A/N: Alrighty, new chapter, hopefully to your liking. Thanks go to uzushio5179, BIBOTOT, DeathDemonWolf, and Imperial-Preist Engelbart for your reviews. DeathDemonWolf I've re-read the previous chapter and I can't seem to find the slip-up you found, if possible could you specify exactly where it is as I very much would like to correct any confusion, and thank you for bringing the error to my attention. Imperial-Preist Engelbart I am disheartend that you will no longer be reading the fic, thank you for your input, though as most of us would I feel the need to defend my work. Technically none of the characters I've made are Kreigers, therefore they have not been raised to become nigh emotionless killing machines, instead they are conscripts which are very different psychologically from volunteer/fanatics, so yes they're not going to be quite as disciplined, and some bits of their homeworlds syntax would stay with them even through their training. All that being said and though I'm sure you won't see this thank you for the input. Now that I've blabbed enough kindly read, review, and enjoy. Oh, and over 100,000 words, WooHoo!

"One does what one is; one becomes what one does." –Robert Von Musil

He woke up, muffled sound returning to his ears, awareness to his muddled mind, and feeling to his numbed body, but unfortunately for trooper S-1049 these feelings were not welcome. His body ached all over, pain in his left leg, possibly a concussion, he couldn't be sure, the phantom pains of his right eye and left arm acting up in force, leaving him nearly frozen from the memory.

A sudden sharp intake of breath surprised him; it was his own, caused by the feeling of air against his face, a face that should not be bare to the world. Finally his body recognized the binds at his wrists, coarse but strong rope keeping even his augmetic from breaking free. Until this point he had kept his eyes closed and played dead, but curiosity had to be sated, so he opened his eyes, natural left lifting its lid while unnatural right whirred and clicked as lenses opened up.

He looked around him, the still unconscious bodies of his comrades stunning him; they were all bare-faced like him, though most of the rest of their uniforms still left to them, even their armor, though the heavy carapace wasn't welcome on his body at the moment. Obviously their weapons were taken from them. He looked around at the unconscious, he couldn't recognize any of them without their masks, kind of strange considering for most it would be the opposite, but not for him.

One though… he did recognize her, if only because he knew her so well that he could tell her apart simply by posture, after all he had never seen her face, and it seemed he still wouldn't seeing as her head was down and her face obscured by her short black hair. He pulled his eyes away from the image, instead looking around to get info on his surroundings, they were all in a cell of some sort, hands tied behind backs, but feet were free, all kneeling.

Suddenly one of his comrades started awake, he looked up suddenly glancing around, his gaze finally settling on him, he recognized the way his gaze shifted, the movement of his body, Corporal B-80, he and Jericus were the only ones awake. B-80 gave Jericus a questioning look, too little info on where they were to talk and let their captors know they were awake. One thing was for sure, they certainly weren't behind friendly lines, Jericus' memories were slowly coming back.

They had been on a raid, further into the city, ahead of friendly lines, they were ambushed, stun grenades. Jericus couldn't recall what happened after that, so that only meant they were incapacitated and well here they were. The sole door to the room bangs open, the others are still unconscious not having stirred one bit at the loud sound. Unfortunately Jericus and B-80 both spun their heads to look in the direction of the door, silhouetted in the doorway an enemy soldier stood tall.

His battle armor much more advanced than theirs, it was sleeker, lighter, and as they had first hand experience with much better at taking punishment than even their heavy carapace plates. Helmet off the man gave them a wicked looking grin.

"Well, looks like two of the prisoners have stirred," he spoke with a chuckle. "Bring them to the interrogation room, let the others keep resting, we'll get to them soon enough."

Four more men filled the doorway, clad in the same form-fitting armor as the first, though these had full-face helmets on, their faces obscured by the heavy looking plate of material, only two pinpoints to indicate where the eyes were, sensors for them to see out of. Two went to Jericus and two went to B-80, neither resisted as they were hauled bodily to their feet and then led out of the room.

They didn't go far, only a few rooms down, stopping at the door the helmetless man knocked a sequence, three sharp raps, followed by two loud thuds with his palm. Seconds passed before the door opened up, inside a spindly man greeted them with an unsettling smile, he wore a heavy smock, gloves, and a clear face visor. He would have looked scholarly had it not been for the ominous stains of said smock and gloves.

