Exsanguination

Alexei was already on the move with Anatoly when he spotted the unmistakable bulk of Demitiri Korchagin emerging from the mist below. Alexei hunkered down just beneath the crest, the sparse vegetation shielding him from observation by the Tau as he watched Demitri lead the rest of Alexei's squad up. A good twenty metres to Demitri's left Georgi emerged; the wheeled Sokolov mount for his heavy stubber on his back, his gunner behind him with the weapon itself cradled in his arms, the loaders trailing silently behind them. Another twenty metres beyond them Alexei could just make out the ghosts of Volodya's squad emerging from the mists.

So far so good, no one seemed to know they were here. Though, Alexei smiled to himself, that would soon change. He motioned to Anatoly and continued towards Ludmilla's position.

He stopped and held his breath when he came across a lizard; its colourful ruff shooting up, hissing a warning that he'd surprised it. He hadn't even seen it and it was little more than inches away from him. It gave a second hiss as his hand groped carefully for his combat knife and he froze solid. For a few tense moments he waited, not willing to risk trying to shoo it away this close to the enemy. Despite the dark he could make out the colourful markings well enough to know it to be a Cahrid gecko; he could even see the highly poisonous barbs on its tail and back. There was no sense in tempting fate and getting a face full of toxin laced barbs. He'd seen what one of those could do to a man; the regimental surgeon had given them all a long lecture on the lethality of this small creature with plenty of holopicts that went into unnecessarily graphic detail. It was barely the length of his forearm from head to tail yet its barbs contained enough toxins to kill a small village. Had he not startled it he might well have crawled right over it; apart from the colourful, vibrating ruff it blended almost seamlessly into the sparse grass and dry earth.

He heard Anatoly crawling up and motioned with his free hand for him to stop, whispering very quietly out the side of his mouth.

"Wha'e'er yuu do, do not mo'e yuu ij'ot..."

"What?"

Alexei gave the lizard a look to the effect of 'just kill me, dammit, spare me from him please'

The lizard returned him a blank stare, its hiss dying and its ruff folding away before it crawled away into the long grass down the slope, clearly disinterested in such an offer. Alexei let out a deep sigh and looked back to Anatoly with a disdainful expression. Sometimes it felt like he had to watch his back and his front if he wanted to stay sane and in one piece.

Anatoly returned him an incomprehending look, still not understanding Alexei's brush with a painful death. Alexei gave him a withering stare and continued on up the slope.

Ludmilla didn't move as Alexei crawled up to her position. She was still observing the OP. When he came up level to her, she gave him the slightest of nods.

"They haven't moved; the officer seems to be studying the 10th's line, the other two seem less than alert."

Alexei looked to the officer, who was watching the 146th's line through the vegetation that hid his trench from observation. Observation from the 10th,that is.

"Of course, they think their little abominations are still watching their flank. Where's this suspected dugout?"

"Two meters to the left of the officer. If it is there it isn't big considering the size of the trench."

"Enough for a couple more xenos you think?" he asked, genuinely interested as he'd be venturing in there in a few minutes.

"Good chance Alexei, maybe two more. Any more and it wouldn't be easy to hide. Two or three shifts, no more than that."

Alexei heard the telltale beep in his ear. He tuned back into the team frequency.

"Da?" he whispered into his vox.

"Alexei, we're in position and the Chimeras are almost at the beacon, Georgi's setting up his stubber now, Maxim and the Chomne Vasodniki are locked on target and the pompoms are waiting for the order to rain hell."

"Puyotnam Mischa. Get yourself, Demitri and Piotr over here double quick, I've got a juicy opportunity I don't want to waste here. Make sure to tell the Vasodniki and his friend to keep behind the ridge when they join up with us. I have no intention of losing my tank hunters and having to lug that RPG with me through these trenches unless I have to."

"Puyotnam."

Alexei looked to Ludmilla and made a gun symbol towards the officer, she silently nodded and adjusted her rifle. As she did so Alexei turned to Anatoly and drew a finger across his neck and jabbed it at the sentry on the right. Anatoly smiled and nodded his understanding. Alexei adjusted Anastasia's strap and moved her over his shoulder, tightening the strap so she wouldn't move about unduly. He then unsheathed Piotr and, taking the axe in hand, slowly crawled forward towards the trench. There was no going back now, certainly not for these fool xenos.

