Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or Warhammer 40k
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war. This is even truer for the men and women of the Catachan Jungle fighters, who are at birth burdened with one of the most dangerous and perilous ordeals known to mankind…...surviving the planet of their birth, Catachan. A Death World in the Imperium of Man that while having no strategic or useful natural resources is kept for one reason. It produces some of the most cunning and toughest Guardsmen in the galaxy, especially in regards to jungle warfare, where one Catachan Jungle Fighter is worth ten of any other regiment. The planet is a massive jungle where everything, from plant life to animal life is so deadly to humans that the survival rate for the planet is 1 in 4. Those who make it past age ten and survive into adulthood however are incredibly capable hunters, snipers, infiltrators, demolitionist, and warriors.
The Catachan Devils, named after the thirty meter scorpion esque predator of their homeworld and the near four foot long knife they affectionately call The Devil's Claw, are the most exceptional of these warriors, even by the exacting standards of their homeworld. These squads consist of a sergeant leading a group between four to nine other "Devils". It is in one of these squads that Sean "Reaper" Basilone, an 18 year old Guardsmen with a dark blue skull tattoo on his right bicep is in. The nickname "Reaper" came from the skull face paint Sean typical adorned while out in the field. Though the color of the skull was never actually white, as that could give away his position in the foliage and why bother dulling all the metal on you if your war paint would give you away? No the color was usually black or a very dark colored green. He was adorned in the typical war gear of the Catachan Jungle Fighters, camo fatigue pants with black steel toed combat boots and a dark grey tank top, the piece that tied it all together though was the red bandanna, covering his short brown hair, that every Catachan wears upon making an blood oath to the regiment.
Currently he and his squad of six were being lead by their Sergeant, who was called "Crow" through the jungles of the world they were currently on, tasked with destroying a Chaos Cultist base in the jungle. As he and the others crept through the brush, making sure to be a silent as possible they all stopped when Crow raised his fist and signaled forward with two fingers, motioning to a light that was in the distance. Dispersing into the woodwork each Devil began to army crawl up towards their leader.
"Scout up a head. With two more patrolling the river to the right," Crow told them as he then pointed towards two cultist walking alongside a river bank.
"Tall Trees take Reaper and Firefly and scout around to the other side of the river, I want to know if there are more of them. Mamba and Shamrock you take the ones patrolling the river, I got the one with the light." Crow issued out orders. Now the Catachan command works differently than most formal armies. You see rank alone means jack shit to the Catachan and if you try to pull rank without having a Catachans respect….well just don't, less messy that way. However if you are like the officers of the Catachan Jungle Fighters and fight alongside your men in the battle and earn their respect, then they will listen to you.
"If there are more on the other side of the river do we take them out?" Tall Trees, who had the name due to his great height, asked Crow.
"If there are not that many of them, I don't want them to know we are coming before we are ready, so no guns. Knifes only." Crow finished as he pulled out his Catachan Fang, a 20 inch long knife that everyone in the regiment used. The rest of the squad followed suit as they began to move towards their designated targets. Reaper in contrast to Tall Trees and Firefly had two knives out. One was his Fang while the other was a smaller more triangular blade that was blackened. A Night Reaper, the more optimal choice for a stealth mission, but since it was going to get loud when they reached the cultist base it was not brought by the other members. But Reaper, well he liked weapons, like a lot. So much so that he brought with him on every mission as many as he could, without it being a hindrance. He always brought with him his three knives, the Fang, Night Reaper, and Devil's Claw, Lascarbine, a couple of grenades, and right now with a lovely combat shotgun that he was so hoping to unload into some Heretics. He wanted to use the Autocannon and Flamer but nooooo, apparently Tall Trees and Firefly who each, respectively, had one said he got insanely trigger happy" with them after an incident where he may have killed a lot of Tyranids with those weapons…...along with the surrounding jungle…..and any unfortunate wild life that was nearby. Those bastards didn't let him use them again afterwards and he had SAVED their sorry asses too. Ungrateful bastards.
