Hey, Just updated this one so as to not waste space. Just letting you guys know that the wait will only be a bit longer. Exams have picked up and unfortunately this coming chapter's regrettably short. Anyway I hope you enjoy it when it comes out. God I wish I could have more time to work on it but I'll consider myself lucky if I can break 3k on a chapter now. If you want nice long ones like before, well that'll take some time. Anyway I'll keep trucking away at this, and as for length I'll do what I can (giggity). I know it's been nearly a month, but I'm really weighed down with crap. So please hang in there, and maybe you should get up from you computers and go outside or something as I'm sure you've been waiting this entire time anxiously for the next release :P
Alrighty, here's another one about the IG boys. This is not the end of their story, and it sure as hell isn't the end of Andron and Aureleth's. Sorry I took so long, but... well yeah I've said it before, and I don't want to sound like a broken record. Anyway, next chapter is going to go back to our three favorite people. Hopefully it won't take so long :P I've been having a severe writer's block, but I finally got over it, so I have the next few chapters for them planned out well. Expect severe writer's block AGAIN, however, in a few chapters. I want to keep this going as fast as I can, but that means that I'm going to hit walls... big ones. Anyway, thanks so much for reading, and please leave your reviews/opinions on these guys. I will tell you, however, that I feel that they are capable of being an important plot device. You guys are what keeps me writing, so I thank you again from the bottom of my heart for your kind words. I also have (while studying for a biology exam) spawned an idea for an original story. I may start working on that one day. If I do, I'll be sure to link it in here (it's not a fanfic). Anyway, hope you enjoy. I wanted a kind of "Band of Brothers" urban combat scene feel to this one.
"I can't feel my arms," Bren remarked above the continuously roaring engine of the Chimera. He had been the first into the vehicle and was followed by Johlem, who nearly crushed him into the firewall between the troop compartment and the driver's cabin.
"Stop bitching, Eyes, we'll be getting shot at soon enough."
"Shut up, Kr—" Bren swore loudly along with the other occupants of the armored troop carrier as one side descended into a crater, throwing them side to side as it rocked back to its original position.
"I swear," Rahm shouted, "half of our casualties come from riding in these damned things!"
Merl chuckled before calling for a weapon check. Everyone responded in kind by slapping power cells into their rifles, racking bolts, checking power levels, feeding belts of ammunition into the chambers of their weapons, and in Bren's case dusting off his scope as well for the nth time. Numerous affirmations of their readiness were shouted throughout the cabin.
"We're one mile out. Be ready for anything," Merl charged his lasrifle to punctuate his remark.
The Chimeras trundled through the cityscape, passing alien homes, shops, and other buildings comprised of odd architectures and ornate design that had no visible purpose to its existence. The inside of the troop transports grew quiet, or as quiet as they could be with the roaring and coughing of the crude but effective engine that powered the vehicle.
They stopped, with only a hundred yards from their position to that of their pinned comrades. They would reinforce and if possible flank around their adversaries. The metal slab that covered the rear entrance to the Chimera fell to the ground with a loud thud, serving as a ramp as two squads of shouting guardsmen stormed out of it. They fanned out, forming a semi-circle around the rear hatch with Krell, Bren, Khan, and Rahm raising their rifles as they kept combat stances and assumed their positions. They were followed by the slower but far more imposing Johlem who merely stepped out of the Chimera and assumed his position, his heavy stubber pointed in the general direction of possible enemy positions; not even close to standard procedure, but perhaps even more effective. Behind them came 12th Squad, and lastly Merl Dolan who, in accordance with the Imperium's perhaps unnecessary-at-times air of arrogance, stepped out of the vehicle and calmly surveyed his surroundings. It was an almost codex insertion, and would have been perfect had it not been for Johlem's procedure as well as Merl's developed lack of pomposity.
Gunfire, both the sharp crack of Imperial lasrifles to the ear-splitting shriek of Eldar shuriken rifles, echoed throughout the streets. Occasionally they heard a shout, and even less frequently a scream. As a single unit they began to advance down the debris-strewn street toward their objective. They took on a loose formation so as to reduce the effectiveness of explosives, each squad keeping to itself for the most part. Smoke had fallen from the columns emanating from various points all around the city, forming a thin layer on the ground that turned into a slight but noticeable haze as one's altitude increased. At head level it restricted visibility to three hundred yards. Sunlight formed lancing shafts that streaked through the smoke, casting elongated projections of buildings, spires, and rubble all around them. It was as if they were walking in two cities at once, one a bombed out alien hive, and the other an eerie, ethereal
In passing a home that had been utterly destroyed in the fighting that had taken place there earlier in the day, Krell felt it necessary to quip about its brightly colored interior.
