Hello fellow reader! I just wanted to thank you for giving me your precious time to look at my work. But before the show begins I must warn you of only one thing: English is not my first language, so pardon me if you encounter some grammar oddity. Im looking too for a beta reader, a native speaker so I could improve even more the details and the correct grammar of the narrative. That it's all, now let the curtains be pulled...enjoy the show!
First Act - The Calling:
Initializing data log...
Year: 979.M41;
System: Cadian System;
Sub-Sector: Cadian Sub-sector;
Planet: Cadia Prime;
Continent: Cadia Secundus;
Region: Davos;
Location: Imperium Citadel Vengeance of the Faithful.
"Dad I cant aim, is too big!" Said an eight-year-old, with chestnut hair.
"HA! Boy at your age I was firing a huge ass bazooka against hordes of cultists and demons." Said a thirty-year-old, with the same chestnut hair as the boy in front of him.
"Yeah I know...you already told me that four times now. I just cant! The iron sight is too far away from the butt of the gun! I need a shorter weapon if you want me to hit the target." Said the child in a furious but cute way.
"Kid, life isn't fair, never is. So if I want to be a good father to you I must teach you a lesson about that. So no! You will fire the lasgun until you hit your target and you will only stop when you hit your designed target, am I clear soldier?" The man chastised the boy in a fatherly way."One more thing that is not the "Butt" of the weapon, say it properly! Is the stock. Know about your weapon as you know yourself son" The man smiled and proceeded on his lesson.
The place they are right now is in the outskirts of the living quarters of the Commissar of the 36th platoon Emperors fury, Kane Clarke. Kane is a commissar having dozens of condecorations for his distinguished services in the name of the Imperium of Man. Eight years ago he married a normal citizen and settled down so he could take care of his family, but unfortunately, three years ago his wife died in one of many demonic raids to their cities, by sheer luck his son Erick survived the attack. After that he started living in the barracks with his men, consequently, he started training his son to protect himself.
Opening another log...
PERSONAL FILE:
I.D: Erick Clarke;
Imperial number: 83284821234218348992138828-ABA-661;
Parents: Kane Clarke and Erika Schwarts;
Blood type: +0;
Naturality: Cadian;
Age: 27;
Height(meters): 1.75;
Hair: Chestnut;
Eyes: Blue Eyes;
Skin color: White skin;
In cadian fashion, Erick from a young age was indoctrinated in the ways of the imperium and the guardsman, his father was a very strict individual, always pushing him to his maximum. With 8 years Erick learned how to shoot a lasgun, with 9 he learned how to navigate in the wild, with 10 he learned how to infiltrate and sabotage, Kane, incentivized him to play tricks in his subordinates without getting caught (getting caught meant punishment), with 11 he learned how to improvise booby traps to get small and large prey as well as hunting. With 12 he learned how to easily kill a humanoid, in this same age he got his first kill, a cultist infiltrator that would kill Bob Flanegan one of Kane's men, he killed him with his lasgun, with 13 he learned first aid and how to seal his wounds.
With fourteen he went to his first battle as a supply auxiliary for the 41st ground Batallion Emperor Protects, his purpose was to bring supplies and ammo from the bunker to the mainline without dying, with seventeen he entered in active duty. Being in active duty meant that he was now a fully-fledged guardsman, he was assigned to the 22nd division. This group fought in the frontlines in the cadian line*, so the casualties were pretty high in this segment of the 41st. At this age, he received the news that his father and the people he knew for nine years were dead in an ambush set by Lothgrar a Herald of Khorne. For this reason, he asked for his Commissar to assign him to the detachment that would try to retake the lost territory of the 36th platoon, the commissar accepted without sparing another glance to the guardsman, so many died already that the officer couldn't care less to even offer reasons to the boy to not go. Then he went with the retake detachment to avenge his father's and friend's death. It took two months and two hundred casualties but the detachment retook the lost position. Erick amidst the conflict managed to kill more than 15 Bloodletter, 80 cultists, and 20 flesh hounds.
