The rest of my week went to shit pretty badly. I had no idea how Chaos had corrupted my beloved Space Wolves or where they had gone. To make matters worse, my girlfriend broke up with me and that hit me pretty hard, but I couldn't exactly cry in front of potentially a thousand guardsmen. So I resigned my sorrows in the best way I knew how to: I wrote a new entry in my Death Note and blasted a bunch of depressing Hollywood Undead songs while practically screaming the lyrics. You'd be surprised at how A-level exams and managing an entire guardsmen force can be at times. I either have no time to revise or no time to manage the running of their base of operations. And it wasn't like I could actually tell anyone about these things. They'd think I'm bonkers, for one reason. The only people I could talk to about this was my friends Chad and Ryan who were dealing with similar issues. The only problem was, we'd grown distant since they moved to college while I stayed on in Sixth Form. And now that they both had jobs, I couldn't speak to them or hang out with them as often as I'd have liked, now more than ever. I guess, in a way, its a life lesson. You can always tell your true friends by those that stick by you through thick and thin, no matter what. They are always there for you, even when you don't think you need them. That's the reason me and my girlfriend broke up. I was always there for her and I went to hell and back to make her happy and know she was loved. But the one time I need her, she wasn't there. I've pretty much given up on girls now, at this point. I need to focus on my guardsmen and exams, not wasting my time with relationships that I know will never work but I pray that they do. But enough wallowing in my own anger or grief. Time for more mayhem thanks to my tiny guests.
"Sir? Sir!" The scout leader yelled up to me.
"Hm? Yes?" I replied. "Do you have any additional intel to report?"
"Negative, sir. But I would like to request that we send out several Valkyries on scouting missions. An eye in the sky could be helpful at locating them."
"No. If you are spotted, things will go from bad to worse very quickly."
"But sir, we have observed your generation of people utilising remote-controlled aircraft on approximately the same scale as our own. This would be the perfect cover and no one would suspect anything."
"True... but I would have to remain in close proximity and only one fly mission would be available at one time. Maybe when the weather warms up a bit in a week or two?"
"Understood sir. I understand that this planet is approaching the local season of Spring?"
"Correct."
As I gave him this answer, he stiffly saluted and walked away, back to his squad, before they used a makeshift set of stairways leading from my chest of drawers down to my old toy box (now filled with DVDs, CDs and video games) before going down another set of stairs leading to my floor.
On the other side of my room, I heard the quiet yell of "Xeno!" and the soft patter of las-fire as a squadron of veterans chased and shot at a small spider, flushing it out of it's hiding spot beneath my bed. This was probably the tenth time they'd done this now. It was amusing at first, but it lost its novelty fairly quickly. For now, I ignored it, and lay on my bed, working on a past paper to help me to revise for my math exams. I'd lost my calculator a long time ago, and I couldn't be arsed to use my phone, so I had the tech-priests calculate the numbers for me, making most of the papers easier. Certainly not easy, but easier.
Captain Westfield strolled between the beds of the field hospital that had been set up in the Underground City. Most of the wounded soldiers had recovered from the attack from the Traitor Space Wolves and had returned to active duty, but several were still confined to the beds here. One of those still in care was the man he came to see. Not finding him, he asked a Sister of the order for his location, she immediately pointed in his direction. Then he found the man he was looking for. He sat on a chair next to the bed, and watched the pilot sleep.
Several days later...
"Echo team, this is Foxtrot. We are advancing through the jungle. No hostile contacts as of yet."
"Copy that Foxtrot, we're sending the sentinels behind you now. Remember, the Titan known as Tom does not know about this operation. We cannot be caught down here. He told us we were not permitted beyond the border of his room, so this garden is definitely off limits. For this reason, we have limited fire support. We have approximately 5 Earth hours before he arrives back from his place of education. He have to explore and extract before then."
"Solid copy, Echo. We're still advancing. Still no hostile contacts."
*gunfire*
"ECHO TEAM! THIS IS DELTA TEAM! WE'VE BEEN AMBUSHED BY SOME FORM OF INSECTOID XENOS! THEY'RE EVERYWHERE! WE'RE DYING OUT H- ARGH!"
"ECHO! THIS IS OSCAR MIKE SENTINELS! WE'RE BEING AMBUSHED!"
Echo was getting reports from several units of xenos ambushing them and killing them in droves. Echo team leader requested a live feed from the combat cameras on the Sentinels, then sent the feed to the Tech priests back in the Underground City for analysis. Using the best available research term, the Tech priests used the mysterious archive know as 'Google' to discover the origins of this species of Xenos. The tech-priests reported that they were known as grasshoppers or crickets. Before Echo Team could inform all units of this xenos, a whisper came through the radio.
"Echo. This is Foxtrot 5. My whole team is down. I've got Foxtrot 3 with me but he's badly wounded. These... things... they're everywhere. Requesting a fire mission. Over?"
"Foxtrot, this is Echo. We will grant you any support we can spare. What is your fire mission?"
"Copy that Echo. Requesting Earthshaker heavy bombardment approximately 30 metres north of my position, 14 metres west. How copy?"
"Solid copy, Foxtrot. Punching in the order now. Watch yourselves. Its coming in, danger close."
