Just wondering how you think the story is going, and if there is any interest in me continuing with it either as it is or perhaps someone has suggestions that would improve the story.
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Chapter 6:
Rorkers Forest
Leon handed them both a camo cloak. Yuri and Jen took the camouflaged piece of clothing and fastened it at the neck, allowing it to fall around their uniforms. He then handed them a pair of sound suppressors, or silencers as they were more commonly known to fit onto the end of their las rifles. The mission was one of stealth and secrecy, a sabotage mission behind enemy lines. It would be imperative that they took every precaution while operating in enemy territory. Being able to kill silently was one way to ensure their mission would run smoothly. Lastly he handed them both a missile tube, several missiles, and a handful of frag and krak grenades.
"Just in case we run into trouble, save the missiles for any armour we encounter." Leon said as he smiled at Jen.
"Will do. Are you expecting we'll run into trouble?" Yuri asked, looking at the pair and noticing the bond that already seemed to be developing between the two corporals.
"Almost guaranteed, I can't see us being able to get fifty miles behind enemy lines and not meeting any chaos forces. We'll try to avoid them where we can, but we may have to engage if there's no other way through. Or if we stumble on them by accident. Although that wont be good. There's only just over seventy of us, not good when the enemy has hundreds of thousands of troops in the area."
"Makes you wonder why they don't send the whole battalion." Yuri replied naively.
"They'd be an easy target. Fifteen hundred troops would be noticed in anything but the cover of the forest. Best they act as our escorts until we leave the forest and then we'll have a much greater chance of success with just a small unit." Leon explained, recounting in his head the number of times he had fought the enemy on their own territory over the past ten years since joining the Rangers.
They all watched as the convoy of trucks arrived at their destination. The leading five chimeras took off ahead of the convoy, crossing over the trenchline into the area of no mans land that offered the most cover. After a mile they had reached the edge of the forest and made straight for the old path that ran through the forest. It had been decided to send one platoon ahead of the battalion to see if the path and the woods were clear of enemies. The battalion could easily be called upon to assist them, but Major Ferrera didn't like the idea of sending his whole battalion into a certain death trap.
"I guess we'll find out soon enough whether there's anything waiting for us in those woods." Leon said, hoping they wouldn't encounter any problems so soon into the mission.
"Shouldn't we be going with them, I mean they wanted us to act as scouts?" Yuri enquired, wondering exactly what part he would be playing in this dangerous endeavour.
"They're only following the path so far in. The platoon will disembark from the Chimera's and wait for you to arrive. I doubt the path has been maintained so we'll need to know where we are going once we get in there. I don't think the idea of us getting lost in four hundred square miles of woodland really appeals to the Major." Leon said with a hint of mischievousness. "Don't worry about it, they'll let you do your part soon enough."
"That's what I'm afraid of." Yuri replied with a fearful expression, though he was more worried about failing the Rangers than he was worried about the enemy.
Ten minutes later the whole battalion had left the trucks and formed into lines behind the trenches. The defences here were lacking the plascrete reinforced buildings of Hill 666, and the defenders were not quite so numerous. But then all that faced them for twenty miles along the line was the edge of the forest, and attacks through the forest had been small and disorganised to date.
The vehicles for the mission pulled up alongside the battalion, waiting for 3rd platoon of 1st company to climb aboard. The Major's Chimera command vehicle pulled up alongside the two scouts and waited for them to climb inside. Within five minutes the small convoy was loaded up and ready to go. First they would wait for word from the recon Chimeras and then the battalion would move into position should everything be going according to plan. Finally the convoy of vehicles would bring up the rear and the troop transports would return to their Field HQ where all the transport companies for Sector 666 were based.
Lieutenant Yan Grisholm ordered the driver forward, the path becoming ever more obscured the further in they got. By the time they were half a mile into the forest the platoon disembarked and began fanning out and moving into position. The forest was almost pitch black except for the headlights of the Chimeras and the hand held lights of the fifty troopers as they moved steadily though the undergrowth, looking for signs that the enemy were in the area. After covering the first mile they stopped, the Lieutenant had got out and acted as guide along the path for the recon vehicles.
