2 hours since arrival
The sound of lockers being opened and closed resonates around the armory as 3rd squad performing equipment maintenance such as: replacing spent power packs with fully charged ones, wiping mud and gunk off their carapace armor, and cleaning their weapons.
Stalker 1 starts to take apart his lasgun with a small can of cleaner and a stained rag sitting on the weapons bench. What an average guardsman or PDF trooper may find meticulous or tedious even, Stalker 1 finds cleaning any weapon soothing. Be it the basic autoguns that many PDF and Adeptus Arbites use to maintain law and order on their home planet to the heavy duty lascannons whose main function is to mow down hundreds of enemies troops and rip apart armored Chimeras during a frontal assault.
Dismantling his "Atlatl" pattern lasgun is no different, it's bullpup design with an 18 inch barrel allows a square yellow dot sight to be built on top of the weapon with a two sided hand rail system capable of mounting either a flashlight or Infer-red laser. Its ability to fire 350-400 las-shots in a minute making it more than deadly in either confined corridors of a building or in the open fields of a battlefield. Unfortunately due to its higher cost of material to make the weapon not melt or explode from its higher rate of fire and its specialization for guerrilla tactics, his brethren in the Infantry and Mechanized Regiments were instead equipped with the more standardized and affordable M35 pattern lasgun.
His thoughts come to an end when he plugs the last two screws back into his lasgun's frame. He looks over the weapon one last time making sure no speck of mud has gone unnoticed and not pin out of place, satisfied he slings the lasgun over his shoulder before looking over to see the rest of 3rd squad finishing their maintenance.
"I don't know about you two but I'm kinda excited to eat something warm for once, the 2 week diet of ration bars and local insects haven't been the most appetizing." Stalker 1 states.
"I know how you feel, on the way here I heard from a couple PDF troopers that we got ourselves a ratling chef cooking away in the field tent and from the rumors we've heard by our veteran Camazotze they can cook you a small feast and steal the credits out of your back pocket at the same time." Stalker 3 replies.
Stalker 2 shoves his freshly load magazine into his sniper rifle and sling it across his back.
"Well I don't know about you two but I doubt a shoeless 4ft mutant could cook better than our own mothers back home." He says in mild skepticism.
"Yolteotl Tlatoani!! This ratling stew is the best thing I've eaten in the last six months!" Stalker 2 shouts as he gorgeous himself on a bowl of stew.
The rest of 3rd squad look at their marksman in amusement before they resume eating their own meal in an equal but quieter form of joy.
A few tables down sits a platoon of Hunab Guardsmen chatting amongst themselves. Well except for their newest recruit whom seems fixated on the elite squad enjoying their meal.
"Huh I never thought I'd see a Camazotze in person nonetheless see them without their helmets on." The private says to himself but his comrades sitting by him easily overhear.
"Well I'm glad you find those warriors fascinating but don't let them catch you staring they might think you got the Lover's disease for them." The platoon Sargeant informs the private with a small chuckle escaping his lips.
"It's just I've always heard about them when I was a 'guambra' from my teachers and parents but to see their faces feels... I don't know different, I always thought from the rumors that they kept to themselves and avoided others." The private says admonished.
The Sargeant leans back into his chaie and thinks for a moment, he couldnt help but agree with the private since he had a similar reaction when he first witnessed a Camazotze Instructor evaluate a class of Camazotze Cadets back on Hunab. They couldn't have been no more than 14 years old at the time but by the Emporer could they shoot their lasguns like true marksman and could camoflaug and hide like an 'amaru' in muddy water, looking at the ones across the field tent he could easily see the iconic Camazotze skull tattooed on half of their faces with the only difference being that two of them are silver colored while one was gold.
"Well I won't give you trouble for thinking that, from the looks of it they seem to be starting their path of war for the Emporer, given how they seem to have a spark of life and joy still in them. Usually the more experienced ones have a cold and silent demeanor and avoid any public or social appearances like your seeing today." He states.
Just then a woman dress in fatigues abruntly enters the field tent and looks around, easily one could tell she was in a hurry. She then proceeds to jog past the platoon of guardsmen and straight to 3rd squad. She stops only a foot away from the table and gives a salute before announcing in an urgent manner, "Corporal Ch'Ayna reporting. Is this 3rd squad led by Lt. Xecutl?"
Looking up from the nearly finished bowl of stew but not standing up from his chair Stalker 1 responds, "Yes it is Corporal what can 3rd squad assist you with?"
She drops her salute before replying, "Captain Tlotli request your squad's presence at the HQ building immediately."
Stalker 1 brings his bowl to his lips and slurps the last of the stew before wiping his mouth and standing up from the table, putting his helmet on with 3rd squad mimicking his actions.
The elevator shutters to a stop before giving out a distinctive *ding* before opening its doors for the occupants.
