Unnamed Tau Controlled planet, number 1187
1011 hours (Approximate planet time)
L-Day +245
290 Kilometers from the landing zone
The Chimera rumbled as it made it's way down the water soaked street. Sitting inside, Yasir could hear the heavy drops of water rain down on the Chimera's roof as it brought him closer to his destination. He sighed and opened his eye, at last giving up on his attempt to sleep. Chimera's weren't known to be quiet machines, and this refurbished one was ever louder. Even as far away from the engine as he was, he could hear the machine spirit protest against the foreign metal that had been welded onto it's side to repair the hole a pulse cannon had made.
'I guess things just kept getting worse while I was laid up.' Yasir thought. He turned his attention away from the tan metal repairs to some of the other Guardsmen in the vehicle. He wasn't riding with Vardans. Today the Guardsmen he was with were wearing the standard uniform and armor, though the color scheme was mostly a crimson red with some gold. Validians from the 112th Royal Validian Regiment. Sitting next to the squad, Yasir's grey greatcoat stood out more than the base color should have allowed.
Yasir looked down at the greatcoat. Until recently it had been Gazik's, the Medic's hadn't bothered to remove or change the name tape so he had borrowed one of the Validian's bayonets and removed the name as well as the 42 on his right shoulder. He moved the patch with the two numbers around in his hand as he considered Gazik's home world and demise. The Tau had killed his family on Sarith, now they had finished the job here. The no-nonsense Corporal had taught him everything about being a Guardsman, and about being a sniper. Now he was the Corporal and carried the longlas. He felt the Chimera lurch foreword and come to a sudden stop. He took a deep breath and remembered the way that Gazik had always focused on the task at hand. Releasing the breath, he pushed the patch into his pocket and stood, pushing all thoughts of the dead NCO from his mind as well. 'Time to go.'
~/~/~
The Imperial position that the Sniper had last hit was a mess. The Chimera had parked nest to a pair of still standing warehouses. The tan buildings were the only structures made of entirely of stone, and likely that was why they were the only ones still standing. Next to one of the buildings a Basilisk, it's treads broken and long gone, sat with it's gun elevated, firing every few seconds. Stepping off the Chimera's ramp, he was greeted by the full force of the rain he'd heard on the roof of the vehicle. He pulled the collar of his greatcoat up around his neck and stepped off the ramp. In the opposite direction from where he'd come, there were a maze of fallen and crumbled buildings. Guardsmen, Validians and others from units he didn't recognize, crawled along and through the ruins. Not so far ahead, he heard a sound he recognized as a Pulse Salvo from the same kind of Massive Battlesuit he'd seen a month ago.
'Emperor help us.' he thought, making his way towards the warehouse with a ripped and worn banner that read 112 hanging from a broken window. 'Or this planet is lost.'
~/~/~
Inside the warehouse, portable powered lights had been set up and an Engineseer along with a pair of servitors worked on another basilisk. Guardsmen ran back and forth, carrying artillery shells from a pallet in the center of the warehouse outside to the immobilized artillery piece. Passing the pallet, he came to a stairway that led down into the building's basement. In the room at the bottom of the stairs he found a tough box turned on it's side to be used as a desk, and a Validian major sitting behind it.
"I don't care, put Captain Janis on the Vox!" The Major yelled into the Vox Handset he held. "Dead? When?…" He looked up to see the Corporal enter. This Major was much younger than the one who had sent him here, though the current state of the war had aged him noticeably, and his face was marred by a pair of thick scars that bent across the man's nose. The Vox crackled and went dead. The Young Major frowned and slammed it down on the desk. "What do you want?" he asked Yasir. Yasir moved to the position of attention, and saluted. The Young Major starred at him blankly for a moment before returning the salute. Yasir dropped his salute and took out the letter the Major had given him. The Young Major snatched it from his hand and opened it, reading it's contents quickly. He finished the letter and looked back at Yasir, sizing the young Corporal up.
