Where the Young Sleep

Chapter V

Armin looked at him after he put his hand down quizzically. Although the young PDF member couldn't' see his face, he did recognize the tilt of the head as a question. "You're here because of the enemy probing attacks right?" Armin sighed to himself before speaking over his squad vox. "Bring everyone in."

"I'm Sergeant Marx, PDF 10th Company." He looked around and made a slight face. "Well we are what's left of 10th Company." He would start leading Armin inside the perimeter of the place. Behind them, Rinder had marshalled the other members of 1st Squad in to follow. The Taurox crawled slowly behind them as the newcomers moved in through the front gate, the olive drabbed PDF guardsmen moving in to re-secure the gate. "Where are the rest of the reinforcements?" Marx asked. Armin looked at him and shook his head. "Command didn't expect any enemy forces this far south, it's only a single squad sent to secure the space port."

The PDF Sergeant rubbed his hand over his face and sighed. "I think it's best if we go see the Lt." He led Armin in towards the center of the spaceport, near where the administration offices were set up. Armin couldn't see enough of the PDF to add up to company strength. The PDF soldiers were dressed in olive drab and armed with the older las rifles that were capable only of single fire. They were long awkward lasguns that stood out as archaic in comparison to the Konig pattern hellguns that the pseudo-Grenadiers carried. Once in a while, he would spot one of them carrying a heavy stubber around. Inside the administrative offices, there was a young officer who carried a short barreled las carbine that looked just like stamped metal put together. Armin had noticed that the PDF Sergeant carried something similar.

"Sergeant, good, you're here. I've been going over the rosters and it looks like we have 5 squads remaining. One and a half platoons." Lieutenant Yves Becker looked up to see Marx enter. When Armin walked in after him, the Lieutenant noticeably brightened up. "Oh we got reinforcements? I'm Lieutenant Becker of the PDF 10th Compa-" Armin put a hand and cut him off. "Sorry Sir, but my unit is only a single squad. Sergeant Marx told me of enemy attacks, but command never expected them this far south. We were at most expecting to secure the space port against looters and the like." Becker frowned and sat back down, sighing to himself. "I'm Sergeant Steiner of the Konig 5th." Armin introduced himself and offered his hand. Lt. Becker shook his hand and nodded. "Sorry Sergeant Steiner, but it would have been much better news if you were a whole regiment." Armin grinned slightly and nodded. "It would've been good news for me as well if the enemy had not been making attacks here already."

On a map on a wall, there were a series of red "X" marked along where Armin recognized as their position. "Places where enemy attacks took place. We started off as 15 squads in a rifle company and now we're down to 5 squads and a company HQ." Armin looked at the map and followed the various trails along, seeing that the enemy had attempted to storm the spaceport from the plains north of the spaceport. He already saw one of the major differences between a Guard HQ and the PDF HQ. He was wondering why everyone still wore their winter jackets on inside when he realised the heating wasn't working. "Well, we got more than enough room for billets so pick a spot that isn't occupied and it's yours. The canteen is next door to here, although most of the time we're really only cooking rations. We get resupplied maybe once every few days, and they bring us ammunition and food, and some fuel. There's a petro station in the town you can probably get gas from. We go to the same one for our trucks." The PDF had maybe a few trucks that were used to transfer supplies and what not around.

Armin nodded and made a few mental notes. "Do the enemy bring in heavy artillery when they attack?" Marx shook his head. "The heaviest thing they bring might be a rocket tube but nothing heavy. If they brought anything heavier we wouldn't be able to survive that." Armin nodded. "So the shell craters in the town?" Becker answered that question. "From previously, when the enemy still held this town, in the battle to push it back the PDF attacked with Guard artillery to support us." That suddenly began to make more sense. Armin suddenly stopped and radioed the squad. "There's incoming." Becker and Marx both looked at him as if doubting him before one of the heavy stubbers on the perimeter opened fire.

