Authors Note: If you are liking how this cahapter will just be one of the smaller battles in the stories course. Up next is one of the more epic moments of the beginning and also will be more characters so get ready because tehcahpter after this will be a dozey! Lord Magos Jadinar
The wave of Laotian steel and flesh flowed towards the fortified habs in the city of Braxen Alpha.
Lasguns blazing, Flamers whooshing, Heavy bolters and Autocannons booming. The Hammer of the Emperor was ready for another vicotry.
Unlike most Guard companies that range in size from 200-600 men large, the amount of men in a Laotian company is at average 450 men plus support personnel, which means Priests, Commissars, Medics, and Administratum adepts and other miscellaneous men and women which help keep the Guard running.
As the company deployed towards the habs, Mortar teams set up and started to shell the Chaos cultists holed up in the buildings throwing up plumes of broken bodies and clods of dirt and stone. Platoons under sergeants Uwel, Inoq and "Gritty" Gorh smashed their way through the streets of the confused cultists shooting them down with blurts of lasfire, impaling and chopping down those which stood and fought and then igniting groups of them as they fled with Flamers.
Captain Bayern watched as the slaughter happened feeling a righteous sense of satisfaction as he watched the Chaos lovers destroyed but knowing that this was the easy part, they haven't yet reached the fortified chokepoint, that would be the true test, that was when his plans would either be blessed or rejected by the Emperor. This was the time that Bayern loved to be captain as he watched his men sweep over the enemy, blowing through them with focused firepower and hacking them apart in close combat.
Just then he heard the ugly dull boom of the field guns Lietenant Argos was talking about and then he felt the vibrations as they hit the ground. He saw the impacts as they crept towards his men but was inwardly glad because that would give his sentinel pilots and salamanders a point of reference for attack.
He watched as the platoons ran into the main chokepoint of the enemies defense, he saw as the enemies poured from the surrounding area to reinforce it and again he smiled. It was time to get his hands dirty, he walked over to his companies chimeras and motioned to the driver to start the race towards the battle. He entered the transports rear and nodded to the men seated there, they were going to battle.
2nd Companies chimeras hit chokepoint like a rampaging ogryn hit's the nearest thing it sees. Specially equipped vehicles with Dozer blades hit the pile of rubble and collapsed that entire section of the chokepoint. At that time the rest of the chimeras roared through the gap firing their turret mounted Multi-lasers and Stubbers.
All the cultists that were assembling behind the fortifications were caught beneath their wheels with sickening crunches or made into that exotic cheese nobles liked that were filled with holes by the vehicles hull mounted weapons. Captain Bayern watched that destruction as he swung the Multi-laser around in arcs of fire that ripped into men with large mists of superheated blood, the vehicles decimated the cultists.
The Captain's charge was finally stopped as the vehicles started to be destroyed by RPG's the cultists had armed themseleves with, Bayern roared over vox to disembark from the vehicles and engage the enemy in hand to hand, knowing his men would have the advantage.
Captain Bayern rose out of the turret of the chimera and readied his weapons as he strode out of the assault ramp and into the maelstrom of battle with a prayer to the Emperor on his lips.
The first enemy he met was garbed in the bloodstained robes of a scribe but looked nothing like the old bookie the man used to be, his eyes were wild and he yelled prayers to his infernal gods as he raised the axe in his hands to chop him down.
Bayern didn't give him a chance as he darted forward and lopped both the mans arms from his body with a single powerful sweep of his uniyyal and then doubled around with the blade point first and ran the man threw with ease that one would see a child lift a toy. He watched as the feverish light behind the mans eyes disappear as he yanked his blade out.
He then turned his head to see the battle raging around him before raising his Laspistol and shooting one of cultists in gut turning his once heroic charge to a red ruin.
The man's body continued its way forward because of its momentum before landing in a heap on the ground. He jumped over the corpse and sprinted towards the next knot of the madmen to aid his beleaguered men which were engaged in frantic close combat battle.
He slashed downward with his sword and cleaved through the skull of the first men and then did a upward slash which disemboweled the next one before kneeling and shooting a quick burst of fire which made most of his target's head and neck disappear in a puff of blood.
Allowing his combat instincts to take over he did a quick semi-circle before rising and slamming the butt of his pistol into the throat of the next enemy and then using his sword's razor edge and his own momentum to allow his sword to nearly cut the man in half. Before rising to his full height and putting a lasbolt through the heart of a wounded cultist.
He danced and wirled through the press of men chopping,stabbing and shooting with a grace only a expierenced warrior could achieve. He brought his whirlwind of death to an arubt stop, noticing that his sword and armour was covered in blood and his laspistol's barrel was still smoking from discharge, as the battle was won.
Bayern saw that his adjutant Nuls was among the group he had helped. His combat Shotgun still smoking from the blazing of shells through its muzzle and a fine drizzle of blood misted his battle gear.
"Thanks for the intervention, sir." said Nuls with a wry grin, which he answered it with one of his own.
"Someone had to pull your ass out of the fire Nuls."
Nuls chuckled before saying, "Sir, this sector is almost clear, Lieutenant Argos just reported that his Sentinels and Salamanders had wiped out the Mortar crews."
Bayern shook his head in admiration of his old friends skills, "Tell him a job well down Nuls, but ask him if he could slow down a bit its only the been 25 minutes, he's making the Emperor's elite look bad."
"I'll ask him, sir." said Nuls with a shake of his head.
He walked over to the command chimeras vox caster set to reply to the Lieutenant. All around the captain battle still raged but it seemed to have been pushed towards the center of the habs, where the enemy was expected to make its last stand.
And also where the Chaos Marines are most likely to be too, thought Bayern.
"NULS!" he shouted towards the command Chimera which his adjutant had just entered.
"Sir?" enquired Nuls who showed his head out of the hatch of the chimera.
"Also get a hold of the leading edge of the force driving the wedge into the enemies stronghold too Nuls and tell them too secure a good position, regroup and wait for reinforcements."
"But sir wouldn't it be wise for them to continue onwards and finish them off?" asked his adjutant timidly, not wanting to upset his commander.
Bayern turned his head back towards the man and smiled grimly, "Trust me Nuls, there gonna need all the help the Emperor himself can provide."