Chapter four: Survivors of defence force Delta.
Damel sat atop the derelict Chimera, he and the rest of his squad had been attacked by an Ork fighter-bomber, after the Chimera driver had died from his wounds and the vehicle itself lost a track and the engine riddled with holes the squad lost its sergeant and four others. The remainder of the squad was left alone to fend for itself in the middle of the Icklon desert wastes.
The squad now consisted of seven members, Damel was one, the others were Nichols, Phyllis, A Jones, N Jones, Nicholai and Verenic. They had enough water and supplies to last them a week, but after that things would start looking bad. Damel opened the Chimera hatch and climbed in, Verenic was being tended to by Medic Nichols, after the fighter bomber attack a piece of shrapnel smashed into Verenic's chest and other pieces sliced his head, he was one of the lucky wounded that survived. Phyllis on the other hand was the co-driver and he could not be removed from his seat without being killed, they needed equipment to move him. Phyllis had a large chunk of dashboard imbedded into his torso pinning him to the seat, the wound was not bleeding much after Nichols had worked on him, however in a few days Phyllis would be nothing more than a corpse unless they could get him to a surgeon specialist. Damel sighed and sat down by one of the Jones brothers, Nicholai looked at Phyllis and Verenic sorrowfully. N Jones was busy on the vox requesting for assistance from the battleship 'Grande's Imperium".
"We need assistance now! We have two men critically wounded!" N Jones had been trying for hours and had no luck in getting any more information from the battleship's comm operator.
"Delta-4 we are trying to patch you through to the Cadian IX'th, confirm" the operator replied.
"Confirmed Grande's awaiting connection" N Jones looked taken aback, at last he was getting somewhere.
A few minutes later the vox was alive again crackling with a mans raspy voice.
"Delta-4 this is Commissar Bradvt from the Cadian IX'th, hold your position, we are sending a lander craft to you with specialist equipment, hold out as best as you can for now" Bradvt said clearly.
"Affirmative Commissar, may the Emperor guide your ship well" N Jones switched the vox back onto the neutral comm line "Hold on lads, we are getting a ride out of here in a few hours hopefully". Damel and A Jones whooped, Nichol smiled
"Just hang in there Phyllis, you also Verenic" Nichols called.
"Its about frigging time the Grande's gave us some good news" Damel said and lent against the Chimera's wall "At last we are getting somewhere".
"Agreed, can have a hot meal hopefully" A Jones nodded.
Meanwhile back in the battle scarred city:
"Corporal order lander craft 8 from Ampheric to prowl the Icklon wastes in search of a derelict Chimera" the Commissar looked a slight happier "A few have survived then". Reilles and Haines looked at each other.
"I thought most of the defence force had been obliterated" Haines asked.
"Yeah, but then again we don't know how many men the Commissar is expecting" Reilles yawned and gripped his lasgun "The Orks have not attacked for over 12 hours now".
"Perhaps they are tired?"
"Nah Orks don't get tired, they are a warring race, they will never stop for anything" Reilles now looked at the Corporal on the comm with great dislike.
"Lander craft 8 the Commissar wishes you to search for a Chimera transport vehicle in the Icklon wastes".
"Ah I thought you guys had forgotten about us, we have been bored shitless for days, what is it? Search and destroy?" The pilot on the other end of the comm replied.
"No it's a find and retrieve, the Commissar wants you to take surgeon Fian with you with his tools" the Corporal continued.
"Roger that I'm on it, Pilot out" the vox comm cut off.
Reilles returned his gaze ahead of the trench scanning the terrain before him "A few more reinforcements at last" he thought.
The Commissar nodded after the Corporal told him that the lander craft had been dispatched.
"Very good Corporal, yes very good".