Along the snow covered plain east of the starport, the enemy had snuck in close enough with their infantry that they were able to open fire directly at the starport itself. "1st Squad, follow me." Armin called out as he jogged out of the PDF HQ. For most of the 1st squad, this was not their first battle. The squad quickly followed Armin as he jogged towards where the stubber had opened up. It seemed to be a single squad inside a single story building that opened fire to meet the enemy attack. Armin pulled his squad in from behind them, dropping behind a few of the window openings and looked out. In the field, there were a few dozen Dants rebels in their brown fatigues firing stubbers and the like towards them. High velocity rounds zipped through the windows, although not powerful enough to make it through the walls they were still able to fire through the windows for suppression. With experienced eyes, Armin made out the pattern of the enemy attack. There were a few squads pushing forward while it seemed that the stubber fire from the enemy side was a heavy weapons squad.

"See if you can pop the gunner and the loader from here." Armin said as he waved Kapp over. Kapp peeked out from behind a window and nodded before leaning the long las on the window sill to steady the weapon. He stared through the scope for a few moments before acquiring his target and fired. At the same time, Armin who had his omnishield mask off for the moment, picked up his binos and looked through at the stubber crew. A few seconds later, the gunner dropped to the ground as half of his head was taken off. The loader looked up in surprise as the fire stopped before he fell clutching his throat, a las bolt blowing apart his neck. "Weapons crew eliminated. Kapp, take down whatever weapons crew you see. I want to see if we can capture some of those weapons."

Rinder was learning fast, he had been in the Guard for enough years to know what needed to be done. "Gunners, hold fire until they get closer." He would order to his two gunners, while he looked around at the building they were in. "Sergeant I think we should move." Armin leaned back out of the window and looked at him questioningly. "We're too close to the front lines, if they have artillery of any kind this will be the first place hit." The PDF soldiers looked over at them and suddenly weren't so sure of their position. Previously they had felt that they had picked out the best position. "Ok let's move out then. You all might want to come with us." The PDF soldiers all nodded as Armin led them to move out towards a series of sand bagged positions facing that field. "Set up the stubber there, rest of you watch the flanks. Kapp, what do you see?" Once the small group had settled in behind the sandbags, Kapp kept himself low and looked down the optic of his long las. "There seems to be more of them approaching. I think the rest of the heavy weapons are here." Armin looked through his binos and peered towards the direction that Kapp was pointing at. Sure enough, there were more of them coming along and bringing in the wheeled stubbers that they seemed to like.

"Ok. Keep the gunners dead Kapp." So far, there wasn't any real organized resistance from the PDF HQ. It seemed to just be a case of hold your position. "Kapp, stay here. Rest of us, we have to attack." The PDF soldiers looked at him as if he was crazy but the Konig guardsmen just nodded. It was taught that the best way to hold a position was to attack anyone that came close to it. Armin gestured for the squad to follow him and they moved to form a line facing the enemy. "We fire by movement until we can get close enough to some real cover." He said over the squad vox as he broke into a jog. This was the trademark tactic of the Konig Grenadiers. Advance until you come under direct attack, then return fire. He led them in the line formation, stray shots wizzing by but nothing that was directly towards them directly until they got closer. Once they got closer, they seemed to have attracted the attention of the stubber but no stubber ever fired for long. Once the gunners took aim, Kapp would simply shoot him.

"Ok now, return fire." Armin would shoulder his hellgun and looked through the sight before firing in single shots. He didn't necessarily care if he hit each individual target but he kept his eye on the enemy stubbers. His plan was simple, take the enemy stubbers and then flank them with their own weapons. "Gunners, suppress them." Rinder called out. His two volleygunners quickly opened up, the bright bolts of hotshot las ripping through the air at a rapid firing rate, dancing over the enemy positions and wrecking havoc. "Ok now we push" Armin called out as he led his section up, the squad members firing in short bursts as they advanced. Once they got closer, Armin began to pick his shots. None of the enemy truly wanted to look up as it seemed to them that a sniper had picked on their position. The fast firing rate of the support weapons firing at them didn't help either. "Carsten, when we get closer, sweep them." He ordered his own gunner. Carsten, a rather large man nodded. Armin was now lying prone in the snow, the enemy fire increased as they had gotten closer. The rest of his section all lay around him in the prone position. He reached down into his webbing and pulled out a frag grenade and loaded it into his underbarrel launcher before moving up a bit and adjusting his position. Taking careful aim, he fired the underbarrel launcher and the grenade went flying into the position where the Dants weapons team was. The loud thump stopped anymore fire coming from that position, Armin leading his section towards the firing position as Carsten fired a long burst from the hip that would sweep through the position. "Make sure there are no survivors." Armin ordered as the section jumped into the firing position.