In total, he ended the life of 115 enemies of the imperium. This got the attention of the Major of the 41st that ended up calling him to special unity called Gamma squad. The purpose of the group was to defend fortified positions making use of heavy ordnance and the heavy use of guerilla tactics like booby traps, ambushes, deceit, and sabotage. Had a defensive and an offensive role, they were highly adaptive to the situation at hand. He started as a normal rifleman, but soon the group of twelve started dying off in each suicide mission after another, in the end by his accomplishments and remarkable survival he earned the position of squad leader. At the end of its duty, it remained four members. These members being Sigilus Black, Emeritus Synth, Sarah Burke, and its leader Erick Clarke.
*Cadian Line - Was the main trench of the northern part of the region of Davos.
Opening Military Logs...
Unit: Gamma Squad;
Unit I.D: 236512093512398459129816284519231-XXA-146 Role: Defensive/Offensive Heavy Ordnance Specialized unity;
Members: 12;
Active Members: 4;
KIA: 6;
MIA:2;
Unity Team:
Sigilus Black- A human male, has no hair and brown eyes. Was a heavy weapons specialist, was responsible for eliminating enemy vehicles with the use of an imperial rocket launcher, was a very strong human male. Having a tan complexity by the exposition to the cadia sun lights.
Emeritus Synth- Human male, his two arms have been replaced with mechanical arms with built-in tools to easily repair any damaged tech, has one blue eye, the other is a standard mechanicus glass eye, uses a cowl on his head, having only his eyes and face prosthetics showing. Technician of the group, he used to repair the vehicles and equipment of the Gamma squad, he was an acolyte of the order of the Vengeful Spirit Machine, until he was resigned to serve in the frontlines with the squad led by Erick Clarke. At first, he was cold and distant, giving the fact he was raised in a mechanicus order, but after some time he started to value his comrades and enjoy their presence.
Sarah Burke- Human female, having red hair and brown eyes, has lightly tanned skin, since she is the squad marksman, having to stay put long times in the sun waiting for orders to eliminate targets or cover allies. At a young age, she was trained by her father to be a huntress, since that was the way of the family to survive in Cadia, she became fairly skilled with long-ranged weapons and fairly good at infiltration.
Opening Sororitas log...
PERSONAL FILE:
I.D: Silviya;
Imperial number: 83284123124534566756873233-EVA-727;
Parents: Unknown;
Blood type: +A;
Naturality: Cadian;
Age: 25;
Height(meters): 1.70;
Hair: Mid-length white hair;
Eyes: Brown eyes;
Skin color: Light-skinned;
Silviya has freckles on the nose, a scar on the upper lip as well as a Fleur de Lis on the right cheek. Before she was recruited by the Order of Our Martyred Lady, she was an orphan, delivered at the doorstep of the Order of the Eternal Candle. At that time she was a trouble maker, stealing food and money from the people in the streets, one day she angered a group of guardsman after stealing their wallets, they ran after her, but never managed to catch her, unknowingly to her a canoness of the Order of Our Martyred Lady observed as she effortlessly evaded the guardsman while escaping their clutches, but when she was almost caught by them, she stepped out to stop the ruckus and recruit the young girl to her order. After that Silviya started her training in the order, she became an outstanding acolyte, but something in her was different than the rest of her sisters. She never got used to death, particularly with her sisters, each one of her friends that she lost was an emotional scar for her.
But what caused that mindset was the death of the canoness that recruited her, she died on an operation to the Eye of Terror, that everybody knew it was suicide, even the own canoness knew. But she didn't care, the last thing she told Silviya is that was their duty, to die for the Emperor, to die for his glory. Silviya was a true devout of the emperor, but she didn't like this suicidal way of thinking, for her, their deaths must have a tactical reason to it. When she became leader of the Celestine fury, she avoided unnecessary sacrifices, using more guerilla tactics than Sororitas tactics. That got the attention of almost all sisters of her order, even with the huge success of her operations, everyone thought she was not suited for this ordos, some even suggested that her place was in the hospitallers. Since her attachment to life, in general, was not a good attribute for militant Sororitas.
*Information gathered thanks to the confessional practice of the Sororitas*
Ending Database Search...
Closing Logs...
Farwell Inquisitor Albus Eburnus.
Closing Terminal...
Erick Clarke was clumsily looking through the standard imperium binoculars to the horizon. He received a radio transmission two hours ago informing that a group of 36 cultists was approaching Helios VI position, the position in question is located in a mountain 12 km away from the cadian line. Gamma Squad was assigned to hold this position until further notice since one of the main cables of the whole region communications is positioned there.
