"Thought for the day: Heresy grows from idleness."
Traitor Sergeant Edsin's eyes snapped open as the old saying stabbed into his dream. He frowned, now awake and fully tuned into the rattling of the chimera, the arguments from the other traitors, and his own discomfort. It had been a good dream too. The kind of dream that you didn't remember any part of but still remembered liking. Normally it would have put him in a good mood, but the last part, the distant memory from his more pious days had ruined the experience. Mad and now unable to sleep he looked to his left to see two other traitors in a deep argument while the rest of the chimera's passengers watched with lazy interest.
"And that's where you're wrong." A man in what looked to have once been priest robes said. "There is so much more to this conflict, this crusade, even to our galactic struggle against the Imperium then what happens on the battlefield." The ex-guardsman he was talking to shook his head.
"I don't see how, the only place I see progress is in the piles of dead corpse worshipers." This elicited a murmur of agreement from some of the other traitor guard in the chimera. The not priest sighed and shook his hands in the air in front of him.
"Ah, yes killing them is progress for certain," He paused as if for dramatic effect. "But what if we could convince them all to join us?" This elicited another murmur of agreement from the various cultists sharing the chimera with the soldiers. The ex-guardsman shook his head again and glanced to his right. Edsin watched his eyes light up as he noticed that he was awake.
"Ah," He said loud enough to grab everyone's attention once more. "Perhaps our sergeant here can share his experienced opinion." The cultists and traitor guardsmen seemed to accept this and Edsin noticed that all eyes in the vehicle were now on him. He opened his mouth, licked his dry lips, cleared his throat-
"Both of you. Shut the fuck up."
~/~/~
They had done as he said and now not five minutes later the compartment was mostly silent again. Not that Chimera's were quiet vehicles, and this one's engine was literally chaos, but at least he could think even if he couldn't sleep.
His first thoughts were of his current situation. He racked his mind for the name of the world he was on. He remembered being briefed about the planet while still in orbit with the rest of his old regiment, but he just couldn't remember the name. He decided to move on with the thought anyway. His regiment, the 148th Viliek, had been nearly destroyed laying siege to some hive he couldn't remember the name of. It'd been full of traitors, though. He remembered that. He yawned, all the details escaped him. It'd been brutal and progress was slow, or most days, nonexistent, that he could remember. A Krieg engineer regiment had finally tunneled into the hive then…something had happened. He frowned. Most of it he hadn't given any thought to but this had been a big deal. 'What was it?' He thought. Part of him wished he'd tried to remember, part of him reminded him he didn't care. 'Oh, right…the Word Bearers showed up.'
He frowned again, uncomfortable with the images that brought to mind and put it all from his head. 'Better to just focus on the present task.' He thought sitting up straight in his seat. With that he started the familiar process of check his gear to put his mind at ease. He looked down at his armor: Cadian style carapace. His home world had never been that creative and had copped the Cadian designs for nearly all of their equipment. It was black, the standard shock trooper armor color, and had a score of ware and scratch marks across it that showed the silver metal beneath the paint. Although he could now modify his equipment without fear of being shot, Edsin hadn't added anything to the armor, (though he'd lost his helmet somewhere), aside from scratching a chaos sigil over the Imperial Aquila. Unlike some he hadn't pledged himself to any one chaos god, preferring instead to remain undivided. Seeing that his armor was in serviceable condition, he moved onto his weapons.
First his hellgun, another shock trooper standard, he had had this weapon since he had been inducted into the Shock. Almost three years now and counting. A dozen superficial nicks along the weapon and it still worked fine. Edsin observed that the weapon hadn't gotten any dirtier since he'd cleaned it that morning, that the cable connecting it to the power pack on his back was undamaged, and that the power pack itself was still capable of holding a charge. Then he reached around his back and unhooked his chainsword from where it was strapped to his power pack. Holding it in his hands he saw that it was still clean, or rather free of any meaty chunks, and some of the oil on the chains glistened in the chimera's dim lights. Edsin reattached his chainsword to the power pack and felt he was ready for anything. Fortunate, for in the next few seconds he would be glad for that.
The Chimera had hit the ground before Edsin realized that they were flying. The metal box rolled along the ground and came to a stop on its side. To Edsin, it seemed like he was now strapped to the vehicles ceiling instead of the side. He let out a grunt of pain from the roll and looked around the inside. The traitor guardsman sitting in front of him had his neck bent at an unnatural angle and a vacant look in his eyes. Looking further into the compartment, he saw where an unbuckled cultist had been thrown around the compartment and cracked open his head on an empty seat. Edsin did a quick check of his equipment to be sure he had everything and then began unfastening his straps. There was a chorus of groans from the other passengers and Edsin shot them a look.
"Wake-up you warp dogs." He called to the rest of the troop compartment. "It's time to leave." He found the release and freed himself from the ceiling. The Traitor-Sergeant landed on the chest of the dead soldier. Pushing himself past the rest of the traitors as they began following his orders and fussed with their own restraints. Without a glance back to see if anyone was behind him Traitor-Sergeant Edsin pressed the rune for the ramp and metal wall sung open to reveal the snow covered world.
As he took his first steps onto the battlefield Edsin noticed two things. The first was that the chimera was a good fifty meters away from the rest of the convoy on the road, and it looked as if something had thrown it there. The second thing he noticed was that he was being shot at. Edsin dove to his left and rolled behind the cover provided by the overturned vehicle and reassessed the situation. Behind him was the road with the rest of the convoy, mostly chimera's their weapons had traversed to return fire. Behind them was a solid rock face. Edsin peeked around the side of the chimera to try to see his enemy. Ahead of him was a ruined manufactorium. At first glance, nothing within was visible but as Edsin watched he couldn't help to notice a score of red beams of all sizes lance out of every crack of the ruin.
