A/N: Long time no update. Been on vacation.
Edsin awoke to the feeling that something wasn't quite right. That and the sound of sniffing near his feet. Slowly he pulled the cover of the sleeping bag from off his head, just enough to see a trio of knees bent backwards near his feet. An elongated muzzle came into view and the nose on the end sniffed at his feet again.
Slowly he reached out for his hellgun he'd placed next to his armor and boots a few feet away. His fingertips just touched it when heard a snarl followed by a loud crack. Edsin snatched up the weapon, flicked off the safety, and twisted to point it at...Datave.
The tech-adept was standing over a spawn with backwards bent legs. Edsin could see where the man's metal finger tips sparked with electricity. Edsin lowered his hellgun and began getting out of the sleeping bag.
"Second one tonight." The heretek muttered as he reached into Irritus's kit and took a ration bar. Edsin was occupied with the snow that had begun to cover him over the night but still made the connection.
"You've been up all night." Edsin said rather than asked. Datave nodded as he began unwrapping the ration.
"My body has not required sleep in 26.78 years." He said as though he was telling him their vehicle's total mileage. Edsin grabbed his boots and began putting them on. The sun was up but still low enough to cast long shadows.
"So you kept watch over us all night?" The heretek was chewing the ration now and nodded again.
"Another one tried to eat the cultist 2.43 hours ago." For reasons Edsin couldn't care to think about he chuckled at that. Boots on, he began strapping on his carapace and looked at the spawn the cog stood over.
"So you…shocked them?" Edsin asked. Datave took another large bite out of the ration bar and nodded as he swallowed.
"I have Luminen capacitors built in sergeant. They allow me to store and discharge electrical energy. I can also convert energy from food to electricity." Datave said and refocused on the bar. Part of Edsin's mind told him that was why the heretek had torn into the ration; the other was more concerned with the snow that had gotten into his boot.
He fastened the final strap on his armor and looked over at the rest of his 'squad'. Irritus, Maria, and Alain were all still asleep around the remains of the fire. He grabbed a handful of snow and tossed some at each.
"Wake up." He said as they all opened their eyes in surprise. "It's time to find out what's going on here."
~/~/~
Stepping into the tent that he'd seen the day before, traitor sergeant Edsin found that it was only covering the entrance to a partially collapsed bar. The bar was poorly lit and smelled of both urine and bad amasec. Part of the actual bar and the left side of the building had collapsed completely, leaving only a few booths, tables, and spaces at the bar. Said bar looked to have been constructed from some local trees and bore more than a few bolter scars and las burns. The few Imperial icons on the wall had all been removed, defaced, or turned into sigils. There were all kinds of life there as well. A mix of cultists, traitor guard, mutants, and even a pair of astartes sat in one of the booths. All in all, Edsin liked what he saw. Alain, however, looked less happy.
As the two former guardsmen walked into the bar the psyker was visible uncomfortable. They found a spot at the bar and after a moment a tusked mutant from behind the bar approached them asking.
"The Warp do 'ew want?"
"Something with alcohol in it." Edsin said then gestured to Alain. The psyker shook his head and began rubbing his temples. The mutant snorted.
"Ain't nothing for free. What'da ya got to trade?" Edsin checked the contents of his kit pouches. He still had the ungluent he'd looted a few days ago, the pack lho's, a few ration bars, and a lasgun power pack from the chimera. His own hellgun drew power from his backpack so he decided to part with the power pack. He set the weapon battery on the on the bar and the mutant grunted, took it, and wandered off to get the drink. One hand still in a pouch, he decided to take out an lho.
"Do you think you could?" He said holding the rolled up paper to the psyker. Alain looked at him blankly for a moment before realizing what he meant.
"Oh…yeah sure." He touched the end with his thumb and forefinger. The taller man starred at the lho and slowly the end he was touching began to glow red and smoke. Alain let go, sighed, and went back to rubbing his head. Edsin took a drag and considered the former vox operator. He still had his sleeves rolled up and his shirt collar was undone but the psyker still looked like he was burning up.
"Headache?" Edsin asked in the tone that made the word a question. Alain nodded and sighed.
"Yeah I…there getting worse." He said now rubbing his forehead. Edsin took another drag.
"Then stop fighting it." He said simply. Alain glared at the sergeant, but Edsin only shrugged. "From what Irritus says that's the only way to get anywhere on this side of the Eye." Alain frowned.
"You don't sergeant." The mutant came back with a cloudy glass of something amber colored. Edsin nodded to him and took the glass.
"I don't have voices in my head." He replied taking a drink. Part of Edsin recognized the taste, but the other part failed to remember what it tasted like. Alain sighed again and nodded.
