Sorry this chapter took so long. I've been quite busy this week studying for a math test and I had a sudden urge to paint my StuGs and Pak40s (flames of war). Any ways here's the next chapter. From now on I will be aiming for a chapter per week, and if I can more.
I noticed someone mentioned "suffer not the xenos" in the reviews. I've had the idea for this story for a while now but just recently I read that one. I will try my hardest not to let that story influence my own writing. Although I thought that it was very well done there were a few things that I really did not like about that book that made me stop reading about two thirds of the way through. Any ways, there may be some similarities, and these chapters that I am on right now will be most similar, but I will try and avoid it as much as possible.
The other thing I wanted to bring up was character art. I got an email from fanfic that someone wrote a review, offering to do character art, but I could never find the review after that. If any one is interested in doing character art then I will happily accept it. I need a cover image for this story, and I find artwork is great to go along with stories, especially in the case of amateur writing as I feel like I can't portray the scene properly all the time. If you are at all interested please PM me. I would appreciate it to no end.
Sev woke up with a start. His first thought was absolute surprise. How was he still alive? His second thought was even greater surprise. He felt almost fine. When he had fallen asleep he had been convinced of his inevitable death. And yet here he was and, despite a headache and a bit of grogginess, he felt almost fine. He checked his leg. The wound had been re-bandaged and the visible skin was less red and the swelling had dropped to an almost normal level. He swung his legs off the grungy couch and stood, putting all his weight on the good leg and keeping a hand on the arm of the couch. He was able to get upright and then tentatively put his weight on the bad leg. He let out a yelp of pain, but it was more from the expectation than actual hurt. He managed to take a few steps in a small circle and sit back down.
It was then that he noticed the xenos girl. She sat cross legged in the middle of the room. Sunlight drifted through the metal shutters and lit up half of her helmeted face. Her sword and pistol were both holstered and her hands were crossed across her lap. Sev leaned back on the couch. He checked the room for his weapons and gear. His bag and webbing was organised neatly and the lasgun leaned against the wall next to it. It was then that he realised just how hungry he was. He kept his eye on the girl as he limped over to his bag. After a second of fumbling with the clips he found a MRE. He picked up his canteen and made his way back to the couch, catching his heel and tripping slightly. The xenos head tracked him the entire way.
Sev ate his meal and felt much better for it, washing it down with some metallic tasting water. Now he had to decide what he was going to do. He had no idea where he was in the city, he had no idea if there was even an imperial presence on the planet and he potentially had a xenos following him around who he was obliged not to kill. He grabbed his gear and made his way over to the window. After some shoving and a pinched finger, he managed to slide the industrial looking shutters up enough to see outside. The street was clear, with no sign of the Emperor forsaken fog. The cold early morning sunlight shone down the roadway, almost blinding Sev. Leaves drifted lazily down the street from an unseen tree in a light breeze.
It was then that there was a great explosion, somewhere off in the distance. It must have been far off, but Sev felt the vibration through the ground. He checked his chronometer. It had been just over two days since they had hit ground. The land assault would just be beginning. That boom would be the first of the basilisks ranging in. Just as he thought this there was a great roaring as multiple batteries of basilisks opened fire. The ground shook more violently and a pic fell off the wall, shattering on the ground.
Sev went about his final preparations, packing up anything that wasn't already in his bag. There was a small Imperial shrine in one corner that he hadn't noticed earlier. There were a few candle stumps around a poorly etched wooden figurine of a saint. Sev kneeled in front of it, pulling out his pristine imperial issue lighter. Flicking it open he lit the candles one by one. He bowed his head and muttered a prayer of safe passage under his breath, one that his father had taught him to use before going on fishing voyages.
He turned from the shrine and stood, leaving the candles burning. His leg threatened to give as he shouldered his bag but he managed to catch himself. The girl had been staring at him as he prayed and stood now, stepping to the side as he moved to pass her. She followed him as he left through the door and went down the dirty staircase to the ground floor and out into the street. When he got to the street he turned and faced her.
"I need to get back to my comrades, and there's no place for a xenos there. They won't be as forgiving as I was. I appreciate you saving my life but you can't stay with me" Sev said. It felt like a weight off his chest when he said it but at the same time he had the strange feeling of guilt for having to leave her.
She stood in the doorway of hab block, maintaining her seemingly continues gaze on him. She doesn't understand Sev realised. She just going to keep following me, Emperor knows why.