"Ah so I finally get to see how one of these skull-faces tick, Sergeant Graves you are too kind to me," his smile grew even more unsettling if it were possible. He welcomed them all in beckoning the escorts to put Jericus and B-80 into two metal chairs; both spaced about ten feet across from each other and bolted to the floor.

Jericus had a feeling he knew what was going to happen to them, he had been trained to resist torture, it had been rather brutal as all training in the Death Korps was, but training and a real situation were two entirely different things. At some point in the training they had to stop beating you if you were to live to become a trooper, these men around him didn't have to play by those rules.

He was placed roughly in the chair, hands still behind his back and tied, and curiously the chairs didn't have straps to keep him restrained. Though his two well armored escorts to either side of him was deterrent enough, so he supposed that was the reason. B-80 was placed in his own chair across from him. The now named Sergeant Graves stood off to the side and watched for the moment, casually leaning against a cart holding various instruments of torture.

Mr. Spindly walked to the center between the Jericus and B-80 spreading his arms wide. "Now gentlemen, here's how this'll work, one of you is going to be 'tickled' as we like to call it. The other can stop this by simply answering our questions, if you answer truthfully the other has nothing to fear, if not… well you'll see I'm sure." He clapped, "With that in mind let us begin, who do you think should have to endure, and who will answer our questions?"

Graves put his hand to his chin looking pensive as he looked over both Jericus and B-80, finally giving his answer. "I say we let the corporal endure, I hear say these skull-faces are very big on following orders, we get him to start begging then his underling will surely answer. Plus the other one looks like he's had enough done to him," he snorted in amusement at that last bit.

Mr. Spindly nodded. "An excellent choice Sergeant, you impress me as always. So without further adieu," he went to the cart and wheeled it over to B-80 who continued to look stoic and resolved.

Jericus could tell what B-80 was saying to him, even though they hadn't uttered a word to each other, he could tell just from the look in his eyes.

"Don't tell them a word trooper, no matter how much I scream and beg. Remember your duty, remember your comrades, if you blab you've betrayed us all, and I will never forgive you," was what he was saying to Jericus.

Jericus gave a subtle nod in understanding, B-80 nodded back to affirm the message. The cart was in place and Mr. Spindly was picking out his tools, first up was a rather clean and surgical instrument, it looked like some kind of scoop, but it was too small for food.

"Sergeant if you would begin," Spindly said.

Graves walked right in-front of Jericus, staring him right in the eye. "You have six seconds to answer from the moment I ask the question, or your friend is going to have a very bad day. We'll start off simply, what is your name?"

Not so simple, if you were a Korpsman you didn't have a name, but Jericus didn't say this out loud, instead opting to stare blankly ahead of him. It was time to start shutting things out, B-80 would be in pain soon, and Jericus needed to focus on nothing so that he would not notice.

Five seconds ticked by, Graves sighed. "Have it your way, doc…"

"I've noticed your comrade over there has had a bit of work done, his right eye specifically, how did that happen?" He spoke in friendly manner, as though B-80 was having a thoughtful conversation with him, he waited for the stoic korpsman to give an answer he knew he wouldn't get.

"Ah, no matter, I may not know how he lost his, but I'll know how you lost yours," B-80's escorts immediately grabbed his shoulders, restraining B-80 and holding his head still. The scoop came closer to his right eye as the seconds ticked past, he made no move to get away or close it, instead frozen, and eyes wide as it got ever closer. Jericus knew what it was for now, he had to keep blank, shut. It. Out. Shut. It. Out!

B-80 was a veteran of many campaigns, fought the foulest creatures the galaxy had to offer, unfortunately one cannot help but scream when they are in genuine agonizing pain. B-80 was there right now, in pain, and his own screams shocked him, despite knowing he could take the pain, knowing it wouldn't break him, he couldn't help himself.