Around him, the members of his section dutifully put a bolt through the head of every brown uniformed body there. "Rinder, bring the gunners in." Rinder had ordered the cease fire once he saw that Armin had charge. Now, he swiftly ordered everyone up and jogged in. "We've attacked past them now. There are 4 stubbers here, let's re-direct them." The stubbers were a pattern that Armin had seen before, they were made with very heavy barrels and meant as company level stubbers. Members of the squad took over the stubbers and Armin directed their fire. "See where the main attack is coming from? There are multiple platoons attacking, so this is a company level attack. Stubbers, direct the fire towards their rear." He pointed out the various positions to each Grenadier that now manned a stubber before giving the order to fire. The devastation of a heavy weapons team were multiple heavy weapons firing at a single point. For the furthest back enemy platoon, their troops got out of cover to advance only to be cut down by a blistering burst of stubber fire. Of course with the entire platoon having moved out of their cover, they were cut down within seconds.

"Ok, now we move. Bring the stubbers with us." The gunners nodded and grabbed the stubbers, pushing them in the snow as they followed Armin towards a new position. There was a slight hill on the flank of the attack. A more experienced commander would've ordered his own people there but the Dants rebels had often relied on numerical superiority rather than true tactics. As Armin dove down into the snow on top, this shift of fire hadn't truly been noticed yet by the enemy. He took the opportunity to vox Kapp to join them. A few minutes later, the marksman dove into the snow beside them. "Kapp, see any officers?" The marksman peered through the scope and looked over the other platoons attacking. "Ja Sergeant. Want me to shut them up?" Armin looked through his binos at the enemy platoons attacking the PDF positions. "Start shooting when the stubbers open up." He quickly gave firing points to the Grenadiers that manned the stubbers and gave them the order to fire.

In the middle of the assault, one of the flanking platoons suddenly found itself being cut apart. The platoon commander turned to look to see what direction this new threat came from but received a las bolt in his chest for his troubles. In truth, this attack wasn't quite that powerful. The Dants rebels were at heart, equipped and organized poorly. It was only their manufacturing capabilities for heavy weapons that forced a retreat of the Guard at the front lines. That, and the fact that they had outnumbered the Guardsmen more than 10 to 1 when they launched their attack. This attack was no different, the Dants rebels had aimed to overrun the position through sheer numbers. However, Grenadiers did not fight by sheer numbers.

As the Grenadiers fired into the rear of the enemy position, Kapp picked off any officer he saw. He didn't really understand the insignia differences so he shot anyone who looked like they were giving out any directions at all. After close to ten minutes of this blithering fire, Armin saw that the attack had lost their momentum. At the same time, the PDF soldiers were still returning fire, and their stubbers had been rather effective at stopping any attacks. "Now we assault them from their flanks." Armin ordered. Rinder grinned. "Is it time to do Grenadier things Sergeant?" Armin nodded as everyone put in fresh power cells before he gave the order to attack.

Rinder brought up the rear with his volleygunners, as Armin led the free squad members in an attack. At close range, the hellguns the Grenadiers carried outgunned even the stubbers that the Dants weapon teams carried. Armin kicked a rebel who had tried to get up and put three bolts into his chest at close range, blowing his rib cage open. Beside him, Koler fired a long burst that cut down two rebels manning another stubber. Armin moved through quickly. He knew that surprise and speed were the Grenadiers greatest weapons so he spared no time in checking the bodies. There would be time for that later. "Now, frag grenades, load!" He ordered. The other Grenadiers with him quickly loaded their under barrel launchers and Armin gave the order to fire. The four frag grenades flew through the air and detonated on impact. The sharp pieces of shrapnel flew through the air cutting through clothing and flesh, multiple Dants rebels dropping to the ground screaming. "Grenadiers, assault!" Armin ordered as he charged in, jumping over a dropped stubber as he fired his hellgun on full auto, spraying through enemy soldiers. Beside him were the other Grenadiers, Carsten's volleygun adding a long burst that melted snow anywhere the bolts hit.