"Piss off!" he shouted, waving his hand at her dismissively. She took a few steps towards him and Sev lowered the las rifle and fired three shots off above her head. They impacted above the door and she flinched back. Sev turned and started off down the road, towards the smoke stacks which were again visible and not too far away, and much to his satisfaction she stayed in the doorway.
Sev started off. He went as fast as his leg would let him, but he was amazed at how well he could walk, considering. The air was cold and he felt it piercing in through the sides of his mask. He was glad of his leather gloves, as he could already feel the tips of his fingers getting cold. The air that came out through the metal filter of the rebreather was misted. He kept his lasgun in a loose grip but at the ready.
Sev's breath was coming out in horse gasps now, and his throat stung from the frigid air. He was trying to stick close to the walls and stay low but his vision was blurring and he kept on having to catch himself as bad leg would almost give out. After about an hour of this he decided to stop and rest. Up ahead there was a bridge. Bronze statues of space marines, weathered and green with oxidization, stood solemn and unmoving on each corner of the bridge. Sev made his way slowly over to one. He sat down and leaned up against the plinth.
He let his head fall back and rest against the armoured bronze boot of the super human hero. He took out his canteen and after pulling down his rebreather took a long drink. He hadn't filled the canteen since arrival on the planet and to his dismay it was almost empty. He would need to find water soon. Some leaves drifted past across the bridge as Sev sat and contemplated. He felt supremely depressed. He had no idea where his comrades were, if they were still alive, and the only sign of friendlies was the distant thunder of huge guns.
The city seemed to press in on him. The unending rockcrete walls with their imperial posters and occasional graffiti. And other than the distant guns there was absolute silence. The grey over cast sky seemed to increase the claustrophobia, as if it was sinking towards him. It looked like it was going to rain, he thought absent mindedly. He took another second to rest, muttered a short prayer to the Emperor, and got up to leave. The bridge crossed over what looked like a canal and he looked down towards the grey water that lapped against the supports of the bridge.
Sev started of with his hobble, trying to keep his weight on his good leg. It was just as he got about a quarter of the way across the bridge when he heard a shout from behind him.
"Maen nhw tu ôl i mi, yn rhedeg!" someone shouted. Sev recognized the voice immediately. He turned and saw the girl sprinting towards him. He was taken aback by how fast she moved. The bone white armour blurred almost as she sprinted down the road. He was about to yell at her to piss off when he saw why she had yelled. There was a throaty roar of crude engines as what looked like three ork motor bikes rounded the bend in the road. They idled for a second; revving their engines before shooting down the road with a blast of black smoke and loud bangs from the engines. What the hell was she thinking; was she trying to lead them onto me? He thought. He had no time to ponder further though as the huge bulky contraptions raced towards the bridge.
Sev's training kicked in and he dropped to one knee, shouldering the las gun. Every time he had shot the blasted lasgun his shots had gone hopelessly wild. He muttered a quick prayer and tried to calm himself down, which was difficult considering the circumstances. It was then that Sev really accepted his fate. He was going to die. One way or another, be it from orks, eldar, starvation or friendly guns there was next to no chance he would find his company. With that thought in mind he lined up the sights. His hands, which had had a perpetual shake since the sniper, stopped shaking. The lasgun didn't waver or buck as Sev depressed the trigger.
Red las bolts lanced down the road, almost every single one falling on the leading bike. He took in the driver of the bike. It wore a helmet with what looked like grox horns sprouting out the top. It had a pair of huge leather goggles on that obscured its eyes and wore a giant grin as it shook a big gun in the air. The last bolts scorched the air around it, some narrowly missing, some hitting the armoured front of the bike and deflecting off into the sides of the nearby buildings. The beast roared a throaty laugh that sounded almost the same as the engine it road, pumped with exhilaration of the situation.
Its expression changed though as a lasbolt sliced through its forehead. The grin faded from its face as the realisation that it was dead sunk it. In a death spasm it clenched its grip. The front breaks of the gigantic bike suddenly tightened as the bike shot down the road. Time seemed to slow for Sev as the bikes back end lifted up. The machine was air born for what seemed like as an eternity, and the rider slipped off, flailing through the air as his life slipped from him. The bike slammed down with a flash of sparks. There was a hissing sound as some important valve broke. The two other bikes desperately swerved to avoid the crash, laughing at their leader's ill fortune.
