Kariasi Crusade

Chapter 10

Hive Plyubs

Major Jamil felt a little wave of nostalgia watching the PDF troopers during their training drills through the windows of her office in one PDF compound inside the the middle Hive she could see miles and miles into the horizon, past the Hive walls and into the surrounding barren and dusty wasteland where the troops had dug trenches,built bastions and demolished the small shanty towns that had spread like tendrils around the walls since the invasion had started, once filled with scared refugees that were now clogging even more the streets and further straining the Hive's resources. Watching the PDF grunts in the training levels a few floors below, in a probably improvised barracks. She almost imagine an angry drill sergeant yelling at the grunts over the sound of the nearby Manufactorum . Once; years ago she and the other Janissaries were in a similar situation: desperate civilians conscripted to defend their home world from the depredations of the Xeno. Jahangir however, had a proud military tradition of raising Imperial Guard Regiments and wasn't completely unprepared to face the Tau invasion. Schwezen however had no such tradition; even its own garrison of three Imperial Guard regiments had been redeployed years ago to bolster the Crusade frontlines. All the Hive World of Schwezen has are the endless numbers of workers and faith in the God-Emperor.

And faith was beginning to wane among the PDF. Since their arrival the Guard's Commissars had their days filled with beatings, judgments and summary executions, even a few colonels had to be disciplined by the Commissariat. That and the subpar performance that the Guard had witnessed since their arrival did little to improve the opinion that they held of the PDF. Not that the Janissaries didn't understood the situation, after all they had lived through a similar experience but the sheer incompetence of the Schewzen PDF couldn't simply be put into words, after all, it took only three months to lose nearly half of their planet to Orks that landed in a single spot and had to build most of their vehicles after the crash.

But cursing the perceived incompetence of their newfound allies wouldn't give results and now all she could do was prepare her own troops and hope that it would be enough to hold the line. At least they had the advantage of walls, heavy artillery and fortified positions spread among the levels of the Hive.

The Major's musings were interrupted by the sound of her (temporary) office's door opening and Captain Igni, of the 6th Company entering her office and saluting:

"Ah, Captain, report." Jamil ordered

"My company's scouts have located the vanguard of the Ork assault, it seems that a contingent of Xenos is splitting from the main force attacking the main PDF positions on the Sclaffenatus Line and advancing to the Hive itself." The Captain replied

The Major nodded and then looked into a few data slates and scrolls on her table before replying:

"Indeed, that confirms what our orbital readings informed." She started without taking her eyes of a particular message. "It is expected that the main force will arrive in a few days. You are dismissed Captain."

And so the Captain saluted again and left while the Major prepared to call organize one last major briefing between the Janissaries and PDF officers.

Colonel Hsu looked over the last reports delivered to his table, what caught his eye was the latest one from orbital surveillance, showing a rather large Ork contingent breaking off from the attacks along the Sclaffenatus Line and was apparently moving to attack the Hive. If that assumption was correct then they would only have a few more days to prepare.

Hsu sigknew that this moment would come but could not stop himself from hing at the realization. The Orks had finally arrived on his little corner of Shcwezen and if the last three months were any indication they would drown the Hive under a green storm, sure, his forces had time to prepare and were being supported by five companies of Guardsmen (three from the 664th Jahangir and two from the 927th Armageddon Steel Legion); and the morale of the troops was improving, in equal parts due to the fear and fanaticism evoked by the foreign Commissars. But the Colonel was already convinced that any resistance would be doomed and in the end the Greenskins would triumph over the forces of men. To him the relief force was too little too late.

But that also didn't meant that Colonel Hsu was afraid, he would make the Xeno scum pay dearly for daring to set foot on his Schwezen.

Hsu's pessimist musings were interrupted by the beeping of the comm-link in his table:

"Sir, Major Jamil of the 664th is requesting a full briefing with you and the other PDF officers in three hours in the main chamber, regarding new info on the front." His secretary informed.

Hsu leaned on the table and pressed a button:

"Thank you Xin, I will be there." He replied with forced cheerfulness, he had also been maintaining a façade of hope and determination during the last months for the sake of the morale of his men.

When he was sure that his assistant wasn't listening anymore he sighed again and looked to the wall above the windows behind him, where a portrait of St. Macharius was hanging, his office was lavishly decorated, with statues, luxurious curtains and other paintings but the life-sized painting of Saint Solar Macharius was his favorite piece,a family heirloom passed down through the generations and if the stories were true; acquired by a distant ancestor who fought for the famous commander. What would he do? And why was Hsu bothering to ask? It's not like by thinking hard enough he would manage to devise a flawless plan to drive the Orks back anyway, that was above his capacity.