"Consolidate" He called out over the vox. The Grenadiers manning the stubbers packed up their newly found heavy stubbers and wheeled them over while Rinder went to each man and checked their ammunition load. "Seems like we've used at least one power cell each." Armin nodded and looked around them. Their flanking attack to first take on the enemy weapons platoon and then to assault the flanks of the enemy infantry company pushing to attack the PDF positions had effectively crushed the enemy assault against the guns of the defenders. "Sergeant, we are all empty." One of the Grenadiers said to him, gesturing to the stubbers they had set up. "Leave them for now, I think they will be quite useful to us. The PDF should have the ammunition for them, it's the same ones they have set up." The Grenadier nodded. Armin looked at the enemy attack now; there was still a platoon holding position, but they were intent on retreating. Another platoon simply broke and had started running off without any covering fire which simply resulted in most of them gunned down by the PDF defenders.

"Rinder, casualties?" He turned and asked. Rinder had opened the medical pouch of one of the Grenadiers and began applying bandages to the injuries. "Nothing serious, shrapnel wounds and a few las burns." Armin nodded and looked over at the aftermath of the battle. "Ok, bring the stubbers. Let's pull back to the starport." The heavy stubbers came with wheels mounted on them so they were simply pushed back by some of the Grenadiers as they moved back behind the main defensive line. Around them, the PDF soldiers were quite jubilant; most of them had imagined that they would've been overrun. Of course, the Grenadiers attack was unexpected by the enemy. If the enemy had been a better organized and better led unit, they would have been able to easily turn around and repel the counter-attack.

"Thank the Emperor you were here." Sergeant Marx said, offering his hand to Armin who took it and shook it firmly. "When they had attacked before, they had always come in company strength and we always took hard losses. What are these stubbers you captured?" Armin grinned at him. "Four stubbers would form a weapons detachment would it not? Take them, bring in your best gunners, give them each a loader and add a detachment commander and a spotter. Then you have yourself a dedicated heavy weapons detachment. You have anything else heavy around?" Marx thought about it before gesturing towards a vehicle warehouse. "We have an armoury there and can take a look. But I don't know if we can spare anyone to form a weapons detachment." Armin thought about it for a moment before looking at the town itself. "What do you mean? You must be able to find at least 200 fighting aged men in the town." Marx looked at the town and sighed slightly. "How come we never thought of that? Let me talk to the Lieutenant." Armin nodded before gesturing for his squad to follow him. "We're going to take a look in the armoury."

The converted garage to armoury was manned by a single Corporal who wore thick glasses but was a very fast typist on the computer he was using. When he saw Armin walk in, he stood up to attention. "Corporal Antal reporting, Sergeant." Armin waved his hand casually for the PDF soldier to sit. "Relax Corporal, I was speaking to Sergeant Marx earlier. He said there might be more heavy weapons in here, and said you were the one to speak to." Marx hadn't said those exact words but Antal puffed up with a bit of pride at the Grenadier Sergeant's words. "We do have some weapons but I don't know if they should be classified as heavy or not." He would shuffle around some of the papers on his desk before pulling out what looked like a spread sheet. "Ah yes, we have one heavy bolter but.. well.. we don't have anyone trained on how to use it. So it sits there with ammunition collecting dust. Ah, we also have an old field gun. It looks like, yes. It's an older 75mm infantry field gun, capable of firing frag and krak shells. We also don't have any artillery troops here so it sits here and collects dust." Rinder and the other replacements all looked a bit excited at the mention of the field gun. "Rinder?" Armin turned around to look at his second in command. "I have to see it Sergeant but most field guns operate on a similar manner." Armin nodded.

"Anything else Corporal?" He asked. Antal shook his head as he flipped through the paperwork. "The rest are piles of rifles and carbines, nothing that is crew served." Armin nodded. "I think we may have a use for them, Corporal."