"Maybe your right." He said as he stopped rubbing his head. The Psyker had more to say, and would have, had the sound of breaking glass not caught both man's attention.
"Such a plan as yours is not possible whelp." The superhuman voice of a traitor astartes was unmistakable. Edsin looked over at the booth with the two marines and saw that there were two more normal humans sitting with them. "You cannot honestly expect that Apostle Farthas would commit even one soldier to such an endeavor." Both marines stood and walked out of the bar, leaving the humans alone in the booth.
Edsin shook his head and went back to his drink, not noticing that the two from the booth had taken a spot at the bar next to Alain.
"Hey, a couple of amasecs over here." One of them called to the mutant. The second one shook his head.
"Can't believe they wouldn't even consider it." The first only shrugged. "It would have worked too." The second went on. Edsin was happily ignoring the heretics as they continued to talk and would have kept doing just that if Alain hadn't been a psyker.
"Aaah! Stop implying things! It's hard enough having to sift through your thoughts without you focusing on any one part." Both men looked at Alain in surprise, but the psyker only glared back. "You may as well just tell me what you're going on about and save me the headache." Edsin downed the last of the amber liquid and took a better look at the two next to Alain.
The first wore a tattered guard uniform. No armor, a lasgun slung over his back, and the numbers 045183 tattooed on his forehead. 'Penal Legion.' Edsin thought. The second wore a more intact uniform though it was not without a large sigil painted across the chest. He was missing an eye, but had grown a second pair below the first. "Yeah," Edsin chimed in "What did you propose that the astartes wouldn't hear?" The first glared at him for a moment, glanced at the second, then back to Edsin.
"Why do you think that this siege has been going on for so long?" Edsin had no idea how long the siege had been going on and only shrugged. "Normal rockcrete, which is what those walls are made of, would've crumbled apart weeks ago. This hive's got something else protecting the walls."
"A void shield!" The multi-eyed mutant exclaimed. Edsin raised an eyebrow. For any kind of structure to have a void shield was rare, let alone a hive. Plus-
"That'd take a lot of power." Edsin said. Both men nodded.
"Exactly. I think that if even one of the power plants in the hive could be shut down, the shield might fail." The penal legionnaire accented the point by raising a single finger in the air. "And if that were to happen, Matti here could have the three basilisks under him blow a hole in that wall big enough for the entire Host to get through." Edsin nodded, he could see why the marines had rejected it.
"How'd you plan to get into the hive?" Alain asked. The first smiled.
"I found a tunnel yesterday. An old sewer drainage leading into the underhive. It was blocked before, but yesterday I was in the hive." Both of Edsin's eyebrows went up at that.
"Well if it's like that then why did you need those marines?" Both the penal legionnaire and the mutant looked confused at that.
"Sergeant," The first said suspiciously. "Have you been to the front line?"
~/~/~
Two hours later, Edsin was at the front lines of the battle for Hive Traxis. The legionnaire was leading them through a series of trenches filled with blood, bodies, lost limbs and the occasional vermin. Other life was here too; traitor guardsmen in kits that seemed completely random ran both ways along the trench, pushing past their group with heavy weapons or just trying to get somewhere fast. There were few living cultists, that demographic making up most of the dead and the ones that were alive all had taken at least a lasgun. Occasionally an astartes would push past them; the large horns most wore on their helmets visible above the trench line.
Edsin glanced back at his squad, noticing that they were all keeping up and staying below the trench line. It seemed that while he and Alain had been at the bar, Irritus had taken Maria somewhere and covered up the small fleur de lis tattoo she had on her cheek with a larger sigil that stretched over her right eye. He noticed Irritus keeping close behind her, still without a weapon despite their location. Datave had apparently started teaching a group of cultists how to properly service a chimera in the short time and took a little convincing to get him to leave his class.
The sound of artillery had been constant since they had left the outer hive and passed the captured earthshaker batteries as well as Matti's squadron of basilisks. Now bolter fire was audible and constantly getting louder every right turn they made. He could see the walls of course, them being tall enough for him to have seen last night, but now they loomed above him, seeming impossibly tall. The legionnaire held up his hand for a halt and turned to Edsin.
"From here on in we gotta stay low. Bolter 'ill take off your head if it's above the trench line." Edsin nodded and yelled back to his impromptu squad over the chug of a nearby auto cannon.
"Stay low up here." The four heretics behind him all nodded and moved into a standing crouch. Edsin turned back around to see that their guide had already taken off down the trench. The sergeant took off after him with the rest in tow.
"So where's this tunnel of yours?" He asked as they ran. The legionnaire held up his hand again for a halt as a desecrated hellhound rolled over the trenches, crossing theirs ahead of them by only a few feet.
