Chapter 2
"When the door opens, stay in your seat"
Ursus awoke to the face of Dix staring at him.
"Let's go sir" said the guardsman "0300, time to get up"
Before he could shake the fog from his head and mutter a reply Dix disappeared through the door. Ursus rolled out of bed, rubbing his eyes, grabbing his wash bag he headed for the shower block. Back in his room, feeling a little more human thanks to the cold shower and cup of recaf in his hand, he pulled on his Truskan uniform. It felt a bit alien for Ursus as he walked down the track to Capt. Kychec's position, vox caster on his back, Bergen in one hand and lasgun over his shoulder, he could almost pass as a guardsman were it not for the constant rearranging off his armour and helmet, something he'd never had to contend with before. He caught up with Kychec as he was leaving the bunker followed by a squad of men.
"Good to see you made Lt Cmdr" nodded Kychec without stopping "Keep up lad. Now I know you aren't exactly trained for this, but emperor protects, you'll be fine"
This prompted a chuckle from the following squad. Struggling to hear the Capt., over the cacophony of vehicles and sergeants shouting orders, Ursus had his eyes glued on the Capt.'s mouth.
"Failing that" he continued "look to the lads and follow as they do. You already know Dix; he's my voxman, the skinny one, that's Guardsman Malone, my Medic. Little and large back there are the Graff brothers, best heavy weapons team in the regiment, Sgt Bors is just up a head with..."
Thud, Ursus thought he had just walked into a tank, looking up it he saw a massive slab of muscle with two curios eyes staring back at him
"Grox, my Ogryn security" said Krychec trying to keep a straight face. "Bors, Grox this is our new Officer of the Fleet, Lt Cmdr Ursus"
The Sgt snapped a salute while the Ogryn just stared. Ursus could see the cogs slowly trying to turn in that massive, dense head.
"C'manda Ur, Ur, Urs" the mountain struggled to say
Before he could correct the beast, Grox pointed at the stencil on the Vox caster O.O.F.
"Oof" said Grox, looking pleased with himself and turning to fall in behind Krychec "C'manda Oof"
"So that about sums it up, we take this bridge, the 2nd of 3 so the armour and supporting troops can have a clear run at the city. We aren't sure what weapons the heretics have, depends what the PDF left for them when they retreated. We shouldn't be on the ground for more than 3 days, 2 to take and hold the bridge and the 3rd to hand it over to our relief. Good news for you though, it should be taken by the time we land" shouted Krychec over the noise of the engines.
Malone was doing his best to calm the Ogryn who did clearly not like the experience of flying. The pilot's voice came over their comms, warning of 30 seconds till touchdown and that the landing zone was still hot.
"Cmdr Oof" shouted Sgt Bors "When the door opens, stay in your seat!"
"Why!?" screamed Ursus as the craft slammed into the floor and the ramp dropped.
Before he had a chance to think, Ursus saw the massive bulk of the Ogryn come charging past him, a terrifying experience in such close quarters. As the Ogryn ran off into the darkness wielding its ripper gun, the rest of the squad disembarked. No sooner had they left the ramp the transport took off again whipping up the snow. The whole squad sprinted as fast as they could to the tree line and cover. Ursus couldn't help but notice how easy the bigger of the brothers carried the heavy bolter on his shoulder like it was a mere lasgun. Breathless, they all jumped into the ditch. Gasping for breath, Ursus watched wide eyed as the squad began to organise, the Graff boys rapidly deploying their heavy weapon and laying down fire. Sgt Bors and Guardsman Malone blasting away with their lasguns. And Capt Kychec. Capt Kychec calmly standing there, using the hand held device on the vox caster, systematically demanding a sitrep from each of his platoon commanders. What struck him the most though was the grinning face of Dix, the young guardsman staring back at him as if he was actually enjoying it?
Slowly lifting his head, Ursus began to notice the father along the tree lines the rest of the 9th Company guardsman firing away, their las rounds flashing in the darkness. Suddenly a blinding light shot across his face, he felt the heat and realised rapidly that the laser show going off was a two way affair. Ducking back down, Ursus became aware of the voice in his ear saying all drop craft were clear of the air space.
Composing himself, Ursus removed the data slate from his pocket and the range finder from his pack. Looking through the scope of the range finder, he saw the muzzle flashes of the enemy tree line either side of the bridge entrance, the display showed the enemy to be 364m away. Keying into his data slate, he could see the newly marked enemy positions as well as those of the rest of the company.
"Any Vulture call signs respond" The calmness with which he spoke shocked himself as he could feel the adrenaline flushing through his system "Truskan 0-4"
"Truskan0-4, Vulture 2-3, what do you need sir?" crackled through his headset.
"Vulture 2-3, do you see the tree line running parallel to river either side of the south entrance to the bridge?"
"Affirmative Truskan 0-4"
"Good, multiple enemy contacts in the tree line, I want a bomb run, moving east to west along the tree line, either side of the entrance. Ordnance, promethium incendiary, copy?"
"Roger that Truskan 0-4, 60 seconds out"
"Capt Kychec" screamed Ursus "Incoming airstrike, 60 seconds"
Krychec shouted to Dix to alert the rest of the company to keep their heads down.
Ursus heard the engines, faintly at first then it rapidly build to scream as the Gunship came racing in over the enemy position. He didn't even see the bombs drop in the darkness, just the blinding flash of fire followed a split second later of the sound of the roaring inferno engulfing the heretic position.