Chapter Three
Chapter Three
The Price of War
Laura was angry and it showed. "I take it you have a reason for letting a Genestealer cult infiltrate your PDF regiment and attack my headquarters." Laura said bitterly, glaring at General Lawrence from her seat. "If I didn't know any better," she said, drawing her handgun from its holster. "I'd say you were part of it, just like some of your senior officers I've shot."
"I don't know what you're talking about, Commander." He held up his hands as Laura drew her pistol. "Honestly, Commander, we're civilized people! I wasn't aware of any attack on your headquarters." He lowered his hands again, sliding them out of Laura's sight.
"I'm sure." She said venomously. "If that's the case then why weren't you at the screening we held less than an hour ago? All of your staff passed, excluding the officers. Is that how it works, you went for all of the higher ups and worked your way down? Or perhaps you're a little sicker than that, waiting for the splinter fleet to arrive so you can lead the uninfected troops right into the maw of the swarm."
"I mistook you women. You're really not at all what you seemed to be," Lawrence smiled. His finger tightened around the trigger of the las-pistol he held under the table, the crack of ionized air didn't even startle Laura. The scarlet beam of energy bounced harmlessly off her refractor shield, striking the General in the groin.
With a sigh, Laura stood up, her handgun pointed at the General's head. "Either you're a traitor or a fool. Regardless of which you are you're only one thing now," She relished the look of shock and surprise on his face before she pulled the trigger, his head exploding in a shower of skull fragments and brain matter. "Dead," she finished, holstering her weapon and walking out of the office.
The debris of the ruined city crunched under Talia's boots as she bolted from the safety of the garbage can, lasbolts and heavy stubber rounds kicking up the dust around her before she slid into the safety behind a ruined vehicle. Panting from behind the skull motif of her faceplate she pulled the heavy sniper rifle from her back, her hand closing around the bolt to check the round inside. Finding the massive round secure and ready to fire she looked over to the garbage dumpster the rest of the squad was hiding behind, giving Yukari a thumbs up.
"All right, squad, covering fire!" She cried, leaning out from behind the dumpster, the roar of her weapon opening fire on the fortified balcony followed by the similar sound of eight others. From behind the barricade the defenders ducked, keeping their heads down as the destructive round whistled over their heads, striking pillar and wall with devastating force. Chips of plaster and rockcrete rained around their heads for several heart-wrenching moments before the fire slowed to a trickle. Tentatively, the defenders raised their heads, taking stock of their ruined position. The stubber team resumed fire on the dumpster, heavy dents punched into its plating by the stubber's rounds.
Talia's aim was perfect, the bead of her crosshairs falling on the head of the gunner. Steadying her breathing for just a moment, and braving herself against the recoil of her sniper rifle, she pulled the trigger. A crack unlike any other issued from her rifle, her bullet tearing through his head and taking the shoulders along with it, the corpse flying into the back wall as nothing more than a lower torso with a large smear mark. Jerking hard on the bolt with her hand the heavy casing flew out the opening, bouncing on the ground with a slight 'ping'. Pulling another bullet from the pack at her side she pressed a slug into the rifle, shutting the bolt with a sharp clicking noise.
His loader ducked down behind the sand bags, but Talia's shot wouldn't be stopped by such simple barricades, her round shearing through the sand bag to impact and pass through his chest. Briefly, before all went black he noticed his lower body propped up against the sand bags, and couldn't seem to figure out just why he couldn't feel them anymore. Talia tugged hard on the bolt, the spent cartridge ejecting out the side of the gun, only for another round to be fed into the breach. Grunting with the effort of lifting her heavy sniper rifle she focused down the sight once more, steadying her aim by controlling her breathing.
"We're clear!" Talia said over the vox, Nanoka peeking around the dented metal to gaze up at the empty balcony. The cratered walls still sprinkled down pieces of broken rockcrete and plaster, holes punched clear through the walls in some places. Most noticeable was the long scarlet smear where the gunner's body had slammed against the wall. Shaking her head she looked over to Yukari who made a quick beckoning motion to her, looking over an upraised piece of asphalt.
"Squad, move up." Yukari ordered curtly, aiming down her sight at the nearby street corner. The miniature map in her HUD blinked several times on the upper corner, the small blue dots of her team lining up behind her. Cautiously, she poked her head around the corner only to be met with the staccato of crackling ionized air, the multi-laser opening up on the street corner. She shot back into cover, chunks of rockcrete blasted from the wall where her head was only moment ago.