"It's up ahead, not too much farther now." The vehicle passed and they continued on, ignoring the traitor guard that jumped over them as they charged after the flame tank. "We overran the position a few days ago." They passed a traitor Marine standing above the trench line with a heavy bolter and rounded a corner. "Me and most of my old squad. We found the tunnel but it didn't open up until yesterday." They came up to a pair of legionaries, both firing their lasguns on full auto. Their guide looked confused. "What in the Warp are you two doing here?" He said, looking where they were shooting. "You're supposed to be holding that- Ahh!" He ducked as a burst of laser fire raked the air where he'd just been.
"That's why we're here." One of the legionaries said, ducking as well. "They retook the position last night. Only me and Garth here got away." Their guide cursed and Edsin chanced a glance over the trench at the position.
It was obvious which position he meant. Fifty meters ahead of him across a no man's land there was a small position hardly bigger than a chimera with sandbags all around it. There were bodies dressed in green, red, and the rags the penal legionaries wore. There were living behind the sand bags as well. Edsin counted a half dozen guardsmen putting down effective fires towards them. There was a heavy bolter there as well, but it was either out of ammo or broken as none of the guardsmen were using it. He ducked back down as a pair of lasbots shot past his head, but not before noticing a large grate on the ground behind the guardsmen.
"I take it that's the entrance to the tunnel?" Edsin asked the legionnaire that had brought them here. Their guide nodded, unslinging his lasgun.
"We need to retake that position to get into the hive." Edsin shook his head.
"No way. If the eight of us were to just charge them, we'd be cut apart before we made it twenty meters. Without any heavy wea…" He trailed off as he spotted something on the ground to the left of their position.
Sitting in its own little nest above the trench were two dead traitors slumped over a heavy stubber. Edsin crawled over to the nest and inspected the weapon. It appeared to be in working condition, there was plenty of ammo for the magazine fed machine gun, the only thing that was wrong seemed to be that the gunners were dead. He looked back at his allies.
The legionaries were returning fire along with Alain and Datave who Edsin had insisted take a lasgun from their vehicle. Maria was peeking over the trench, the former sister superior coming to the same conclusions he had a moment earlier. Irritus, however, was just taking cover.
"Irritus, get over here!" He yelled, grabbing the heavy machine gun and pulling it into the cover of the trench. Irritus ran over to him as quickly as he could and Edsin pointed to the ammunition boxes spread around. "Grab a couple and put the magazines into your kit." He ordered. The cultist nodded and scrambled up to take the ammo cans. Returning not a minute later and followed be a score of red bolts. Irritus began stuffing the magazines into his kit as Edsin confirmed what he'd been afraid of. The weapon was too heavy and long for him to use himself.
"Got it all sergeant." Irritus reported almost happily. Edsin nodded and extended the weapon's bipod legs.
"Ok, listen to me carefully. I am going to carry this gun on my shoulder and hold the legs. I will point it where it needs to go. You will hold the other end against your shoulder and keep it aimed where I point it. When I tell you too, you hold down the trigger. Once we start moving, we do not stop. Do you understand?" Irritus face went white at that and he swallowed hard.
"Sergeant, you know I can't fight-"
"Do you understand?" He asked again cutting him off. Irritus gulped and nodded. The sergeant and the cultist crawled back to the others and Edsin grabbed the shoulder of their guide, getting his attention. "When I tell you to, I need you all to lay down suppressive fire on that position." The legionnaire looked confused but nodded. Edsin looked over at Maria. "When we start moving, you need to be right behind us." The former battle sister nodded no trace of hesitation in her eyes. Edsin returned the nod and looked over the trench line. He watched as two of the guardsmen whose weapons were on full auto dropped to a knee to reload. 'Good a time as any.' Edsin thought. "NOW!" He screamed.
"For Chaos!" The penal soldiers all yelled as they fired their weapons on full auto. Edsin got a firm grip on the stubber's bipod legs and climbed over the trench.
Setting foot in no man's land Edsin immediately regretted his decision. They took off at a run and he had to work to keep the weapon steady on his shoulder. To his surprise Irritus was having no trouble keeping up and the guardsmen were all pinned down by the lasgun fire. It didn't take long, however, for them to notice the machine gun running at them and as they raised their lasguns Edsin yelled. "Fire!" Despite his own uncertainty about using a weapon, Irritus kept the trigger down and Edsin raked the barrel back and forth along the position taking at least one in the head and another in the midsection. The rest all ducked for cover behind the sandbags. Edsin grit his teeth as the sound of rounds leaving the barrel made his ears ring. They were halfway there when Edsin spotted something horrible. Something two meters taller than himself and aiming an autocannon at him.
~/~/~
Alain watched as Edsin and Irritus charged across the open field with Maria in tow. He and Datave had kept up the suppressive fire with the penal legionaries and he could see that their comrades were half way through the open area when he saw the sentinel.