"For fairies and clowns, they sure put up a fight. Where we come from people like that usually get their asses kicked. I wonder what they do with their men."
"Shut the hell up, Merthlow," Khan sighed in fake exasperation as the rest of squad laughed.
"Krell I swear to the Emperor if you get us killed with your jokes I will haunt you for eternity."
"But sir," Krell said with a sarcastic apologetic tone, knowing very well what his sergeant's (numerous) responses would be, "when has my talking ever nearly gotten us k—"
"Shut the frag up, Krell! Hostiles!" Johlem roared as he took a knee and faced towards a pile of rubble from behind which their foes had been hiding. His ammunition belt swung below his heavy stubber before he pulled the trigger. The weapon let loose with a storm of red-hot metal streaking towards their enemies at thousands of feet per second. A white fireball flashed in and out of existence at a blinding rate, strobing into different shapes each time on the end of the weapon's barrel. Around him, the expansion of the hot gasses from his weapon created a void in the haze that surrounded him. From the slowly growing, wispy-edged space of clarity came tiny tunnels that traced the paths of the bullets that made them. By the time the began to distort and be reclaimed by the fog, the stubber rounds had already begun impacting the pile of rubble, causing eruptions of dust, debris, and sparks to flash into being around his targets.
The rest of the two squads lowered their profiles, crouching, diving, and in Merl's case simply standing and returning fire. Krell swore loudly as his lasrifle snapped red beams of superheated energy towards their foe along with the phalanx of rifles he was a part of.
The Eldar returned fire, shuriken whickering from their shrieking weapons and slicing through the air around them from buildings and behind other piles of debris less than a hundred yards ahead of them. One of 12th Squad, a young man in his early twenties, was caught in the neck by a hissing blade. Its razor sharp edge passed through his neck, severing his jugular vein before exiting with a bloody cloud of red mist following it. He coughed in surprise, falling to the ground as his lasrifle discharged wildly, nearly hitting his comrades. He impacted the ground with a dusty thud, his blood mixing with the dirt on the street.
Inside the Chimera, the turret gunner was taken by surprise. He swore loudly as he racked the bolts on the twin-linked heavy bolters. He squeezed the firing studs, and the entire hull of the vehicle was filled with the shaking and roar of the two powerful weapons firing. They barked and kicked with each discharge of their deadly mass-reactive payload. Rocket-propelled projectiles streaked down the road towards their targets, ripping chunks of masonry and building material from the buildings the enemies were hidden in.
Merl roared for them to get to cover, and his squad followed. They split into two groups, one on either side of the street. They hugged buildings, pressed into crevices, and dove behind damaged and destroyed homes. As one, they returned fire, exchanging death with their adversaries. Johlem and Krell had ended up behind the pile of material that had once been the front face of a home. Johlem's heavy stubber roared with fury as he sent long bursts of suppressive fire towards their attackers. Next to him was Krell who supplemented Johlem's gunfire with his lasrifle and endless reserve of various insults to throw at the enemy.
Rahm and Khan snapped off shots from behind decorative trees, returning to cover whenever clouds of shuriken began to shred the air around them. The Eldar, numbering merely half of the Imperials they were attacking, switched some of their fire to them momentarily, forcing them to remain behind what little cover they had.
"Rahm! We gotta get the frag out of here now! I can see this thing chipping aw- GAK!" He swore loudly as a blade sliced a fraction of an inch into his arm. He squeezed further behind their deteriorating barrier, pressing into Rahm and forcing them to overlap.
At the front of the line formed by 12th Squad and Dolan's unit, the sergeant himself pressed against a large piece of debris that had been the result of a crashed Valkyrie whose wreckage was mixed with the remains of the home it had destroyed. He looked back after snapping off several shots with his bolt pistol to survey his unit. 12th Squad was similarly pinned as they were, however one of them lay dead in the street, blood steadily pumping from his severed vein. He turned back further. As he did so a shuriken impacted his cover, fragmenting and sending pieces of it slicing through the air where his eyes had been a mere instant before. He didn't notice.
