Sev woke with a start. He sat up and took in his surroundings, expecting to see the familiar flow of steam from the vent at the end of his bunk on the troop transport. Then he remembered where he was. It was a second after remember where he was that he remembered how he wasn't supposed to have fallen asleep. He checked his watch. It was three hours after he and Ryn had been supposed to switch watch. Why the hell hadn't Ryn woken him? He looked over at Ryn, whose sleeping form was slumped across the gun.
Sev peered across the gun. He was about to shove Ryn awake when he saw a glint, as the moonlight caught something metal. There was movement out in the square. Sev gave Ryn a shove and he came too. They both tried to see what was moving through the darkness and the ground mist that had accumulated after dark. Sev activated his vox bead.
"Sarge, we got movement. You're going to want to get the men up here". There was a moment of silence and then the sergeant replied.
"Copy that private, we'll be with you in a second".
Sev tried to figure where the movement was coming from. Then he pinpointed it. There, by the statue. There were shapes getting closer. Fifty metres out he would guess and closing slowly. Seconds later the other six member of the squad were with them, lasguns at the ready. Ryn pointed and made sure that every man could see where the movement was coming from. There were scattered nods of confirmation as safeties were clicked off and barrels levelled.
"Single shot boys, don't waste your ammunition. Not unless they start charging. On my mark" The sergeant hissed. "3... 2... 1... FIRE!"
Again there was the tremendously loud roar of the heavy bolter. This time accompanied by the sharper cracks of the eight lasguns. Sev felt the familiar tug of the bolts travelling across his hands. The bolter was swept back and forth. Explosions brightened the dark square, lighting up the debris, ground mist and sprays of blood. The troopers picked targets where they could and fired away. There were the howls of xenos crying out in pain and then silence.
"Cease fire, cease fire!" the sergeant called out. Silence returned to the square as smoke drifted from the barrels of the guns and casings of the bolter.
"Helmet lights on" the sergeant ordered. Eight lights lit up the square. There were ork bodies, a rough estimate would be ten. They had been creeping forward under the cover of darkness, armed with huge knifes and boxy looking pistols.
There was another second of silence as the sergeant tried to decide what his next move. Alas the choice was made for him. There was a thump and then whoosh. A yellow red glow was added to the white of the helmet lights as a rocket streaked from a building across the square towards the shop. Sev barely had time to duck before it impacted.
The force of the impact sent Sev reeling from the barricade. He scrambled back, helping Ryn back to the bolter. He didn't bother even checking on the rest of the squad. There was no time. Across the square there were orks. They were pouring out of the buildings towards the hastily erected barricade. Crude weapons were spitting huge bullets with obscenely loud bangs at the cowering guardsmen. The bullets were fired on the run, with little effort put into accuracy. But it had the desired effect. Sev tried to stay as low as possible as bits of wood and chunks of metal were thrown into the air. An unlit lamp left sparking and hanging precariously from the ceiling due to the rocket hit crashed to the ground with a great flash and a loud crackling of wires disconnecting.
"Full auto, cut them down!" The sergeant screamed.
Ryn had regained himself enough to get firing. Again the heavy bolter barked. Sev watched as orks were caught mid step, heads and torso exploding, their arms flailing as they were knocked backwards. The other squad members had readied themselves enough to resume firing and the crack of lasguns added to the heavybolter. Red lines were stitched across the square as the lasguns tore into the orks on full auto. Sev was dismayed to see that they were not doing nearly the damage that the heavy bolter was. The impacts of the lasguns, which could bore through metal, were so small in comparison to the orks that the huge beasts were able to shrug it off. Worse still they would sometimes fail to even penetrate at all, reflecting up into the air off of tough hides. Despite this the lasguns were still able to do some damage. One of the orks near the front dropped to his knees then fell face first as las beams continued to slice into him.
"Aim for the head, try and drop them quicker" the sergeant ordered. In theory this seemed like a good idea, and the drop troopers had spent hours firing their bullpup lasguns at targets, but the real thing was different. It was hard to take the time to line up the sights with a target that was sprinting towards you with the intent of killing you and obscured by the darkness, gun smoke and mist. And added on to that there was what seemed like fifty others. But with the sheer number of shots being pumped out of six lasguns on full auto they were able to rack up some kills. There was a flash, accompanied by the crump of a grenade and two orks went flying, trailing blood from missing limbs.
The orks were drawing closer. The guardsman next to Sev was just clumsily slotting a new magazine in place when he cried out. His head had been poking just a little too high over the barricade and an ork slug had ripped the top of his head off. Chunks of helmet and brain mater were thrown against a nearby shelving unit. Sev grimaced and tried to keep his mind on keeping the bolter firing. The orks were dropping faster now. Then there was another thump. A second rocket streaked towards the guardsmen. There was an explosion, and then everything went black.
