Where the Young Sleep
Chapter VI
An hour or so later, the PDF soldiers who weren't on guard duty were gathered around behind the warehouse armoury with Armin and the Grenadiers standing with them in a semi-circle. In front of them was the heavy bolter, an older pattern and the field gun. "Those of you who know how to use a stubber, this heavy bolter works the same way. This is the feed tray. This is the belt. This is the action." Armin instructed as he demonstrated each aspect of the gun. "Just like a stubber, to clear a malfunction you open the tray and unload, then you pull the charging handle until obstruction is clear. Then you reload the belt and continue firing. The safety is the button here. Sights are on top." He demonstrated again for the benefit of those who stood around, looking around at each of them to make sure they understood. "The rate of fire on these are pretty fast. Half a second on the trigger is enough to fire off around 5 bolts. Don't waste the ammunition on them."
When he saw a series of affirmative nods around him, he gestured towards the field gun. At the field gun stood Rinder and three other Panzerjager turned Grenadiers. "This is a very simple design that works very well. When it comes to field guns, the simpler the better. This is the breach. You lock it in place by pulling this handle all the way to the other side. To open it, you pull the handle back to the left. When you pull the handle back to the left, the breach automatically opens like so." Rinder was an expert at operating light artillery. "To load, you load a shell in. Punch it straight in and then turn the handle. To fire, the firing cord is right here. Once you have fired, you turn the handle again to open, but be careful. When the breach opens, it will eject the fired casing right now. To unload, same thing. You open the breach with a shell loaded, and the shell will automatically be pushed out. Simple Ja? Black line means Krak, Green Line is Frag. Red line means melta. Black is for armour, Green is for people. Red is for bunkers. You can use melta shells for armour but it's a waste. The crew jobs are simple. There are two loaders, an observer, and the crew commander. One loader on each side, the reason is the loader on the right side is also responsible for firing. The loader on the left side also prepares the ammunition. If the gun commander orders frag to be made ready, the left loader will prep one shell at a time, and then both loaders will load the shell into the breach. The right loader is also responsible for opening the breach. Once the shell is loaded, the observer looks down the sight to ensure they are on target. The observer will also make adjustments to the gun barrel through the handle here. He will adjust the height as needed. He will call out left or right for each of the two loaders to move the gun around to aim more precisely. When he has target, the gun commander will give the order to fire. When he gives the order to fire, the right loader takes this lever here, and checks to make sure no one stands behind the gun before pulling the lever down like so." Each step that Rinder went over, the assisting Grenadiers would demonstrate on the gun itself. "The gun range is around 1 kilometer or so, those are the range marks on the sights. Once the gun fires, the observer and the gun commander will observe the shot and give corrections as needed. Initial target range and distance will be provided by the observer."
The PDF soldiers picked it up quickly and soon, the Grenadiers had them take turns practicing each role. At this point, Lieutenant Becker had come out to participate in the lesson as well. "Sir, there is one heavy bolter, and one field gun. We captured four stubbers. With a crew of two for the bolter, four for the field gun and 2 each for the stubber, that is 14 people. Then there needs to be a detachment commander and assistant, as well as vox operator. That is another 17. Plus, of course, with these weapons and their weight, you're looking at two trucks as well." Armin would break down the numbers needed. Konig weapon detachments usually had more people due to the infantry mortars that were also used as well as specialised weapon crew as well. Becker nodded and chewed on his lip. "We use squads of 12, so that would be two squads almost. We only have 5 squads left at this point. 6 including yourselves."
Armin nodded and looked at Becker before gesturing towards the town. "Did Marx speak to you about the citizens there, Sir?" Becker nodded. "I was doing calculations. I believe that we might have to do a draft. I have sent requisition to the PDF HQ but, who knows when we will get proper uniforms and if PDF command approves it. We do have a law that says in the state of emergency the PDF or competent authority may conscript." Armin knew that this was something that was better done by the Jager company, they had specialties that involved working with local forces and the like behind enemy lines. Of course at this point, they didn't really have any choices.
"Understood Sir. The sooner we can get more troops here, the better it is. Next time, we might get overrun." He commented. Becker sighed and nodded. Armin walked off to the side. "Gerson!" he called out. A few seconds later, the Vox operator sprinted to a stop in front of him, his face ruddy despite the cold winter weather. "Get me Company command." Gerson was the Vox operator from when he was in the Panzerjager company, and was an able radio operator. He looked over the dials and punched in the necessary adjustments before handing over the earphone to Armin. "Metzeger this is Bayonet 1-3" Metzeger was the name for a kind of bayonet that was used by most Konig rifle regiments. "Go ahead 1-3" The voice that chattered back was that of Captain Ostler. "Herr Captain, the situation here has gotten complicated." Armin explained about the enemy probing attacks, and that at this point they were going to try conscripting locals. A single reinforced PDF platoon and a single squad of Grenadiers wasn't going to last much longer. "Understand Armin. Let me speak to the old man and see what we can do." "Thank you sir, 1-3 out."
