Chapter 47: The Landing
Sergeant Alexei slammed open the door, yelling that it was time to get up and go.
We had slept in our uniforms, so the only preparation needed was getting out of bed and adjusting our clothes. We were told we'd be given our weapons and equipment before boarding the Valkyrie. Getting into line, we marched out the door and onto the elevator up into the hangar.
The activity up here was immense. There were people everywhere, loading up crates, fuelling the Valkyries, arming weapons and performing last minute checks. There were people in all sorts of uniforms, ship crew, engineers, pilots, gunners, and so on. Sergeant Alexei kept us close to the walls and pushed us up the stairs. I struggled to keep my breathing level. This was it.
Across the cavernous expanse of the hangar, I could see that other Valkyries were taking off and flying off into the cold void of space. At the edge of the bay I could a thin sliver of space, and at the bottom of the window into the void there it was.
Takritar.
On the platform where our Valkyrie sat, there was an old, familiar face.
"Huh, so you lot are all still here, eh?" Sergeant Slate said, standing behind an armoured crate containing a whole plethora of equipment. Desmond flinched, but Slate didn't seem to notice. Or care.
"Sergeant Slate will distribute your weapons. Step forward, in order, please," Alexei barked. Prassus went first.
"Here, you're the heavy, yes? One grenade launcher, one laspistol, two frag grenades, an your supply bag, right here," Slate said, hauling all the equipment out in front of Prassus, who took it as well as he could.
"Next!" Slate yelled. Alexei waved me forward.
"One lasgun, one pistol, two frag grenades, supply bag, there," Slate huffed, handing over all my equipment. I strapped the bag to my bag, adjusting the cords. It was rather heavy, but our training had prepared us for that, at least. Holstering the laspistol, I slung the lasgun over my shoulders and tightened the strap across my chest. I then hung the grenades on my belt, and stepped onto the Valkyrie with Prassus, sitting down at the back.
"So, back here, eh? Last time we were here I had no idea who you were," he smirked. I wasn't in the mood for small talk, but I made the effort anyway.
"Neither did I. Let's hope we both make it back together, yeah?"
"We'll make it. I promise," he said earnestly. That made me feel a little better, even if he didn't really have much control of that. At least, no more then I did.
The squad filtered onto the Valkyrie one by one, with Alexei taking up the rear.
"Heh, when you're down there, show 'em some proper mettle, yeah?" Slate said, smiling. Alexei nodded, and the two saluted one another.
"Show them the Cadian way," Slate added. Alexei nodded.
There were a few moments of silence, then Slate slapped the hull. The lights on the pad went from red to yellow, and the door began to close with a slow hiss. The cabin lights flickered on, and a voice crackled on over the onboard comms.
"Check, check, all clear? Check, I repeat, check?"
The voice was mostly static, but still clear enough to be heard. Alexei walked over to the transport bays comm and held down a button.
"We are all loaded and set, I repeat, all loaded and set," he said. I realised that Alexei had a chainsword strapped to his back, its cruel teeth glinting in the cabin light.
"All clear, check. We are awaiting countdown. Platoon is loading up across the hangar. We are clear to go in three, I repeat, clear to go in three."
Those three minutes were the longest of my life. It seemed to drag on forever, far longer than the anxious waiting beforehand. Those three minutes may have been an eternity, sitting there in silence, head down, checking and rechecking my weapons. Everyone else was doing the same, even Alexei. Then, exactly three minutes later, there was a growing hum as power coursed through the ship. The Valkyries engines ignited, spinning into life. Turnings roared and sucked in air, which was rather weird for a space capable craft. It was weird what the mind fixated on in stressful situations. There was a hiss of pressurisation as clamps shut down on the rear and side doors, locking them place. A metal shutter slide down them, which also sealed tight. Air vents in the roof spun into life, circulating warm air inside the sealed cabin. It smelt like rust in here.
The intercom crackled into life again.