When it was over he stared into his own eye, its white membrane interrupted by his own iris and widely dilated pupil. He hadn't seen his own eye color in over a decade… breathing harshly he glanced over to Jericus with his one remaining eye, Jericus had that blank look on his face, no feeling there, no compassion, B-80's pain would not get him to say a word, no matter what they did to him.

The veteran Korpsman was both relieved and frightened. On the one hand the nothing important to their comrades would be compromised, on the other… his suffering was far from over.

They waited a few minutes, Spindly cleaning his tools, Graves staring intently at Jericus' blank façade. Finally they broke the silence.

"Next question…"

Some time earlier…

Three weeks ago they had made planetfall, troopships disgorging them in their legions, enemy orbital defense had been obliterated, but ground forces were still strong, still willing to put up a fight, and more technologically advanced than the Imperial forces sent to dispatch them. Not helping matters was the Imperial Navy's resolve to not lift a finger to help in the form of heavy aerial bombardments where it would save thousands of lives.

But as he fought tooth and nail through the urban landscape of the enemy city Jericus didn't reflect on these things. All that mattered was clearing out the city, block by block. The whole liberation fleet including the Nosce Te Ipsum had deployed all available guard regiments, infantry, armored, siege, artillery; everything they had was descending on this lone planet. Named Endurholdgun by the locals, the planet was very ideal for life to thrive sporting a diverse biosphere, a very developed infrastructure, and one very ticked off local unified population of both humans and an unknown xenos species.

As per general protocol the new sentient xenos species was to be exterminated, the humans had been told of the Imperial faith, the Emperor, and the need to take care of the xenos they lived with. They had chosen to side with their xenos allies and thus had to be exterminated along with them.

Normally heavy bombardment of the planet would have opened up such a war, to crippled enemy infrastructure, but for some unexplained reason the Imperial Navy refused and it was then decided universally among the various generals of the fleet that the only alternative was full-on ground warfare in order to secure the planet.

So now Jericus found himself advancing behind a Celk pattern battle tank manned by tankers of the Celk 12th 'Rust-buckets' as heavy enemy fire pinged and saturated their frontal armor. Jericus was eternally grateful to be attached to the Celk 12th regiment, their planets unique pattern of tank was apparently fairing much better against enemy anti-tank weapons than the standard Leman Russ tanks of other armored regiments.

Celk tank jockeys loved to brag about how their armor was made of some kind of composite adamantium/plasteel mix much stronger and lighter than any other. Apparently the Celk homework was famous for their armor production, from tank hulls, to flak-armor that protected as well as carapace, unfortunately thanks to travel time and other factors this technology never seemed to make it out of their home system save for when it went with their troopers.

They were going up a wide main street, five tanks abreast at the front, Death Korps and Hoarfell troopers pushing up behind the protective vehicles. Jericus and his squad were behind the right-most tank, the 'Dogma of Assumption' as it crawled forward both its main gun and front mounted heavy bolters blazing. Suddenly a whip-crack was heard and then the left-most tank was pierced through, sheer velocity from the enemy round making a perfect hole through the tough armor and creating a frightening geyser of crimson as the tankers inside exited with the hyper-velocity projectile.

Death Korps and Hoarfell immediately behind were also ripped apart as the round continued on its deadly path, air-pressure alone rending limbs from their bodies, or if they were lucky merely dislocating. Now their left flank was halted as the troopers behind were forced to move to the other tanks or stay behind the wreckage. Jericus could hear the tank commanders and the N.C.O's shouting between each other over the vox net as they adjusted strategy and targeted the anti-armor emplacement in the building ahead.

Re-directed main canon fire from the four remaining tanks took down the front of the building, the enemy within and their anti-armor killed in a rain of dust and fire. The assault up the road continued, luckily they could focus on the main concentration of the enemy position ahead as the rest of the three battalions assigned to take the sector kept their flanks safe.

"Alright ground-pounders we're going in get ready for CQB!" The main tank commander shouted over the open vox, Korps Watchmasters and Hoarfell Sergeants relayed the news. Moments later the Celk pattern tanks crashed through enemy lines, driving back or otherwise crushing enemy combatants. Jericus heard the distinct scream followed by crunch as the Dogma of Assumption ran over an enemy, any doubts about what had happened were put to bed as he was then treading over the flattened remains, human to be precise.