"Hummm." he said at length. "Well, your information is correct, we are in fact experiencing sniper problems, along with a host of others, and this one did recently kill one of our better snipers. A Sergeant…," he looked at a paper on his desk. "Hask, Sergeant Hask. Died three days ago." He motioned to the Vox on his desk. "You no doubt just heard that I've lost communication with the forward element." Yasir nodded. "This sort of thing is happening a lot lately." the Major continued. "Something, alien or nature, will cut the line, we've had to rely on hardwires since the Tau started jamming our vox channels. We'll send out a team to fix it when they go to resupply the OP. Problem is, once they leave here, the front line doesn't really exist." Yasir didn't understand, and it must've shown on his face so the Young Major elaborated. "The Tau are advancing so fast, that some of them are occupying some of the ruins between us and the OP positions. Of course we've got our own guys running patrols out there as well, but they don't know where the Aliens are, and I suspect that they don't know where our guys are either. So this makes this entire district the frontline, with this sniper of yours going to town out there." The Young Major leaned forward. "Tomorrow I'm sending out a squad to resupply the OP and fix this Vox line. If you want to find your sniper, you'll go with."
~/~/~
Unnamed Tau Controlled planet, number 1187
0945 hours (Approximate planet time)
L-Day +246
292 Kilometers from the landing zone
It was still raining as Yasir followed the squad out of the destroyed building and into the street. The sky was overcast and as grey as his greatcoat, giving the crouched sniper some degree of camouflage in the pouring rain. The five man squad, all of which carried rucksacks filled with food and ammunition, made their way down the debris littered street. They came to an intersection and Yasir saw a sign out of the corner of his eye. Looking at it, he saw that it was covered in the same sort of symbols the Tau used in their strange language. He reached for the blue book that Gazik had written down everything he knew about the Tau in when a voice brought him back to the task at hand.
"Corporal!" Yasir didn't respond at first, not used to being called by that rank.
'That's right,' he reminded himself, 'I'm the Corporal now, and I can't let myself get distracted anymore.' He turned his head to face the speaker before he could call him again, trying to emulate Gazik's stoicism. The Guardsman who spoke was a few years older than himself. Heavyset and missing his helmet, the Grenade launcher in his hands looked almost small.
"Corporal, the Vox line's this way." he said as he followed the rest of the squad down the left street in the intersection. Yasir nodded and fell into step next to the helmet-less guardsman at the rear of the file, keeping his eyes alert for any movement in the buildings around him. Much like the buildings around the Landing Zone, the tan structures were concrete, and no more than five or six stories. Small and spacious, compared to the Imperium's Hive Cities.
"Do you know where your Sniper got hit?" Yasir asked. The Guardsman looked at him, bit his lip, then turned his gaze to the upper stories of the buildings around them.
"I think it was up ahead Corporal." He said still looking at the buildings. "Sergeant Hask was saying that he thought he might be the alien that's been cutting the line, though I still think it's those black spiky ones."
"Kroot." Yasir corrected as they rounded a corner. The Guardsman shrugged and looked at him.
"Whatever you call them Corporal, they're worse than the Tau." Yasir nodded and was about to speak, when he heard a sound break through the noise of the rain. It sounded like air rushing towards them.
"We need to get under cover now." he said in a low tone. The Guardsman looked from the Corporal to the sky as the sound got louder. "NOW!" Yasir yelled to the rest of the squad. "GET UNDER COVER!" He took off towards a nearby building, jumping through the still intact front window.
The window shattered as he fell through and he landed hard, groaning as he stood. The sound got louder and Yasir looked back out into the rain soaked street. It was completely empty, the squad having apparently followed his orders. Overhead he could hear what was causing the sound as a large shadow passed over the ground. The shadow passed as quickly as it came and was followed by two others. Yasir waited until the sound had faded and he heard the distant chug of an Imperial Hydria Anti-Aircraft gun. He released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding and heard something move behind him.
Yasir spun around quickly and brought his rifle up, ready to put a powerful las beam into whatever was coming up behind him. The Big Guardsman dropped his Grenade Launcher and put his hands up.