"Shimatta!" Yukari cried angrily, looking down at her scarred and cracked shoulder-plates. "I'll kill him!" She turned the corner again, crouching down as her finger tightened on the trigger. The gun emplacement fell silent, the gunner hiding behind the rockcrete wall of the hab-building. Flipping up an additional ironsight with her thumb she aimed carefully, moving the small switch on the side of her gun down one more notch before pulling the trigger. Her rifle made a quiet 'thunk' noise, the fragmentation grenade shooting from the under-slung barrel. It traveled for a few yards before smacking into the multi-laser itself, detonating in a deadly hail of shrapnel and cooking off the multi-laser battery. Yukari snorted at the resultant explosion of the battery, the alcove which had protected the gun emplacement fell with a dying groan of unsupported stone followed the thunderous crash of its fall.
"No one shoots me." Lifting her faceplate she brought her smoking barrels to her lips, theatrically giving them a hard puff. She looked back to her squad-mates, smirking before closing her helmet again.
The nine women continued down the littered street, the occasional western breeze kicking up a loose piece of paper and causing it to briefly dance in the air before settling back on the ground. All around the faint staccato of lasguns and Kivian rifles filled the city air, occasionally punctured by a scream of terror quickly silenced by a single crack of gunfire that always seemed louder than the rest. The previous rainfall left puddles in the alleyways that they walked through, their heavy boots splashing in the small pools of water. Ahead a red building loomed in the distance; surface scarred by flames and lasbolts. They came to a stop at the main door, each of the women scattering while Yukari spoke over the vox to headquarters.
"Go ahead and relax, get some fresh air while I receive new orders and information." Yukari ordered. The girls responded enthusiastically, the sharp hissing noises filling the air as the women removed their helmets, breathing in deep breaths of air that smelled faintly of smoke, but of pines and various other types of trees as well.
"It looks like a school." Nanoka remarked, fighting off the sudden feeling of homesickness that welled from her breast. Images of home ran through her mind, recalling feelings of intense happiness at her first kiss in the schoolyard as a little child. A tear welled in her eye, its host angrily blinking it away.
"Wow Nanoka, really! A school! You didn't happen to actually see the sign hanging over the door that says 'Capitol Secondary Schola' did you?" Talia sarcastically replied. Nanoka blushed scarlet, looking away.
"Oh, shut up Talia." Jenell rested the heavy support weapon on the wall next to her, its black surface a stain on the red façade of the school building. "Hey Mitsuko," She looked over to the squad's medicae who was busy punching information into her datapad at her wrist. "What do you think the odds are of you actually having to do some work today?" Jenell grinned, resting her back against the wall.
"Why don't you do what you told Talia to, silly Kraut." She responded, shutting her datapad. "At least I serve a useful purpose."
"Oh? And when was the last time you did something useful? When was the last time anyone actually got hurt?" Jenell replied with a raise of her eyebrows. She folded her arms under her breasts, tapping her finger to her forearm while she waited for Mitsuko's answer.
"You can thank our home world for not being a bunch of backwards chimps like some of the others we've fought along-side. Me patching you up is a bad thing, not that you'd know."
"Eh? What the hell is that supposed to mean!? One more word, Mitsuko, and I'll tear your face off. Verdammt." Jenell replied huffing with anger. She kicked a small rock against the wall, the stone bouncing off the red surface.
"You see, Nanoka? Jenell has had irregular periods forever." Mitsuko sighed theatrically, shrugging in a gesture of pointlessness with a shake of her head. The women in the squad laughed uproariously, Jenell's face puffing up with anger as she took a few steps towards the squad's medic, her fist raised.
"Just wait until we're off duty, Mitsuko! Just you wait!" She yelled, shaking her fist menacingly at Mitsuko, who simply grinned and shrugged.
"Why? So you can try to get in my pants again? I was lucky I had the stun gun the first time around or you might've actually got-." Mitsuko was cut short by a sharp scream from inside the school building. The Strikers reacted instantly, grabbing their rifles. The squad aimed their weapons at the door, all except for Nanoka, who, with all the grace of a falling nuclear missile, kicked down the school door and bolted inside, Yukari calling after her.
"No, Nanoka! Wait!" Yukari cried as Nanoka disappeared into the dim light of the building. Cursing Yukari motioned with her hand for the squad to follow.