Sev opened his eyes slowly and then slammed them shut. There was a high pitched ringing in his ears and his head felt like there was a pick wedged into it. He opened his eyes again. Dono was shaking him, trying to pull Sev to his feet. Alyn was a few feet back from the shattered barricade, blood seeping out from under his mask. His arms were at weird angles and he wasn't moving. Everything seemed far too bright and the flashing barrel of the heavy bolter was hurting his head. Sev could see Thompson firing. There was a spray of blood and Thompson's head shot back. He was practically thrown onto the ground. Sev crawled to where his lasgun had fallen and groggily grabbed it, fingering the safety. Sound was slowly returning, with it came the crack of lasguns and more horrifyingly the bellowing of the orks drawing closer. The ringing finally died down as Sev heard a throaty roar. Lund was standing, seemingly ignorant of the slugs ripping past him. His expressionless mask was lit up by the liquid fire pouring out of his flamer.
Sev crawled up to the barricade. His head was pounding and he almost dropped back down in fear. The orks were close, so close in fact that he could see their red beady eyes. They seemed to flicker in the light of the flamer. The orks were sent reeling as about five of their comrades lay in front of the store, clawing at their melting flesh. There was a clatter to Sev's left as the last heavy bolter shells rattle through the feed tray.
The orks were falling back, and a few more were cut down as they fled. But the guardsmen knew they would be back. The square was covered in dead orks, the heavybolter having done most of the damage. There were a few still crawling around, missing limbs or with their guts hanging out. All in all, sev would guess that there was about fifteen or twenty out there. The carnage was immense. Steam rose from the bodies, cooling in the night air and it mingled with the smoke from the huge copper casings that now littered the square. There was a section of blackened cobble stones where the grenade had gone off and a multitude of tiny crater where bolter rounds had missed flesh and hit the ground. The mist seemed to be thickening and it was swirling around the corpses in the square.
Sev was just pulling a fresh box magazine from his backpack when Lund stopped him. The grizzled old special weapons trooper had a sad look in his eye.
"Sergeant, I'm going to request that you all leave out the back. You're going to need to regroup with the company. I'll hold them off" Lund said.
The sergeant looked stunned. There was an orkish voice shouting and a roar from the other orks in reply. They were going to be back any minute.
"I can't do that Lund, you're one of the best and the men look up to you" The sergeant said after a moment.
"I'm old sir. I can barely keep up and I doubt I'll make it through this conflict. The least you can do is let me see the bastards go down with me. Please" Lund sounded desperate. The sergeant thought about it for a second before replying.
"Alright, but Lund... you better make them regret coming here" the sergeant said with a smile. "Pack up boys; we're moving out in sixty seconds".
Lund turned back to the barricade as the rest of the men started gathering their gear and slotting fresh magazines into their lasguns. Once the heavybolter was packed away the four remaining men filed out towards the back of the store, all throwing Lund a final salute as they passed. Helmet lights were flicked off and they moved low to the ground, trying to stay as quiet as possible. They passed the downed light which was still throwing out a spark every few seconds. Behind they left three dead and one who would certainly be dead within the next ten minutes. Sev took one last look back at the old special weapons trooper and then he was out of sight. They turned a corner, pushed open a door, and were into the alley. They took off at a jog, trying to go as fast as possible without making too much noise. A few minutes later there was the roar as liquid promethium oxidized, the scream of orks, a cry of a human, and then silence.
The guardsmen picked up their pace. The fog had seemed to increase, and it was difficult to see thirty metres ahead. The sergeant and Dono were pulling ahead as the last four members of the squad ran. No on gave any though to stopping to break, knowing the orks were probably after them. It was after about an hour of jogging that the Sergeant noticed that Ryn and Sev were almost out of sight behind in the fog. They were slowed by the heavy weapon. The sergeant and Dono stopped and waited for the duo to catch up.
"What can we do to speed you two up, we need to get to the company" the sergeant said.
"Go on without us sir. The orks must be right behind us. You two need to let company know what happened. We'll hold them off" Ryn said. Sev was about to protest but realised how terrible it would look. The sergeant stared him down and then spoke.
"No Ryn. If we're going to stay then we'll all stay together. Let's be honest, we have no idea where the company is, and no way of regrouping without a vox. We might as well take the filthy xenos here"
The heavy bolter was deployed and the two other guardsmen lay prone, lasguns levelled down the road. They waited. Off in the distance there was a roar. The orks were drawing closer. Then suddenly there was a different a different noise. There was a piercing metallic scream and Sev felt a slight pain in his ears. Then silence. The mist swirled around the four drop troopers.
They lay there in the darkness for a long time. The mist swirled around them and Sev stretched his leg for fear of it cramping. He rubbed the lenses of his rebreather with his sleeve absent mindedly. There was blood, whether it belonged to the orks or his comrades was impossible to tell.
It was then that it hit Sev. He had been a real guardsman, on the ground, for less than twenty four hours. He had been separated from his company and seen over half of his squad killed. And here he was preparing for a last stand. Sev almost cried out in anger. This couldn't be it, this couldn't be all there was to fighting. All his life he had had the will of the emperor forced into him. He had been taught to hate the xenos; the heretic; the traitor. He had never planned on becoming a guardsman but when he had he'd been so proud. This couldn't be the end! It was then that the enemy came.