"Reaper, what do we got?" Firefly, the one woman on the team, asked from her spot behind a tree. Looking down past the side of the river Sean saw the outside of a makeshift compound with several guards around it, all lightly armed….well in comparison to him anyways. Autoguns and some lasguns. He really hoped they were better armed in side otherwise this would be a slaughter.
"Compound is just ahead, five cultist outside with autoguns, two with lasguns." He relayed back to his squad mates. Tall Trees nodded and motioned for them to head back. After crawling through more bushes they arrived to Mamba and Shamrock slitting the two mens throats as Crow ripped the others stomach open and covered his mouth as the man felt his organs slip out of his body and then, his life away. Crow turned towards them and motioned for them to speak.
"Compound is just up the river, seven guards but nothing we can't handle." Tall Trees briefed Crow. With a nod Crow signaled for them to move out as each Devil took up a position in the jungle around the compound. After observing the scene for a few moments Crow gave the 'Go Loud' signal. Then, much to Reapers delight, the sounds of lascarbines blasting into human flesh and ripping it apart filled the air as six of the guards went down immediately due to well placed head shots. The last soon joined them as Sean's las bolt blasted his head off, smearing blood across the compound wall. The Devils then moved up and Mamba placed an explosive charge on the door. Clearing the blast radius Mamba detonated the charge as the wall of the compound came crumbling along with the door. The squad soon rushed in quickly taking down some of the dazed cultists. A firefight soon erupted with the cultist returning fire and the Catachan pressing the attack. Reaper moved along the side of one of the buildings and snuck up to the side of a group of cultist firing at Firefly. Pulling out his combat shotgun and letting loose a couple of shells Sean watched as the cultist were torn into shreds by the gun. Smiling Reaper turned to see Tall Trees firing into a building with the autocannon, holding it at his side. The shells ripped the building apart as then soon bits of body flew out the sides.
The familiar sounds of a Flamer going off made Sean turn and watch Firefly burn down another shack, with two men running out, burning alive. Returning focus to the task at hand he then moved up to the main building in the center of the compound. Seeing as everyone else was busy at the moment he promptly kicked down the metal door and vaporized the two guards on the other side into a red mist of blood and bone with two shots. Heading down the hallway a cultist sprang up on him in an attempt to stab him with a knife. Needless to say the cultist had his arms ripped off and then was beaten to death with them. Come at him with a knife? Insulting did not begin to describe it. After neutralizing four more guards after they shot at and missed him several times, Reaper came to door with a purple light emitting from the other side.
"That's not good." Sean said to himself as he recognized the haze that the warp energize gave off. Blasting down the door he saw a cleared out room with a really ugly looking cultist psyker in the room, surrounded by a bubble. Footsteps got his attention as he tuned to see the rest of his squad joined up with him and pointed their weapons at the cultist. Seeing no other option than to shoot the all unloaded their weapons into the bubble. The shield held up against the shotgun shells and the las fire, but the autocannon rounds and flames were too much as it eventually burst into a cloud of warp energy. However something then went really wrong as the energies formed a portal that sucked all of the Catachan into the warp. Thats when everything went black for Sean.
Pain. Pain and confusion were all Sean felt when he opened his eyes and saw not the terrors of the warp of the roof of the compound, but a forest. Rising to his feet and raising his shotgun Sean looked around the initial surroundings of this place. It was a forest. There was not much more to it than that at the moment but he knew better. You don't survive for 18 years on a Death World and not become suspicious of everything. Looking around Sean saw nearby the bodies of his squad. Rushing over there the only one he saw still moving was Crow, and he was not in good shape. He had a massive branch sticking through his chest though that was still better off than the other, who now with a closer look, were dead.
"The fuck? How did you guys get so messed up?" Sean asked in a simi condescending tone. Death was a daily part of Catachan life, even more so for the Jungle Fighters, and as such they become rather contempt with it. So while his squad was dead and dying Reaper felt the need to give them shit, one last time. Crow coughed up some blood as he opened his eyes.
"Oh fuck you kid, I thought Shamrock was the lucky one? You don't got a scratch on you." Crow muttered out looking Reaper up and down. This was true, Sean only had the blood from the people they had been killing on him.
