Author's Note: Hey! Next chapter, this was a pain to write sooooo hard. D: Oh well I think it came out good! :D - Kasrkin Ghost
2nd Note: Just changed this chapter because it didn't work. I had a character saying "You can't go, now hurry up and go!"
That doesn't really work! So I changed that. Also to jarhead762 please don't try and act like a gun nut, to a gun nut. If you know the IRL M40 you would know more than just its name. I stated the Warhammer M40 was 2m long and fired .723 rounds. The IRL M40 is 1.1m long and fires .308 rounds. If you realized the military recycles names. The F4 Corsair and F4 Phantom II share a name, but are completely different. Please read ALL of what I've stated before just assuming. In the forty-first millennium I'm pretty sure that a .723 Bolt Round would do some damage, considering that the Bolter fires .5-something rounds and the Heavy Bolter fires 1.1-something rounds. Sources are lot of different Warhammer books.
Also I should put in a disclaimer saying I don't own Warhammer 40'000, which really sucks, because if I did I'd lower prices, I mean we pay double here in Australia :(
"Cloud Control to Wako-Niner you are clear for landing on pad 19, please proceed there immediately. Over" The female air traffic controller voice came over Wako-Niner's radio.
"Wako-Niner to Cloud Control, landing on Pad 19? Over." Wako-Niner Replied.
"Cloud Control to Wako-Niner, affirmative. Out"
The Valkyrie's vertical descent jolted Pia and Axel and both awoke. Pia blushed when she saw she had leant on Axel during her sleep. The flight to the Secondary Command had taken two hours and after their chat at the start, Axel and Pia slept most of the way. Secondary Command was located on a floating city, it was constantly hovering over the ocean the stretched over most of Enduron Secundus at around three-thousand metres. They noticed that the Vendoland Colonel was awake; his wounds cleaned and prepared to receive augmentation. He was helped off the Valkyrie by Major Riley and Commissar Siear. Axel helped Pia off the Valkyrie. They both immediately noticed the cold and both looked at Commissar Siear, in envoy of his greatcoat. Pia slipped a couple times on the ice covered landing pad and Axel helped her back to her feet. Eventfully the pair made it to the doors, which opened to reveal the inside of the city. It's not heated, was the first thought in Axel's head.
"I wish I was a Commissar." Pia pouted, shaking from the cold.
"So do I." Axel replied, also shaking from the cold.
They were led to a debriefing room by a servitor. The servitor told them the Commissar and the Major would join them soon. Until then Pia and Axel would just have to sit there. Axel looked around the room to escape the awkwardness of the situation. He noticed that the walls were not white, but actually a very light pink, the floor was a very light blue and the roof a dark green. There were no lights on the roof, instead the lights in the room were on the walls. In one end of the room was a stage, which was surrounded by a semi-circular amphitheatre. The seats in the amphitheatre were a creamy blue and Axel sat down on one. Pia sat down in the row behind him. Axel turned around and begin to converse with her.
"Well, this room's colours sure are weird." Axel stated.
"Hmmm... They sure are." Pia replied, "I wonder if all the rooms are this weird."
"That would be odd. I wonder when the Commissar and Major Riley will get here."
"Soon I hope." Pia then looked away at the door.
Pia then started playing with her hair. It was still half in a messy pony-tail, half clinging to her shoulders. Although it now had dirt and blood in it. She pulled her hair-tie out and began to tie it back up. Axel looked down at his hands. His right hand was scorched a bit, and his left had a large gash on it. Both were covered in dirt. He took off his logistics cap, and his blonde hair was shown. It was about shoulder length, but well kept. It had been dyed though. One could tell, as his black moustache and goatee threw off the colour. The door opened and Siear and Riley walked in. Pia turned to face Axel, her dark brown eyes staring at his light green ones.
"Here they are." She said.
Nicolò had been right, most Raven Guard did wear their hair short. Alexia watched as all the space marines in the Thunderhawk removed their helmets as well. She went to take off her, before remembering she had left it in the Commissar's office. It was probably destroyed by now, consumed by a melta torpedo or a chaos assault. She had no idea of how things were going on the ground. An explosion rocked the Thunderhawk and then the Thunderhawk's guns reaped into action. Alexia couldn't see what had hit them, or what they were firing back at, but she knew the Imperium didn't have air superiority.