There was no mistaking the green vehicle for anything but an Imperial machine. Said machine walked across the open field towards the subber without fear. Edsin yanked the barrel over so that Irritus could start putting grounds into the armored cockpit, but they bounced harmlessly off the front armor. The sentinel stopped to adjust its aim and Alain knew they didn't have any time. Oddly, for Alain time seemed to slow as he thought
'okokok…think…thi-'
'wHy BOtheR tHinKiNg FOr yOUrseLf?' Alain froze. He'd heard voices before, but never like this. This one was clear.
'What?' He thought. Time was moving so slowly now it almost seemed frozen. 'What do you mean?'
'YOu CaN saVE yOUr FRienDs.' The voice continued. 'I caN ShOw yoU hOW.' Alain shut his eyes, intending to fight this voice the same way he'd fought the others when he remembered what Edsin had said at the bar. He opened his eyes and starred at the walker that was seconds away from killing Edsin and Irritus.
"How?"
~/~/~
No sooner had he spotted the vehicle then Edsin twisted his body and brought the still firing weapon to face the armored walker. Irritus held down on the trigger and pelted the front of the cockpit with the large caliber rounds. Unsurprisingly, at least to Edsin, they bounced off the armor and the machine hardly slowed in its advance. Even as Edsin tried to adjust their aim, the walker stopped to aim its autocannon and the sergeant knew that it was all over. As he looked down the barrel he felt something brush past his leg. Then something else. He looked down just in time to see thick black chains shoot out of the ground like possessed snakes. They came up just in front of Edsin and headed straight for the walker as though they were magnetized. More sprang up at the vehicle's feet and began to coil around the armored legs. Others wrapped themselves around the servos and pistons. A pair went up to twist themselves around the autocannon's barrel, ripping the weapon from its mount. If it had been a scout variant, Edsin was sure that the pilot would have looked just as surprised as he was.
In a flash of movement Edsin saw Maria rush past him. The former repentia revved her massive chainsword as she ran and brought it in a horizontal swipe at the walker's lower left leg. The large teeth of the eviscerator dug into one of the metal rungs of the leg between the constricting chains and it began to stagger. Maria leaned into the attack, forcing the blades further in.
Irritus had kept his finger on the trigger the entire time and though he couldn't hear if the weapon was firing anymore, Edsin felt the bolt lock to the rear as the magazine went dry. The cultist set down his end of the weapon and began fumbling for another magazine when Edsin saw the top hatch of the walker open and the head and torso of the pilot appeared. The Imperial raised a laspistol and Edsin immediately dropped the stubber and went for his hellgun. If the pilot had wanted to, he would have had Edsin and Irritus easily; however his attention was on the woman who was cutting her way through his walker's leg. Edsin brought his weapon up and as he did he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. Ignoring it for the moment, he tried to get a bead on the pilot. The vehicle was wobbling, an indication that Maria's attacks were having an effect and throwing his aim off. The Imperial seemed less impaired and let off a pair of shots off the side. At that range there was no way he could miss. Without a big chainsword cutting through it, the walker stabilized and Edsin lined up the shot. The last thing the pilot saw was the red of Edsin's hellgun fire.
The pilot's body fell off the walker and the chains holding it all receded into the ground. Edsin turned back to see that Irritus had disappeared somewhere. 'Now I'm down two.' The sergeant thought. The sudden bark of a heavy bolter was enough to interrupt his thoughts and make him dive for cover. Part of his mind told him that his hearing had returned, the other part was more interested in how the crater they were in kept them in cover. The sound was coming from the position they had been assaulting and Edsin realized that they must've gotten the heavy bolter back on-line. He cursed and looked over at the position. To his surprise the only people around the heavy bolter were a few penal legionaries and a man who looked like a servitor. They had captured the position and the heretek fixed the broken bolter and turned it on the loyalists.
As he stood Edsin saw that it wasn't just there. All along the trench line traitor guard, heretics, cultists, and the occasional marine had charged, taking the enemy positions or destroying their opposite numbers and moving ever closer to the wall.
"Quite the charge there sergeant." Edsin spun around to see Irritus and Maria standing behind him. The sergeant looked at him and Maria answered his unspoken question.
"Irritus knocked me out of the way just in time. In another instant I'd have a lasbolt through my head." Edsin thought about saying something but decided that it was better to get to another covered position before the loyalists counterattacked and signaled the cultist and sister to follow. They reached the position to find one of the traitors on the heavy bolter while Datave was busy giving the other two a class on how the weapon worked. Edsin grabbed the shoulder of the one from before and pointed to the grate they were now next to. The penal soldier smiled.
A/N: Review?
