Chapter 7
Once the guardsmen arrived at the gates, their numbers were few dozen at best. They flew grenades at the walls, breaching a hole big enough for three men to enter from. As the guardsmen funneled into the base, JSDF weapon systems sent a hail of lead into their ranks.
"We need more men over here!" shouted a JSDF officer over the radio. Despite Aralith's warning, the men of the JSDF were spread throughout the base. The enemy seemed to concentrate their entire effort towards a single gate.
Itami's team swerved their vehicles near the walls. The gunners began to fire their turrets towards the gate of the base. Many of the guardsmen were able to withstand a hit to the chest or head by small arms fire. However, the anti-tank rounds and heavier calibers from mounted turrets had little trouble putting down a charging guardsman. Soon, only a few guardsmen remained, and those who did not make it to the base began to turn around and run back. Those within the base continued their last stand despite being hopelessly outnumbered by the JSDF.
As the last of the invader went down, the JSDF cheered with excitement. However, their excitement was short lived.
"Up there! Look!" one of the JSDF pointed at the hills. There were several more guardsmen, this time with tanks, lining the hills.
"Shit! It never gets easier, does it?" cursed another JSDF.
Without slowing down or stopping, Itami drove towards the destination the seer pointed. There were a small detachment of guardsmen ahead.
"It's too late to back out now," he said, as he floored the gas even harder.
The JSDF jets flew over the skies above Alnus Hills. Along with trails of dead guardsmen, there were thousands more, lining to charge the base.
"I have visuals," said the JSDF officer over the radio. The F-4s flew over the crowd, attempting to bomb the closely packed enemy formations. The F-4 were quickly met with Imperial Guard resistance.
"What the hell is that?"
"Control. Confirm visual on incoming bogie. Is that- is that a fighter plane?"
Imperial Lightening fighters flew past the jets and turned around at tremendous speed. Lightening fighters unleashed a hail of autocannon fire towards the jets, tearing off wings and engines. From the ground, hydra flak tanks with their 4 autocannons unleashed a storm of rounds upon JSDF fliers. The JSDF AA guns also fired upon the enemy aircrafts, damaging them but failing to bring them down. The Imperial fliers turned back and disappeared from the battlefield.
Despite the artillery strikes and aerial bombardment, the guardsmen did not scatter or break formation. They steadily marched towards the tattered walls of the JSDF base.
"Anyone who breaks formation," shouted a commissar, his black coat waving in the wind, "Will be shot. Death by a commissar's bullet means that you will not join the Emperor by His side upon death, your soul ripped and torn, in the mercy of the creatures of the Warp. Stand your ground, guardsmen, and you shall join the Emperor in life everlasting!"
JSDF defenses did not fair much better. Earthshaker batteries from far away basilisks leveled the artillery guns and infantry alike, along with the ground below them with a thundering crash. Not even bodies left to be recovered after such bombardment.
"FOR THE EMPEROR!"
Once the artillery strikes slowed down, the guardsmen began to charge again. This time, their Leman Russ tanks charged with them, leading from the front. The fleeing guardsmen had little choice but to join the charge or be stomped to death by their own ranks.
Itami's vehicle was just about to pass the gate. Before them were a swarm of Imperial Guard in their flak armour and lasguns, charging towards the base.
"Here they come again..." Kuribayashi sighed.
"Halt!" Aralith shouted. Itami hit the emergency break. Then all eyes turned to the seer. Aralith exited the vehicle and walked towards the gate.
"Hey! What are you doing?" Kuribayashi screamed from the turret.
From inside the vehicle, Lelei watched Aralith walking away from the vehicle, where piles of corpses soaking in the pool of their own blood. She felt slightly sick from the bodies.
Clouds began to form a cyclone as the sky darkened. Aralith's eyes glowed blue as she leviated in the air. There were thunder and lightening just above her head. Aralith pointed at the incoming guardsmen. Soon a psychic storm fell upon the guardsmen. Psychic energy burst into the ground as guardsmen and tanks alike were blown into pieces. These tanks, which shrugged off even aerial bombardment, crushed up like tin cans at the psyker's devastating energy storm. Not even commissars were spared of this fate when the burst of concentrated psychic bolts struck them.
The storm subsided as Aralith's eyes returned to normal. She fell to the ground stumbling, pressing her forehead with her hand. Lelei ran out to help up stand.