The tanks stopped, their job done for the moment, as one the guardsmen behind them surged forward into the ranks of enemy troopers now in disarray, as their line was broken by the armored assault. Analysis of prior engagements showed that Imperial forces fought better and won majority of battles that came into melee range against the enemy, not to mention their weapons were much more effective up-close.

Coming round the protection of the tank they were swept by enemy weapons-fire, they retaliated with their own, lasbolts concentrated as teams of two or three guardsmen pre-assigned prior to battle picked out single targets. It had become apparent early on that enemy armor was much more advanced, thus Imperial troopers would pick single targets as a group and spray them down to ensure the kill.

As with most things Jericus and Fenria paired together, their combined fire taking an enemy trooper in the chest, a xenos to be exact, its double jointed legs and the oblong helmet made that fact very apparent. They outnumbered the enemy ten to one and they were capitalizing on the advantage, though not without losses of their own. Many guardsmen were quite literally ripped to pieces as enemy hyper-velocity slugs punched or otherwise cut through body-armor as though it were tissue paper.

Jericus along with the other grenadiers lucked out because of the fact that their carapace armor at least could deflect the hyper-rounds if they hit at the right angle, their comrades lesser flak-armor did nothing against the projectiles. The enemy troopers themselves were covered in what seemed to be head-to-toe body armor, it was made from an unknown material that offered good protection from lasfire at a distance and simply shrugged off all Imperial solid-slug weapons save for bolts.

An enemy came charging forward through the weapons-fire at Jericus who proceeded to grant the man's death wish by running him through with his bayonet. As Jericus wrenched the blade from his victims neck he noted with satisfaction that at least imperial mono-edged adamantium still easily went through the otherwise tough enemy armor. He kicked the dying man in the face, as he clutched at his bleeding wound, snapping his neck in the process and pushing his body to the ground.

Focusing on keeping up with the firing line Jericus helped Fenria deal with another enemy, lasbolts seemed to melt the resistant helmet around the xenos head, its hands dropping its own weapon and springing up to pry the superheated material off. They caught a brief glimpse of the xenos face before they vaporized its ridged head with combined weapon-fire, it had some sort of mandibles in place of a mouth, and large round almost human-like eyes conveyed its pain as it clawed at melted remnants of its helmet clinging to its carapace-like skin.

Flanging screams were cut off as they put an end to its misery, the guardsmen advanced in step with each-other. Numbers and cooperation the only thing they had going in their favor as they cut down the enemy. They finally drove the resistant enemy force to break, human and xenos alike went into a running retreat as they abandoned their positions. Jericus kept up with the rest of the guardsmen as they continued their steady advance, they had their orders, and soon they would be fulfilled. They drove the last of the enemy force into the crossfire of their waiting Randon comrades who had grav-chuted in while the enemy was distracted by the armored advance.

Too late the enemy realized the plan as they were cut down by Randon forces waiting in ambush for them as they passed. The Imperial battle-plan had been to trap the enemy in the natural bottleneck created by the main street and slaughter them with concentrated crossfire. The battle finally concluded as the last enemy trooper was shot by a snipers hotshot bolt, the high energy lasbolt one of the few things that could pierce enemy armor at a distance in one blow.

A cheer erupted from the Imperials as the last of the enemy went down, it marked an end to hostilities in the current city they were occupying, it had been rough fighting, and they were finally done with it. Jericus tried not to dwell on the fact that they were going to have to take many more highly-populated areas before the campaign was over.

Next the Imperial went about conducting clean-up duty, first they had to kill any enemy still alive and writhing on the ground. Then they had to collect enemy weapons and armor to be sent back to command, and finally they were to burn the bodies. Even the Death Korps grenadiers were a part of this particular task. There was no other enemy force within the city to strike at, so they would help with the cleanup.

It took hours to kill wounded, strip bodies, and finally pile them up onto the pyres. The burning took place at night, the fires from the bodies lighting up the streets allowing the guardsmen to set up shop in the area. Enemy forces had been using the area as a forward operating base, the guard simply re-purposed it to be their own after they cleaned up. From here they would be conducting raids and reconnaissance on surrounding areas where the enemy was dug-in or otherwise set up.

