A New, Frozen Terra Chapter 8, a Warhammer + Frostpunk Crossover fanfic

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"Colonel Pavlov sir," The Lieutenant saluted, "The second flare has just been sent up as per your orders yesterday."

"Thank you Lieutenant, Now," Pavlov looks at his assembled staff, 2 Lieutenants, recently commissioned from his Veterans, A Captain, veteran of multiple engagements, and, of course, Gorska, his RSM. Pavlov Cleared his throat.

"Make a note of this, Day four post crash we where engaged by a moderate sized force of hostile locals on all fronts." Pavlov trailed off at this, appearing deep in thought with his hand grasping his chin loosly.

"Knowledge of the terrain around us perhaps?" The Captain suggested

"Or skills in moving silently in this frozen hellscape," One of the Lieutenants countered.

"Both of which are equally concerning, any casualties?" Gorska asked.

The Lieutenant with the flare gun speaks up "I made a round of the perimiter when i shot the flare up, no foxhole is reporting any injuries or deaths, just shaken up a bit but their holding."

"We only have the one squad asides from ourselves, we may want to narrow our perimiter and concentrate more." The Captain stated.

Gorska snorted in amusement, "Me and Varance beat off like 10 of them by ourselves, these primitives have nothing but slug throwers, basic heavy stubbers and a crude understanding of tactics. We have nothing to fear from them."

Pavlov nods his head, "Agreed Gorska, I want our current perimiter maintained but put the men on high alert, ready for combat with a moments notice."

"Sir!" The Lieutenants stood to attention, before hurrying off.

"Colonel Ivanek sir, I don't doubt the capability of our Men, they are veterans after all, however I don't believe that we can seriously defend ourselves with our current deployment, If they come back with more people, the locals I mean, I don't think we'll have the ammunition."

"Then we fix bayonets and die like true guardsmen Captain, we're stranded here anyway there isn't much we can do." Pavlov sighs, and rubs his eyes. "Doubtless, you and the rest of the men already understand this, we're all veterans here, new and old, we survived those 15 hours, everything after that has been a god-emperor given gift." Pavlov looks up, through a hole in the "roof", and into the stars.

"I'll check on the mens supplies anyway sir, still a good idea to figure out how much ammo we still have, just incase." The captain said, leaving Pavlov to have his moment. Everyone else took this as a queue and beat a hasty retreat, except Gorska.

"So you've finally given in?" Was all Gorska said after a moment of Silence. Pavlov looked at him, and smiled.

Suddenly, the entire camp was engulfed in a blinding red light.

Ray lowered his flare gun and popped out the empty shell, being careful to catch it and store it in his backpack, God-Emperor knows when these casings could come in handy.

"We're almost at the location of that last flare, I think, no point barging in without giving atleast some warning." Ray stated, before continuing, "As of right now, ROE is to be severly tightened, authorisation must be given by section leads before any one of our men are allowed to open, or return, fire. Even then warning shots only until one of the men is injured in any form by hostile fire, then the ROE open up. Aim to maim, not kill, Understood?" The men around him all nod in the affirmative.

"Get to your men and brief them on the current plan, 1st Section, you take the lead and act as a skirmishing force, the rest will march in close order and formation a reasonable distance behind. Aim to volley fire but only IF possible and reasonable, conserving ammo is number 1 priority."

Rey looked around his impromptu command staff, seeing the few surviving corporals and sergeants, alongside hastily field promoted privates, nod in affirmation. He glanced towards his Heavy Weapons Squad lead and his 2 Special Weapons squad leads. Seemes like a bit overkill to send a full platoon out on a mission like this, heavy weaponry and all, but i can't begrudge their presence. "You 3, your ammunition is more valuable than a simple lasgun shot, especially against the locals, You are not to fire under any circumstances for any reason UNLESS i give my Direct say so, conserve your 3 heavy bolters for as long as possible, and our Meltas, plasmas and flame throwers are also too vital to be wasted here. Understood?" Rey smiled as his squad leads gave him a thumbs up

"Alright, everyone, get the Men assembled, Sections 2 through 5, Form 2 collums, 3 men wide with Section leads taking the head. 2 and 4 on the left, 3 and 5 on the right. Move!" The NCO's quickly scattered amongst the throng of men that littered the small crater they where in, barking orders and assembling their men into proper formations. Barks of discipline and angered shouts engulfed the atmosphere until the ordered formation had been formed, and was ready to move. Moving to the Head of the 2 collums, Sergeant Rey cried out loudly, and clearly:

"PLATOON! TO MY ORDERS! THE PLATOON SHALL ADVANCE AT THE QUICK TIME!" Pausing for a moment so the NCO's could relay his orders, "FORWARD...MARCH!"

At the order, the 1st Section took off in a light jog, fanned out infront of the rest of the throng of humans to act as scouts as they moved forwards. Meanwhile, the rest of the unit marched slowly and methodically, trudging through the snow and grumbling in the ranks, but mostly maintaining good order.

Once the blinding light of the flare died down, and Pavlov and Gorska could lower their hands that shielded their eyes, they stood in stunned silence. After what felt like hours, Gorska finally shattered the quiet.

"Guess we're not going to need that ammo count after all, heh."

What followed was a frantic scramble to recall all of the men back from the foxholes and back into the main crater they had called home for, some length of time.

"Gorska how long have we actually spent on this ice sheet?" Pavlov asked, his mind wizzing by trying to sort out everything.

"If I had to guess, id estimate we are on day 5 after that crash landing, you where out for quite a while".

