Unnamed Tau Controlled planet, number 1187
0900 hours (Approximate planet time)
L-Day +209
394 Kilometers from the landing zone
"Ok…Now" Gazik commanded. The five Guardsmen all stood as one, coming out of the cover that the collapsed building provided and sprinting across the street. Gazik had timed their movement so that they moved across the street in the blind spot between the Battlesuits in the column as it marched down the street.
The sun was out and the winter cold was long gone. Despite the warm weather, the Vardan's all still wore their greatcoats. Yasir felt his greatcoat becoming hot as he ran across the street. Warm weather or cold, Vardan's always wore their greatcoats. 'That's the way the Conscripts did it.' Yasir thought as they passed another burning Imperial vehicle, this one a Chimera, 'So that's the way we do it.' the Instructors on Vardan had told him that even before he had been given one himself.
The Guardsmen made it across the street and dove for the cover of the next building. Yasir was the last to make it, still sore from his encounter with the Tau rocket. He dropped to his stomach and rolled under a collapsed wall from another ruined building. No sooner had they cleared the street then another Battlesuit walked past.
Yasir turned his attention away from the street and to the other Guardsmen. Gazik and one of the Guardsmen were peering out one of the windows and the other two Guardsmen, including the one with the Vox- Caster, were adjusting dials on the communication device.
"Any luck?" Gazik asked over his shoulder. The Gaunt faced Guardsman shook his head.
"No Corporal. I'm picking up transmissions now, but they're too scrambled to understand, and calling anyone is out of the question." Gazik bit his lip.
"We've got to be close then. Yasir!" The spotter perked up at his name.
"Corporal!" that was the only response he could give.
"Climb up higher and take a look around. See if you can find the Imperial lines." Yasir nodded.
"Rodger Corporal." he said, already climbing up the partly intact stairs. The stairs led up another two floors before crumbling in, the upper floors having seemingly collapsed onto the bottom three. He approached one of the windows in a crouch, careful not to show more of himself in the window than was necessary to see. Peeking over the bottom edge of the window, The young Guardsman saw a battle larger than any he'd ever seen before.
Below not two kilometers away the city was a mess. Yasir could see clearly where squads of Guardsmen were mounting the defense. Taking cover in blast craters, behind vehicles both destroyed and functional, and in the lower stories of some buildings. Grey Imperial Chimeras, Hell hounds, and Leman Russ's all contributed to the fight with all they had. The human war machines all dealing out death in a variety of ways. The Tau had soldiers on the ground as well. Fire Warriors mixed the white flash of their pulse rifles with the red bolts of the Imperial lasgun. The Tan armored soldiers seemed to be keeping their distance, though Yasir watched a squad move up to a building. Break down the door, and enter and clear it. The Tan soldiers appearing again on the roof a moment latter and began using the vantage point against the Guardsmen in the street below. Tau vehicles were also part of the fight. Besides a few Battlesuits, Yasir saw several hovering vehicles with large cannons as long as they were. A pair of these tan tanks fired together, and the Hell Hound they were aiming at exploded in a way that reminded Yasir of the day the tank column was ambushed. Despite all their efforts, the Imperium was being defeated.
The Guardsman turned his attention away from losing battle and looked for a way for their half squad to rejoin the Imperial side. The blocks of buildings stretched for several blocks, with Human and Tau fighting all throughout. Although they were at most 1500 meters from the Imperium's side, there was no way to cross the kill zone between the two armies. Yasir sighed, and started back down the stairs.
When he reached the ground floor, he saw only Gazik and the Vox-man, the other two Guardsmen were absent. The Corporal glanced up from the Vox-Caster at the sound of Yasir's boots on the old stairs.
"Anything?" he asked in the tone that made the word a question. Yasir shook his head.
"The Imperium's lines are about a kilometer ahead, but there's more Tau out there between us and them than I've ever seen." Gazik bit his lip and nodded.
"I see." he said, the other two Guardsmen entered through a side door. "You said that it's about another kilck ahead?" Yasir nodded.
"Rodger Corporal." Gazik nodded, then turned to the two other Guardsmen.
"Let's go."
~/~/~
The two Guardsmen led the group down an alleyway to a metal disk set into the ground. They began lifting the disk out of the ground and Yasir realized that it was an entrance to the City's sewers. They pulled the metal disk out of the way and Corporal Gazik peered down into the sewers. The middle-aged NCO sighed and pulled the Commissar's chainsword from his belt and walked down into the sewer. Yasir was last in the group, and stepping up to the hole, he saw that rather than a ladder, there were stone steps leading down into the darkness. The sewer tunnel was different then he had expected as well, being much larger than the Imperial sewers he had had the displeasure of cleaning during a summer on Vardan.
The ceiling was much higher then it needed to be, and he saw several small tubes running along the roof. It took a moment for him to realize that what he was seeing were the Tau's version of buried electrical lines. Humans, Yasir remembered as he started after the rest of the group, had begun burying electrical lines nearly as long as they had known about electricity. Though they had never used the same tunnels for sewage. Yasir caught up with the rest of the Guardsmen, taking up a position at the rear of the group. The five moved quickly, their black boots sloshing in the ankle deep muck.
Straining his eyes to see in the darkness, Yasir could only make out the outlines of the other four men, identical to each other except for the one in front of the group held a chainsword. The tunnel moved in a straight line, thankfully in the direction that they needed to go. As they made their way along Yasir saw that several smaller tunnels led into this one. Above them, the ceiling vibrated with the explosions and noise of the battle raging above them.