"Human! Human!" he said frantically. Yasir frowned and lowered his weapon. The Guardsman pointed to something on the ground. Yasir followed his finger to a tan colored metal disk the size of a dog. He walked up to the disk and knelt down next to it. It was a drone all right, though this one had a dent in one side and a charred hole in the other.
'Someone shot this thing with a lasgun.' He thought. He lifted the dog sized device up. 'No weapons. A spotter drone.' His mind went back to the sniper he'd helped Gazik kill a few months back. That one had been using drones as well. The Guardsman, having recovered his Grenade launcher, stepped closer for a better look.
"Isn't that one of their drones?" he asked. Yasir nodded and stood. "What do you suppose it's doing here Corporal?" he continued. Yasir began undoing his kit and taking off his greatcoat. The Guardsman watched as he tied the grey coat around the barrel of his longlas. "You think that Sniper was here?" he asked. Yasir finished tying the greatcoat to the barrel and began putting his kit back on.
"He's still here."
~/~/~
One hour and three kilometers later, the squad found the Validian Observation Post. Or, rather what was left of it. From their vantage point in an upper story of a building still under construction 200 meters away the six guardsmen saw a dozen or so Kroot eating the remains of their comrades. Yasir saw most of the Guardsmen recoil in disgust as two of the black aliens began pulling on opposite side of the same body, splitting it in half at the waist. The entire scene was made all the more dark by the continued rain. Only the Sergeant and Yasir continued to watch.
"Well," the Sergeant said, suppressing what Yasir guessed was an urge to vomit. "That explains why the cable wasn't cut anywhere." The Imperial Sniper nodded slightly and bit his lip.
'That Sniper has to be nearby still.' he thought, noticing a skillful shot on the severed Guardsman's neck. His thoughts were interrupted by the Sergeant's voice.
"Well then, I guess this qualifies as a change of mission." he said, having controlled his stomach. For some reason, the sight of the Kroot devouring other humans didn't bother Yasir the way that it had before. All he could think about was the Tau Sniper. Behind him the Sergeant was giving orders.
"All right, breaks over, we've got to get back and report this to command." The four other Guardsmen all put their rucksacks back on and started for the stairs. The Sergeant donned his and began to follow them when he noticed Yasir was still looking out the window at them. "Corporal," he said. "We haven't got the manpower to take on all of them." Yasir didn't move. The Sergeant frowned and moved next to him. "Corporal, time to go." he said in a voice that made the statement an order. Yasir twitched as though he'd been brought out of a trance, turned to the face the NCO and nodded.
"Rodger Sergeant." he said and turned to follow after the Squad. The Sergeant frowned.
"Corporal." he said, still standing by the window. Yasir, having already made it halfway to the stairs, turned around to face the Sergeant. "I realize the importance of your mission, but I-"
For the fourth time in his life, Yasir watched someone die as they tried to complete a sentence. The Sergeant's head exploded and blood sprayed out from the remains of his neck and onto the walls. Yasir dropped to the ground, rolling to the left side of the large window that the pulse beam had come through. Below and 200 meters in front of him, he heard a primal sound, as the Kroot feasting on the dead Guardsmen realized that there were human's nearby. The ensuing noise from the Kroot brought the other Guardsmen running back up the stairs.
"Get down!" Yasir yelled, moving along the wall towards them. The helmet-less Guardsman looked at Yasir, then at the headless Sergeant and made the connection, pushing the other guardsmen back down the stairs. Yasir was ten feet from the stairs and the safety of the stairwell, but he had to pass in front of the window again to get there. He took a deep breath, stood and ran. Immediately after he had passed in front of the window, another pulse shot rang out, this one striking the floor ahead of him only a second before he passed the spot. He made it to the stairs and dropped down on his right side, sliding down the stairs as another shot flew through the air above him.