"Still got nothing...It's been two hours since we received the last contact from the 41st." Erick said tiredly. "Sarah did you get anything?".
The Redhead without taking her eyes out of the scope of the lasgun sniper said "Negative. Been lying on my stomach for two hours now, and not one single dammed thing. Not even a dammed rat!".
"Something ain't right...we should have seen something by now. Anything really...Emeritus check communications, explain the situation for them, and request evac. I'm sick of this place." Erick said with clear boredom in his voice.
"Yessss looking into it. Thisss isss unit XXA-146 over." Emeritus said with a clear hiss whenever he said the letter "s", owing to the fact that his entire mouth has a contraption that allows him to speak. Nobody in the group knew why he chose to put the device on his face, but to be fair was not uncommon to people of his ordos to do such a thing.
The radio returned only static, so for one more time Emeritus tried to do contact "Thisss isss unit XXA-146 do you copy?"
Again the only thing that could be heard from the device was static.
"Sssomething ain't right." said the mechanicus slapping the device trying to get some reaction from the machine.
"Thisss isss unit XXA-146 do you copy? I repeat do you copy?" At this very moment, Sigilus is getting out of the chemical bathroom present on the site, startling Emeritus since the bathroom is beside the improvised radio station.
"I told you guys that would be one of those missions, where someone says something and the boss gets his panties in a bunch and send us off to the middle of nowhere to do absolutely jack shit." Said the tall specialist fixing his belt while getting his guardsman plasma rifle.
"Sigilus, I swear that sometimes, I confuse you to an ogryn. Cause damn you are huge" Said Erick laughing while still looking through the binoculars. Emeritus and Sarah smirked (the mechanicus smirked on his own way), knowing too well what would ensue.
"Hey, chief! Don't hate me cause I'm beautiful as you well know it. And let's be real... everyone here knows that I actually look like an Astartes!" Sigilus spoke while flexing his biceps and striking a pose.
"Yesss. If you are talking about a plague marine then you look just the sssame." Stated the mechanicus in a matter-of-fact way. Erick and Sarah started to laugh. Sigilus pouted a little but soon started laughing alongside his friends. But at this exact moment, a faraway explosion sound could be heard. The quartet looked at the same time in the direction of the sound, seeing a huge smoke cloud. "Is that not where the cadian line is!?" Remarked a shocked Sigilus.
"Yes...Goddammit, Emeritus try contacting HQ! Sarah bring the scout car asap! Sigilus with me hold the perimeter!"
Shortly after Sarah arrived in the scout car. "We ssstil are cutted off! we are in the dark, whatever isss happening our communicationsss have been jammed!"
"Shit! Forget about that! Everyone in the car NOW!" Erick shouts it.
The four hurriedly gathered their equipment and entered the vehicle. Behind the wheel, Sigilus started going in the direction of the 41st operations base, as they got closer to their destination they could hear the sound of lasgun and gunfire, and as they got closer the noise became even more intense until they got the visual of the situation. The entire position was compromised most of the trenches were occupied by occultists, near the base they could see a few that were holding the line and trying to push the enemy back.
"Sigilus avoid the trenches and get us closer to the base!"
"Roger that Chief!" Sigilus answered smirking.
The scout car started going in the appointed direction. Sigilus skillfully avoided most of the enemy fire, as well as avoiding the trenches dug up by the 41st that now was overrun with cultist scum, every enemy that ended up in the way, was run over.
They managed to reach the position hold up by the 41st, getting out fast of the car as they are approached by one of the guardsmen.
"Sir the commissar was waiting for you! He wishes to speak with you immediately!"
"Roger that. Sigilus, Emeritus, and Sarah hold the line, I'll return shortly."
He proceeded to go to the operations center, the place was a standard dug-up bunker where his commissar was located. He descended the stairs to the place, the walls were sustained by rusted steel beams, by the end of the stairs was a steel door with the sigil of the imperium in it. Opening the door he could see a lot of imperials running from side to side organizing supplies and weapons, one of them brushes past him with a box containing ammunition. At his left, he could see two guardsmen operating the radio station trying to contact HQ. At the planning table, were two people, the commissar, and the logistics supervisor.
Erick approached the two "Sir unit 661 reporting to duty!"