~/~/~
Ten minutes of walking in silence and the tunnel forked off to the left next to another set of stairs leading up to the surface. Gazik motioned for them to stop and he began climbing the stairs. Yasir took up a position looking down the tunnel to the left. His eyes had mostly adjusted to the darkness, but he still had to strain to see far ahead of him. He didn't see anything in the darkness and his mind began to wander when he heard a distant fluttering sound. Yasir shook his head and tilted it so that his left ear was facing down the tunnel. It had only been for a second, and it was far enough that it was only an echo, but something about it seemed strange.
"Did you hear that?" he asked the Gaunt faced Vox-man next to him. The Guardsman turned to look at him.
"Hear wh-" he stopped as the sound returned, louder this time. "Yeah…" he said, turning to look down the tunnel. "What is that?" The sound came back, longer and more definite. It sounded like thin wings fluttering quickly, and it was even closer. The other two Guardsmen who'd found the sewer came over and the four Guardsmen all raised their lasguns. The sound was steady now, a constant buzz getting louder and louder as whatever it was making it got closer and closer. Then they saw them.
They were ugly. Yasir couldn't remember ever seeing something as ugly as the creatures coming at him then. They were insects, man-sized and with wings on their backs carrying them through the air at them. Their skin was covered in scales, and their limbs were narrow and insect-like with small, sharp claws on the ends in place of fingers. Their heads were tall and reminded Yasir of pictures he'd seen of the Eldar. The bug face had multiple rows of eyes and a disgusting mouth that was all teeth with barbed jaws. The bug's two arms held an odd looking weapon. It wasn't as long as a lasgun, though it looked much bulkier and ended in a pair of prongs rather than a muzzle. One of the Bugs fired a burst from it's weapon, a trio of whit beams shooting out towards the Guardsmen. Yasir brought his lasgun up to his face, when he smelled something burning. He looked to his right to see the Gaunt faced Guardsman convulsing on the ground, black burn marks on his face and arms. With the Bugs now only fifty feet away, The remaining Guardsmen opened fire. They shot as one, the red bolts and the crack of their lasguns familiar to them. The Guardsmen's fire proved effective, cutting three of the Bugs out of the air, but they were still closing in quickly, now thirty feet away. Yasir shot a second Bug through it's midsection and took aim at another when it was knocked out of the air by a solid round.
"Time to get topside!" Gazik yelled from the stairs, shooting his Auto pistol into the mass of flying bugs. Yasir slung his lasgun and reached down for the Wounded Vox-man. He reached his arms under the wounded man's armpits and locked hands over his chest and began dragging him towards the stairs. The other two Guardsmen noticed his actions and placed their weapons on Full Auto to cover him, walking backwards as they did. The Bugs seemed to noticed this as well and adjusted their fire to shoot at the wounded man. Before Yasir had pulled him ten feet a half dozen more white bolts burned into the Gaunt-faced Guardsman's chest and the body went limp in the Spotter's arms.
Yasir felt his blood boil. He dropped his dead comrade an unsung his lasgun. In one motion he flipped the selector switch to Full Auto and began firing from the hip, yelling insults at the Bugs as they drew ever closer. The Insects were still shooting as they prepared to close with him, and another of Guardsmen yelled out in pain. Yasir's nostril's flared and his lips curled back from his teeth. He felt his vision began to turn red and the only thing that seemed to matter was killing the Insects. His lasgun shot out bolt after bolt, the red energy tearing into the swarm of flying insects. When the bugs were only ten feet away, he felt a pair of hands grab his shoulders and yank him back.
The hands put him off balance, bringing him out of the trance. The red tint to the world disappeared and he realized that the hands were still pulling him. Yasir shook his head and turned around to see the other Guardsman who had brought him out of the trance. He made eye contact with Yasir then turned his attention to the Insect swarm. Yasir watched as the Guardsman raised his hands, revealing a grenade in each.
"Get up top, NOW!" Yasir didn't think about the man's words. You couldn't argue with a Vardan that had decided to sacrifice himself. Yasir ran up the steps after Gazik, who was firing his Auto Pistol into the mass of Bugs. Yasir sparred a final glance back at the Guardsman, seeing the Bugs descend on the man, raising their sharp claws to tear the man apart. Gazik pushed him through the hole then jumped through himself. No sooner had the two Guardsmen made it through, then a massive explosion sounded from the sewer they had just left, sending water through the entrance after them. Then nothing. No noise. Just the sound of his heart pounding in his chest. Gazik picked himself up and looked around before reaching out a hand to help his Spotter up.
"Warp-fuckin Vespid. They're Tau mercenaries, just like the Kroot." He said as Yasir stood. "Let's get out of the street." Without another word Gazik took off towards one of the nearby buildings.
~/~/~
Only a block away, they found more of the Imperium. The sewers must have taken them farther then they thought, because they came up behind a squad of grey greatcoat clad Guardsmen taking cover behind a destroyed Leman Russ. The odd thing about the squad was that they weren't taking any fire, and there were no Aliens in sight. One of them noticed the Sniper Team approaching and stood, waving his arms.
"GET DOWN! TAU SNIP-" A beam shot out from a building and blew through the Guardsman's neck, severing the head from the spine. Yasir and Gazik didn't have time to duck, only to look up into the window and see a Tau soldier wearing a white helmet with three red stripes on the side. Yasir felt Gazik's left hand yank his right shoulder back. As he fell to the ground he saw a white flash. Immediately, he felt an incredible burning pain in his face. It was the worst feeling he had ever felt. A burn stronger and more painful than he could ever had imagined, and it seemed to crawl back through his face and into his brain. As he hit the ground the pain got worse and his vision went black. Barely conscious, he heard the sound of Gazik's longlas followed by another pulse blast. Then everything went quiet.