'It's an ambush.' The traitor-sergeant realized as he watched the rest of the rabble clamber out of the chimera. He recognized the not priest and watched as an auto cannon detonated into the man's neck, exploding the windpipe and separating the head from the chaos loving body. More auto rounds found the rest of the traitors before any could find any cover and Edsin sighed and ducked back behind cover. 'I guess they wouldn't have been any help anyway.' He thought. 'But now how do I get out of this?' A glance back to the convoy told him that the other chimeras were off loading their troops and a pair of sentinels was advancing towards the manufactorium. In near perfect unison, a pair of missiles shot out from separate windows and smashed into the cockpit of one of the walkers sending it flying off of the legs. Edsin frowned. 'Well, that explains what happened to my chimera.' He thought. 'They're using frag rounds to attack vehicles.' Those rounds were meant to hit troops, not armor. They'd do nothing but push the vehicles. It didn't surprise Edsin at all. He remembered just how good Imperial supply lines weren't. Edsin looked back at the building. 'There's got to be a way to-' His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of whistles from ahead of him. Edsin groaned. He knew what that meant.
Ahead of him a line of Guardsmen stood from where they'd been laying prone. They were too many to count and they all broke into a run. One part of Edsin's mind told him that this was, in fact a perfect ambush. The other part told him that given the distance of the Chimera he was behind the Imperials would reach him sooner than his allies would. Edsin holstered his hellgun, drew his chainsword, and tried to make himself as flat as he could against the tipped vehicle. Then he waited. All around him the sounds of the battle grew louder, and he could see his traitor allies running towards him. A mob of cultists, traitor guard, and the occasional mutant. All yelling and shooting their weapons as they went. Edsin could hear the yells of the corpse worshippers behind him getting louder as they approached. Then Edsin saw the first green flak armor run past the Chimera. The Guardsman was too focused on the enemy ahead of him to check for anyone behind the vehicle. Then another dashed past him. And another. And another until he was in the mist of them. Edsin pressed the activation rune for his chainsword and lunged at the closest guardsman, hacking off his right arm. The Guardsman dropped his lasgun, and looked down at the weapon, confused as to why he had dropped it. His gaze went from the ground, to what was left of his arm, to his right just in time to see the traitor in black carapace slice his head off.
The attack hadn't gone unnoticed, but that was the idea. To draw attention to himself. Edsin swung his right arm, with the chainsword, in a wide swipe, cutting into the back of the legs of three men as the turned to face him, dropping them instantly. With his left he grabbed the collar of another guardsman, this one surprised at this traitor's sudden appearance and frozen in fear. Edsin dragged the scared man towards him as the guardsman's face contorted in fear.
"No, no, please no. I…I surrender!" No sooner had he spoke those words then the man's head exploded, sending fleshy bits in Edsin's face. Edsin blinked in surprise. His allies had only just reached the front of the loyalists; none of them could have hit this man. At that moment Edsin heard the hungry roar from another chainsword and realized who had shot this man as he tried to surrender. Edsin pulled the headless body close to him and used it to catch the other bolter rounds coming towards him. Holding his makeshift shield in front of him, Edsin charged in the direction of the fire. As he ran through the mob of guardsmen, he could feel the multiple impacts of the bolt rounds as well as the bodies of other, living loyalists as they charged past. Edsin reached his attacker and pushed the body into him.
The Commissar was visibly pushed back. He staggered backwards as he pushed the headless body off of him. He raised his bolt pistol to kill the traitor, but the heretic was gone. The officer narrowed his eyes and beginning scanning for black armor in the green.
"Heretical coward!" He said looking left. "Using the body of another loyal man as a shield," He looked right. "I will make you awns-" A hand shot up and grabbed the commissar's left wrist and, in a practiced move both combatants knew of, applied pressure with his thumb, and twisted his own wrist. The disarming technique was well named and the bolt pistol flew out of the commissar's hand. With a snarl the commissar kicked out and was rewarded with a solid impact on the traitor. The black carapace went rolling away and stood even as the political officer reactivated his chainsword.
The commissar and Edsin both charged at each other and their chainswords met in a shower of sparks and ear-wrenching noise. The commissar put both hands on his weapon and began forcing the tip of his chainsword towards Edsin's face. Edsin, for his part only held his with his right, and was slowly being overpowered. As the chainswords tip neared his face, the commissar began to smile. Edsin drew his left hand back. The commissar saw too late the fist coming for his jaw. The older man fell backwards and Edsin lunged after him. Their chains met again, but this time Edsin was putting all of the pressure into the attack and was dipping the tip of his weapon closer and closer to the Commissar's face. Then, slowly, very slowly it cut into his face. Through his skin. Into his skull. And into the brain. The body went limp and Edsin relaxed. He took a deep breath and removed his chainsword from the man's skull and noted that nearly half of the blades had been chipped in their exchange. Then he heard two sounds.
The first was the sound of the guardsmen around him turning their collective selector switches on their lasguns as they realized he had killed their commissar. Edsin was completely surrounded. The second sound came four seconds later and was much more welcome.
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!" The words were spoken in a way that could not be described as natural. All the Guardsmen turned towards the sound with fear on their faces. No human voice could make a noise like that. Edsin smiled and reactivated his chainsword. The Chaos Marines had arrived
A/N: The Warhammer 40,000 series belongs to Games Workshop, and NOT me.
Looking for some feedback on this one, let me know what you all think.