"Platoon is clear and green across the board, all shuttles hot, our path is clear. We are good to go, I repeat, we are good to go," the pilot said. A few people muttered prayers around me. I just prayed to the universe that I'd make it through this in one piece. I didn't want to die. I didn't want any of us to die.
There was a brief lurch as the Valkyrie lifted off the ground, a momentary sensation of being seemingly weightless, and then we were off. I could tell we were flying through the hangar and out into space. There were no windows, and the cabin was absolutely airtight, so there was barely any sound to be heard beyond that of the cabins machinery. The intercom was our only way of knowing what was going on outside.
"Woo, clear space. I love that feeling!" The pilot said, and there was a murmur of agreement from his co-pilot. There was a momentary pause as the pilot realised the intercom was still on.
"Ahem. Right. We're clear. Heading down now. Making for planetside deployment," he said. Alexei nodded, even though they couldn't see each other.
"When we land, we must be quick, and form up as soon as possible upon exiting this craft!" Alexei said, and we nodded.
"We will then form up with the platoon and secure the objectives! Remember your training, it'll be no different to our scouting activities and our wargames!"
Except this will be in a city. There'll be real enemies using real guns and there'll be real consequences for fucking up. The enemy will be trained and organised and motivate to defend the land to their utmost capabilities and will pay any price to keep us at bay. We'd be heading into the jaws of a city that'd been preparing for an invasion for years. So many things could go so terribly wrong. I could only pray that it didn't.
The Valkyrie began to shudder, and the pilot announced we'd breached the atmosphere. There was a sudden shaking as we rushed into sudden air resistance, and the craft seemed to slow.
"Whatever happens, stay calm, remember your training, and if in doubt, remember the two core codes of the Imperial Guard. If in doubt, advance, and if you can, attack."
"Sir, yes, sir," we chorused.
"Remember, you're with veteran Cadian's. You're not alone. You are a team, a squad, and that squad is with other squads. We are a platoon. We're not going to go at this alone. Sabre company fights its battles as one!"
"Sir, yes, sir," we yelled.
The Valkyrie shook again, and then suddenly banked. Alexei swore and grabbed onto a handhold to steady himself, leaning over the intercom.
"Pilot, what's going on?"
"Missile defences, Sergeant, a whole mess of them…woah!" The Valkyrie banked again, and we all held onto our straps for dear life. Alexei grabbed onto the netting in the roof with both hands. Hopefully he didn't hit anyone with his chainsword accidentally. That would cause a nasty injury, even if it wasn't on.
"We're being engaged, evasive manoeuvres!" The pilot yelled, switching off the intercom. Guess he didn't want to hear him yelling. The Valkyrie lurched from side to side, and there were distant thuds outside. Explosions.
The rattling and shaking intensified, and the Valkyrie seemed to be endlessly banking side to side, as the thuds grew louder and louder.
"Flak cannons, I repeat, flak cannons!" The pilot snapped, turning on the intercom again. Alexei, glaring madly at no one in particular, reached over to slap the intercom again.
"What the hells going on out there?" He snapped.
"Flak guns…damn, those are fucking Hydra's!"
"Hydra's? I thought the enemy AA was neutralised?" Alexei barked.
"That's what we thought as well. Damn it, there's so much of it. Area cleared, my fucking ass, the enemies still fucking here!"
That didn't sound good at all. That sounded like a real big problem, honestly. The enemy still had defences here? What was the army doing?
"We're going to have to land…FUCKING DAMNIT, a Valkyrie just went down…"
My stomach dropped. Someone got shot down? Whose squad was it?
"Who?" Alexei snapped, only to be met with static. There were a few moments of horrifying silence before the pilot answered.
"Not one of our platoon, don't have the ID, they've crashed out of formation. We're going to have to land, the flak is too thick, we won't reach the bloody LZ like this, I'm putting us down with the rest of our craft," the pilot yelled. Alexei nodded gravely.