Watchmaster B-63 thought it a good time to let his team rest while he went with the other N.C.O's to talk plans and tactics for the future, he took B-80 with him. That left Jericus and Fenria with the anti-social F-920 and their new teammates S-360, and S-548. The new grenadiers had been incorporated into the team and went through dozens of training drills with them during transit to Endurholdgun, they seemed to be very capable. But they were still getting used to the less structured nature of how B-63 ran the team, but they were getting on well nonetheless.

F-920 was off on his own a little ways away from the group, leaving the four Surrins to themselves as they cooked rations over the small fire they had started using scavenged materials to burn. The fire was one of the luxuries they were allowed while in 'friendly' territory, in fact many other groups of guardsmen were also partaking in similar activities around them. It cast shadows over their masks giving the skull-motifs an almost lifelike quality all their own, and bathing the area in a warm glow.

"Can't believe it's only been three weeks and we've lost so many people already," S-360 commented, she was still getting used to B-63's insistence on a more lax attitude, but at least she made more effort than S-548. Though S-548 seemed to be very quiet by nature to begin with, to prove said point he merely grunted in acknowledgment.

"Heard from the Watchmaster that command is expecting at least thirty percent casualties," Jericus put in.

"Well at least we got paired with the Celk, that'll give us a better chance with any heavy fighting in the future, plus we've got the Randon for air support. I've heard a lot of other regiments on world don't have those kinds of advantages, apparently the fighting in the southern hemisphere isn't going well at all." Fenria stated as she picked up her mug of tea she had been heating over the fire, carefully she sipped the liquid through the straw built into her mask, a satisfied sigh echoing from her a moment later.

The patter of boots against the rockcrete caught the groups attention, turning they were faced with the ragged-looking shapes of Hoarfell troopers at the edge of their fires light. One of them stepped forward revealing none other than Xavier to the group.

"Hey there guys thought it was you, heard you were in the same sector as us so we decided to come looking for you in our downtime," he said with a smile.

"Actually he just dragged the rest of us along," Cain commented as he came up and sat down in the circle of grenadiers around the fire.

"Yeah and he promised we'd eat once we found you, so you guys don't mind if we join you for supper right? We brought our own rations, we'll have a nice group dinner, good bonding time," Eli said taking his place beside Cain and pouring rations from his bag.

"Sure, take a seat…" Jericus stated though by that time there seemed to be no choice but to go through with the get-together as Xavier and Hack also took seats around the fire. The Hoarfell troopers started setting up their own meals to cook as they began to swap stories, and make comments about the campaign thus far.

"So not sure if you guys noticed, but we were behind the 'Renovatio' when it got hit, all the way at the back of the group and we still got covered by the crew," Xavier shivered at the memory of liquid remains splashing onto the front of his tunic and the side of his face.

"Emperor that was you, that must have been rough, are you all okay?" S-360 questioned genuinely, Jericus and Fenria had found out early on that she was oddly considerate and concerned for others, something most lost during training. It may have been because she was trained partially to be a field medic, something B-63 was really keen on having as an asset that they had been sorely missing.

"Yeah, you know Xavier he just likes to dramatize everything. Just a little shock, a bit of a shower, some time cleaning our uniforms and we were good to go, nothing we haven't seen on Tartarius really." Cain put in with a chuckle, he usually diverted to humor to cover serious things up.

"Seriously though Cain, those enemy guns are scary, I've never heard of anything that could go through a tank like that, and have you been looking at the wounded. Pretty soon half the troopers fighting the war are gonna be like you Jericus with the way they tear off limbs," Xavier retorted.

"He's right you know," Hack put in cutting off Cain's attempted reply.

"Maybe Mago's Chevel will give me a new arm…" Eli stated quietly to himself. Unfortunately it wasn't so quiet as to escape the hearing of those around him, all of whom were giving him strange looks, even the usually stoic S-548. Jericus subconsciously moved his right arm as far from Eli as he could manage, fully remembering the man's crush on the cog-girl.

"It's not something to wish for, believe me," Jericus spoke up first. Eli's head whipped up, shock, and then a look of embarrassment crossed his face, and everyone broke into laughter at the look on the poor man's face.

