. This base was the ancor for the whole southern front line. With one shot Saul had managed to freeze an entire battalion of guardsman to allow his fellow blood pack soldiers to advance and kill them mercilessly
A WOLF ARRIVES
"Come in brother Hrolf. Come in." The vox unit crackles to Hrolfas he sits in his den re-assembling his bolt rifle, as he finishes screwing the sound suppressor onto the barrel. The Space wolf scout stood flexing his shoulder muscles as he walked to the vox unit.
"Hrolf here rune priest. What are your orders?" He asked
"We need you to move to the south, General Haufman of the 72nd dragoon guard has been assassinated and it has caused the whole front line south of Nostova to stall. The heretics have swarmed the lines like flies round a dying Elk. The casting of the runes show us that it is one sniper who is favored by the dark gods. Your mission is to track him down and kill him while giving any assistance you can to get the Guard moving."
"It will be done by the will of Russ." With that Hrolf switch the vox caster off and started to dismantle his den. He always traveled light as a scout with the Space wolves he was always on the move across the galaxy. He swung the skin of the first wolf he killed over his gene enhanced muscles and headed out the door letting his stalker pattern bolter swing loose on its strap.
Two weeks of non stop running southward had barely caused Hrolf to break sweat, when he arrived at Nostova he could still smell the faint taint of chaos in the air that sickly sweet smell of decay and temptation bringing a snarl to Hrolfs lips. When Hrolf arrived outside Nostova he approached the main gate fully aware of the dozens of Lasguns trained on him. "I have come to kill the man that killed the General, Someone take me to where he died." The small adamantium door set in the barricade slowly opened to allow Hrolf entry.
A HOME IS MADE
After traveling North through the jungle Saul started to come across buildings that reminded him of an old lumber mill, Then a few mining huts and finally an abandon factorum. The factorum was a snipers play ground, lots of elevated platforms with long stretches of open ground in between and wide walkways that went from building to building." I could have some fun here. First things first I need some bait." With that thought Saul left to go hunting and it did not take him long to find a patrol of were four of them a vox caster, a junior officer and two regular troopers. Saul followed them for a while slowly getting closer and closer till he could almost reach out and touch the rear guard. Saul slid his combat knife from its sheath and drove it between the ribs of the rearmost guardsman puncturing the lung and ending his life quickly, then drawing his Las pistol he shot the vox caster through his neck to make sure their would be no reinforcements before killing the two remaining men with two shots. All done in less than ten seconds without anyone else in the world knowing it. Now the hard work began, First he dragged the bodies one by one to the factourm where he hung them up from the roof girders to draw more enemy's into his killing zone.
Within two days Saul had 26 confirmed kills but the followers of the corpse god could not kill him, they could not use artillery as the factorum would one day be re-opened and used for whatever purpose it was needed for. In between attack waves Saul would slip down from his collections of nests and place all manor of booby traps, Some would kill out right while some would maim to give him an opportunity to kill more men. The guards tactics had not changed since Saul's time with them, If a combat patrol did not come back send a bigger one, then a bigger one and then a bigger one while all they were doing was wasting time and resources. So many dead men and women and so many more tied up trying to kill one man it was pitiful.
THE HUNT BEGINS
After a day and a half of investigating the Generals death, walking the marshes and giving the Guard encouragement and assurances that the sniper was gone from this area Hrolf headed to the Vox station." You there have there been any reports of large troop deployments for little gain recently?"
"My lord the whole war is one of those reports."Hrolf let out a mighty roar of laughter and slapped the operator on the back almost snapping his spine.
"In all seriousness though?"
"There is a strange one further north. An old facturm that currently has six squads trying to reclaim it, Wait that can't be right, the data says three squads are already MIA in the same area."
"That's him soldier give me the coordinates I am moving out."
Hrolf set off cursing himself. In his haste to get to Nostova he never thought the sniper would move North they must have almost crossed paths in the jungle. Hrolf mouthed a silent prayer to Russ the the guard would keep him pinned down till he could get there.