"This is it boys. It was short lived but I'm proud to call you lads brothers. Let's give 'em hell!" The sergeant said over the vox. There was a tone of finality in his voice.
"Boots first" said Dono. It wasn't the right timing but for some reason it felt right.
But death did not come in the form of orks. There was a shriek, the same as before but this time much closer. Sev threw his hands up over his ears and shoved his head into the road. His head was pounding, worse than the explosion earlier. He felt liquid trickling down his ears. But he had been lucky. His hands had managed to take the edge off the sonic assault. It looked like the sergeant and Dono had been able to do the same thing but Ryn was rolling on the ground in pain. Sev gave him a shove and took over on the giant machine gun.
The figures running towards them were sure as hell not orks. They were clad in bone white armour and fiery red hair streamed behind them in the draft created by their speed. They looked very feminine, and their armour plates hugged the curves of their bodies. They held crackling power swords and alien looking pistols. With a roar of anger Sev opened up with the bolter. His shots hit the ground near him but he pulled the barrel up and the bullets stitched towards the sprinting xenos. They juked back and forth, moving with inhuman speed and grace. A las shot, more by pure weight of fire and chance then anything else, caught one of them leaving a cauterised hole in its torso. It clutched at the hole momentarily before two bolter rounds blew chunks out of it, dropping it to the ground.
They were closing though, and would be on the four drop troopers in seconds. Sev's hands were shaking furiously around the spoon of the bolter, not only because of the recoil
"This is it lads. It's been an honour fighting with you today, and you all served the Emperor brilliantly. I couldn't have asked for better men to command" he said, not using the vox beads. His voice was muffled by the rebreather mask and the swirling fog but he spoke with clarity and without fear. "Alright boys, fix bayonets!"
Sev dropped the heavybolter and grabbed his lasgun from where it lay on the ground next to him. He noticed that Ryn had regained himself, and had been feeding the heavy weapon. He was now fumbling with the bayonet on his waist. Sev did the same, sliding the bayonet out of its sheath. He slid it over the flash suppressor of the lasgun and clicked it into place.
"Let's not stand here with our dicks in our hands!" Shouted the sergeant. "For the Emperor, Charge!" It would be his last command.
The men ran forward. The enemy warriors faltered. They had not to expect the imperials to put up as much of a fight as they did, and they sure as hell didn't expect them to be counter charging. They had barely bothered with any pre charge precautions. And here they were with one of their members dead. It had been a costly mistake already. They opened up with their pistols.
The imperials charged. Sev felt the wind on the back of his head. His boots stomped against the ground as his legged moved as hard as they could. His veins were pumping with adrenaline and he realised that he was roaring at the enemy.
Dono was running just ahead of Sev when he was cut down. One second he was running. Then he was hit. His arms and head flew back and his torso was shredded. Whatever it was sliced through his flak armour like it was butter. He was thrown onto his back and writhed about before laying still. Sev didn't slow. He directed himself to one of the close warriors and put in a final burst of speed. He held the lasgun at waist height like a spear and as he closed he bellowed a war cry.
"In the Emperor's name, die xenos!" he bellowed. He lunged with the bayonet but the enemy easily side stepped, its crimson red mane trailing behind it. Sev desperately brought his leg around and kicked the alien's legs out. He jumped towards it, bayonet facing downwards aimed at its chest, but it rolled out of they way. Sev landed and rolled just as the alien's weapon made its strange metallic hissing sound. The ground was scored with deep grooves where Sev had just been. He sliced in an ark with his bayonet but again the alien dodged with incredible agility. Sev rolled to his feet and faced of the warrior again. He eyed it wearily as they circled, completely oblivious to the fight going on around them. Suddenly there was a yell.
"Sev, duck!" it was Ryn.
Sev obeyed, throwing himself to the ground. There was a series of cracks as a lasgun fired on full auto. The xenos dropped, cauterized holes slicing through its armour at multiple points. Sev again picked himself up.
"We need to get out of here, c'mon" Ryn called. Sev took off after him.
"Sarge?" Sev asked.
"Dead" wall all Ryn replied. Sev ran shoulder first at a door. It collapsed and he and Ryn sprinted through. They ran down a hallway with graffiti sprayed on the walls. When they got to the end Sev smashed out a window. One of the xenos warriors had appeared at the entrance but was sent back after a tight burst of lasfire from Ryn. Sev cleared the glass from around the edges with the butt of his lasgun and they both hopped out.
They were in an alley between two hab buildings. A chain link fence separated the alley from the main street. There was a dumpster and an old rusted bicycle. The two men took off at a run. They rounded a corner and sprinted off down the street into the swirling mist. Behind them a lone warrior stepped into the street. It saw the men disappearing into the fog. It took off at a jog. It would bide it's time, but the imperials would regret coming to this world. They would join their comrades in the after life soon enough.