On the landing between the floors, Yasir stopped to catch his breath. 'He knew we were up here.' he thought to himself. 'How could he…unless…' he heard lasgun fire from a few floors below him. 'Unless he planned to kill me here, where the Kroot can finish off the rest of the squad.' He took off down the stairs as fast as he could, taking the steps two or three at a time. They had been on the fifth floor, but the fighting was now closer to the bottom. He reached the third floor and heard the sounds of battle directly below him. As he turned down the stairwell he saw something brown out of the corner of his eye. He ducked just in time to avoid the curved blade.
The blade sliced the air above his head and Yasir rolled to the left, away from whatever had attacked him. He stopped and brought up his rifle, surprised when he didn't see anything there. 'Where did it go?' He thought. Something to his left made a sound, and he realized too late that with his eye gone, he only had half his previous field of vision. His assailant's arm once again came into view on the edge of his vision, however this time it was too fast for him to duck under. He impulsively brought his rifle up, only to have the blade catch on the buttstock and knock the weapon away. Yasir saw another blade come at him, cutting horizontally from right to left. He reached down with his right hand and grabbed the Commissar's chainsword from his left side. The blade locked in between the links of the inert chainsword and Yasir got a better look at his assailant as they struggled for control.
He was Kroot, though this one was a little taller than any he'd seen before, and his skin was a dark brown rather than black. His kit was different than that of the other Kroot's as well. He wore their normal ammo pouches, though they seemed to be made of a better material, and bones of different shapes, sizes, and, Yasir guessed, species. A pair of dark goggles were over his eyes for no reason that he could see. The look was completed by a Tau pulse rifle slung over his back.
The Alien was only holding the blade in one hand, pushing against Yasir's chainsword with the same grip. Yasir shifted his feet and brought his other hand onto the chainsword's hilt. The extra strength of his left hand was more than the Kroot could hold and he began to push the Kroot's blade back. Still, however, the Brown Kroot only used his left hand. Yasir didn't understand, he was overpowering him, yet he didn't even see the Alien's other hand. Then he heard the sound of metal scraping on the floor. His eye went wide and he took several steps back as another blade cut across, it's tip slicing open an empty pouch on his chest. Breaking away from the Xeno, he saw that he held a second blade in his right hand.
'He must have lost it when it hit my longlas.' Yasir thought. The Brown Kroot spun the blades in his hands and gave out another primeval cry. With a jump farther than he'd seen a Kroot do, he launched himself into the air at him. Yasir did the only thing he could think of. He pressed the activation rune on the chainsword and thrust it into the air above and in front of him. The falling Kroot came down right on it, impaling himself on the moving blade.
The weight of the Alien's body on the chainsword knocked Yasir down on his back. He let go of the chainsword and rolled the body off him. Still active, the moving blades continued to cut into the aliens flesh, spraying it's blood all over him. Yasir stood, grabbed the chainsword, and pulled it out. It came out easy and he deactivated it.
No sooner had he returned the weapon to his belt and recovered his longlas than the remains of the squad came up the stairs. Yasir looked at the two guardsmen and frowned.
"Where are the other two?" he asked. The helmet-less Guardsman shook his head.
"Dead, Corporal and-" He was interrupted by a muffled explosion from a grenade. "Dead." Yasir bit his lip. That grenade might by them a few minutes, but they need to get out of the building, and they need to go NOW. He looked in the room connected to the stairwell they were in. The floor hadn't been completed and the far wall hadn't been built yet.
'No going that way.' Yasir thought. 'That Sniper's got a perfect view on us there.' The rest of the room was less promising, the walls for the rooms on the floor were all partially built, giving the entire floor a one room feel. He looked down the floor one way to the building's corner and spied an odd looking tan crane. It didn't look like any crane he'd ever seen, there was no cable or hook and there was no place for an operator. The crane was outside the building, though the arm was level with the floor they were on. An idea came to him as he looked at the crane, though he didn't like it. A primal sound from the stairway forced his decision. He turned to the helmet-less Guardsman and pointed at his grenade launcher.
"Do you have any smoke rounds?"