Armin desperately hoped that the rest of the Grenadier company would come riding in on Taurox's accompanied by the elite Panzer company. Of course, he had been not just a Grenadier but in the Guard for long enough to know that at this point, he might as well wish for a steak dinner with potatoes and all the trimmings. He looked over at his Grenadiers that were going over the various weapon systems with the PDF soldiers. He was sure that normally, the PDF soldiers would be laughing. Normally. However, seeing as how this was to either survive and live or die, he knew that they would take this perhaps a bit more seriously. The heavy weapons there offered perhaps the last ability to resist. The previous attacks had reduced an entire PDF company to just over one platoon. What Armin wouldn't have given at that moment for even the entire Novgorod regiment there, even if just as a human sandbag nest.
Of course, things have a way of biting Guardsmen in the ass. That night, as Armin filed in after the rest of his squad to the PDF canteen, he was surprised by a massive grox roast with potatoes and greens being doled onto his platter. "Sergeant, don't tell me that you were lying to me, that the Guard just gets ration packs and the PDF gets this?" Rinder called out from the front. The PDF cook looked quite pleased with himself. "Before I was drafted into the Defence Force, I worked as a cook at a rotisserie restaurant in the capital." The cook, a Corporal Gyula said with a bright smile. Armin looked up towards where he imagined Terra would be and sighed to himself. The God Emperor had a way to humble his subjects no matter the time and place. Of course, he accepted the platter eagerly, Rinder calling out to the PDF officer he saw as he walked by. "Sir, how do I put in a requisition for this guy?" Growling out a "Shut your mouth Corporal" to Rinder, Armin sat down beside the members of his squad who all dug into the steak eagerly. He has to say, he was rather impressed. The meat was a very good cut, and the potatoes were plentiful.
The Grenadiers only took a few minutes to stuff their faces with it, all of them now sitting back quite relaxed by the good meal. The PDF Lieutenant sitting with Sergeant Marx chuckled at the behaviour. For them, this was a relatively normal meal. The PDF command sector would purchase supplies from the local market as it was the cheapest way to do it, and then have it delivered. Becker walked up to beside Armin. "If you got a few minutes Sergeant, there's something I'd like to discuss with you." Rinder reacted before Armin could. "Sir I apologize for the comment earlier, I'm too young to be shot by court martial." Armin gave him a look that screamed to "Shut the fuck up" while Becker just blinked at him slightly. "Uh, Corporal, I'm sure it was a harmless jest, I definitely won't order a court martial." Armin looked over at Rinder and raised an eyebrow. "Corporal, take the squad around the base, the meal was too good so make sure it's a complete 10 laps around with gear and weapons." The other Grenadiers stared at Rinder with a murderous look before they got up. "By your lead Sir." Armin said as he stood up. Technically the Guard was outside of the PDF chain of command but Armin also knew how important it was to at least support the PDF officer, especially considering the circumstances. If he was to rub the fact that he didn't have to listen to the Lt at all, then the next Dants attack that came, the PDF platoon might just fall apart.
Becker led him to the table where Marx was already sitting, and he was surprised pleasantly to see that Antal was there was well. "Corporal Antal is here to let us know what is doable equipment wise and what isn't." Becker started off before showing Armin the slips of paper they had been drawing on. "Command has authorized us to conscript as many as possible. Hopefully we get a lot of volunteers. So far, we have enough rifles and equipment to supply an entire company. Of course, if we look at just weapons and some basic uniform items, we can supply almost two companies." Armin looked at the paper, and Antal had his list of weapons. "We would need to supply everyone with at least a jacket. After that, a las rifle. We have plenty of these we can hand out. As for flakvests, we barely have any as it is." Marx added.
Armin looked down the list with the eye of a professional NCO and nodded. "Sir, the best suggestion I have is to pull PDF members to form the heavy weapons platoon. Throw in a few more stubbers and a truck, and we'll have enough to keep them mobile. The rest of the squads formed, give each of your PDF member a squad and make them squad leader. I would have to leave a few Grenadiers with the weapons team to supervise them as well." Becker looked over at Marx and grinned. "Sergeant Marx and I were hoping you would suggest that. I know I can't really order you to do anything, what with being part of the Guard and all." Antal leaned forward and whispered to Armin loudly. "Sergeant, are you all Tempestus Scions?" Armin gave him an odd look and shook his head. "Nein, we're Grenadiers, Corporal." Antal gave a conspiratory nod, as if he understood some secret message that Armin was passing on. Marx looked over at Antal wordlessly, while Becker shook his head slightly. "Anyway, we are hoping that you would be able to assist with the training as well. At least the rudimentary part of it, we could be attacked any moment now." Armin nodded. "I think it's best if my Grenadier squad is involved, all of them, believe it or not, are veteran troopers. Even the idiot ones." At that moment, all of the NCOs at the table thought of Corporal Rinder.