Outside of the Thunderhawk, there was a raging battle, both on the ground and in the air. Thousands of Guardsmen defended against thousands of traitors on the ground and hundreds of Imperial aircraft fought their chaos counter-parts in the air. The Hydra AA of the 4th Cadian's command company had proved instrumental in preventing a total Imperial defeat. The Chaos air forces outnumbered the Imperials and if not for the Hydras, chaos reinforcements would be flooding the planet. Joining the Hydras, were the Predator Destructors of the Novamarines, The Land Speeders of the Raven Guard and the Hellhounds of the 23rd Alexandrian Elipson's 5th Company. This small armoured force was no match for the Leman Russ and Predator Annihilators of the traitorous forces, but they had created a spearhead against the traitors in a small city near the main battle. The Hellhounds had bathed streets in fire, the Land Speeders flew over the battlefield collecting intelligence and the Predator Destructors caught enemy vehicles from behind. One of these Hellhounds was 5th Company's Command Tank, His Holy Fire. Commanded by Gunnery Sergeant Neil Dallaire, a veteran of countless engagements against Eldar and Tau forces, but his was his first engagement with the ruinous powers and he was eager for glory. Cowering behind his tank was a squad of Kasrkin from the 4th Cadian, all armed with flamers or Hellguns. Neil opened his cupola, and grabbed the Storm Bolter on top.
"All Guardsmen," He shouted, "Follow me to glory!"
The Hellhound sped forward, bathing all in its wake with holy fire. Behind it, the Kasrkins picked off any survivors. The Hellhound came to another intersection and set the houses alight. Neil told his driver to speed forward and he did as commanded. Neil noticed Chaos Marines out of the corner of his eye, just within range of the Inferno Cannon.
"Gunner, rotate turret thirty-two degrees left, and let our enemies burn!" Neil shouted.
The chaos marines tried to return fire, but to no avail. Of the five there, two fell to the flames, three to Neil's Storm Bolter. He ordered his Hellhound to continue on. All over the city it was the same. Kasrkin squads assisted Hellhounds in clearing the streets and every now and then a Space Marine tank would help. Neil loaded more ammunition into his Storm Bolter and prepped it to fire. As the gun was just about ready the house in front of Neil's tank was smashed down. It revealed the terrifying shape of a Banehammer Super Heavy Tank. The chaos guardsmen on it laughed, even as Neil fired at them.
"By the Emperor, will you look at the size of it!" these were Neil's last words as an extremely large shell hit the Hellhound.
The three remaining Kasrkins, were torn to peices by its Heavy Bolters. The site was now filled with blood. But the Banehammer had a weakness, its rear armour. Two Novamarine Predators circled behind the behemoth, at destroyed it with constant fire from their Autocannons, but not before the Banehammer took one of them with it.
Three hours, three extremely long hours. That was how long Axel, Pia, Major Riley and Commissar Siear had to endure the droning of an administratium cleric. But the de-briefing was now over. Pia wasn't too happy about that. It meant the Axel would be getting up and she wouldn't be able to stare at him. She followed him out of the room.
"So what's happening now?" She asked him.
"Weren't you just listening!" he scolded, "We're being redeployed. Two chaos super-heavies are wreaking havoc. There had been three but, one was destroyed by the Novamarines. Our Valkyrie's going to drop us on one, and we're going to take it out from the inside."
"Brilliant!" Pia sarcastically shouted. "What should I take?"
"Ma'am, with all due respect, you're not participating in the attack." Axel stated.
"What! Why?" Pia's anger took over.
"Because of your shoulder. But me, the Major and the Commissar will meet up with a Kasrkin squad from the 4th first. When we drop there, we're going to let you off. There'll be a medic at the 4th's compound ready for you." Axel explained, "Now come on, we've got to go."
Axel grabbed his sniper rifle and went pick up some ammunition from the armoury. He then jumped on the Valkyrie and gave Pia a hand getting on. He picked a seat and started loading his sniper. Instead of the standard Long-Las variant, Axel had the M40 Bolt Round Sniper. The M40 had a long ceramite barrel, over 2 metres in length. Axel had attached a bipod because the M40 fired .723 calibre bullets. The .723 bullets caused more damage than a las-bolt but were harder to make, non-reusable and more expensive.
"How are you going to use a sniper inside a tank?" Pia asked.
"What do you mean, inside?" came the reply.
A/N: Do YOU think the Predators blowing up the Banehammer was unrealistic? PLEASE REVEIW! Guy when I say Please Reveiw I mean PLEASE REVEIW! It means I know people are reading this!