"What can I say? Maybe being a Reaper makes me a hard bastard to kill?" Sean joked. Crow let out a painful laugh as he grabbed near the impalement. Sighing he pulled out a cigar from his back pocket and lit it. Taking a few puffs and looking around Crow then commented on the scenery.
"What's with the forest?"
"Emperor only knows. I have no idea where we are, that and the planet we were on was all jungle, this is not the same place." Sean answered while looking about. Crow nodded as he took another puff. The sound of bushes rustling got both of their attentions as a massive black bipedal wolf with some bone protrusions on its arms and head. Sean and Crow looked at each other with an raised eyebrow as the creature began running towards them. Turning towards it and letting loose with the combat shotgun. To the creatures credit it took a few shots but ultimately it was torn into pieces. Looking down at the now very pale Crow Sean crouched down to head level with him.
"Well, that was interesting." He lightheartedly commented. Crow smirked and nodded slightly.
"Reaper reunite with whatever Imperial forces are on this planet and join back up with the regiment. If there aren't any….do try and have some fun before you die." Crow whispered out with a smirk as the life left his eyes and he slumped over, the cigar falling out of his mouth.
"Will do." Sean replied to the body. After burying his squad members and taking a few of the weapons ( i.e the Flamer and Autocannon) Sean noticed something strange. He was carrying three very large knives, a lascarbine, a combat shotgun, several explosives and booby traps, a Flamer, and an Autocannon yet it felt only like twenty pounds. That was not normal. Granted his home has a higher gravity than most worlds, resulting in most Catachan being incredibly muscular and athletic to the point they are call 'Baby Ogryn', but it was never this easy to carry all of this equipment before. This planet must have a much lighter gravity than he was used too…...how fun! Deciding to head off in the direction that the creature had come from Reaper began to move quickly through the forest.
A few minutes of running latter the sounds of gunfire entered his ears. Though the sounds were not that of any Imperial weapon. Moving cautiously to the edge of the woods he saw a group of eight kids around his age fighting off a giant scorpion and a giant raven in a set of ruins. Though the kids were doing some of the most crazy and acrobatic shit he had ever seen they were not that good at actually killing their opponents. Just goes to show flair does not help when fighting giant beasts. An Autocannon does though! An Autocannon helps real well in fighting massive animals! Smiling wildly Reaper pulled up the Autocannon with one arm and began to let hell rain down onto the giant bird. While no longer capable of firing bolt rounds the gun is more than capable of going through the advanced armors of the 41st millenium. Something the giant bird lacked, and while it had a tough hide it was not enough. The Autocannons rounds slammed into the side of the bird as it tried to dive attack one of the towers in the ruins causing it to veer off course and collide into the rock face. The very loud sounds of the gun though got everyone's attention, including the big ass scorpion. Reaper redirected his fire into it as the creature flinched and was pushed back by the rounds. The others took this as an opportunity and began to make combined attacks on each creature.
The giant bird was decapitated after a red haired girl ran up the cliff face with a scythe…...thats new. Same with the scorpion having its stinger fall off and impale itself. Looking over the scene and then the kids Reaper began walking towards them, Autocannon still up. As he approached he notice they all had on the brightest colored outfits he had ever seen. What in the Emperor's name had he walked in on. As he approached the group the red haired girl with the scythe appeared right in front of him.
"Thats a nice gun! Where did you get it? Did you build it? And what's with all the weapons?" She fired off questions at an unusual rate.
"Uh…..thanks, dead comrade, no, and I like weapons." Sean answered the small girl. She went wided eyed at the dead comrade part, as did the others.
"Wait did your partner die in the forest?" The blonde girl with a rather large chest asked.
"Partner? No, my squad was taken out by a psyker, can you direct me towards the nearest Imperial outpost.?" Sean asked. The group all looked confused at the last part of his sentence.
"Imperial outpost? The nearest civilization is Beacon Academy. And what's a psyker?" The blonde girl asked again. Welp that confirmed one thing, he was not in Imperial space. And they did not know what a psyker was? Great! Seeing as this was probably the most upsetting news he had today Sean let out the one word on his mind.
"Shit."
