"Soldiers, rise and shine!" The Sergeant's harsh, yet committed words started the soldiers awake. "Time to move out. Our objective now is to reach HQ, about 485 kilometers south. We will be in enemy territory the rest of the time, so be on your guard, especially for ork kommandos and guerilla fighters." His eyes locked onto Angelica, who was in the middle of a yawn, and froze as she noticed the Sergeant's eyes on her. She stopped herself and put her arms to her sides, and Lother smirked, chuckling in his head. He continued.
"They'll be mostly in the woods and mountains. We depart in three hours. The Emperor Protects." With those last words, the ork trap was sprung. Orks dressed in white, bloodstained smocks jumped the surprised soldiers with a cry of 'WAAAGH!' Sergeant Lother, honed from many years experience in war, whipped out his bolt pistol with ease, shooting down one ork as he whipped out his chainsword, cutting one down in turn, it's head falling to the ground with a wet thump, arterial blood pumping with each dying heart beat from its neck. Then, Lother unleashed a round into its massive chest, the bolt round opening it's ribcage with a splatter. The ork's organ and bone flew everywhere, the mass reactive round exploding internally, milliseconds after penetration.
His soldiers weren't fairing as well, the massive creatures ripping apart those that froze from the shock. Their screams filled the air, the sound in contest with the roars of the stampeding greenskins. Lother's chainsword and pistol were carving a bloody swathe through the attackers, and orks were falling dead left and right.
Angelica was horrified by the orks' surprise attack. Her comrades were being flayed before her very eyes, and she nearly took a step back to run, but the Commissar's grim, unfeeling voice echoed in her mind. She shuddered, and suddenly, was filled with a sense of calm. Duty and survival shot through her like a sudden, passionate emotion, and she ordered the soldiers around her to set up a firing line. They quickly fell in line, three deep.
"Three round bursts, pick your targets, and the Emperor guide your hands." She rose her lasgun and began to gun down an ork with each burst, and the Imperial counter attack began. With skill and precision drilled into their subconscious, they began to decimate the ork party. Never missing a beat, each soldier accounted for two dead orks. The las rounds sounded like controlled lightning, and with each crack, a drove of orks fell, their flesh cooking form the shots.
When Lother finished off the last remaining orks, he strode up to Angelica, a smirk on his scarred face.
"That was some fine leadership private. I've never seen a green horn take command so easily." He grinned before continuing. "The ork surprise attack cut me off from the platoon, and you stepped up to rally them into a counterattack. Impressive." He ruffled the young Ange's hair, and the way he explained it couldn't hide that he was full of admiration of what Angelica did. He continued. "Since everyone is up and about, it's time to march.
"But sir, what about the dead?" A soldier stepped up, his question sounded with mild enthusiasm, not caring how the sergeant reacted.
"Leave them. Their souls are commended for their service," Lother replied absentmindedly.
Angelica looked at the mangled corpses that littered the ground. Young men and orks strewn about the bloody snow, bleeding from open wounds, chainsaw slashes, or dismembered limbs. One face caught her attention above the others. He must have been only nineteen, his eyes wide with fear, jaw open to let out a scream that was never heard. She walked over to his corpse, away from the platoon. She knelt down in the bloody snow, and picked up his dog tags. After him, she proceeded to remove all the dead's dog tags. Saying a silent prayer, she ran back towards the platoon, the pang of the lost biting her at the very soul of her being.
What was left of the regiment trudged on, through snow and enemy infested forests. Occasionally they stopped to eat and rest, but not for a long amount of time. Skirmishes between the regiment and marauding orks increased as the platoon's numbers decreased. When they finally reached the end of the forest, their quarry was in sight. But, what they saw and heard was disheartening. As they watched, headquarters was being bombarded.
"Alright you mangy dogs, home is within our grasp. But, it looks like the green skins want it. Are we going to let them take it?!" The Sergeant's voice was full of fire and righteous vengeance. The soldiers replied with a vigorous 'No Sir!'
"Well then, go get them! CHARGE!" Sergeant Lother, in an elaborate twirl, pointed his chainsword, and the platoon charged.
Through bitter rounds and artillery explosions, they charged on. Every soldier was killing the greenskinned bastards left and right. The headquarters was too far to run too, but by the Emperor's grace, they found an abandoned chimera, still operational. Lother looked back as the platoon filed in to Angelica, who dispatched an ork with a point blank range las round to the forehead. "Ange, come on!" She looked up and began to run to the Chimera, but suddenly disappeared in a whirl of smoke, and a crump of an artillery round exploding, meters from her. She let out a throat ripping scream as she felt the heated metal fragments tear her muscles, severing veins and tendons, and burn her flesh. Lother's eyes widened, as she watched her fall, screaming, and he himself jumped out of the Chimera.
"Bring it around and pick us up! By the Emperor do it QUICKLY!" He roared at his platoon as he sprinted to Angelica, falling close to her body on his knees as he picked her up. "Ange! Ange stay together, we're almost home!" His desperate pleas were drowned out by the oncoming Chimera.
Once they were aboard, Ange looked up at him through bloody eyes, her mouth turning into a red pool as she tried to speak. She coughed and it showered on the Sergeant, but he didn't care. "I… Sarge… I see…" She coughed again as her mouth became another pool of blood. He shushed her and shook his head.
"Ange don't use up your strength speaking," he said, swallowing as he began to rapidly recite prayers to the Emperor, pleading for her life. Another artillery shell exploded a few feet from the Chimera and shrapnel tore through the armor. Lother growled as he covered over his beloved Angelica with his own body so she would not get harmed anymore, and felt the torn metal rip his back apart. "Sonuvabitch!" He cursed, wincing as he got up and ordered the rest of the platoon (all of six men) to counterattack. He watched one soldier's head explode as his fire was cut short and turned to Ange, who's hand was now wrapped around the cord holding his dog tags.
"Sarge…" Her voice was barely a whisper, to the point he had to lean down so that she could whisper in his ear. "I see…" She turned her head to the side so that her Sergeant wouldn't get showered in the ear with blood, but her head stayed that way as her eyes glazed over. "Emp…"
Her body let out a ragged breath, and grew limp, and her hand slowly slid off his dog tags. He lowered his forehead to her chest and wept…
(Chapter Three –finally- done! Though it's partly my fault for the delay… Sorry!)