Major Jamil and her staff (actually just Captain Igni and Inessa) waited patiently while the elevator arrived, and while she waited the major noticed that she could still faintly hear the sounds of the nearby Manufactorum. Ever since the three Janissary companies had arrived in the city she couldn't remember a single moment in which the large industrial complex wasn't working, the Hive was a noisy place but even the bread riots stopped when the Arbites arrived. The only constant so far was the Manufactorum. It wasn't really strange when she thought about it, even before the endless flow of refugees the Hive had more than enough people to keep it manned the entire day, besides, it was huge, probably bigger than her hometown, so, even if one small part stopped the rest would still be functioning and making enough noise to penetrate the rockrete walls of the compound, furtherore, the Manufactorum was producing military supplies, as far as she was concerned they could chain the workers to the machines and keep them working all day every day. No reason to worry, she thought, she would only be concerned if she couldn't hear the machinery and engines working.

And while she was musing about the nearby industrial complex the elevator finally arrived, and when the large doors decorated with a golden Aquila opened the Jahangir officers were greeted by a Steel Legion lieutenant that promptly saluted them and a commissar with two blood red bionic eyes and a steel plate covering a part of his head while the rest was seriously scarred. Now that's a scary commissar! Jamil thought, and somehow it was even more unnerving when he took off his hat and tried- yes, tried, his scars wouldn't let him- smile at them:

"Ah, Major, good to see you, I believe that this briefing is about the Ork force marching at the Hive it isn't?" The Commissar asked, his voice somewhat metallic, and when Jamil nodded he did the creepy un-smile again.

Without further ado the Janissaries entered the elevator and the rest of the trip passed with a comfortable silence, broken only by the ever present Manufactorum and the Commissar's humming a fold melody. When they arrived in the top floor Jamil remembered to ask if captain Heigel was already preparing the room for the briefing as she had told him to:

"As a matter of fact yes major, he and enginseer Rizul are already there, don't worry, the boy won't screw this up." The Commissar replied trying to smile. Jamil wondered if he knew how his face looked when he tried to do that, maybe no one had told him, being the guy that can execute you and all, or maybe he knew and just did it because he like to make people uncomfortable.

Not that it mattered, it wasn't her problem and she had bigger concerns, like the briefing with the brainless twats of the PDF. She was actually thankful to have a Commissar with them, it would make things so much easier,even if Mr. Scarface had to kill one or two before the rest were convinced to obey her. At least captain Heigel was already there, hopefully wearing that nice skull gas mask to better intimidate their PDF counterparts.

When they passed another set of heavy steel doors guarded by combat servitors she spent a few moments watching the room: it was the first time she had actually entered the main briefing room since the PDF officers preferred to talk in the security of their own offices. The room was large and filled with servitors operating the cogitators, auspexes and other reading instruments. There were also four platforms, one in each corner of the room, with even more servitors and arcane technological devices and finally, a large holo-table surrounded by 30 chairs in the middle of the briefing room, other than that the room was sparsely decorated (unlike the rest of the compound) with a few Aquilas and just that. The first person that major saw was the enginseer, because she almost tripped over him, the cogboy was crouched almost in front of the door working his arcane art on a panel, he didn't even bothered to acknowledge the new arrivals.

Neither did captain Heigel, the man was apparently talking to himself and walking around in circles near the auspex-servitors in one of the platforms, probably rehearsing what he would say in the briefing, great, she had no idea that the Steel Legionnaire had stage fright, and he wasn't even wearing the mask. Well, nothing to do now besides hope for the best and prepare for the worst:

"Captain Heigel! I hope that everything is in order for the briefing!"She shouted to him, and that finally managed to catch his attention as he turned and saluted before going down the small flight of stairs.

"Yes ma'am, Magos Rizul is already giving the final touches and calibrations, everything should be ready in time." The captain replied

As the last PDF officers settled on their chairs around the last central holo-table, Major Jamil spoke:

"Gentlemen, as you already know a large Xeno force has split up from their main army assaulting the Sclaffenatus Line, earlier today my scouts have confirmed that this force is marching to assault this Hive, as highest ranking Imperial Guard officer on this theater I've called this briefing to discuss our defensive preparation. Captain Heigel…." She finished, turning to the Armageddon Captain, which was already pressing buttons on the holo-table, a few seconds later the table sprung to life with a holographic display of the Hive and its surrounding defenses.