"Guns ready…prepare for a hot landing," Alexei barked. We all swallowed. Heart pounding, my hands were shaking so bad I felt I could barely lift my gun. The Valkyrie shuddered as it touched down on solid ground, and the shutters over the doors slid back.
"LZ is green, here, but we're way back from where we should be. Someone's fucked up, the army groups haven't cleared the city yet!" The pilot yelled.
Fuck. Where did that put us? On the fucking frontlines. This was a colossal fuck up. I knew something like this would go wrong. What an absolute shit storm.
"You heard the man, we're in hostile territory, expect to be engaged," Alexei snapped. Shaking off our straps, we readied ourselves as the door opened, prepared to meet the absolute hell that we were sure was on the other side, only to be met with…nothing. There were sounds of battle, but they were distant and far off.
There were buildings, and some light snow, and a whole lot of green and mud, but otherwise, it was just more Valkyries, landing in a city park. Alexei reacted all the same, however.
"Go, go, go," he bellowed, and we charged down the ramp, guns raised, looking for targets. There were none. In the park there were dozens of Valkyries and Chimera's, dropped off from armour transports. Heavy weapon teams lined the roads and the rooftops of the surrounding buildings, while infantry squads, Practican and Cadian alike, moved about.
"Where the hell is this, and what the hell's going on?" Alexei muttered, looking for whose in charge. We were too busy being distracted by where we were. The others on the squad were amazed by the city, its sweeping size and grandeur. It wasn't too impressive to me, at least not from where we were. It resembled Manhattan in a way, at least, or perhaps Brooklyn, at least in the style of the architecture, but the buildings were all relatively small, rarely rising beyond ten stories. It wasn't at all like the gothic style usually associated with Imperial cities, and aside from the alien plant life in the park and the sky, which was a dusty brown, it would be hard to tell this wasn't a city on Earth.
But while the others were gawking at that, I stood there, breathing in alien air, walking on an alien planet, under an alien sky in the light of an alien sun. Here I was, a man from the 21st century, walking on a alien planet, that was probably on the other side of the galaxy from Earth, looking up at a sun that we might never have seen before. Kneeling down to touch the black muddy soil, I ground it up in my gloved hands, breathing in the earthy fragrance of this otherworldly place.
Here I was, a man from the 21st century, standing on an alien planet, in the 41st millennium. I laughed internally. Technically, did that make me the first human to walk on an alien planet? Probably not, but it was cool to think about from that perspective.
But I couldn't truly appreciate the moment. We were in a warzone right now, and may be attacked at any moment.
"What are our orders, sir?" I asked Alexei, who was busy looking for someone to ask the same thing. We both spotted Lieutenant Quentin walking around one of the Chimera, loudly arguing with some other officer.
There was a explosion, close by, that shook the ground, and the squad looked around in panic, but the Cadian's didn't even flinched. There was a series of follow up explosions that sounded like a peal of thunder as a chain detonation ripped through a nearby neighbourhood. Gunfire crackled constantly in the background.
"Lieutenant, sir, what's going on?" Alexei asked, and Quentin growled.
"Army South was meant to have secured this land for us, but someone fucked it up and now both Army South and our first waves have been split up across this damn city. We've landed back from where we meant to but we're still ahead of the rest of our forces. It seems the enemy snuck in reinforcements from an underground transport from the north, and now there's a whole bloody swarm of AA keeping the rest of our reinforcements back, whilst the rest of us are being forced back into the eastern and western suburbs."
"So, what do we do?" Alexei asked, and Quentin turned to examine the skyline, way in the distance, before turning to the Chimera's.
"There is meant to be minimal resistance on ground between us and that AA. Elements of Army South and our first waves have already cleared out some pockets of the enemy, and we've got enough men and firepower to do the rest ourselves. It's come down from higher up, all of Sabre Company is mobilising alongside whatever managed to land here and connect with Loyalist forces. We're going to push forward ourselves."