But what greets them is near silence as they enter the command room, the usual shuffling of paper and bushing of vox buttons are gone along with their operators. In the middle of the room stands Captain Tlotli at his holographic table but the 7 heavily armed men standing in front of him, 1st Squad.
"Sir! 3rd Squad is reporting as ordered." Stalker 1 announces as they salute.
"At ease." The captain orders before pushing a button on his holographic table causing an image to appear. That being an older man with silver white hair slicked back who was dressed in a dark blue dress uniform with purple striped shoulders and a chest full of medallions, Colonel Anku Condor.
"Gentlemen I'd like to first state that your assignment as Camazotze on Druthar has been most excellent but that's not why I had Captain Tlotli summon you."
His heard turns from 1st to 3rd squad.
"The recently obtain information from 3rd, 4th, and 5th squad and interrogation of high ranking rebel leadership has given us thorough knowledge of the entire rebel force on Druthar, this would be astounding news if we didn't stumble upon a severe misfortune that dwells in the heart of this rebellion."
He takes a momentary pause before continuing.
"Chaos"
7 hours later
Druthar is what one would a call your typical mining world where the majority of the people work in the vast underground tunnels where they hack away at metal ore to make a living but most importantly to fulfill their Imperial tithe.
But outside the realm of bureaucracy that is the Adeptus Administratum, for the residents of Druthar they have come to cherish its natural beauty such as Gordab Island where its land mass consists of 200 square kilometers of hills covered in flowers during the warm season and its mountaines coast being covered and a nice fluff of snow during the cold season but no matter what time of year it is, its geographic positioning gives the island the perfect view to enjoy sunrise but most importantly the sunset where the blue waters sparkle with the reflection of the sun.
Unfortunately Druthar's recent visitors haven't been able to witness said sunrise but were instead able to enjoy its lovely sunset.
Boom* *Boom* *Boom*
bbbbbrrrrrrrtttttttt*
The symphony of Flak guns and air missiles shake the skies around Gordab island as squadrons of Vultures and Valkyries litter the sky firing off hundreds of missiles and thousands of bolter rounds against entrenched rebel forces on the fortified island below.
The waters around Gordab being nothing but violent splashes from various mortars and makeshift artillery guns. Coursing through the violent waters are various Chimera APC's narrowly avoiding the barraige of artillery shells fired from poorly trained gun-crews with only a couple being hit and erupting in a small ball of smoke before sinking to the ocean floor with its inhabitants.
Nonetheless the armored assault wave would reach the beaches of Gordab firing off an endless stream of las-cannons pinning down and killing various rebel troops dug in all across the neighboring hills that overshadow the sandy shore.
Immediately the metal doors on the Chimeras fly open allowing multiple platoons worth of guardsmen to rush forth and begin their assault on the island defenders. In mere minutes the guardsmen would cross the beaches killzone with a small portion of their forces being killed from rebel machine gunners and mortar rounds before bayonet charging into the enemy controlled trenches and engaging in hand to hand combat.
Just a kilometer away in the sky are three valkyries flying fast through the air heading straight into the mayhem that is Gordab island before splitting off into different directions carrying passengers who are able to witness the battle unfold. One of the valkyries is flying into the islands main harbor and instantly being hit with small arms fire that ricochet off its hull and air explosions causing the aircraft to shake and buckle mid-air.
"The drop-site is 60 seconds out be ready back there!"
The pilot shouts over the vox.
In the troop compartment resides 3rd squad who are gripping the valkyries hand rails. Silence reigns in the compartment as the squad observes a Vulture be struck by a flak gun before causing it to crash unto 4 story building making the structure internally collapse on itself.
Abruptly the aircraft stops over a vacant parking garage before quickly landing.
"OUT! OUT! OUT!"
3rd squad rushes forth with lasguns at the ready, determination filling their minds knowing what their mission requires and the unacceptable outcome if they fail.
Hey readers Dameos here, I thought I'd give little more info about this story. I've been a fan of the Warhammer 40k Universe and I've always liked reading stories about the struggles that people face in the Warhammer Universe and thought I'd give it a shot and make my own little story.
The regiment that I'm using is a fan made one that I've been tinkering with inside my head for the last couple years and thought I'd use them as the main POV in this story. I wanted to change things up and not use a famous and repeatedly used regiment like the Death Korps of Krieg or the Cadia Shock Troops. I plan to shed more information about Hunab and its guardsmen as they're based off the pre-Columbian civilizations so I'll reveal more a little bit at a time so I don't overwhelm you guys in one chapter.
Anyway I hope you guys like it and if there's any ideas or criticism you guys have let me know my goal is to make this story the most enjoyable for you guys as possible.
Nahuatl translation:
Yolteotl- The heart of God
Tlatoani- Emporer
Quechua translation:
Guambra- Child
Amaru- Snake