The word from the recon unit arrived moments later. They had penetrated a mile inside the forest and no sign of any enemy forces. The Major's command vehicle was the first to depart. It contained his command staff, officers and troopers who ensured the smooth running of the battalion. Yuri and Jen sat quietly among them, only the two commissars drew their attention. It was unsurprising; every trooper feared the watchful gaze and the furious wrath of the commissariat, the chief dispenser of military discipline in the Imperial Guard.
The battalion followed, moving into a quick jog across the mile of no man's land. If they were spotted this early on, their mission was over before it had even begun. To make matters worse a dense fog had descended on the area, the depths of the forest becoming ever more treacherous as the troopers could see no more than five feet ahead of them, even with the powerful beams their hand held torches had.
As the battalion reached the forest, they radioed back for the convoy to follow. The Major's command vehicle dropped Yuri and Jen about a mile inside the woods. They began following the path, hoping their old knowledge of the area would suffice so that they could safely guide the battalion through the forest.
The slow procession of troopers and vehicles followed behind the scouts. If they found an enemy position in this fog they would undoubtedly be right in the middle of them. After ten miles of walking along the path and still no sign of the enemy it was decided to stop at the old logging camp in the centre of the woods.
Yuri moved along silently, aware that every step brought them closer to the enemy. Surprisingly the log camp was empty. It was big enough to house the entire battalion and the convoy. Major Ferrera had decided the unit would rest up for the night, and hopefully when they continued the fog would have lifted. The camp at least offered some respite from the overgrown underbrush that had grown across much of the path. The battalion settled in for what remained of the night. Sentries were posted every 10 metres around the camp. Even that was going to be unlikely to capture any determined stealthy attacker.
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The following morning was clear, much to the relief of the Major and his troops. If they were going to have to fight, fighting in such hazardous conditions was not something anyone really wanted to have to do.
Looking around the log camp in the daylight, the troops realized that it had recently, within the past week, been used by the forces of chaos. The tell tale signs such as waste and recently extinguished fires and the trail that led further into the forest was covered in footprints. This meant they would have to take every precaution and strike fast if the need arose.
The job of leading the battalion through the forest was made much simpler in the sunny daylight hours. Both Yuri and Jen had travelled the woods a hundred times or more in their youth, when the log camp employed over five hundred workers and the path was busy with the heavy traffic of the logging companies. It had shut almost a year after opening, abandoned to its fate as Abaddon's forces began rampaging across much of the planet. The deeper they penetrated the forest the easier the path got. It was obvious it had been heavily travelled recently.
Yuri lifted his clenched fist to halt the battalion, the sight of what lay ahead sent a shiver of panic through the young trooper. Much of the woodland had been cleared. Watch towers were built next to path, while a thick metal barrier was placed across the road. Yuri estimated over two hundred troops, probably traitor guardsmen or cultists, in his brief experience it was sometimes difficult to tell them apart.
The major had to decide how to proceed, they had the element of surprise, they had superior numbers and firepower and yet this felt somehow wrong, as though attacking the outpost would bring them only more trouble than they could handle. In the end it was decided to attack. This certainly wouldn't be the last time they encountered enemy troops, so trying to avoid them was perhaps a little optimistic. He sent two companies forward, one on each side of the path. They would approach using their considerable stealth skills and camo cloaks to within one hundred metres, and then they would attack, leaving nothing alive. Snipers were given the order to take out officers and vox operators as a priority. Yuri and Jen would stay back with the Major, the attack would be led by the company commanders, Captains Yorrin and Fellsur. The five recon Chimeras would provide fire support once the attack was under way, with orders to take out the gunners in the two watch towers.