Then there was a bang. The crashed bike went off. There was a significant explosion that seemed impossibly big. The new lead bike pressed onwards unscathed but his friend was not so lucky. As the crashed bike touched off he happened to be passing the crash and the explosion sent him and his bike smashing into the front of one of the rockcrete buildings.
The one surviving ork shoulder checked and turned back. He appeared indifferent to the loss of his two comrades as he gave the throttle a little more and grinned. He levelled his massive huge pistol and began letting shots fly in Sevs direction. Sev ducked behind one of the pillars of the bridge as chunks of the road flew up where he had just been kneeling. The bike was now less than thirty metres away and Sev tried to snatch off some shots from behind the pillar with little success. It was then that he noticed the xenos girl.
Sev jaw dropped as he noticed her for the first time in the fight. She had been taking cover behind a pillar similar to his own up until now while Sev had picked off the ork biker. But she was now sprinting down the road, straight towards the biker. The red mane of her helmet streamed behind her and she held the power sword in one hand as she ran at full speed. The ork looked as surprised as Sev was that one of the pitiful enemies was actually going towards him. There was the familiar screech that the xenos made and Sevs lasgun clattered to the ground as he threw his hands up over his ears. He slumped forwards in pain but managed to keep his eyes on the spectacle unfolding.
The ork maintained speed and tried to direct the bike towards the alien sprinting towards him. Just as it seemed the bike was about to hit her she leaped. Her momentum carried her towards the bike hurtling out of control towards her. The orks head tracked her with horror, realising what she was about to do but unable to do anything to stop it. She held her power sword in a two handed grip as the pair came together. The ork managed to bring a gauntleted fist up that was almost the size of her torso. But there was no avoiding the inevitable and the ork roared in anger and frustration as the power sword sliced through his head. But his fist was moving before the xenos impacted and as the sword went through his head his fist impacted with the girl. Sev watched in horror as she went flying, limp and with hands hanging at her sides, out of sight. The ork slumped forwards on the bike and it crashed into the support of the bridge with mighty crash of twisting metal and a grinding of machine on rockcrete.
Sev stood up. His head pounded from the sonic scream and his leg hurt. He limped past the wreckage of the bike and its dying rider. The girl was lying on the ground in a crumpled heap. Her chest moved up and down in shallow gulps. Sev stood above her and she looked up. He outstretched his hand. After a moment hesitation she took it and he pulled her to her feet. She grabbed the power sword which lay a few feet away and they started off across the bridge, Sev leading.
"Diolch i chi, mon-keigh" She said.
He had made the decision there. He probably wasn't going to survive and he had no one left. If she wanted to stick around then that was fine, because apparently she could stand up for herself. He would still try and find his company but there was no sense in turning down help if it was offered. He would have to leave her once he got to back to his comrades but for now she could tag along.
There was a chill breeze that ran through the streets as they crossed the bridge. long ripple ran across the grey surface of the canal. Sev wished that he had more to wear than his fatigues and flak armour. He rubbed his gloved hands across his shoulders. It was then that he felt something touch lightly against the open skin between his gloves and his jacket. He looked down but there was nothing there. Then he felt it again, this time on his neck.
Sev looked up, and to his wonder there were white flakes drifting through the air. They moved lazily downwards, spiralling and getting caught up and tossed whenever there was a light breeze. Sev span once staring up at the sky. He had never seen any thing like it. He let out a deep laugh. He didn't mean to but he couldn't help it. Here he was, completely alone in a barren war torn city with a xenos in tow and there was white shit coming out of the sky.
"The Emperor works in strange ways" he muttered under his breath. The girl seemed un-fazed by this new occurrence of solid precipitation. Maybe they had it where she was from he thought to himself. They continued on down the road, side by side, towards the smoke stacks.
Within minutes there was silence again on the bridge. The ork biker lay in the street. His face was a ruined mess and he could feel the life slipping from him. For once in his life he felt no arrogance, no need for amusement in the form of destruction or violence. He felt perfectly at peace with his world. What little breath escaped his lips rose in the air and formed steam, dispersing. The snow was coming down heavier now. He blinked as a particularly large piece landed on his eyelid. Across the street he could see the wreck of the nobs bike, a few small fires poking out of pipes. It was fuzzy and everything was too bright. He smiled. The last thought in his mind was that of the small enemy flying through the air. A glorious death.
His eyes closed and let out a final breath. The snow drifted around him and soon the smoke stacks that had minutes before been clear to the eye were obscured. There was only the barely audible thump of artillery off in the distance, muffle by the snow.