They fell back into silence as the Veterans gathered up behind them in parade formation. For the first time in days, Varence finally felt at ease, despite, ironically, having to stand to attention. The burn of his muscles as he stood as still as a statue, it hurt, but it was a familiar pain, and one connoted with pride, he was a Guardsman, he now fought on the frontlines of humanity, he was part of the anvil the hammer of the imperium fell upon to strike down the foul xenos, the filthy heretic, the foul muta-

"If you stand up any straighter your going to collapse from muscle fatigue, relax yourself rookie, nobody in the gaffa's personal retinue is expected to stand up like that." One of the veterans playfully knocked Varence in the shoulder in an attempt to get him to ease up. Varence hastily scanned the group of veterans to find them all at ease and looking, relaxed? Then he thought some more about what he was told, and his head snapped back to the veteran beside him.

"Wait what do you mean 'personal retinue'?"

Rey and his Impromptu command staff carefully made their way down, over the lip of the crater and lowering themselves down the steep incline towards where Pavlov and his retinue where standing in wait. Pavlov watched with an analysts eye as he observed the Guardsmen approaching them, namely, how only one of them held the 3 chevrons of a Sergeant, and non where comissioned officers. As they approached, Pavlov crossed his arms infront of him and stared down at his subordinate, observing how he carried himself, and how the Sergent approached him.

Rey, approached the Colonel with all due respect and dignity, Standing to attention and giving the traditional Valhallan Salute, which Pavlov returned. Pavlov broke the salute first, signalling Rey and his team to stand at ease.

"Name, Rank and Unit." Pavlov announciated loudly and clearly.

"Sergent Rey, 3rd Platoon, Second Company, 897th Valhallan Ice Warriors Sir!" Vensk shouted back as the wind began to pick up.

"Where is your commanding officer?" Pavlov asked, more inquisitivly rather than accusingly or threataningly.

"Dead Sir, I was reporting to Lieutenant Olof of the 4th Platoon, 3rd Company before regrouping with you sir, I have taken acting command of my Platoon Sir!" Lieutenant Olof? he was the only officer to survive that crash outside of my immediate circle? Pavlovs eyebrows furrowed at the revelation, Gorska immediately recognising it as his look when he is deeply concerned with something.

"I Assume, Sergent, that you came out here to do more than just say hi to us?"

"Yes sir, My platoon and I where sent by Lieutenant Olof and Sergeant Vensk to investigate Red signal flares sent up a few days ago, we where sent to search for survivors and bring them back to where the majority of the regiment managed to make planetfall."

Majority of the Regiment sounds promising. Pavlov thought, before returning his Attention to Rey, "Have you found anything or anyone else other than us?"

"We engaged a force of what appeared to be locals on the way here, we believe they had been part of an engagement that had included Imperial forces, based on sustained injuries." Rey reported

"Hmm, that'll probably be the group that attacked us a couple nights ago, good work Sergeant, any casualties?"

"No sir, Zero Casualties."

"Good, now, I believe I have a regiment to get back to Sergeant?" Pavlov asked in a teasing tone, Rey smirked at this, and Gestured to Pavlov to take the lead.

"So, Varence, how was your first taste of combat?" The Guardsman who Varence knew as Volko asked. Varence felt extremely out of place in the small fireteam he was grouped into by Gorska, He looked at Volko, and saw the gash running down the side of his face. Looking to his left, he saw Kleiss, flexing his bionic arm and inspecting his precious Powersword. He cringed back as Kleiss made a test swing of his Sword that came too close to him for comfort.

"I, uh, it was ok, Gorska was there to keep my head on straight and, well, we didnt get hit. It was only slugthrowers it wasnt a real threat." Varence stuttered out, his mind still wandering as he struggled to figure out how he got into the most elite squad in the entire regiment as a completely green guardsman?

Kleiss looked over at him and gave a toothy grin, "Kid, I know that look, Gorska obviously was impressed by something if he decided to press you into our squad, and our fireteam. Admittedly we are a few men short as some died in the crash but still, he'd rather we be undermanned rather than full of idiots, so calm yourself and keep an eye out." Varence nodded vigerously as if trying to force himself to accept those words, but the self doubt had already crept in.

...

Pavlov wasn't feeling too bad, after recieving the Sitrep from Rey about the state of the 897th, it could have been far worse, infact he was expecting almost complete destruction of the regiment, but finding out it was at around two thirds its strength before the crash, each company loosing the equivelent of a platoon and a half of the 5 platoons per company, this meant he still had the majority of his regiment to work with. But he was concerned about Lieutenant Olof, and about any organisational blunders he may have made.

"Rey, how long have you spent out here searching for us?"

"About two to three days sir." Rey Replied

"And I assume Lieutenant Olof has been in command for all that time?"

Rey shuffles nervously "Permission to speak freely sir?", Pavlov nods in the affirmative, "Lieutenant Olof is a fool, he isnt suited for the role he's just been thrust into and his Sergeant, Vensk, has been forced to essencially take over for Olof, and im concerned that Vensk may just drop the pretence that he is acting under Olofs orders and sieze command of the Regiment directly. While yes Vensk is more experienced than Olof, a power grab like that may spell trouble for your return, especially if Vensk is reluctant to hand over power."

Pavlov's expression remains neutral throughout Reys explenation, then he smirks, "Well, we'll just have to cross that bridge Upon our return, won't we?"

And thats a wrap for the Guardsmen story for a while. Apologies for any inconsistencies for the 897th in terms of organisation, ive noticed a couple contradictions in the 8th Edition Astra Militarum Codex that im gonna have to plan around. Apologies for the gap between this chapter and the last, but severe writers block is an ass. No promises on the Next chapter, which will be focused on New London and its territories for a while.