Nanoka followed the screams and cries of terror she hardly realized that she was running in the darkness, with only the dim lights of the building or the occasional electrical spark to light her way. 'Emperor,' She thought to herself, her thought punctuated by every heavy footstep on the ground. 'Don't let me be late!' She continued running down the hallways. Sub-consciously she took in the numbers and letters on every wooden door she passed. Behind her she could hear the faint voices and heavy footfalls of her companions, but she paid them no mind, her thoughts focused solely on the owners of the screams that she'd heard.
Another scream, muffled this time, echoed through a nearby hall, stopping Nanoka in her tracks. The soldier looked towards the corridor that the voice had come from, seeing a faint light at the end of the tunnel. Muffled voices reached her ears, followed by another terrified scream. Nanoka wasted no more time, sprinting towards the end of the corridor she leaned hard on the door, finding it blocked. Through the metal she could faintly hear voices, and she struggled to hear, pressing her ear against the cold entrance.
"Get away from me, monster!" A female voice cried, followed by the crash of shattering glass against a hard surface, and the gentle tinkle of its fall to the ground.
"I've always liked you, Emma. There is a way to get away from all of this. This life, with its pains and sorrows. We can be together, Emma. Together as one in the eyes of the Hive Mind."
Nanoka had heard all she needed to. Taking a step back she lashed out with her leg, her plated foot crashing hard against the door. One the other side the barricade made of various wooden items broke, the make-shift wall moved back away from the door enough for Nanoka to just barely slip through.
The cultist turned to look at the broken barricade. He narrowed his bestial eyes and bared his teeth in a sharp hiss as Nanoka slipped through the door. Nanoka quickly dove for an up turned table. Pausing as she took a moment to take in her situation, she reached for her rifle and was shocked to find it wasn't there. "Shimatta," She cursed violently, not finding a need to poke her head up over the table, as she could simply hear the patter of his shoes on the floor as he came closer. Grimacing, she released her wrist-blades, the un-used weapons sliding easily and silently from their sheathes at her arms.
His footsteps came closer and closer, Nanoka preparing herself mentally for the fight ahead of her before she pushed up on her legs, her hand grabbing the table lifting her body into the air and propelling herself at the cultist. Her boots caught him straight in the chest, knocking him back several feet while she came down hard, breaking the tiles under her back. Pushing herself up off the ground she assumed her fighting stance, bringing her left arm far back, to where her knuckles touched her chin, and the other extended to the point where her elbow only barely bent. The pair circled each other slowly, like sharks waiting for a meal.
Naturally, his patience wore out first. The cultist lunged for Nanoka, wicked claws nearly impossible to see in the low-light of the room. Only by training and sharp senses did she narrowly manage to avoid his swipes for her face, grunting with the effort of ducking and weaving out of the way of his natural weapons.
She lashed back, punching forward with her retracted arm, the razor-sharp blade tearing through skin and muscle, exiting out his back. He cried out in pain, Nanoka twisting the blade slowly before wrenching it out of his body.
"You bitch! I'll kill you!" He screamed, clawing for her. He came close, Nanoka raising her arms just in time to catch the claws on her wrist-blades in a shower of sparks. His strength was greater than hers by only a little, the combined force of both his arms slowly making her sink as she struggled to keep her wrist-blades locked together as a shield that prevented the claws from shearing her in two. She pushed up against his arms, making little headway, but enough to anger the beast within him. Roaring with fury he kicked Nanoka's armored stomach with all the force of a charging grox.
The force of the blow knocked the breath from Nanoka's lungs in addition to sending her rocketing back several feet. She had little time to recover before he was all over her again, his claws gouging into the ground where she had been only a moment previous, Nanoka rolling off to the side. With haste born of desperation she pushed herself off the ground, only to be forced to roll away by a low swipe from the cultist.
Nanoka landed crouched on the balls of her feet before bolting off towards the cultist, on the offensive now. He came closer to being within striking distance, and for only a brief moment, the opportunity to strike was there, the exposed flesh of his neck so inviting for her blades. Her cry echoed through the room as she thrust her fist forwards, the blood-slicked blade puncturing the man's throat. She tore the weapon free from his neck in a spray of black cancerous blood, her twist carrying her upraised leg as her foot collided hard with his face, sending his body flying into the opposite corner of the room. The hybrid didn't stand again. She let out a relieved sigh as her muscles began to relax, her heart slowing down to a more normal pace. She looked over to the girl huddled against
"Are there any other civilians here?" Nanoka asked with a smile, kneeling down next to the young woman. Her blades slid back into her wrists with the slow scrape of metal against ceramite, leaving her hands free to gently shake the girl's shoulder. "Its okay, miss, I'm a human, just like you." Nanoka spoke softly, caressing the young woman's shoulder. Granted, it wasn't the easiest thing to do with an armaplas gauntlet, but Nanoka managed to do the saying 'it's the thought that counts' justice.