~/~/~
As luck had it, the Guardsman had one smoke grenade left. Aiming where Yasir told him to, he pulled the trigger and the 50mm grenade flew out of the weapon and impacted along the wall right between their position and the crane. Almost instantly, the entire floor was covered in white smoke.
"Now!" Yasir yelled, running out from behind the doorway to the stairwell and along the wall, sprinting for the crane. The two Guardsmen followed behind him, and all three of the Guardsmen had slung their weapons. Behind them he heard the Kroot spill out of the stairwell onto their floor, their cries strained as they tried to locate the humans in the smoke. Yasir made it to the crane, finding it a little farther from the building than he would have liked, but not having the option to change now. Yasir and the two troopers jumped.
~/~/~
As the smoke cleared, the Kroot could only watch in anger as the two Guardsmen they'd chased up the stairs hopped off of the crane and onto the roof of another building. The black Alien's yelled out in anger and ran back down the stairs, egger to catch up to their prey. As they took off down the stairs, one of the Aliens turned back, looking at the crane again. It walked up to the crane, bladed rifle in hand, and examined it. The Kroot eyes darted up and down the crane's arm, searching for something. After a moment, the Alien made a throaty sound and ran down the stairs. From his position holding onto the underside of the crane's arm, Yasir let out a breath he'd been holding since the smoke had cleared.
Yasir stayed where he was for a full hour after the Kroot had left, certain that the Sniper was still nearby. With care not to fall from the three story height, he swung his legs out so that they landed on top of the crane's arm. Using his legs for support, he started climbing out onto the top of the crane. 'He hasn't shot me yet.' Yasir thought as he pulled himself up. 'So he's not watching this area anymore. He righted himself on the crane and stood. 'Though I don't think he's gone far.' Yasir started moving along the crane to the far end, jumping off and onto the roof of the two story building nearby. He unsung his rifle and began moving across the roof in a low crouch. 'So now it's my turn to hunt him.'
~/~/~
Unnamed Tau Controlled planet, number 1187
1743 hours (Approximate planet time)
L-Day +247
290 Kilometers from the landing zone
By the time Yasir made it back to the Validian's headquarters, the Guardsmen there were engaged in battle with the main Tau force. Once again, Yasir found himself behind the enemy lines. This time, however, he wanted to be there. The Imperium had learned something about fighting the Tau in the last two months, and the front line next to the warehouses was being held against their attack, but only barely. Yasir avoided them, moving back out of the street. He'd taken care not to be followed. Moving slowly, staying to the alleyways, he had only left the cover of building he was in to get a better look at the action. He ran back inside the building and dashed up the stairs. Reaching the fourth floor, he turned off and crouched under a window, peeking out at the battle.
The rain had stopped, though the ground was still wet. The damp smell mixed with the burnt flesh and metal smell that the lasgun and pulse rifles caused. The trench line was similar to the trenches constructed by the stairs, except that the Validians had dug in on a slight incline, giving them that much more of an advantage. There were less Kroot as well, he noticed, and the Fire Warriors were hesitant to advance. These factors seemed to contribute to the Guardsman's cause, but he could still see that it was a lost one. He turned his attention back to his mission. Looking up and down the Tau lines, he saw a number of drones, though these were all combat ones, obvious by the pair of pulse weapons on their underside. Those weren't what he was looking for. He looked around the Imperial lines. The bright colored Validians were fighting with all they had, though he didn't see anything special. He spotted the helmet-less Guardsman from before launching grenades into the Tau formation. That was when he saw it. The Guardsman next to the one he recognized suddenly raised his lasgun to point at an upper story of a ruined building. No sooner had he begun to look down the sights, than a hole appeared where his neck met his chest and the man fell over. Even for a Tau, that was a great shot.
Yasir looked over to the left where the Guardsman had shot, seeing three partially collapsed buildings there. The furthest was too far the to right have allowed such a shot, and the closest was filled with Fire Warriors firing from the windows. He wouldn't be there either. That left one building that he could be in. 'But where in there is he?' Yasir thought. The Building was as tall as the others, maybe five stories, and it was done in the tan concrete style, though the window were smaller then most other buildings in the area. Just as he was about to relocate, he saw something white. It was faint, distant. The building was, after all, over a kilometer away. But it was clear. He had seen the white flash from a pulse rifle. And he had seen what window it was in.