"They will manage to break the defenses this time," Aralith spoke with a painful groan, "Your warriors must fall back to the secondary checkpoint."
The earthshaker batteries completely leveled the building behind them, leaving a ringing noise in everyone's ears.
"What the hell was that?" screamed a JSDF soldier. Few began to lose heart and give up, curling themselves into a ball and trembling uncontrollably.
"Is THAT the artillery that you spoke of?" screamed Itami, "If that keeps up, this place won't hold!"
Aralith nodded faintly.
"As I have said, I can lead you there. There aren't that many Basilisks, and they are rather poorly defended," she said, pointing at a faraway hill. There were more guardsmen standing around than before.
"Wait, that's what you call poorly defended? Are you crazy? We'll never make it through."
Aralith's eyes began to glow once more. Itami backed off.
"I will protect the vehicles so that you may pass," she let out a sigh.
Itami still looked unconvinced.
"I can held set up a barrier around the vehicle," Lelei added, "That should reduce the burden on her mind."
Aralith felt that her intervention was unnecessary, but she decided to accept the human witch's goo will and held her tongue.
"Then I shall stay here and hold back the enemy. Looks like they are all coming this way, and I going to be able to enjoy myself to the fullest," Rory jumped, her halberd spinning like helicopter blades in her hand. Nobody objected her the demigoddess's will.
"Alright," Itami give in reluctantly, "Mount up! We're gonna take out that gun battery! Everyone else, go ahead and fall back to the secondary defenses."
Machine gun nests on towers stood no chance against battle cannon fire and artillery shells. With the towers down, there were little to hold back the incoming wave. The guardsmen charged with fanatic zeal. Walls crumbled, leaving sizable holes from guardsmen to enter from. Through those collapsed walls, the guardsmen came pouring in, engaging the defending JSDF in hand to hand. The JSDF fought back, using their rifles and knives.
"DIE TRAITOR!"
A guardswoman thrusted her bayonet into a JSDF's gut and pinned him to the wall. The JSDF soldier cried out in pain as he tried to push his assailant off. A JSDF officer aimed his pistol at the guardswoman's face and pulled the trigger.
"Shit! Shit! SHIT!" the officer discharged the rest of the magazine into the corpse of the dead guardswoman. The injured JSDF sat himself against a wall and held his intestines in with his hand.
The guardsmen fought with so much hatred and zeal that it made the JSDF question the sanity of the Imperial Guard. Dead guardsmen littered the field, yet they seemed so unbroken. Meanwhile, the JSDF began to slowly lose heart.
One JSDF soldier spotted who seemed to be an officer of the Imperial Guard, wearing a black overcoat and a cap, as the man who executed the JSDF soldiers earlier. JSDF soldier fired a few rounds into the man's chest. The shots only fazed him for a brief moment. The man in black coat then slashed his sabre at the soldier, who raised his rifle to block it. The sword cut clean through the rifle, and the man lobbed off the JSDF soldier's head clean off. The blade emitted a faint, buzzing blue light.
"Death to all heretics, mutants and traitors!" he yelled, standing triumphantly over the corpse of the slain JSDF soldier. Then a giant halberd flung the man through a wall. A transparent energy shield flickered around him. The apostle in Gothic dress made a curious expression.
"That should have cut you in two... Hmm. How are you still alive?"
The commissar raised himself using his sabre as his balance.
"By the Emperor's glory, I live! And by His fury, you shall perish, mutant!"
The commissar charged at Rory with his blade drawn. Rory swiftly evaded his attack and slashed at him once more with her halberd. His arm flew off his shoulder along with the sabre. Expecting to see the man writhe in pain, Rory was caught by surprise when an exploding bullet blew a hole through her stomach.
"Wha-"
The commissar had drawn his bolt pistol with the other hand and fired at her. Rory brought the halberd down on the man's head with great speed, splitting it in down half way through the man's carapace armour. Whatever it was made of, it was incredibly durable, Rory thought. The wound on her stomach began to grow smaller. Rory felt pain, and with it, thrill of battle ran through her veins. No one was able to injury her in single combat other than apostles. No one stood before her with such fearlessness. She licked the blood off her hand and smiled.
"Fall back! Fall back to the secondary walls!" the JSDF radios echoed. The JSDF troops began their hopeless retreat whilst being shot and cut down by the incoming guards. However, it seemed that less than half of the guardsmen and tanks remained.