The commissar without taking his eyes off the map addressed him "At ease guardsmen. We are in big trouble, we lost contact with all the segments of the 41st. The casualties vary from five hundred to seven hundred. Wounded we have no idea." He remarked somberly.
"We need reinforcements asap. What we have here won't hold them off for long. I sent a messenger to the 40th requesting reinforcements..."
The officer couldn't even finish speaking when his aforementioned messenger came tumbling stairs down, huffing the man shout it "The 40th is lost, commander! As well as the 42nd! I managed to reach the 39th *pant* *pant* They had comms, this is a planetary raid, Cadia Tetrius has fallen!"
At this very moment, the entire room was dead silent, no one spoke a word until the Commissar commanded with a booming voice "What are all of you waiting for!? All return to your positions! Soldier return to the trenches, give them hell!" The messenger nodded with his head and started climbing the ladders again.
"Well, 661 it looks like your squad has a very important mission. Restore our comms, and help my men to push these heretics back!"
Erick saluted the commissar and proceeded to climb to the surface. On the surface, the other three of the Gamma squad were giving hell to the raiding cult group. Sarah was positioned in a guard tower, taking shots against specific targets like cultists bearing flamethrowers, bazookas, plasma guns, or explosives of any kind, shot after shot, she killed the rushing enemies with surgical precision. But not long after she was being pinned by bolter fire from a Khornate berzerker. Sigilus, shot a plasma ray dead center in the chaos marine taking shots against Sarah. Emeritus was repairing the auto-turrets of the gates in hopes of supporting the defendants of the position. Erick approached Emeritus first "We have no comms, so I need you to find the problem and fix it. Do it as fast as possible! Do that while I help them to defend this position" The mechanicus only nodded and proceeded to go to the communication pole.
Returning to the other three Erick took a crouch position behind a stone wall, he proceeded to shot multiple shots against some approaching cultists, he managed to injure one while the others tried to find cover in the walls of the trenches. He took some grenades of his coat and started to pull the pin of each one, and one after one he threw with precision in different segments of the trench in front of him. Explosions and the distinct sound of flesh exploding could be heard coming from the intended zones. Seeing an opening Erick rushed inside the trench, the ground was muddy, with the distinct presence of blood puddles. His boots made a distinctive squelching sound. He turned left where he threw some of his grenades. Counting in his head he confirms the death of 4 cultists.
Footsteps can be heard coming from the other corridor behind him, he lays down with his lasgun pointed in the direction of the footsteps. He counts in his head "1...2...3.." he doesn't even manage to end to count properly when a cultist branding a crude knife comes rushing in his view. Pulling the trigger he hits the forehead of the target. The man fell like a sack of potatoes, shortly after Erick got up and started going further in the trenches, he advances 35 meters in when he spots more cultists. This time he doesn't have grenades, so he can't afford to confront them directly without having a good cover.
So again he lays down and waits as 6 cultists with lasguns come through the corridor, he shoots his lasgun hitting 3 in the chest, the one-shot fired going through them. The other 3 take cover behind the mud walls of their corridors, they start to fire in the direction of Erick, but before any of them could hit him, Sigilus shoots a heavy blast of plasma energy in the area, completely pulverizing them.
Short after he heard in his comms "What would be of you without me chief?"
Erick only managed to smirk to himself before addressing Emeritus "Emeritus did you managed to restore communications I presume?"
"Yesss, only locally tough. They are probably trying to jam the entire communicationsss of the planet."
With the local comms back online Erick tried reaching the commissar. "Here is unity 661, comms are back online. Proceeding to clear the way".
Two minutes later came the commissar's voice, and it sounded somber "Abort the second task, repeat abort the second task, return immediately."
"What do you mean? Don't we need to take back this trench, over?"
"No, we have different orders. Came directly from HQ, get back here immediately soldier that's an order!"
He stood there, down on the ground without understanding what had just transpired. Never in his life, he received an order like this, and the tone of his commanding officer, in his five years of service as his subordinate he had never heard this tone before. He got up and started running back the trench, some shots come closer to hit him but none made on the target. Arriving back in the base the commissar and a group of guardsmen were taking boxes of ammo and supplies and were loading a supply truck.
"Commissar, what is happening? Why do you order me to retreat, we do not retreat..."