"Gah, Emperor's arse!" Bren swore as his lasbolt went wide, impacting the wall nearly a foot away from the head of the Eldar soldier he had been aiming for. He settled again, adjusting his aim, and fired once more. The shot hit the Eldar directly in the chest, knocking him backwards out of view, obstructed by the roof he had been standing on. Bren smiled and reloaded.
"Norrum! Norrum!" screamed the sergeant of 12th Squad, his voice barely heard over the sheer volume and chaos of the din of battle. The target of his attention, a large man with a bandolier from which promethium tanks for his flamer dangled, turned towards his sergeant. "We're going to cover you! Get across there, get a frag grenade inside that top floor and flame the windows! Cull, you go with him!"
"On it!" Norrum hefted his weapon, squeezing and loosening his grip upon it in anticipation. He felt a hard pat on his shoulder at the same time the volume of fire from his squadmates increased heavily. He leaned forward to the point where he was forced to run lest he fall on his face. Using his momentum, he propelled himself into a sprint across the street, his tanks clanking together as he ran. Behind him was Cull, a younger soldier who carried a lasrifle. Both of them reached to their belts and removed frag grenades as they ran, the last of the Eldar fire whickering past them as their foes were suppressed. They skidded to a halt and slammed themselves against the face of the building across the street. They nodded to each other before hurling the grenades into the top floor. Two agonizing seconds passed before the grenades detonated.
The ground shook as the pressure wave thumped in their chests and ears. From the windows burst clouds of fire and black smoke and dust concealing swarms of shredded glass and debris. Pieces landed across the street, peppering the rest of 12th Squad that wasn't in cover. They hunkered down slightly more in the unintentional onslaught before resuming their firing. The superheated lasbolts turned the dust to ash as they passed through clouds of it, the heavier debris falling to the ground. Norrum hefted his flamer and squeezed the trigger, releasing a white hot jet of promethium that enveloped the entire face of the building. He swept it back and forth, leaving it on windows for several seconds each as the flames exploded into the house itself. It began to burn violently from the inside out. No more gunfire came from the area. What they did not know was that part of the reason the gunfire had stopped from that spot was that several of the Eldar had survived, and were relocating .
"Johlem! Krell! Rahm and Kahn are fragged if we don't get them out of there!" The rest did not need to be spoken, and the two fighters responded with a hail of gunfire towards the Eldar position that had been firing most heavily on Rahm and Khan. They shifted their rifles, Johlem hefting his heavy stubber to adjust his aim towards the higher window of what appeared to be a shop as the street turned into a market not far past it. In the split second they had spent doing so, their targets in the window had disappeared.
"Where did they go? They were there just a second ago! Frag, this is bad." Krell activated his vox bead to the squad and relayed the information to Dolan.
"Watch out, they can come from anywhere…" Johlem adjusted his fire to another group of ambushers located on a rooftop on the opposite side of the street from them. His targets had been firing upon 12th Squad, whose single casualty had grown to two. A second man had been shot in the chest and was being tended to by their medic. Johlem squeezed the trigger and his heavy stubber began to voraciously consume the ammo belt laying beside it, breathing a massive ball of fire from its muzzle. The individual cartridges turned into a blur as the belt was sucked inside before their empty brass casings were spat out of the ejection port, largely into Krell's face. They trailed smoke as they spun through the air and landed with hollow chimes as they hit the hard rubble, and elicited swears as they impacted the soft flesh of Krell's cheeks and neck.
From their left they heard the roar of 12th Squad's sergeant as he called for the fixing of their bayonets. Johlem turned towards the source of the call while still squeezing bursts of fire into his target to see Eldar leaping from buildings and windows into their midst. Johlem hefted his heavy stubber and turned it upon the warriors coming from the buildings across the street. As one leapt from a rooftop he shredded the soldier with a thirty round burst from his stubber. The corpse jerked numerous times as it tumbled through the air uncontrolled, red clouds of mist erupting from various holes in its body as the bullets tore into and out of the armored Eldar. Streams of blood were ejected from the falling body, casting flecks onto the walls behind it before the deceased warrior impacted the ground in a crumpled, twisted heap.
Krell looked to his left and fired with semi-controlled franticness at the approaching enemy. His lasbolts hit and missed various targets, but provided to the hail of fire that was being directed at their swift attackers.