"These freaks really wanna fight to the last man, huh?" shouted a JSDF private.
"Shut up and shoot if you got strength to run your mouth!" replied his sergeant.
Itami's vehicle drove through the enemy lines. The guardsmen fired their lasguns at the vehicle, yet their lasers failed to penetrate Lelei's magic barrier. This was no easy task for Lelei due to the sheer number of lasgun fires rather than the individual power of its shot. But not even Lelei could hold back a shot from the battle cannon.
However, no battle cannon was able to connect a shot. Just when a round would fire, the Eldar seer guided the vehicle away from its path of trajectory. Running over the crowd of guardsmen blocking the path, the team made it through the other side of the formation with relative ease.
"There it is!" shouted Kuribayashi, pointing at the ten basilisk tanks. Their tank commander has also spotted Itami's team, ordering his men to lower the barrel and fire upon the incoming vehicle. But the seer aimed her power at the tank commander, who's head became bloated and exploded.
The basilisk attempted to withdraw, but Itami's vehicle was faster. It flanked around the enemy formation, allowing Kuribayashi to open fire on them with her turret. Aralith jumped out of the vehicle and charged towards the enemy at incredible speed.
"Did- Did you catch that?" Kuribayashi asked with her jaw dropped.
"I did. That... was unexpected. It's as if she's an apostle," Itami replied, amazed at the Eldar's nimble yet powerful movements. Jumping through the enemy, she cut and slash with such graceful maneuvers that it seemed as though she was dancing.
The seer made quick work of the tank crew using her witchblade. Whether it was their armour or platings on vehicle, the seer cut through them as if cutting through a sheet of paper. Weaving through her enemy like blade through cloth, the seer managed to slaughter the remaining tank crew with ease.
"Who are you?" Lelei mumbled with a voice only herself would hear.
The battle continued through the streets of Alnus, in the civilian sectors. Many of the civilians had been already evacuated from the assault had begun. The streets were mostly empty and in ruin, many buildings collapsed from the artillery strike from earlier. The JSDF managed to barricade the secondary gates before the first wall failed. The machine gun nests kept the infantry back but had almost no effect on the hulking mass of metal that they called tanks.
A JSDF soldier fired a shoulder fired rocket into the enemy tank. The rocket struck with a loud thud and detonated, shooting up a massive cloud of smoke and debris.
"Did we hit it?" another JSDF soldier asked.
To their dread, the tank rolled out of the smoke almost unscathed from the blast. The cannon aimed itself towards the JSDF team.
"Shit! Fall back!" the JSDF anti-tank operative yelled. They jumped out of the window and sprinted back. The heavy bolters on the sponsons let out a hail of bolt rounds towards the fleeing troops, tearing them into fine red mists. The few lucky ones managed to escape, but the tank chased after them furiously, along with the supporting infantry surrounding it.
The tanks ground through the narrow streets, crushing through debris and walls as if they were made of foam boards. When the Leman Russ tank positioned itself at one of the secondary gate and aimed its cannon at the retreating JSDF, a glowing stream of what appeared to be lava hit the tank from the rear. The tank appeared to melt, followed by a massive explosion.
"Xenos! It is the sneaky Eldar!" yelled the Imperial Guard commander, "Find it before it brings us to ruin!"
The Fire Dragon aspect warrior scurried through the streets, tearing apart infantry with his shuriken pistol and picking out tanks with his Firepike, an ancient weapon capable of taking out enemy armours from a distance.
Back in the JSDF headquarter, General Hazama sat nervously on his seat with his hands folded on his desk. Before him, an officer was reporting the damages done by the ambush.
"Sir, what's the plan? The enemy has already broken through the walls. They approach the headquarter at terrifying speed," a JSDF officer reported.
General Hazama, who refused to fall back to Japan, stood his ground with the 15,000 JSDF personnel to defend the command center at Alnus Hill. It was difficult to tell whether they were winning or losing. One thing was certain, JSDF suffered heavy casualties. Whether they win or lose, the backlash from their homeland would be immense. However, that was an issue of tomorrow. Today, General Hazama had one goal. He will bury as many enemy as he can.
"Tell Japan to upgrade their defenses around the Gate. We might not make it out of this one," the general lamented. He got up and walked up to the framed Nisshoki mounted on the wall. His eyes burned with flaming resolve.
"But we shall show the invaders that Japan will not back off without a fight!"