Before he couldn't even finish his rant, he receives a hard backslap on his right cheek. "Compose yourself, soldier, the 41st is retreating to HQ. Cadia is falling, soldier! And our orders are to retreat, and that's what we will do!"
Erick's eyes widened for a moment before being replaced with fury.
"WHAT!? Cadia falling? Never! The command must have been fooled or is a decoy from the enemy. We must keep fighting we are Cadians we fight to the death! We don't give up! We are the main defenses of mankind against the horrors of the Eye of Terror!"
The commissar looks to the ground dejectedly "Orders are orders...what we think or want doesn't matter, we are soldiers and we will do our part so only obey. Don't give me a reason to shoot your head off right here, for not obeying your commanding officer."
Erick could only dumbly stare at the scene unfolding. His battalion hurriedly loading the trucks and going one after the other in the direction of the citadel.
Sarah pats him on the shoulder, catching his attention "Orders are orders, Erick, you better than anyone knows that, now let's get in the car."
Every one of his squad entered the vehicle, before entering the car with his squad, he looks behind to the battlefield, and without a word, he enters the vehicle. Soon they are following the convoy. Looking through the window he can see faraway battles happening in many familiar trenches, in the sky he can see various crafts engaging in heated combat. War is not something new for him, but something about this whole situation does not seem right.
It takes them 10 minutes before arriving at the open citadel gates, likely waiting for more people to come. The gates are huge, circling the city is a steel wall easily surpassing the gates. Inside the perimeter near the walls are houses used by civilians and personnel alike, in the center is a tower with the same color as the walls having 30 meters and near the tower has a variety of fortifications and defense positions.
This tower is the HQ, where the communication center of all Davos region is located. The convoy stops right outside the tower, where a man using a heavily decorated Commissar uniform approaches the party. This man is Major Wallace Weimar, one of the most important figures to the cadian military on this side of the planet. He is one of the greatest strategists that the Imperium has. He is responsible for foiling many chaos incursions, that many didn't believe he could. With a stoic voice, he addresses all the 41st.
"Loyal Guardsman of the imperium is with great heaviness in my heart that I must declare retreat. We still have contact with Cadia Primus and today at Five p.m Terra time we received the order of retreat. They are sending rescue ships to our position, is expected that in the next hour we leave the planet. I wish I could bring better news but unfortunately not this time."
He pauses.
"While the Rescue doesn't arrive...every man to their stations! Hold these walls, and fight bravely! Remember the Emperor is watching!"
After the brief speech done by the Major, the commissar of the 41st started to organize his units to hold the perimeter outside the walls in the dug-up trenches outside the citadel. He approached Erick.
"I need your unit in these trenches, do what you do best! Fill that place with booby traps, mines, and whatever your smart-ass head comes with. Hold these lines until the end got it?"
"Got it, commander!"
Gamma Squad left the scout car and the compound behind to join the ranks in the trenches. Outside the gates, there are four trenches spread around the city they are: W1, W2, E1, E2, and S1. The letter being the direction and the number the position on this direction. Erick opted for the S1 where the enemy would probably try to overrun since it was behind the citadel, in a plateau where they would have a slightly tactical disadvantage since they would be at the same level as the approaching enemy.
"Now we hold the line, the enemy will come soon. Sigilus prepare your explosives to arm them around the choke points of the trenches and leave the detonator in the base of the trench! Emeritus repairs and salvage any damaged equipment, we need this up and running to help us stall them. Sarah focus on key targets and cover the frontline. And I will do what I do best...use their own stupidity against them."
Erick proceeded to positioned some mines outside the trenches, around their perimeter, he managed to cover 50% of the line, when they heard the noise of running feet, thousands of them in fact. He rushed inside the trenches and started to improvise traps that he would activate while he retreated further into the trenches. He drew an arrow in the trenches walls marking where each improvised trap is located. Shortly after he heard what appear to be a thousand voices chanting heresies after heresies. He peered through the trenches wall, and in the horizon some miles away there was an entire Chaos legion coming on their positions.
His comms started to get crazy with different reports through all the trenches. They are surrounded by three legions from all sides. The chances weren't good. Erick was certain that if they had two thousand guardsmen present around the walls was already a stretch. The chaos legions have at least six thousand for each legion, so they are probably surrounded by 18 thousand heretics.