"In any case, those weapons are not something I look forward to fighting against for months at a time, you guys are lucky, I heard that carapace actually can protect against some of their small arms," Hack said after the laughter died down.

"Alright, we all get that this war is gonna be horrible and that we're horribly outmatched, but if you can all just humor me here can we move on to something more lighthearted?" Cain pleaded.

"And what could possibly be light hearted with the way our lives are going right now Cain, ever since Surris its been one crapshoot after another it seems like," Xavier retorted, though not unkindly, more looking for his friend to point out a bright spot.

"Well how about you two, how've you been getting along with the hardened grenadiers, last we saw you guys were being put through the ringer when they were training you," Cain said motioning to S-360 and S-548.

"It's been a new experience to say the least," S-360 started. "To be honest though I like being a part of this team much better than the regular Korps, sure we get the tougher missions, but I can actually talk normally, or well mostly normal with everyone here."

"Well that's good to hear, and what about you," Cain gestured to S-548.

The man merely shrugged in response. "It's been good," he concluded quietly.

"He's a real talker ain't he," Cain chuckled lightly, but quickly added. "Nothing wrong with that man, just saying, most of you are quiet, but I get the feeling you were like that before the conscription eh?"

S-548 nodded, finally grabbing his own share of the rations as it finished cooking, he inserted his eating tube and slurped the hot contents of the ration.

"S-548's always been the quiet one of the two of us," S-360 commented, at the questioning looks of the others around her she continued. "We knew each other before the conscription, worked on the same line, grew up together. We lucked out when we were assigned to the same company and then got scooped up by Watchmaster B-63 after we got off of Tartarius," she concluded taking her own rations to begin eating, S-548 nodded to affirm her story.

"That's good, you two were lucky, other than Jericus and Xavier none of us knew each other before the conscription. It's always good to have someone from the past, makes things a little easier to swallow, not that I don't appreciate all of you guys though, just saying it must be nice to have an old friend is all," Eli spoke up over his recent embarrassment.

"Its fine Eli we get it," Xavier said sympathetically. "So who's up for a round of cards?"

"Sorry trooper, but I'm gonna have to cut the game short," Watchmaster B-63 cut into the conversation appearing at the edge of the firelight. "Gonna need my team, we've got a mission, gonna need the rest of you too, your squad is gonna be joined to ours for this one. Sergeant Havlock will brief you Hoarfell boys, I suggest you go along to him, we'll see you soon enough."

"Yes sir," the Hoarfell troopers responded as they got up from their positions. They collected their rations to eat on the way to their Sergeant as they walked off into the darkness, their uniforms making them disappear quickly into the dim blackness. The grenadiers all turned to their Watchmaster, B-80 was with him as well off the right, and even F-920 came closer to the group to hear about their new mission.

"What's the mission Watchmaster?" F-920 surprisingly enough was the first to say something.

"So glad you've asked F-920, as usual we've been given the honor of striking at the enemy first, a smaller city to the south to be exact. We're going to be apart of an initial first strike to take out key targets believed to be dug in there, to achieve this we're being flown in with Randon drop-troopers via valkyrie, I'm sure you all remember Sergeant Joss and her people," at the groups nod he continued. "Once ground-side we strike at both military hardware and high concentrations of the population where we believe they've bunkered down. Hopefully they'll be so taken by surprise that we'll eliminate most resistance so that our main force can sweep in and conduct cleanup. All that said we're leaving now so pack up camp, grab your wargear, and let's go."

They soon found themselves on Randon valkyries, these aircraft in particular made for stealth, their engines muffled by Mechanicus technology. They flew through the inky night sky coming into view of the small city, the valkyries ghosting over the unsuspecting heads of the enemy. Jericus took solace in the strange stillness that enveloped all of them before the drop, before the fighting would begin, though he wasn't sure if he could call it fighting. If all went according to plan they would hit the enemy before they even had the chance to react at all.