The girl's wide and terror stricken eyes cleared up slowly, revealing the boiling emotions of hatred, fear, and a small amount of adoration. The young woman shut her eyes briefly, taking a deep breath with an incredibly slow exhale. "Yes, I can take you to them... you must be a guardian angel, the Emperor's saving grace. You can help us, save us." Heavy footfalls echoed down the hallways along the occasional sound of a rifle hitting armored ceramite, catching Nanoka's attention. She turned her head to look down the corridor, giving the woman's shoulder a squeeze.
"My friends are coming to help," She looked back to the girl, noticing the worried and fearful look returning to her face. "Don't worry." Nanoka stood to her full height, turning to look at the Strikers as they wedged their way through the narrow passage of the doors. Naturally, Yukari was at the head of the pack, her steps heavy and menacing. Nanoka was taken aback by the fierceness of her Sergeant's gaze before she felt the impact of Yukari's fist against her cheek. She staggered back before falling onto her butt, her jaw and cheekbone aching, it was clear that Yukari had held back. Gently she touched her face, the coppery taste of blood welling up from the side of her mouth.
"Baka," Yukari shouted, grabbing Nanoka by the front of her armor she lifted the woman up, slamming her violently into the wall. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?! What the hell were you thinking? Running off into the darkness like that without your rifle, or even your sidearm. You could have been killed, or led all of us into an ambush! Do you simply have a thinking problem or are you just stupid, Yoshioka?"
"Yukari-san, let her go. She's new, and she still killed the target." Mitsuko argued in Nanoka's defense, moving to kneel beside the terror-stricken girl. All of the Strikers had their faceplates down, nothing more than the emotionless visage of a blue-eyed skull staring unblinkingly around the room.
"Shut up, Mitsuko," Yukari snapped back, focusing her attention on Nanoka again. "Listen up, Yoshioka, screw up again and I'll personally take an interest in seeing you suffer. You never put the lives of your team or yourself in jeopardy for any reason. Got that?"
"Yes ma'am," Nanoka replied quietly, Yukari stepping back. She pulled Nanoka's rifle from her back, tossing it to its owner carelessly.
"Next time you decide to play knight-in-shining-armor bring your weapon with you. The next thing you fight may not be so kind as to let you win." Yukari turned her gaze down to the young woman sitting on the floor. "Did she say if there were any survivors?"
"Yes ma'am, she said there was a group of them. She's going to lead us there."
"I see," Yukari said thoughtfully, her hand sliding her side-arm from is holster. "Mitsuko, check her blood. Make sure she isn't one of them." Yukari ordered emotionlessly, pointing the heavy pistol at Emma.
"Yukari-san, I don't think that's necessary." Mitsuko replied.
"Just do it, Hayate." Yukari said with a sigh of resignation.
Mitsuko shook her head, reaching into the large pack at her side. She revealed a small metal object to the woman, its sharpened needle outlined in the faint light of the room. "Put your hand out for me, miss." Mitsuko said gently, smiling from behind her helmet. The girl nodded quickly, holding out her pale hand. Mitsuko worked swiftly, jabbing the needle into Emma's palm and quickly pulling it out, pressing her thumb over the miniscule puncture. Carefully, she pressed the needle to her open datapad, information sliding down its tiny screen. If she was shocked or dismayed she showed no sign of it. She closed the datapad, nodding to Yukari.
"She's clean ma'am. She's human."
"Good," Yukari holstered her pistol, motioning for Emma to stand up. "We'll follow you." Emma nodded, pushing herself up off the ground. She straightened her blouse and flipped out her hair with a deep sigh. She focused her eyes on the hallway down ahead of her at the broken door opposite the one Nanoka had come through hanging for its life by its hinges. Huge claw marks and obvious dents in the metal plating bespoke of the punishment the cultist must have given in the attempt to get it open. She walked at a brisk pace, leading the way into the darkness that consumed the Strikers that followed.