Warhammer
Author's Notes: This is my first Fanfiction, and I'd greatly appreciate if you would inform on anything I can do better, I'd like to keep this note as short as possible, so I do hope you enjoy the fanfic and review, please!
"The 86th Narien Armored Regiment, pride of Narien, finest Regiment on the planet.. 'least that's what they had told me.." Private Zaeke murmured to himself, remembering the recruitment posters as he sat half-way inside his hatch, awaiting the rest of the crew while they were off on a supply-run, he had been the replacement for their recently lost gunner, and they made sure he knew that he wouldn't live up to the old gunner. The Private moved his legs and slid off of the massive tank, he began to walk to the Quartermaster to receive several ammunition boxes for the .50 caliber pintle mount, "Morning lad, what can I do for you?", "Delta Two-Three, needing some fifty, how many boxes 've you got?", he chuckled and walked to the back, bringing eight one-hundred round boxes and dropping them on the counter, "That all I can get for you?" he smiled, his face scarred and blackened by oil, several teeth missing. Zaeke nodded and hefted the boxes back to the tank, letting them down and hearing a loud clang of metal on metal, echoing through the vehicle bay, still seeing none of the crew around, he climbed up and noticed the barrel of the Leman Russ Vanquisher, 'Grizz' was spray-painted on the barrel in white, then from behind him, he heard a cough and quickly turned to the Sergeant with some of the crew, jumping down and saluting the man, the others looked at him with a funny expression before looking at one-another and the Sergeant slapped Zaeke's hand down, "Do I look like an officer to you?", the other two noticed the new gunner's rucksack and began going through it, throwing things everywhere, "How long have you been in the Emperor's beloved Guard, son?" the Sergeant's voice was rough, sounding like he had smoked since he was born. Zaeke hastily replied "Fresh from Basic, Sergeant.", and then quickly trying to grab his stuff, only to be gripped by the collar of his uniform by one of the others, "Whaddya think y're doing mate?", quickly being pushed to the ground by him.
"That's my shit, not yours!" he raised his voice at the man, the Sergeant pulled a pack of lho sticks out, sliding one out with his thumb and picking it out with his mouth, he dropped the pack into his shirt and lit it, moving down to pull up the new Private. "I'm Byrne", he pointed at the other two "He's Aldgar, our driver, the ugly bastard over there is Otho, he's the Vox Operator, tends to send lovely messages to our boys when he's in great moods and we're under fire, and for now, the other two are out getting supplies for us". Aldgar climbed into his seat wiped the dirty monitors, turning on the tank's electronics doing a look-over, giving a shout to the Sergeant, "We're good you cocksuck!", hearing his reply "Start her up, fuckstick!", the driver chuckled to himself and turned the engine over, thick black clouds spewing out of the exhausts. "Into your hatches!" he yelled at Zaeke and Otho, both of them climbing to their hatches, Zaeke began to turn the turret, checking system. Two men came running with two rucksacks each filled to the brim towards the tank, full beards covering their faces, they threw sacks on the tank, and hastily tied them down, finding their way to their hatches. "Goodmorning to you assholes aswell" he said to Herman and Herbert, both of them grinning ear-to-ear and putting on their comms. The Vanquisher roared to life as Aldgar pressed down on the stick, forcing the one-hundred-seventy-five tonne vehicle forward. The tank-comms crackled to life as Byrne spoke, "We're under crewed, I know, I wish I could help that, but the brains at the Administratum only wanted us have a new gunner, and we will make do with it, give him a hard time but keep him alive." He looked around as he turned his comms off and flicked the lho stick away, lowering himself into his seat and slamming the hatch shut, locking it. Turning to Otho, he said "Inform Battalion we're prepared and ready to link up with the Company at the frontline, all repairs have been completed and we are enroute to aid the 448th Cadian" Otho nodded and brought the vox, "Zulu One-one, we are inbound to Firebase Lima Alpha Romeo November, over.", once more the radio cackled, "Copy Delta Two-three, don't keep us waiting too long, over.", "Copy Zulu One-one, Delta Two-three out." The vox went dead. A convoy of Chimeras and Leman Russ MBTs were prepped and running look-overs when Grizz got to the Base's front gates, Segeant Byrne popped his hatch and raised up, noticing a Lieutenant approaching Grizz, the Lieutenant looked towards them and yelled over the engines "Are you Delta Two-three?", Byrne just nodded and the Lieutenant pointed up to the front, and waved Byrne forward, sitting down once more and closing his hatch "Look alive boys, we're the point for this convoy!" his voice bounced off of the tank's walls, echoing until there was no sound left but the engine.