As Echo said this, several Earthshaker artillery platforms that had been set up on the concrete of the garden readjusted to aim for the given co-ordinates, and in a staggered pattern, they opened fire. Dirt was blown everywhere as shells slammed into the ground all around the remainder of Foxtrot team, sending gore and dismembered xenos flying into the air. The bombardment continued for approximately 5 minutes, scattering the xenos that were not killed and pushing them back into the depths of the jungle. Only 2 Sentinels survived the ambush and one of those had begun to smoke badly with sparks flying from loose connections. That particular Sentinel was sent back to the temporary base on 'The Great Concrete Plains' for repairs by the Tech-priest on the ground for this operation. The other was sent to the head of the advance, cautious now after the ambush. The surviving 2 members of Foxtrot team had survived the heavy Earthshaker bombardment and now pulled back to the base with the critically damaged Sentinel. The lost of most of the Sentinels and several teams meant little though. The guardsmen had deployed a full company, along with a single squad of Catachan guardsmen, who were used to such hostile terrain. One squadron of Valkyries were prepped and ready back at the main base in the bedroom, but the window was open and they could deploy within minutes. Several stationary Earthshaker heavy artillery pieces had been deployed on the Concrete Plains. They had 2 Hellhound light flamer tanks in reserve by the Earthshaker cannons, ready for rapid deployment if some great beast should appear that they could not fell with lasguns or inaccurate artillery fire. The primary objective of this operation, code named 'Intrepid Explorer,' was to explore their surroundings. However, the secondary objective was to find any traces of the Traitor Space Wolves and any inkling as to where they could have gone. As they combed through the jungle, they encountered no more of the grasshopper xenos, though they definitely saw something shifting in the darkness.
Within an hour, they had crossed the jungle and found another concrete, flat landscape, but this time, there was a large wooden construct atop the concrete. It looked similar to a giant's house, though it was only the size of a small room and was a single level high. The wood was painted black and the construct was covered in light webbing with dark creatures stirring in the dark, all 8 eyes watching them closely. 3 squads advanced along the concrete, towards the colossal door, was they were watched from above. The radioed that they had reached an objective and the 2 Hellhounds drove forwards from the advanced base towards their location to help secure the 'Shed' as the massive sign above the door read. It took them only 20 minutes to reach the shed. When the Hellhounds arrived, they found several xenos carcasses scattered around the squads with several wounded soldier and a few dead guardsmen. The xenos identified as 'spiders' had ambushed them while they had been waiting for the Hellhounds to arrive, but they had driven them back. Time was running out and they breached the shed quickly, with the Hellhounds ready to immolate anything hostile that moved in too close. Inside the shed were large metal constructs with oversized wheels. They appeared similar to combat bikes, but lacked an engine and the bulkiness of the armour plating. As they breached, light filtered inside and many dark creatures withdrew back to the shadows and did not disturb them. A brief time exploring revealed nothing of importance in the shed, and before long, the order to pull out was given. The infantry headed outside the shed as 2 Valkyries touched-down before them and the loading ramp in the rear lowered with the sound of high-powered hydraulics. The infantry quickly embarked and the Valkyries flew away, back to the main base as heavy-duty carrier ships arrived and attached to the Hellhounds and carried them back to the base. At the forward base, the withdrawal was slightly more complicated as heavy cables were tied around the Earthshaker cannons and they were attached to hooks on the underside of carrier ships. Valkyries landed and reserve troops and the men who manned the artillery embarked and loaded the unspent shells in stacks aboard before securing them in the centre of the troops' area and the Valkyries flew away. Within half an hour, the only sign they had ever been their was the faint cracks where they had drilled to secure the Earthshaker cannons, the tiny scorch marks in the grass from the las-fire, the many insect corpses and the ruined ground where the artillery had shelled, but most of the grass covered that evidence. The Guard had managed to extract the wrecks of the Sentinels and the bodies of the guardsmen that had fallen in battle.
Later, in Command Post Alpha, Underground City...
"So we found nothing in the jungle, and nothing in the black construct?" Commissar Reginald asked, as he leaned on the holo-display. All the high ranking officers in the Imperial Guard force stranded here were gathered in this Command Post, all of them huddled around the holo-display showing the geographical display of the layout of the 'garden' region.
"That is correct, sir." The scout leader reported. "Only new species of Xenos."
"We have begun analyzing the xeno for potential weakness using the corpses the men have recovered." The head tech-priest reported, his voice droning and metallic.
"That's all well and good, but we have lost several men today for virtually nothing!" The Commissar replied, fists clenched. "Please tell me we've made progress with our prisoners."
"I'm sorry, sir." One of the psykers said. "We have been trying but their minds appear to empty of taint and they have no memory of what may have happened. And I would like to remind you, sir, that they are not prisoners. They may have been taken into custody, but they are still our allies."
In one fluid motion, the Commissar drew his pistol and leveled it at the head of the psyker who spoke. "That sounds like an agent of Chaos talking to me!"
The scout leader stepped between them and pushed the Commissar pistol slowly down until it pointed to the floor. "Easy, sir. Let's not have any more bloodshed today."
The Commissar grudgingly holstered his pistol, his eyes still locked on those of the terrified psyker.
Governor-Militant Anderson stood back from the dim blue glow of the holo-display and in the shadows, watching the meeting in silence, hand on his chin as he pondered on something. Captain Westfield stood on the opposite side of the room, also in the shadows and, seeing the Governor, he made his way around the room until he stood next to him.
"What are you thinking, sir?" The captain asked, whispering.
"Hm?" The Governor snapped out of his dazed state. "Nothing. Just... wondering... This business with the Traitor Astartes. It troubles me. What could possess such a noble order as the Astartes to covert to Chaos?"
"I'm unsure. Such a thing hasn't happened since the Horus Heresy."
"That is what causes the most fear within me. I am not afraid of dying, captain. What I fear is a repeat of the Horus Heresy. Without the Holy Emperor in battle, we will stand little chance against another Black Crusade." The Governor sighed sadly.
"The Emperor protects, sir."
"Yes, captain. The Emperor protects..."