Rahm and Kahn had sprinted from their cover to a more secure location on the same side of the street as Johlem and Krell. In doing so they had narrowly avoided death at the hands of the Eldar that were almost materializing from the walls where they had been. Nearly half a dozen emerged, while several remained in positions to suppress the Imperials that they had been doing battle with. The two men also turned their rifles on the attacking foe.
12th Squad was receiving the worst of the attack by far, simply being unfortunate enough to be largely on the same side as the origin of the second ambush. The Eldar tore into them with vicious speed, ducking below and jumping out of the way of lasbolts being fired wildly in an effort to stop them. With horrific alien speed and skill they began a wild and bloody slaughter of the Imperial troopers.
"Shoot them!" Dolan roared over the chaos. The Eldar that had been suppressing Rahm and Kahn had taken to the streets and were eviscerating 12th Squad. They were packed into an indiscernible mass of writhing death and war. Everyone there would have to die.
With a sigh being his only indication of emotion regarding discharging his weapon into a mob of his own kind mixed with the enemy, Johlem kneeled and began firing long, angry bursts into what had become of the slaughter in the street. With the angry baring of teeth, the wild-eyed look of someone in combat, or the blank stare of a man not realizing he was slowly killing himself as he did so to others, they all fired into 12th Squad and their assailants. Krell gritted his teeth as his lasrifle spat bolt after bolt into the mob, impacting Imperials and Eldar alike. Each shot that hit a human vaporized their tunics after boring through their armor. Then, the superheated water in their tissue exploded outwards as it was instantly turned to steam, violently wrenching bloody chunks of their bodies off of their skeletons. Bloody mist, fragments of shattered bone, and muscle erupted into the air, hanging ponderously in faint clouds for an instant before disappearing.
Johlem's stubber sent zipping clouds of death into the targets. Many glanced off of Eldar armor, fragmenting and embedding themselves in human flesh or kicking up dust from the ground. Rounds that found their marks slammed into them, expanding and pulverizing flesh and vital organs before erupting from the other sides of whoever they killed. Jets of blood and bone followed the shredded remains of the projectiles, leaving streaks in the dust and debris on the street. Those that were hit would continue to move as they had for a split second before their severed muscles, tendons, and limbs could no longer function and they merely jerked with the force of the impacts before crumpling into heaps. The whole event lasted but ten seconds.
The Imperials had been doomed the instant they were attacked at close quarters, however those that had to take the lives of their own found little solace in that. Later they would try not to think about it, or speak venerably of the "sacrifice" of the men that died. In the end, however, all that were left were vague memories of contorted faces, fearsome alien might, and the blood of young men being spilled. They were trained not to think of it like that, but it was impossible for the inner core of their beings to not do so.
The sudden attack had given the Eldar in the buildings time to reposition, and they continued to lay fire on Dolan and his squadmates. Norrum and Cull, the two surviving members of 12th Squad, sprinted to cover near Rahm and Kahn. Both of the survivors were nearing a trancelike state, brought on by the loss of people that they had fought with for so long. Cull's face was a blank slate, utterly devoid of expression as he snapped shots off at the attacking Eldar, now on both side of the street a mere thirty yards away from them. He spent considerably more time out of cover than the others, firing.
"Krell!" Dolan roared over the gunfire. "Get HQ on the vox, we need help, here! Are the fragging Brawlers even alive, still?!"
Krell hefted off his vox, exposing his hands and the vox itself in doing so. A shuriken sang off of the edge of the metal transmitter, leaving a perfectly cut, tiny section exposed through the paint. He swore and nearly threw it down next to himself behind cover. He removed the handset and called to the temporary base that resided within the convoy's location.
"HQ! This is 3rd Squad! We've encountered extremely heavy resistance, and are unable to progress to the objective!" A projectile impacted the masonry above him, raining a thin cloud of dust particles upon his head.
Commissar Broden stood over a glowing map of Thunderhead. The rune indicating 3rd Squad blinked, indicating that a transmission was being received from them. His vox officer, standing next to him, relayed the information to the Commissar.
"We need every foothold we can possibly get in order to achieve victory. Send them their reinforcements. The rest of us shall remain here and await tasking. 4th Squad is to assist them, with a Chimera."
The vox officer saluted, crossing the Imperial Aquila over his chest.
Krell waited several agonizing seconds under fire while his request was being processed.
"Krell!" Dolan called over his shoulder from behind the debris of the crashed Valkyrie.
"Almost! I'm still waiting!"
"Tell them to fragging hurry! These bastards don't wait!"