As soon as he got within a metre of the trench he looked to his right and saw Anatoly was ready to pounce on his target, his trench knife in hand. Alexei held up five fingers, slowly counting down. When he got to two he turned to the xeno not five feet from him and slowly stood. He raised the axe above his head, bracing himself and then leapt forward, swinging the axe down squarely upon the Tau's helmeted head. He was rewarded with a great cracking followed by a much meatier sound as the axe head lodged itself within the brainpan. The body almost immediately went limp, collapsing awkwardly to the trench floor as Alexei heard the officer's head explode from Ludmilla's shot. Alexei put his booted foot to the now dead xeno's shoulder, grunting as he pushed against it while pulling upon the axehandle. The axe head grudgingly gave up its cozy new home. A spurt of blue blood erupted from the great wound as he pulled the axe free, pooling around the head with impressive speed upon the trenchfloor. He looked to Anatoly, who was in the midst of slitting the throat of the second sentry despite the xeno's struggling. Alexei watched calmly as he heard the alien start to gurgle; Anatoly had found the chink between the helmet and neck guard and dug into it, wiggling the blade so as to force the hole to open wider as he pushed his knife in to the hilt, forcing it across the xeno's neck. Alexei looked around to ensure no one had spotted them, noting that there was indeed a dugout. Alexei helped Anatoly lower the dying xeno to the trenchfloor, the body uttering a noise somewhere between a gurgle, wheeze and a bubbling sound from its torn throat.

So far so good, Alexei thought. He looked to Ludmilla's position, hearing her confirmation that they were undetected in his earpiece.

"Beautiful..." he said to himself.

Anatoly moved up the trench as Alexei entered the dugout, surprised to find to it occupied by two sleeping Tau, neither of them wearing their armour. Well they wouldn't be waking up anytime soon; in fact they wouldn't be waking up at all. He swung Piotr at the closest one, the axe cleaving its face in two, the body convulsing from the impact and sudden destruction of its central nervous system. As he pulled the axe head free he saw the second wake up, alerted by the sound of its friend's demise. Alexei smiled to it with a big grin, his face spattered with blue blood.

"Zdrastoitye moi druk..."

As Alexei left the dugout Anatoly gave him a questioning look, Alexei simply shook his head in response and tuned into the team frequency.

"Mischa, infiltration point cleared, no resistance. Your status?"

"Oskar Mikhail, can see your position now..."

Alexei turned round to see Demitri just starting down the slope by Ludmilla's observation point, with Piotr and Mischa close behind. Alexei took one last swig from his hipflask and sheathed his axe, he wouldn't need it for what was to come; stealth was no longer a priority. He loosened Anastasia's strap, taking her in hand and motioning for Mischa to come straight to him. He nodded to Demitri and Piotr as they passed, noting the approving grunt that Demitri gave as he stepped over the slain Tau, and directed them to move up to Anatoly and keep low. He tuned into the team frequency again as Mischa came up to the dugout.

"Okay children, this is how it's going to go; the pompoms are going to rain a little harassing fire on our xeno friends so they keep their heads down. When I give the word, you open up on your targets while I advance my squad through the trenches and clear them out. I'll call on you as needed so keep the chatter to a minimum on this frequency. The Emperor is with us, we shall not disgrace him."

With that done he nodded to Mischa.

"Zenya this is Zsdar," Mischa said as loudly as he dared into his vox set. "Ready for preliminary bombardment."

After a few moments the telltale crump of the mortars could be heard. The team as one unconsciously huddled a little further down as they awaited the whistle that would announce the arrival of the mortars.

Alexei moved at a crouch to where Anatoly was hunkered down, he took off his astrakhan and peered over the lip of the trench. Barely a few seconds later he could make out the high pitched scream of the falling mortars. The first three rounds struck, falling short of the Tau position, almost as though it was being ranged. The second set of three landed around the trenches themselves moments later, but caused no casualties. The Tau were alert but not too concerned, this had happened many times before over the past week. Two more groups of three landed randomly around the position, one round landing very close to where Alexei and his squad were hiding.

All the better to lure the officers out of their holes and into the open, where the twins could gun them down once the barrage truly started. Alexei ducked down again and replaced his astrakahn upon his head; he listened to the reports from the twins as they marked the Tau rally points and dugouts for the pompoms second salvo. The random mortar fire continued for another minute, giving the impression that the mortar crews were firing blind. Alexei was about to break that illusion. He looked to Mischa and gave a nod.