"Comrades, as you can see, the Greenskin Horde will arrive from the Northwest." And with that a green blob seeped into the holo-map. "We still don't know the exact composition of this force but we can expect overwhelming numbers and a direct assault, by their current marching speed we expect the main assault in more or less three to four days. Given the condition of the outer line of defenses we expect the troops there to be overwhelmed or forced to retreat in two days at max" and on cue the green blob expanded to cover part of the outer defensive line while the markers indicating the PDF troopers manning it either retreated or were destroyed "The middle defensive line is expected to hold them off for some more time, maybe even force a stalemate and give enough time for the reserve units in the rearguard to mount a counter-attack and encircle the Orks."The green blob then moved to overtake the middle defensive line but it was unable to do so before more Imperial markers appeared on the southern edge of the map and together with the remaining garrison, counter-attacked. however, should the middle line fall and we're forced to retreat to the Hive itself the effectiveness of our companies will be reduced considering that we will not have the necessary space to maneuver our vehicles." Heigel paused to catch his breath and wait the reaction of the other officers.

"If I may ask." started a rather slender and bald PDF Colonel, Hsu, if Jamil remembered correctly. "How can you support these affirmations if there's so little information about the Ork army advancing upon us?"

A fair question, the Major thought, she waited for the captain to reply: "While we have few information about this particular do not forget that both my and major Verst' forces have experience in dealing with Orks, furthermore, these claims are supported by the logis engine in possession of the enginseers of my regiment and while these estimations aren't accurate they are the best thing we have to prepare for the onslaught of the next days. And I'm sure that I don't need to remind you all that the battle is going to be hard and bloody but it's our duty to the Almighty Emperor of Mankind to hold the line and grind these green heathens into paste."

"But why aren't we going to try to hold the outer line?Move more troops to the line make them pay for every step of ground?"Another PDF officer asked, eliciting a few nods of approval from the others. Of course, Captain Jieng wouldn't simply accept things quietly, just because he had bought his position into the PDF he thought he knew anything about fighting. She would deal with him herself:

"Because it can't be done, if we commit our reserves to the outer line they will be encircled and destroyed when the Orks breach it, and don't be mistaken, the line will break, it's simply too large and undermanned and reinforcing it will do no good when your troops don't have the necessary vehicles nor the ability and morale for a quick withdraw. Besides, the line is simply too far to be effectively protected by our artillery. I don't know who had the idea but this line is an example of what shouldn't be done when fortifying a position: the trenches are shoddy and shallow and there are too few heavy weapons. When the Orks hit they will breach the line and the troops that held out will simply be encircled and destroyed. As a matter of fact, I would advise a total withdraw from this disaster in the making, leave behind a few rearguard platoons and booby-trap the whole network, unfortunately we don't have time, explosives or specialists in enough numbers to do so."

"So you're just going to let my men die for nothing?Why not evacuate the whole line if it's such a disaster in the making?" A third officer asked, if Jamil remembered correctly he was deployed to the outer line. She could tell that he was scared.

"Because with our current resources we won't be able to finish before the Orks arrive. If we do that then the Orks will hit us in the middle of the process and the line will surely collapse, so it's better to leave things as they are and hope that you and your men take a few Orks with you. If I had arrived here earlier I would have dealt with this but now we simply don't have the time. " Jamil replied

"And what gives you the authority to dictate where we will be slaughtered?You're a mere major!Colonel Hsu is the highest ranking officer here!He should be directing the defense not you-" The officer's panicked outburst was interrupted by the Armageddon Commissar:

"Major Jamil is an Imperial Guard officer, she outranks you all, is far more experienced in dealing with such matters. And as such it's my duty as a Imperial Commissar to ensure that the chain of command is respected. Furthermore, I will not tolerate any further talk about retreat, it has already been established that the best option for you and your men is to maintain your positions and sacrifice themselves for the glory of the Imperium, if you insist on discussing the issue I will be forced to act." The Commissar finished placing his hand on the bolt pistol's grip and giving another of his un-smiles,and for once Jamil was glad to see it.

Sergeant Ulin of the 644th Jahangir Mechanized Janissaries had finally managed to make her way back to the company's barracks. A small miracle considering the fact that the Hive's architecture was extremely confusing and the streets were clogged with refugees and beggars (the uniform helped to ward off most of them but she still had to hand over a few golden thrones to get rid of the most persistent ones and she was sure that a few pickpockets had taken advantage of her troopers inebriated state). After passing through the sentries she led her drunker squad mates to the bunks before heading to the captain's office to file a report confirming the return of her squad and their readiness status. As she walked through the corridors reminiscing about her bad luck (first leave in almost seven months and the commander decides to sound a red alert and recall everyone before she can stop 'babysitting' her troops and enjoy some drinks) the loud siren that had been blaring through the whole city paused and was replaced by a robotic voice announcing:

"Citizens of Hive Plyubs, it has been confirmed that our fair city will come under attack from the foul Xeno scum in the next days and because of that the ruling council has agreed to hand over power to competent military authorities and declare martial law until the threat presented by the foul Greenskin horde has passed. Don't worry loyal citizens for the Emperor is with us and with Him as our guide we cannot fail." and with that the announcement started to repeat itself.

"It was about damn time..."Ulin said to himself, she was looking forward to facing the Orks, turning them into green paste and avenging the debacle of Ymir IV.