Yasir brought his rifle up, careful to keep the longlas's barrel inside the building and resting the edge on the windowsill. He leaned forward and looked through the scope, he'd have to take the shot standing as high as the window was. Just like the first time he'd used the longlas, the building and the target window jumped into clear, close focus through the scope. He could almost see something move inside, but he couldn't tell. He had to be sure, He wouldn't get another shot at the Tau sniper. 'Plus,' Yasir thought. 'If I miss, he probably won't.' He focused on the window, letting the sounds of the battle raging fade from his ears as he concentrated on his breathing.
He breathed in, held it for a second, then slowly released it. Breathe in, hold it, slow release. In, hold, release. As his last breath left him, a white flash came from the window and silhouetted a being there. Yasir pulled the trigger.
~/~/~
It took Yasir over a hour to make his way over to the building. The battle was still ongoing, and he had to duck around the Tau war machines as they advanced, but it had been clear before he had left the first building that the Validians were defeated. He had stayed in the building watching the window for a while to see if he'd hit the sniper or not. There was no more muzzle flashes, and no one had tried to shoot him, but he had known ahead of time that he would have to confirm that the Sniper was dead. He ducked into a culvert as one of the tan hovering tanks that the Tau used came around a corner. He waited as the tank hovered over him, and he heard the sound of hoofed feet on the street above him as a squad of Fire Warriors ran after the tank. When it was silent, he crawled out of the culvert and ran across the street and into the building that the Sniper had been in.
The Building was empty, but that wasn't any surprise to him as he sprinted up the tan colored stairs. He reached the fourth floor and stopped in the stairwell. He slung his longlas and drew the auto pistol in his left hand, and the chainsword in his right. He checked that both were loaded and had fuel respectively, took a deep breath, and started down the right side hallway. He moved slowly, counting off the doors, being reminded of his first mission with Gazik. He came to the right door, finding it the only one ajar. He reached out with his right hand, the one that held the chainsword, and began pushing the door open.
Immediately, he heard the sound of a pulse weapon being fired, and recoiled his hand. The pulse blast blew out a hole in the door above his hand. Yasir spun so that he was standing in front of the door and put the barrel of his auto pistol through the hole in the door the pulse blast had just created. He squeezed off five shots and was rewarded with an inhuman scream. He kicked the door open and ran into the room.
In the center of the room, leaning against the support column, was the Tau sniper. He sat limp, his head tilted to one side. The Tau's pulse rifle lay on the floor next to the window, and it clutched a pulse pistol in his right hand. Yasir saw a scorch mark in his side, where the lasbolt from his longlas had gone in, a pair of bullet holes in chest, one in the top of his helmet and two above his head on the column. He put his auto pistol away and approached the alien. He moved the head to one side and saw three red lines on the side of the helmet and a crack on the top.
'It's him.' he thought. 'This was the Sniper.' He had accomplished his mission. For a long moment he just starred at the dead Xeno. He used one of the many blades on the chainsword to pry the side of the Alien's helmet off. The white helmet broke and a piece with the three red lines came off in his hand. He took his greatcoat off of his rifle, put it back on, and put the piece of the helmet in a pocket. Outside, he heard the same rushing air sound and looked out the window just in time to see a pair of the Tan missile gunships fly over the retreating Validians. He put the chainsword away and reached down, grabbing the Alien's chin with his left hand and the base of it's skull with his right and twisted the head farther than it could safely go. He was rewarded with a wet cracking sound as the neck snapped. He stood and gave the Alien a final look, then turned around and left the way he had come.
Authors Note: Does one long chapter make up for three short ones and a week long break?
Review…Please.
Oh, and did I mention: The Entire Warhammer 40,000 Series belongs to Games Workshop, and NOT me.