Thirty minutes had passed since they left the Base, they were in the middle of a Valley, mountains looking down upon them, and suddenly, there were two Leman Russ MBTs infront of Grizz, Sierra 5-8 and Sierra 5-9, the ride had been relatively peaceful to Zaeke, he popped his hatch and looked around, noticing the same Lieutenant from earlier, then suddenly there was a loud boom, and the Sierra 5-8 went several feet into the air, and several autoguns opened up on the convey, the Lieutenant in 5-9 slumped over, blood spewing everywhere from his neck. Zaeke dropped down and closed his hatch, "Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck" he whispered to himself, bringing the 150mm turret around to where the muzzle flashes were coming from, waiting on Byrne to give the order to fire, all hell broke loose, rounds could be heard ricocheting off the hull, infantry had disembarked and were using Grizz and the other vehicles as cover, firing their lasguns, praying to the Emperor to hit something. "Sergeant! I need the order!" Zaeke shouted, Byrne still staying quiet, until he heard it through all of the noise.. there was another tank around here.. except it was working for the Ruinous Powers, and slowly a long barrel eased out of the tree above Grizz and there was a thunderous boom as something hit the front of the Vanquisher, sliding off, "Assistant driver, use the co-axial to clean up the infantry! Zaeke, find that damned enemy tank!" Zaeke looked over the bodies of the infantry charging them, they were being torn to shreds by the combination of arms, why were they still coming? It made no sense.. why would any General waste his men like this? Zaeke thought to himself, looking over the crazed madmen who praised the Chaos Gods, their bodies being thrown around like ragdolls as bolts exploded in them and their bodies were littered with holes from Lasguns and Heavy Stubbers. Finally there was a sparkle in some brush, the idiots had just given themselves away from turning on their lights.. "Sergeant, found them! Herman, load AP!" Zaeke began to zero in on them, traversing the turret upwards toward the enemy tank, the hydraulics pushing air out as he stopped raising it, and the AP was locked in, "Firing!" Zaeke shouted as Grizz shot back, the 150mm round whizzing through the air, spinning several times before there was once more a thunderous explosion, and the treeline was lit aflame, the round hit their ammo rack, and slowly the gunfire began to die down as the heretics retreated or were killed of. The Sergeant opened up comms to the convey "Mop them up, no survivors, bring up the flamers and burn the bodies." And so they did just that, piling the bodies into a pile and burning them, leaving the bloody mess as a message, finally the small firefight was over and they were once more on the move, Zaeke being green turned and looked up to Byrne, "Sarn't when're we gon' be ta' the Firebase?", "We'll be there when we get there, Private." The Crew began laughing and chuckling, "Oh Emperor.. what did you bless us with this time?" Herbert continued to laugh after saying that, Otho joined in "Sent up this little boy from the farms of Narien, very educated area I hear, shame none of us were from there.." and then the Sergeant shut them all up "Lads, be quiet, we were all this green once, 'e will learn like the rest of us.", Otho set his vox down, "Five mikes from the Firebase, get prepped for a fight just incase our boys are getting peppered." Zaeke leaned back in his seat, and let his head down, the firefight had been nothing like they told them it would be, no training prepared him for that, not one Drill Sergeant told him what a dead man looked like, he had seen executions but the Lieutenant, he was dead, just like that.. it left a mark on Zaeke, and it wasn't even considered a battle to the others, it was nothing more than an exchange of fire. He wondered how long they had been doing this, how long ago the Guard hardened them, and he wondered if he would live past his first day, He closed his eyes, and then fell asleep, unknowingly to him though, the rest of the Crew knew he dozed off, and Herman was chosen to awake him when they arrived, and he did just that. The rest of the Crew disembarked from Grizz and it left only Herman and Zaeke, Herman climbed out and popped Zaeke's hatch, he brought up his las-carbine's stock and slammed it on Zaeke's face, laughing uncontrollably, "Wake up sunshine, time to disembark." he slid off the turret and left Zaeke to himself, Zaeke began to pull himself out of the seat, and was jerked back by the straps in the seat, unbuckling them and standing up, pulling himself out of the hatch, he looked around and saw infantry huddled into different groups, each having their own fire in the harsh wind and snow, gritting his teeth, he completely left the tank and felt the bite of the wind. He scanned around looking for the Crew, noticing them with several Cadians looking like they were having a good time, he jumped down from the tank and walked over to them, "Sarn't when did it start snowing?", Sergeant Byrne looked towards him, "Finally awake sleeping beauty? And it began falling after you took your little nap.", the rest of the crew were passing around a pack of lho sticks, taking one each and then giving the pack to the Cadians, until finally the pack reached Zaeke, "I don't smoke.." and then the huddle began laughing, "He's really funny, ain't he Sarge?" Aldgar elbowed Byrne as he said it, after a couple of hours of joking around the fire, they made their way to their bunker, "This'll be where you Tankers are sleeping" the Cadian Infantryman pointed into a small room with a few bunks and a firepit in the center, the Sergeant nodded and he took his leave, "Well, don't get comfortable, at any moment we could be assaulted" he stared at Zaeke the entire time. The crew began offloading their essentials, las-carbines, MREs, and various other kit items. "Rest up, we'll linking up with Alpha Company at 0900 tomorrow."
Author's Note: I've taken inspiration from Fury and other stories such as The Willing Flesh and it's writer, props to you if you caught the easter egg I put in here to that wonderful story, and a hint is Larn. Once more, criticism is completely welcomed, and I do hope the approach I took is welcomed, I haven't seen much stuff on Tank Crews in 40k, thank you for reading!