The other three companies readied themselves for the fight. They would only intervene if things went badly. The major was hoping for zero casualties, but war was never so forgiving. He could only hope that no one paid the ultimate price for the success of this mission. He loved the battalion dearly, he knew every trooper by name, spending many hours, weeks and months going over every personnel file and spending time with his troops during training and when they were assigned to missions.
Yuri soon lost the two companies in the woods, their camo cloaks blending perfectly with the rough terrain of the forest. It spoke highly of their skill that one hundred metres into the woods they were virtually invisible to those behind them, and hopefully the enemy in front of them.
The two companies surrounded the clearing, cutting off all escape routes, the six hundred men and women said silent prayers to the God Emperor of Holy Terra, their wish only to come through this alive and in one piece. Six hundred weapons were trained on the two hundred cultists. The filthy scum were a pathetic looking band. Perhaps they weren't even part of the main chaos forces, and maybe they were bandits or murderers, although thinking there was much difference was almost heresy in the eyes of High Command and the Commissariat.
The slaughter began as one, each trooper choosing his target, within mere seconds half the defenders were dead or dying. They routed almost immediately, heading for the forest their howls of pain and screams of terror filled the air. Officers were executed with shots to the head, as were any vox operators in sight, the urgent need to keep them from calling for help was ever present in the minds of the attackers. Seeing they were surrounded, the cultists tried to surrender, but the Rangers were in no mood for taking prisoners. All were still angry and vengeful over the treatment of the Imperial Guard prisoners the enemy had forced to charge the allied trenches.
They were massacred to the last man. It was doubtful even a shot had been fired in retaliation. The major thanked the emperor in a silent prayer, he knew these were the dregs of the chaos army, had they been troopers or chaos marines the outcome would have been very different. The Chimeras had made short work of the missile launchers mounted in the watch towers, in all it couldn't have gone better.
The following hours were spent in much the same pursuit. A further four checkpoints, perhaps one every mile were slaughtered, no prisoners were taken and only twenty three troopers were injured in the process. With only several miles to go before they left the forest Yuri and Jen were sent forward with a squad of Rangers to ensure the way was clear. Half an hour later they were on the northern edge of the forest, the enemy positions could be seen in the distance. Yuri wondered about how they would get past the trenches, but also remembered a series of old sewage tunnels that ran from a treatment plant in the woods to a long destroyed town nearby, several miles past the enemy lines. It would mean the vehicles would have to remain behind, but that was always going to be a trouble getting them passed the trenches of the enemy.
The convoy allowed its passengers to disembark. Yuri told the major of the sewage treatment plant and the chance that the tunnels would go beneath the trenches of the arch enemy and lead to the old town, although there would be little left of the town now, it having long since fallen as it was razed to the ground by the attacking forces.
They left the battalion behind, it was decided the battalion would make its way back to the logging camp, and wait until such time as the platoon returned or their position was compromised.
The trek to the treatment plant took about two hours through thick underbrush, a trail led the way, although it was hard to tell where it started and the forest ended.
Another hour and they had entered the tunnels of the burnt out treatment plant, the wide tunnels big enough for an average sized man to walk along.
Yuri knew the real mission began now, no longer did they have the firepower of an entire battalion at their backs. All they had were their wits, skill and guile to get them through the next two weeks. For the fifty men of 3rd platoon, the twenty siege engineers, the team of four medics who had decided to come along on foot, bringing much of their equipment in hastily packed back packs. Also ten troopers carrying back packs full of power cells, grenades, explosives and supplies. They were armed only with las pistols but they weren't really there for the combat, but to be the pack mules of the mission. Also Captain Kara Dennon and the two commissars from the Majors personal staff, although the platoon already had its own commissar. Perhaps they thought that discipline would be tested to the maximum while they were out there. Lastly the captain's personal vox operator and Lieutenant Maxwell Kruger, second in command, necessary if the captain were to fall. The realization of what they could potentially face hit all of them.
The stench hit them almost immediately, but the choice of a vile smell or certain death was not one that was hard to make. It would take several hours to reach the town, they could only pray that there was an exit once they reached the town and that it was undefended.
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