Ulin finally reached the office's door and after knocking twice before captain Inessa told her to come in. The sergeant entered, saluted and then spoke:

"Sergeant Ulin Mer, 4th squad, 3rd platoon, 6th Company reporting madam, we've returned as requested and the troops are resting for tomorrow's drills."

Captain Inessa, that was sitting on her chair and reviewing some reports handed her a file and said:

"At ease sergeant, you know the drill: fill the file, return it to me and make sure your girls aren't to hungover to fight, the main force will arrive in three days but we may end up dealing with scouts and infiltrators before." Ulin nodded, saluted and left.

Actually she didn't go far. Just outside the office she pressed the file against the wall and started searching her pockets for a pen or something like that. When she finally found it she started to write down with the practice acquired from years of doing basically the same thing again and again, the only changes were when a soldier was replaced (sometimes she still writes down the name of a trooper who's already dead, especially if they had been serving together for a long time), and if she writes something that is wrong and can't be erased then she will have to fill another file to request a new file, and Emperor forbid if her squad damages one of the heavy weapons such as the lascannon or plasma guns assigned to them. Funny how the recruiters conveniently leave that part of the life in Imperial Guard out of their speeches.

"You makin' that fache again sarge." Ulin turned, startled, to see trooper Jamanta leaning on a dragon statue near the wall, another strange thing about the planets and it's inhabitants was their apparent obsession with dragons and all kinds of lizards, the PDF compound serving as their barracks was littered with such iconography, well, at least the lizard vermin snacks were tasty.

"And you're supposed to be sleeping trooper, you're drunk and you need rest for the coming battle." The sergeant replied scowling. The drunken trooper seemed unfazed.

"No, you can't get angry with me-hic-I'm like you little shister and you makin' that depresshed fache, I told-hic- I told you to get drunk with ush." Jamanta replied with a stupid grin. Ulin sighed in defeat, there was no point in getting angry now, and the rest of the squad was probably equally restless, and truth be said, Jamanta was the oldest and most experienced soldier currently in the squad and unofficial second in command, and while comparing their relationship to that of sisters was too much they were indeed close friends. Tomorrow of course, they would be punished, forced march and church services would probably be enough to discipline the rowdy troopers.

"No you're not, I don't even like you that much, your accent is awful and it gets worse when you're drunk." Ulin replied before turning away to deliver the file to the captain."And stay where you are trooper!I'm not finished with you." She added, although it wasn't probably necessary, Jamanta was already having trouble standing even with the support of the statue meaning that she would have to drag her back to the bunks.

Thanks to the God-Emperor there were no further incidents and the sergeant managed to deliver the file to the captain and drag the drunk trooper back to the bunks, where, just as she expected, her squad wasn't sleeping but had split up and were busy fraternizing (that's another word for gambling) and bothering the rest of the platoon's squads and bar the odd half drunken trooper it was her squad that was causing most of the ruckus.

"Alright...don't panic." Ulin told herself."Just control your troopers before the lieutenant arrives." She then looked to the wall looking for a clock to judge how many time before lieutenant Juri arrived, if Ulin knew the lieutenant well, and she was sure she knew. The officer would not tolerate druken troopers right before a major engagement. Great! It was a Schwezan clock and she had no idea how to read it! Without many options she dragged the still protesting Jamanta to her bunk before storming off to do some damage control.

Troopers Rajiv and Varana were playing cards with the grunts of another squad and after some light threats returned to their bunks without incident. Trooper Inassa was about arguing with sergeant Miana and had to be forcefully dragged away. Trooper Yana was listing a series of lewd acts she always wished to enact with the brother of another trooper that was on the verge of strangling her drunken colleague, Ulin managed to drag her subordinate away before things got out of control and made a mental note to send Yana to the confessor as soon as possible. And finally, trooper Enai had already passed away among a circle of soldiers playing dices, needless to say she didn't resisted being dragged to her bunk.

And just in time, right as Ulin sat down on an empty bunk the lieutenant practically kicked the door open and entered the room scowling, as always. The soldiers still wake stood up and saluted and then Juri barked:

"All right ladies!LIGHTS OFF AT ONCE!I expect every single one of you ready and healthy tomorrow!The Greenskins will be here soon and God-Emperor help me if I notice that any of you got a hangover! I don't want a repeat of Ymir IV!"And with that she practically smashed the panel near the door, turning off the lights before adding:"And for the Emperor's sake! I can smell the amasec from here!"

And that's it, a new chapter.

Warhammer 40k is property of Games Workshop.

Original Imperial Guard Regiments created using 1d4chan Regimental creation tables. On a related note I recently also found another background generator on .

And of course, many thanks to Panopticon for helping me write this chapter and flesh out the history.