The little girl shivered again and threw the covers over herself. That banging again. It had to be the monster under the bed. Her mother had initially told her that she should just pray to the Emperor more but that wasn't working. Eventually her mother became too tired to get up to her daughter's screaming and had just settled for locking her in her room. Her father, a general in the PDF, was also too tired to deal with his daughter, with the recent Feral Ork troubles, and just ignored her.
Whunk! Whunk! Whunk!
Now it sounded like the monster was bashing at the floorboards to remove them. The little girl breathed in and out a few times and mouthed a prayer to the Emperor. It would be fine, it had to be.
"Shush" he heard. That was odd, the monster had never spoken before
"H-hello" she called out
The movement and noise suddenly stopped completely. An awkward silence followed, then she heard a quiet response
"Oo's dat?" a deep voice asked
"I'm Charlotte…are you the monster under my bed?"
There was a pause
"No, I'z be Sneaky, and I'z seen no monsters"
Charlotte smiled, it wasn't the monster. Happy at the prospect of finding someone who listened to her she asked "So, are you hunting the monster?"
"Maybe I iz" he responded "It'z 'ard work y'see, me and me boyz need a key to get to dis "monster""
"You mean daddy's keys?" the little girl answered "I can show you where daddy is, I'm sure he won't mind". She ran over to her door and tried pulling on it. "I'm sorry Mr. Sneaky, but it's locked, can you help me?"
"I'z can 'elps you little grot" the voice called out, "But you'ze gotta hide away and wait, for I needs ta be sneaky but it"
"I'll go hide in my closet, ok " Charlotte said as she moved over and closed the door mostly over. She wanted a peek at just in case he was the monster trying to fool her.
She watched as her bed was lifted up oh so slightly and moved to the back of her room, as a large heavy-set figure pulled himself out from a hole under her floor. Four more figures emerged, slightly smaller than the first and crowded her room, as the first one twisted the doorknob, growled at it, then slowly started to twist it up until the whole handle had splintered and ripped off.
Satisfied, Mr. Sneaky swung the door open to the dim corridor lighting and Charlotte could make out a deeply shaded purple scarves and bandanas all over him and the others, and a large bags on each of his backs. Content that they could deal with the monster she opened the door to a "Shush" from the other four.
"Daddy's door is all the way down there" Charlotte said, pointing to the far door "I'm gonna hide in my closet until you get back ok, in case the monster gets me"
"Roight lil grot, you do dat" grinned at her
Charlotte ran to her closet and waited. There was silence, then suddenly, yelling, gunshots, noise, more gunshots, a pair of massive bangs, a loud "SHUSH!", then silence again. She waited for what seemed like an eternity when there was a knocking on the closet door. She hesitantly opened it to see the other four figures laying bits of something all around and standing in front of her. He was just covered in some kind of red goo now, and she could see metal under some of his now frayed purple scarves.
"'Ere, take dis lil grot" he said and handed her a large bug-shaped skull that he had inside of his bag. Charlotte nearly screamed as she got a close-up look at it, it was hideous.
"Dats da monster lil grot, you'ze gotta tell da army humiez you'ze killed it dead 'k". Mr. Sneaky also dropped a small holdout gun nearby, "Iz borrowed dat, you can 'as it back now 'k"
"Umm…umm…thank you sir" Charlotte replied "Will I see you again" she asked excitedly
"Ha, silly grot, no ya won't. Remember, I'z Sneaky, you neva sees me comin'. Is loike hide n'seek but you neva foinds me again a'k" replied the big monster slayer
"Oh, Ok" the little girl said, holding back her tears
"Sorry lil grot, but I haz places to be ok. Roight boyz, let's move out"
With that they departed, hoping into the hole, with moving the bed back over. Charlotte could hear them replacing the floorboards after and dejected she went over to her bed. She had lost a friend…but he had gotten rid of her monster, so it couldn't be that bad, right?
Blissfully unaware of the larger events around her she fell into a much needed sleep, as across Hive Thestatus general panic set in. The PDF General and his command staff had fallen to a currently undetermined act of sabotage and some sensitive materials appeared to be destroyed.
A troop of guardsmen from a deployed Ascadian regiment scoured the mansion only to find a passed-out little girl, covered in blood and ichor and cradling an ornate laspistol, with the remains of a purestrain genestealer strewn around her. The guardsmens commander messaged High Command for reinforcements to deal a potential genestealer infestation. The little girl was kept in the dark about her parents passing and discreetly sent off world to her aunt.
Over the next few months multiple additional regiments landed to secure the Hive and others nearby, but very little was found in the way of genestealers, just your regular underhive scum and villany.
Some 6 months passed by after the incident when an Ork horde appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. Noting the lack of heavy walkers or artillery High Command ordered the gates closed and the hive mounted Marco-weapons to open fire. Neither did however. Baffled, High Command tried to figure out what was going on when a local enginseer reported that override codes were being broadcast from OUTSIDE of the hive. Aghast, the Generals and commanding officers voxed to their troops to hold the line where ever possible when someone heard a knocking on the bunker door.
"Yes, Yes, just get in here already!" one of the Majors yelled
"Dun moind if I do" the response came
The door swung open and the officers facing it gasped, as a massive satchel charge of mixed explosives was thrown in by a hulking figure clad in purple.
"Names Sneaky, and you'ze neva see me" the voice cackled as it slammed the door shut.
BOOOOOM!
