The North Wall
The enemy had left the cover of the forest to fire. Bist wasn't big on artillery but he knew that if one of those shells misfired and hit a tree the men firing it would be blown to hell with the gun. He swore, he swore because he was under attack but also because he couldn't fight back and had to sit here waiting to be obliterated by shell fire. The hive was safe because it had a shield over it but there was no shield on the wall battlements, that strip of rockcrete that ran around the whole inside of the wall and was about the width of a small street, difficult but not impossible for the enemy to hit from a distance. The walls seemed to shake again as the Imperial guns fired a volley back at the enemy's mobile artillery.
Watching through his sniper scope Meric counted a good hit or two and watched one of the enemy basilisk tanks flip backwards in a 180 degree spin and another one lose its main cannon to a nearby blast. The exchanges continued for a while. Almost from the start the guns of Reya Primarus were winning. They had lost one gun so far when an enemy shell hit directly into a small opening in the wall for one of the cannons to fire from, the gun had been smashed to pieces and the crew had been pulped by the concussive force of the blast. Then the infantry charged forwards. Hundreds of foot-soldiers supported by large numbers of tanks, some Leman Russ battle-tanks but mainly Chimera variants.
The enemy reached the walls of the human fortress quicker than Nioyu thought possible, they were spurred on by the fanatical rage of the Chaos. A Chimera Transport at the front of the charge charged in a straight collision course for the wall. It was a suicidal the small transport tank could not damage the thick, rockrete walls. That wasn't the intention however, hitting the slight slant of the walls the chimera took a firm grip and began to drag itself up towards the battlements. Rufia cursed she hadn't foreseen these tactics despite how often they were employed in hive-wars. The wall-crawler was nearing the top of the wall laying down a hail of fire forcing the defenders to duck for cover. Hox was ducking for cover under the wall when it rolled over the top. He stood still, frozen with fear. Something knocked him to the side, out of the path of harm. Looking back he saw it had been his platoon sergeant Bist, who was now almost under the tank and would be crushed to death in less time than it would take him to move out of the way. It seemed to Hox like a cliché from the war-movies back on Cadia, when the old veteran sacrificed his life to save the new recruit. None of these old veterans were sergeant Bist of the Cadian 22nd. The Chimera wasn't fully over the wall yet, it was balancing halfway, and this was when Bist fired his Plasma Pistol, into the unprotected under-belly. The force of the shot and death of the driver, hit by the shot before passing out through the roof, was enough to topple the vehicle slowly, almost indecisive at first, back over the wall. It fell to the ground killing the gunner and passengers with the fall.
Prett had seen Bist's heroic take out of the tank it was spectacular but it was only one of many tanks. He took aim on a Chimera to his left halfway up the wall and fired a missile into its side. The impact blew it off the wall reducing it to a fireball. He quickly reloaded and took aim on another one. A little along the wall Rufia was impressed by the skill shown by the Cadians and Catachans in destroying the wall-crawlers, the efforts of the Reyan City Guard however were less satisfactory, the Eldar tried but didn't have the bulk of firepower which the Imperials did. Some of the Samu were firing longbows down at the enemy tanks, the Canoness almost felt sorry for these simple men until she saw an arrow hit one of the troop carriers, explode and throw it off the wall. Her own troops were blasting away with melta-weapons cutting through enemy armour with ease. But they couldn't hold them forever.
Nioyu was there when the first one got on to the battlements. Its gunner dead and front view-slit melted, it reached the top nonetheless. The front ramp slammed down just missing the Eldar exarch by mere inches. Inside he saw twelve humans in matt black armour with twisted grotesque mask on their faces. He dove inside, low under the lasbolts, chainsword screaming, powerfist crackling and mandiblasters blazing. The scorpion had cleared the tank before its occupants could fire at him again. He turned to walk out the front ramp again when a lasbolt hit him in the back, dropping him to the ground. He lay there face down for a split second then rolled over onto his back as three more lasbolts hit the floor next to him and another wasted itself on his armour. Two more soldiers of the enemy had come inside through a hatch in the back. Nioyu cursed himself for not having seen it before. Snatching the pistol from his hip the Eldar opened fire, hastily but accurately. One soldier was torn to pieces by the sharp stars another slumped, breathing, to the ground. Full of the hatred for these chaos scum Nioyu readied his chainsword to slowly and painfully put this man to death. As he drew near another chaos trooper's head began to rise over the wall. The man drew his laspistol but his head was cut apart first. Then he realised how the other men had reached the top. There was a thick cable run through a motorised pulley on the inside roof of the Chimera. With one stroke the Eldar chainsword cut the cable then proceeded to finish the remaining human.
More chimeras reached the battlements and they couldn't all be killed by Nioyu. The enemy soon overran the place like roaches, except roaches don't carry lasguns. Hox was beside Bist and Silgan but other than that all he could see were the black armoured figures charging them. He began firing wildly and stabbing with his bayonet at anything which seemed to move. He soon lost what little expectation he had of survival when he realised they were completely surrounded in a bloody melee. Silgan fell with a bayonet in his gut and Bist seemed to be on the verge of consciousness. Hox however noticed he himself was barely scratched. Bist collapsed beside his doubled-over, heavily-bleeding vox-officer covered in blood. He looked into the face-mask of a cultist aiming a lasgun straight at the sergeant's head. He saw a slightly curved sword slice through the heretic's arms, rifle and head as easily as they cut the air. He turned his head to see three Samu, in their ornate armour, cut through the enemy like the mighty heroes of the Adeptus Astartes, except that while Space Marines tower over their enemies these men's eyes were level with their opponent's chests. Then Bist passed out. Despite odds of almost 10:1 the Samu, assisted by Hox, carved the attackers, cleaving armour flesh and bone with relative ease.