"Zenit this is Zsdar, targets confirmed and awaiting munitions." He turned a switch so the entire team could hear the reply over the team frequency.

"Zsdar this is Zenit 1, order acknowledged, we shall rain the Emperor's Vengeance upon them! All teams, agon!" in the distance a chorus of crumps could be heard and the team braced itself for the imminent arrival of "the Emperor's Vengeance".

The screams of the mortars were much louder and far more numerous than had been the case not half a minute before. The earth trembled as the mortars ripped into it, tearing it asunder with their deadly fire, lighting up the night with a small vision of hell. Alexei shouted into his vox as he stood.

"All units free to fire!" He pumped his fist in the air three times and charged forward, seeing the streak of Viki's Krak missile amidst the dust and flame as it sped towards its target.

Barely a second later he heard it explode, followed by an even louder explosion and a great sheet of blue flame as the xeno tank's engines went up, lending a strange feel to the vision before him. As he charged down the trench the mortars were still landing around him; he could barely hear the updates his team were giving him through his earpiece over the noise. Every so often he could make out the steady chatter of Georgi's heavy stubber, the crack of lasrifle fire and the whoosh of Piotr's flamer behind him as Piotr cleared the dugouts Alexei had passed. He covered a good fifty metres of trench before he encountered a living xeno, not that it was in a particularly healthy state. Its legs and lower torso were missing and it was desperately trying to put its oddly coloured intestines back inside the gaping hole.

Alexei ignored it and ran on towards a T-junction up ahead, halting and bracing himself against the trench wall. He peered around the corner to the left. Spotting nothing alive or in one piece amongst the mess the mortars had left, he moved in slowly with Anastasia ready. If he had remembered the layout correctly, there was a communications dugout in the next trench; it had been close to the pit with those accursed gun drones. He moved cautiously, checking behind him, reassured to see that Demitri was right behind him. As he came to another junction, he halted and switched to Anton's frequency.

"Anton, I'm almost at the communications dugout, are there any xenos near me?"

"Negative, sergyent, none that are still alive. Though I saw some drag a wounded fellow into the dugout during the bombardment."

"Puyotnam." Alexei turned to his squad frequency. "Mischa, tell the mortars to shift their fire further along the ridge and get Volodya in these trenches, on the double!" He didn't wait for the reply, turning to Demitri and signing for him to watch the right hand corner.

Alexei hugged the trench wall as he once again peered around the corner; just as Anton had said, there were no living xenos in sight, the flames from the drone pit a sure sign that the area had been well covered by Anton and Maxim. Alexei advanced to the entrance of the communications dugout and paused at the entrance.

He could make out voices within, speaking in a language unintelligible to him. He fished a K-120 incendiary from his belt and a K-106 bundled stick-grenade from his satchel, pulled the pins, waited for a count of two and then tossed them in, swiftly taking cover. He heard a warning shout but it was far too late. Both grenades exploded, damn near deafening Alexei. Alexei counted to three and then ran into the dugout. He exited a few seconds later, half choking on the smoke and thoroughly satisfied that the dugout and its occupants wouldn't be communicating with anyone. He turned to the team frequency again and asked for status reports. No casualties, the Chomne Vasodniki had scored a kill and had joined up with Ludmilla and Mischa. The Chimeras were moving up with the rest of the company and the trenches were clear of any visible activity.

"Okay children, a good start-Georgi, hold your position. Volodya, get your squad to my position and start clearing these trenches, I don't want any surprises. Mischa, move up with Viki to Anatoly's position. Ludmilla, Anton, punch out to the crest and give me eyes on our next target."

Alexei moved down the trench, checking bodies and dugouts for stragglers. Finding nothing and not willing to go near the still blazing tank, he returned to Demitri just as Volodya and his squad showed up.

"Volodya, take your children and clear this trench. We'll backtrack to the first junction and clear the trenches along the ridgeline."

"Puyotnam Sergyent. Come children- Vasilli, you're on point- Sergei, give him cover."

Alexei waited as the squad moved cautiously up the trench under Demitri's watchful eye.

"Come Demitri, we have our own work to do-"