Looking across the bay he saw the face of one Raltia Lupa, she had save him on Tartarius, gravchuting with his wounded form out of the main spire to get him to a medicae in time to save his life. She gave a slight wave from across the bay; he gave her a nod back in acknowledgement. They hardly felt the shift as the valkyrie stopped to hover over their drop-zone, three thumps from the pilots cockpit signaling that it was time to get off.

The ramps opened up and they stood lining up to exit the craft, they were rappelling from the hovering vehicles. Jericus watched as those in front of him clipped themselves onto the ropes and descended to the soon-to-be battlefield below. He and Fenria had gotten crash courses on how to rappel along with S-360 and S-548 on the Ipsum, it wasn't something taught in any particular detail to regular korpsmen, but they were grenadiers, they had to be able to deploy in any fashion that the mission required of them, and so they had learned.

His turn came, he attached his rappel gear to the rope and off he went, the descend make his stomach lurch and took what seemed to be ten seconds. He hit the ground and was off without a moments notice, Fenria would be coming down right behind him, and he had to clear the way. He went to his position, those down on the ground had to set up a defense in case of hostile detection. Though as he looked around with the thermal imager built into his augmetic eye Jericus could tell that there weren't any enemy troopers nearby.

Soon everyone on their valkyrie was off and ready to go, the aircraft cleared the area disappearing into the night. Leaving them to do the deed, they had all been briefed before going, it was going to be a silent op until it was deemed by the N.C.O's otherwise. That meant no talking, only hand signals, and secure vox communication, they knew their routes, the paths acquired from aerial scans of the city and given to them in the form of crude maps.

Their target was a vehicle depot, enemy tanks were far tougher than theirs were, they'd need to be taken out for the assault to work, it was a good thing that melta-charges still disabled the advanced and deadly vehicles. They would have to work around enemy patrols, for this particular mission that only left them the option to eliminate targets quietly with hand weapons. Lasguns were too bright and loud, and any autorifle they could field wouldn't have enough punch to ensure a kill.

They moved through the back alleys and across the streets as silently as they could their target not far from the drop point. All over the small city the same thing was playing out as teams of Death Korps, Hoarfell, and Randon went about to eliminate their targets. Charges were all to be set to go off at the same time exactly o-two-hundred hour's standard time; they wanted them to go off all at once to better confuse and stall enemy response time.

The rest of their forces would be making the main offensive at the time of detonation; they were currently massing not too far out. Randon would drop from on high, Hoarfell and Death Korps would ride in on chimera with Celk tankers as armored support. Even with all of this they were expecting it to be a hard battle to take the city, but they were hoping to make it quick.

It wasn't long before they came across their first patrol, two enemy troopers, one human one xeno, having to get them out of the way B-63 motioned Jericus and S-548 forward to do the deed. Jericus quietly slung his lasrifle and drew his trench-axe, he had discovered that it could easily chop into a vulnerable gap between the enemy's advanced armor at the neck and even through their helmets if need be, but that would damage the edge. S-548 favored the standard issue Korps fighting knife; they crept up behind their two victims.

Jericus took the human, stepping lightly he kept his axe at the ready, once he was in range he swung horizontally, the axe head easily chopped into the side of the man's neck. It went in nice and deep, the jugular was severed and any cries turned to soft gurgles as Jericus tore the axe free and reversed it to stab in to his neck again with the spiked end. Hardly struggling he held the man's weight dragging him along with him off to the side of the road, S-548 doing the same having dispatched his target with his knife, though he had to dig and twist more because of the xeno's natural carapace under the already tough armor.

The two confirmed that all was clear to the rest of the group with two clicks and a whistle, and then they moved out. They could see the lights of the vehicle depot before they could see the enemy troopers guarding it, skirting around the perimeter their squad strength group found a spot that would permit them entrance with the least amount of exposure. Enemy numbers were limited; the bulk of their forces having been in the larger city the Imperials had already taken. This made it easier for the guardsmen to creep into the depot.

Going in teams of three they went through the gap one team at a time, once they were through the teams would go off and plant their charges onto enemy tanks and other heavy equipment. They had ten minutes to get in plant and set their charges and get out again. Jericus was with Fenria and F-920 as they made their way past rows of tanks further into the depot, leaving the closer target to their entry point for the last of the squad coming in.