Glym ducked under a rather clumsy blow from a heretic then blasted out his chest with a close-ranged bolt. The fighting here was mild but Rufia was having a tough time to the west and Komotoko to the east looked like no more than a memory now. The East, most likely due to lack of anti-tank weapons, had been hit hardest. His men and the Eldar had repelled the majority of the attacks and so many chimeras were destroyed access to the wall was almost impossible. Taking a small number of men each Glym and Avalon ran east to repel the attack and assist what remained of the Samu and eastern half of the Catachan/Cadian platoon. Judix meanwhile headed west to enforce the battle-sisters.
Sister Caseria fell, her once attractive features now destroyed by fatal shots at close range. Rufia pulled Caseria's dropped meltagun over to herself with feet while stabbing her broadsword through the killer's chest. This casualty dropped the warriors with her to 6, herself included, and more enemies were charging them. With luck at least one of them might survive this wave. Their bodies were weak but their spirits were strong with the Emperor's eternal strength. None of them would give in to the heathen enemy because they knew that with their deaths they would fell many of the blasphemies. As the sisters prepared to face their deaths a roar, part hatred and part flamer belch, blasted through the air as liquid flame spewed over the enemy. The man who saved them was a Commissar of the guard with a hand-flamer in one massive fist and a power-axe in the other with guardsmen on either side. His mighty blows sundered the enemy soldiers while his flame consumed them. Judix looked like an angel of death as he roared his battle-cries and slew the enemies either side, whether by mighty blows which tore them apart or bursts of flame which left the charred husks of their former owners in their wake. Their vigour reforged, the Adeptus Sororitas threw themselves at the enemy more ferociously than before. Rufia and Judix reached the Chimeras at the same time. The Canoness sliced one with the burning hot melta beam, making sure to cut the cable. Judix, meanwhile burned the insides out of the other with his hand flamer, immolating those still inside and melting the metal cable. They continued in this manner until the siege weapons were destroyed to the last. This left only the East to be won now.
Hox was fighting alongside some Samu firing shots into the enemy or slashing them with his bayonet when the chance arose. Beside him Komotoko was fighting relentlessly he had lost at least half his men here and with the way things seemed the other half would be following soon. There seemed no end to the onslaught of enemy troops. He swayed back avoiding a slice from an enemy officer's sword and swung upwards with his own, opening the man's chest to the air. He glanced at the boy beside him. The boy was no more than 19 and the only Cadian trooper Komotoko could see and he was unhurt. The young trooper's reflexes were unnaturally good. There was almost an aura he gave off which made Komotoko uneasy. Uneasy or not the Daimyo continued to meet his opponents with relentless killing blows.
Meric stopped dead in his charge to the enemy. Beside him Prett stopped too and followed the sniper's gaze. His blood froze at what he saw. Before them just behind the bloody melee taking place up ahead were the bodies of Bist and Silgan. Some of the enemy had managed to get around behind the melee and were bayoneting each of the bodies lying on the ground to make sure they were dead. Dropping to a crouch Meric took aim and shot out the chest of one of these. Meric shot another two before he heard the tell-tale whine beside him as Prett began firing his autocannon into the same enemies.
Hox moved his body once again, miraculously, out of the way of another close range lasbolt then fired a quick burst at him. He felt a chill sweep over him. It ran up his spine and then throughout the rest of his body. It lasted less than a second but its cause was explained very quickly. A storm of pure psychic energy tore through the enemy before them melting their flesh and distorting their bodies. Looking in the direction it had come from, Hox saw the Eldar Farseer his spear pointing towards the Chaos attackers. The enemy faltered somewhat at this psychic bombardment. The Samu pressed this to their advantage as they surged forward edging ever closer to the chimeras.
With the Imperial and Eldar reinforcements preventing the enemy from flanking the Samu Prett and Meric turned their attentions to the Chimeras. Switching to his missile launcher Prett opened fire on them. Meric, lacking the firepower of a missile launcher, began trying to snipe the mechanism and wires bringing the enemy soldiers to the battlements.
Glym hit the enemy flank with an Eldar striking scorpion and two Catachans beside him. The scorpion tore them apart with his chainsword while the Catachan troops stabbed into the enemy with brute strength, numerous insults and foot long knives. The general hit into his first opponent hard with a thrust from his powersword pushing him to the ground before putting a boltround in the forehead of the black armoured soldier to his left. He then pulled the sword out of the corpse in a sweeping motion disembowelling another. His third blow was dodged and countered opening a large gash in his arm forcing him the drop the sword. Glym retaliated by clubbing his assailant in the side of the head with the boltpistol. Unable to retrieve the sword the Imperial continued to fight on clubbing with his pistol and firing point-blank.
Eventually
the last chimera was destroyed. Their main attack foiled the
archenemy at the foot of the wall withdrew. The last of his
adrenaline used up Glym collapsed beside Avalon, sporting a nasty yet
minor wound in his left shoulder. Medics were running everywhere to
save the wounded and identify the dead.
"I suppose we won."
Glym managed to pant
Avalon just shook his head. "We managed to hold them off. They will be back again and we will have to fight them again."
"Same thing, it's just that my way sounds more optimistic." The general knew though that what the Eldar said was true. They would be back.