That night, the enemy staged a probing attack. Unfortunately for them, one of the things that Grenadiers specialised in was night time warfare. "Squad, night vision on. This is what the flash suppressors are for." The goggles that they wore had filters that were programmed for the frequency of their hellguns and volleyguns. Enemy fire would be filtered to be dulled down as well so as not to blind them. The squad of Grenadiers slowly walked out from behind the cover of the sandbagged positions that Caspar had been manning. "Walk slowly, and carefully in the dark. Feel for solid footing before stepping down." Armin whispered over the throat mic to the squad vox. This was the only way for him to train his squad of "Grenadiers." "Ok, they want to set up a weapons position. Let's eliminate them first." Armin stepped in and unsheathed his combat blade slowly. They weren't too far from the enemy wepaons team, having circled around slowly in the snow before falling on them. Armin grabbed a stubber gunner and ripped him off his gun before stabbing the knife downwards. Grenadiers weren't trained to slit throats, that was way too messy. Instead, the blade was shoved into the section where the brain and the spine were connected. It was a silent kill, the enemy dying because his brain suddenly was shut out from everything. Before they had set out, he had demonstrated the motion to the other members of his squad, each practicing with wood sticks instead of real knives. Now, this was the real deal and he knew that someone would most likely lose their focus. He drew an autopistol he had with a sound suppressor screwed on and stepped onto the neck of the enemy soldier that was struggling with Rinder and put a bullet in the Dants rebels head. "Don't fuck it up Rinder, that's how everyone fucking dies." Rinder nodded furiously. He was at least able to keep his hand around the mouth of the rebel.
The others around them was able to silence the enemy more effectively. Rinder was a bit shaken, when he had yanked the man back, the enemy soldier had turned around and grabbed him. Armin tucked the pistol back into his body armour and looked around. "Now, we hold position here. Watch the enemy movement."
Through the phosphorous green of the goggles, Armin saw an enemy platoon get into position close to where the sandbagged lines were. There must have been some kind of pre-determined signal to attack, as Armin simply waited to see. "When the attack starts, strike them from the rear." He whispered, getting an affirmative from everyone in the squad. Suddenly a flare was shot up over the PDF positions and the attack began. The enemy platoon fired their las rifles at the enemy positions, expecting their stubber to fire as well. Armin gave the order, and Koler, one of the Grenadiers in his section picked up the stubber and fired harmlessly into the snow in front of the enemy positions. Seeing this, the enemy platoon got up and attacked only for Koler to adjust the aim of the stubber and cut into them. At the same time, the three volleyguns in the squad also opened up. "Rinder, take command of weapon detachment. My section, with me." Armin ordered. Rinder quickly got behind Koler and tapped him on the helmet, pointing out where to fire at with his hand while Armin led his section towards the enemy platoon. "Free fire." He ordered. The Grenadiers around him shouldered their hellguns and let loose a series of automatic hell bolts, blasting through the unarmoured enemy with exceeding effectiveness. Armin had a smile on his face during this attack, this was the innate sense of being a Grenadier. Attacking an enemy when least expected dealing maximum damage. This was the Konig way of war. He thought to himself as he stitched an enemy soldier with a burst of his hellgun. The enemy fire was very little, if any. In truth when they had attacked, the PDF soldiers on the walls had also opened fire. With the enemy attack in the open, it was cut down quickly.
"Rinder, hold fire." Rinder quickly gave the cease fire order, and then ordering the weapons detachment to face the way the enemy had come from. While the enemy approach was covered, Armin quickly gave the order to check for survivors. He also ordered them to use knives only. As an after thought, he quickly had Gerson vox the PDF to let them know that his platoon was out there. After a quick check and a few barely alive enemy soldiers finished off, he did a quick count of what they had been able to seize. Four stubbers and a handful of enemy rifles. They were checked for Chaos and possible corruption, but that was the one thing that he didn't understand. This seemed like it should've been something for the Ruinous powers but in truth he had found very little to almost no evidence of that in any way.