He runs his hand over his forehead to wipe the sweat off"We are totally screwed... Emeritus status?"
"We have almost all of our auto-turretsss working, sssix are down, I'm on my way to repair it. I fixed the four remaining mortarsss that were damaged in a raid four daysss ago. We expect to fire a heavy mortar barrage sssoon enough." Emeritus stated while running to the next auto turret.
"That the Emperor embraces us with his holy light" Erick prayed on the radio, while going to the frontline.
Erick knows the drill, wait for the whistle of the commissar and start giving the enemy hell. He has been in this situation too many times before, he knows that the chance of them getting alive out of this situation at best is near zero, but for some reason, he managed to survive the improbable before. The time passes, for Erick is an eternity, but actually, only some seconds passed, everything comes to him when he hears it..."FWEEEEEEEET". The sound of the whistle rings in the entire trenches, all units start to open fire. The sound of lasguns deafens Erick, the display of red colors flying everywhere, is almost beautiful in a kind of a weird way. The deafening roars of mortars firing some meters behind him, further deafen his ears.
In the distance, he sees the mortar shells arriving with a show of explosions and shrapnel, the charred pieces of what was once cultists flies around as the shells fall against the enemies of the Imperium. He fires his weapon against multiple enemies, he shoots one, two, three shots, two of his shots hitting a rabid Flesh hound. He keeps aiming and firing, one shot after the other he shoots. Prioritizing fast enemies over the average cultist, what it makes more difficult of hitting his targets since the fastest of them all is the disgusting flesh hounds. But something cuts him of his reverie as he sees that some cultists have plasma guns.
He could only hear the distinct sound of a plasma charge before some meters to his right a plasma ray hits. He is sent flying at least two meters in the air before falling on his back on a nearby trench wall. Plasma rays keep coming into the frontline breaking the formation, one of them even made it to one of the mortars sending sand and debris in all directions.
The entire trench is in disarray trying to get back to formation but more plasma shots hit their positions further damaging the formation and the structure of the dugout holes. At this very moment, Erick gets a transmission from Emeritus "Yesss! I did it! All weapons are back online they should be firing any moment now..."
He didn't even finish speaking when all the auto-turrets started firing. The only thing he could see was the great quantity of automatic fire in the enemy direction. The ruthless response made a cloud of blood as the turrets kept firing at the heretics, the cloud made out of blood and fluids was so huge that kinda looked like a dust storm.
The battlefield became silent. The silence perdured for some seconds, as the heavy sound of footstep came again this time more rapidly. Through the cloud came anti-tank missiles, hitting their position hard again furthering the casualties of the defenders, not only that most of these missiles hit the auto-turrets position. Before the cloud could settle came a horde of screaming Khornate Berzerkers through the thick of it.
Brandishing Chainaxes the mad Astartes started running at huge speeds in their direction.
"Sigilus focus plasma fire in the rushing berzerkers! Sarah focuses on the enemies closer to the front line! Emeritus how is the situation with the turrets?"
"Unsssalvagable. They obliterated 75% of our auto turretsss! I advissse requesssting a mortar barrage againssst the berzerkersss. I will do what I can, but it won't be much..."
Erick opened his comms with the commissar "Commissar I request mortar strike on the berzerkers asap!"
"Roger that soldier!" Shortly after the familiar sound of mortar fire rang behind him.
The barrage landed on the approaching Astartes. This time a cloud of dust erupted from the ground thanks to the kinetic force of the heavy explosive rounds. But differently than last time, the screaming didn't lower in volume, or the steps didn't stop. Actually, it only got louder as the berzerkers were almost at their position and the barrage didn't manage to do much against the space marines. But before Erick could despair the auto-turrets started to shoot again, this time the barrage manage to thin down their numbers, not by a considerable margin but enough that the next defense could do a difference in this situation.
When they were a few meters from his line the mines were set off. Explosion after explosion, the berzerkers were sent flying or exploded leaving only chunks of metal and meat scattered on the ground. In his position, the berzerkers didn't make it but in other areas, on trenches, they were not so lucky. Erick could hear not so far away, the sound of chain axes and screaming, the distinct sound of meat being dilacerated was present too.
He couldn't think for much longer as he hears even more screams but this time is the entire enemy legion that is encroaching on their position.
