Part 3: Ship To Ship
"Get Down!" Haze dived to the floor followed by the few members of his squad as Pulse Beams were fired at them from a small group of Tau Fire warrior's who were desperately trying to defend their beloved ship. Haze quickly turned his head behind him to see what the aliens had hit. He was just in time to see Private Birkan crash to the floor with a bloody crater in his face, what was left of his brains was seeping onto the ships deck, he clearly did not dive quick enough.
"Son of a bitch." Haze grunted and flicked the pin out of a frag grenade and threw it down the corridor to where the Tau warrior's had set up a defensive position. Covering his ears he heard a dull thump before a deafening bang erupted, two of the Fire warriors were blown apart in the fiasco but the one who was further away was scorched and twitching on the floor.
"Come on lets move!" Haze ordered as the squad stumbled to their feet and raised their weapons. Moving carefully down the corridor Haze kicked the smoking Fire warrior, he then placed a single shot from his laspistol into its head which caved in causing the dark blue blood to spatter onto his boots and trousers.
Haze shuddered; he was a Corporal in the Elysian Expeditionary Force sent on a sabotage mission on a Tau Protector class cruiser that was on way to the Taro's campaign, they boarded the Tau ship near Isten where the planet was under attack from Chaos and Tau forces, none knew why. Haze's commanding officers on board the Tau vessel were dead and he had to take command of the squad, which had gone down from twenty to seven. They were also cut off from the other Squads on board the ship and matters were getting from bad to worse. The engineering deck was quiet at the start of the mission but things began to heat up.
Captain Daren had met a gruesome end when they passed through the fighter bays; he had cleared out an airlock where two Tau mechanics were taking pot shots at them. When he went in to check if they were both dead one of them had hit a close doors, low gravity and vent air button. The Tau was immediately was dispatched by Daren but the squad was unable to open the doors in time. As Daren started to float in the low gravity the skin on Daren's face grew tight around his face as he began to suffocate as the air left the chamber, his eyes started popping out of his head. Daren opened his mouth and shot himself rather than die slowly, the blood floated around his corpse in an eerie fashion. When the airlock shut off the Captains body hit the floor leaving an untidy mess of gore, not a good way to die.
From that point on the squad was cut down, Private Jenkins and Sanders were ripped to shreds by Kroot warriors who had ambushed them just past the Medical bay. Sergeant Nichols was crushed by a piece of falling roof when a missile hit the ship was all but a few of the horrors in store for them.
It turned out the Missile that caused Nichols death came from a Chaos battle cruiser directly above the planet Isten, it had been sending troops down into the city of Dabec. The Tau cruiser must have been cut off from their main fleet and now it seemed that the Chaos had found out that a new enemy had joined the fray. Haze wondered if the loyalist cruiser he came from was still intact and if he had a home to go to.
Haze came back to reality and he plus the squad made their way down the corridor stepping over the debris that surrounded them. Corpses of Tau and rubble seemed endless yet they managed to reach main engineering doors intact.
"Haze" Drop troop Nikolai murmured "Squad of Fire warriors ahead near the doors, they have not seen us" Haze looked at Nikolai and then to the doors, Nikolai was right of course, he had the keenest eyesight in the team. Haze motioned the squad to take cover behind the rubble and waited for a while. One of the Tau broke off from the Fire warriors and Haze placed a well-aimed shot into its forehead, the force of the shot took the back of the aliens' head off, the rest of the Imperial squad began to fire and killed another one. The four other warriors took cover by some rubble near the door and began shooting back at the Elysian's.
"We do not have time for this" spat Mikhail, who tugged the pin out of a grenade and lobbed it at the Fire warriors. One of them picked it up in an attempt to throw it back, but was engulfed by the explosion, as were two others. Mikhail who was grinning was hit in the face by shrapnel; the force of it broke his nose and the blood dripped down his face.
Nikolai threw his combat knife at the remaining Tau warrior and it went directly into its torso, the alien let out a sharp shriek and fell to the floor lifeless.
Haze shook his head ("Nikolai always one to show off" he thought) and approached the door closely followed by Mikhail who was now clutching his ruined nose.
"Not as I planned" Mikhail moaned nursing his face "And the frigging door is locked"
"No problem" Haze replied amid Mikhail's moans "Flint, still have your demo charges?"
The soldier known as Flint nodded and sprinted to the door, after a few minutes of fiddling with the explosives the Elysian's backed away from the door and took cover behind some rubble once more.
Mikhail sat upon the corpse of a Fire warrior (To his satisfaction).
"This part of the ship is going to be heavily guarded so get ready" Haze stared at each of the squad in turn and then leant on Mikhail who had managed to stop his nose from bleeding "Comfy Mik? Ok, lets do this"
"Three, Two, One" Flint whispered before he clicked the detonation button. The doors were blown off and bits of door and wall showered the squad. The smoke cleared steadily and revealed a giant hole where the doors used to be.
"Ok let's move!" Haze ordered getting to his feet and aiming his weapon, it was going to be a long day..