City of Dants
"Colonel, how does the attack go?" A man dressed in a dark blue dress uniform asked. He sat at a table surrounded by staff operating various radios and vox sets relaying out orders. The Colonel, as it were, stood in front of him in the same cut of dark blue clothe but with much less medals on his chest. "General, Sir, we have forced the Imperial forces to retreat past their initial lines. We have captured the city of Alske back. We have suffered large casualties but that is to be expected. Unfortunately we were unable to encircle them due to the presence of enemy tank and infantry forces on the roads that held a rearguard." The General nodded. It was going accordingly, especially with his advisor who assisted him. "That is a set up that is to be expected, this is war after all Colonel. Now, what about our attempts to capture the spaceport?" Colonel Deszol checked his notes and shook his head. "We have taken large casualties trying to take the spaceport but it appears that Imperial forces have dug in at Alberden. The infantry regiment we sent out has been rendered destroyed at over 70 percent casualties so far." General Gizal, the self proclaimed Lord General of the Dants Liberation Forces, who was also formerly a noble in the Dants city frowned. "How has there been so many casualties?"
The Colonel checked his notes again and sighed. "It appears the initial commander was overconfident and attacked en masse. However, the defenders were dug in and the unit took heavy casualties. Then the commander attempted multiple attacks both day and even a night attack but was repulsed with heavy losses." The General shook his head and frowned. "Have him shot." The Colonel clicked his heels. The General dismissed him with a wave of his hand before standing up and walking back to his lavish quarters which was formerly his familial estate. The Dants war effort HQ was commanded from his front lobby house. As he walked in, he could see the familiar figures of the specialist who had come to assist him. "Captain Echeon, I am so pleased to see that you are focused on your work." The person he spoke too was a lithe man in a striped camouflage fatigue set. He carried with him a hellgun with the symbols of Chaos carved into the muzzle. The General bowed to him and smiled as he took off his uniform coat. "General. How goes the war?" The mans voice was too smooth to be natural but the General found it to be pleasant. "Ah it goes well, we are pushing the Imperial dogs back with each battle. I have some.. administrative changes to make but it is excellent. You were right about the factories after all, increase their production with further slave labour. We are churning out heavy weapons daily and nightly." Echeon smiled thinly, his razor sharp face somehow looking more unnatural when he smiled.
"Ah General, that will be most pleasing news to our Lord." The General covered his mouth and bowed. "Yes, his voice who drowns out all others." Echeon repeated the gesture as well. "Let us examine the battlefield itself however." The elite Sons of Sek soldier said, beckoning towards a map he had laid out. The General approached him and stood respectfully there. "The brave Dants forces have taken back the major cities, and now the Imperials can only retreat, yes?" The General nodded at Echeon's question. Echeon looked over the map and pointed over towards a small town and shook his head. "However the spaceport still escapes us. That is not necessarily a major issue, because as long as we can advance and take the one near the northern front, we will still have our spaceport. I need to know though, why is there a delay on the Alberden Spaceport?"
The General made a face and sighed. "An overzealous regimental commander. I have ordered him shot, but the enemy is dug in heavily there, and he wasted his regiment trying to seize it." Echeon nodded and smirked slightly. "I always admire your traits as a disciplinarian, General. It's what makes a mighty leader mighty." General Gizal brimmed with pride at the compliment. "Yes, I have ordered the attacks to cease for now, it seems to be a waste of manpower if we take the town and then we are unable to hold it against Imperial counter-attacks. We are in a much better position to take the starport at Deimophol." Echeon nodded in agreement. "I agree with your position. I think however, it would be a good opportunity to cut off the region through this road. If we can take the small town of Byda, we can cut off Alberden. That means it will make it easier to seize in the future." The General looked at where Echeon's fingers trailed and nodded. "I will ready a regiment to do so at once then." He bowed once before departing, leaving Echeon there to look at the map. He summoned the rest of his team, his specialists.
"Silencers, report." He commanded. One by one, each of the elite Sons of Sek soldiers stepped forward, 11 of them in all. They each sported striped ochre and green camouflage uniforms and carried hellguns signifying their status as elite troops. They wore brimmed helmets and had masks shaped like a hand over their face. "Sir, Silencer team reporting. We have picked off officers during the attacks and kept our presence a secret. The attacks were all successful, we had forced the enemy to retreat from the only bridge and road out of Alske. The enemy took heavy casualties thanks to the Dants units that were sent there as a spearhead. However, they were able to pull back. The Dants lack true faith to their cause." Echeon nodded. "As expected. Very well, we will move onto the next stage of our plan. Pass the word out, look for recruits. We will create our very own regiment here. Scourge?" Another member of the retinue stepped forward and bowed. "Lord Captain, what is your wish."
"Scourge Arvhas. I want you to ensure the full loyalty of this new regiment. Train their officers in the way that the Sons of Sek wage war."