"Sigilus keep firing your plasma rifle, try to reduce their numbers as much as you can! Emeritus how long to activate the auto-turrets again?"
The comms dazzled with life as the mechanicus spoke "3 minutesss max! They mussst cooldown before another volley of fire."
Erick was starting to worry, the enemy was getting much closer now and they already had berzerkers on their trenches murdering and maiming everything that moved. His reverie was cut short as the noise of mortars blasted again, the explosions caused another cloud of blood and remains to permeate the plateau. But soon after they appear again as more cultists got out of the cloud rushing on their locations, now he could hear the heresies that they were uttering against his Imperium and his Holy Emperor, this strangely enough only raised his will to fight. He got on the front line again and started to shoot, not missing one shot.
His mind goes on automatic as he reloads his lasgun and keeps firing shot after shot. Did he kill how many of them until now? He lost count actually, now his only objective is to kill the maximum of heretics that he can before he accomplishes his duty that is dying for the Emperor. Unfortunately, his killing routine is cut short as he hears the revving of a chainaxe on his left. Erick turns his head to the source of the aforementioned sound, to his utter horror and shock is a Khorne berzerker a few meters from him looking directly at him coming slowly in his direction. He can feel the stare of the huge menace coming his way, his stare is taunting him, daring him to run or worse yet...to fight it. He manages to send a hurried transmission to Sigilus.
"In my position right now, backup." He almost couldn't finish the transmission as the heretic comes rushing like a madman.
The guardsman dashes for one of the corridors behind him, he manages to run uphill on the corridor, but with the Astartes on his tow, the sheer size of the marine made the man bounce in the walls while chasing him. Erick sees a few meters from him a wall with the arrow symbol he used to mark one of the traps. He jumps it and keeps on running, he waits for the sound. He hears it but has a terrible surprise as he looks behind him to confirm it. The trap activated, but the wire contraption he made so it could cut the legs of the victim only scratched the marine armor, worse yet he cut the wire with only the strength of his legs as he kept running after him.
Erick is getting out of options so he does the next thing he could think of, which is to go to one of the corridors where he had put a mine, the marine almost caught the collar of his uniform as he made it into another tight corridor, seeing the arrow marking the place he jumps it and turns around firing lasgun in the hulking heretic, in hopes of distracting the opponent from his rouse. It works like a charm he steps on it and instantaneously the device explodes sending Erick on his butt, and a cloud of dirt rises from the ground from where the Berzerker where.
He cant believe that he managed to kill such a menacing enemy, from all the chaos forces on the battlefields of Cadia certainly the former Astartes are the worst of them all. But his happiness is short-lived as a hulking figure steps out of the cloud of dirt.
"You should fight like a warrior loyalist scum. You fight like one of those conniving cowards of Tzeentch! Now...die like a warrior!"
The figure raised his weapon well above the head ready to strike, only to be cut short by the sound of a plasma shot being fired, and in a blink of an eye half of the marine body was no more. Erick could see Sigilus behind what was once a huge heretic, branding in one hand a chainsword and in the other a Plasma pistol.
"What would be of you without me, hm, chief?" He got up from the ground while brushing his uniform off some traces of blood and dirt.
"Well Sigilus you could certainly come sooner... I wouldn't complain if you did. At least I would not be covered in heretic guts." Erick teased.
Their moment is cut short as more of the revving sound could be heard but this time coming from all the directions around them. Back to back Erick and Sigilus stay in the middle of the corridor. They wait as two berzerkers appeared on each side. This segment of the trench is a U so they don't have anywhere else to go.
"Well, Sigilus ill admit you look like an Astartes, but you still stink like an Ogryn!"
"Well, I love you too chief!"
One second passed as the hulking heretics come rushing to them screaming at the top of their lungs, Erick and Sigilus wait in silence waiting for an opening, or for their deaths. Their moment was cut short as the sound of a Thunderhawk calls their attention, the craft comes close to the ground raining bolter fire, as well as lasgun fire, it flys on their position raining bolter fire on the two heretics, clearing the way for both.
Erick didn't had a good look at the craft when it came to do a flyby. But now that the airship is lowering to the ground to drop troops he can clearly discern to whom this vehicle belongs. The Thunderhawk is black, having a big red strip on his two wings along with a Fleur de Lis on its sides and doors. Erick shocked could only utter "Why there are Sororitas here?"