Moving through the depot Jericus couldn't help but marvel at the sleek looking tanks and other heavy armor the enemy could field, it was no wonder the rest of the liberation fleet was having so much trouble in the southern hemisphere. They took care of any small patrols as they went, Imperial metal meeting enemy flesh and blood, it was quick the guardsmen much more proficient at CQB than their opponents who were usually unaware of them to begin with anyway. They left the bodies to grow cold, not even bothering to hide them, as it soon wouldn't matter.

Even further back they saw even more exotic looking war-machines in the form of what looked to be hulking powered armor. Though what he was seeing dwarfed even the mighty space marines, the suits stood at around twenty-five feet tall, weapons almost as large as them at their sides. They looked to having fully functioning mechanical hands to manipulate their oversized weapons, clawed feet, and a sturdy chassis for the pilot to sit in.

Those mechs would be their targets, Jericus used hand-signs to let Fenria and F-920 know what he was thinking, the two nodded along with the plan, and they began setting up the charges. They placed them on the vulnerable looking joints of the towering war machines, making sure that the charges would cripple and make useless the mechs. None of them had much desire to fight against such things. Checking watches they knew it was time to head out and regroup, quickly they made their way out of the depot.

Passing by other teams and forming up with them as they went along to the exit, once there they broke up again to make it across the street and out of the depot. Everything seemed to be going off without a hitch as the whole squad finally made it out and into the relative safety of the buildings across the way. Enemy civilians had been taken to safety shelters throughout the city, those were among the targets to be taken out, other groups had been assigned those targets though for which Jericus was grateful. He wasn't sure he could kill civilians, even if they were traitors to mankind.

They waited as the time passed; it wasn't going to be long now o-two-hundred was only a few dozen minutes away now. It was quiet, after all they weren't allowed to talk until the assault commenced, so they listened to the sounds of a city that was on edge. The enemy knew they were going to attack, they just didn't know when, didn't know the attack was coming in only a few scant minutes. Suddenly there was some distant shouting coming from the depot, the enemy had probably finally found some bodies.

Too bad it was too little too late, seconds after the shouting a loud almost simultaneous chorus of explosions shook the city and its residents as all over charges of all types of Imperial make went off. They destroyed vehicles, blew munitions sky high, took down key buildings and defensive chokepoints. Dust choked the air as particles of blown-up buildings saturated everything; this sound of thunder was followed by utter silence as the city's defenders tried to recover from the unexpected explosions.

That was when the advance forces leapt back into action. Jericus was with his whole fire-team again as the joint squad surged forward from their hidden position. They walked into the now destroyed vehicle depot; those that they found still alive were quickly met with lasbolts. Dazed enemy troopers tried to fight back, but the guardsmen had them utterly by surprise.

All over the city similar scenes were taking place as guardsmen engaged in combat with the surprised enemy. Jericus heard the distinct sounds of complete battle as what he knew to be the main Imperial force crashed into the already battered defenses of the city on the outskirts. They would be moving quickly and decisively as they took the city, the enemy had made it easy to locate them by the way they had grouped up themselves and their civilian population.

Exiting the depot the squad advanced up a main street, joining several other advance squads and beginning to fight their way up the road. The dug in enemy was beginning to realize what was happening and started to return fire with their deadly weapons. It was bedlam as allies all around him were cut down, but Jericus kept up as F-920 called out the targets for him and Fenria to focus on with him. They had to focus fire to put down the enemy as fast as possible, the strategy as mad as it was meant they had to keep up the advance.

They couldn't afford to get into any prolonged firefights with the enemy; hypersonic rounds would completely outmatch their deadly light energy. Cover and staying in one place only meant death against these enemies, and so they advanced, in step, firing in volleys and coordinating shots to keep the enemy supressed.

Focused light energy melted enemy armor more than penetrated it at a far distance, so enemy troopers went down in agony as the hot material of their resistant armor scorched their bodies under the concentrated imperial fire. Once they closed the distance Jericus found his lasgun actually going through the enemy armor and killing instead of incapacitating. The enemy troopers already on the ground from the agony of their melted armor were dispatched by bayonet to conserve ammunition.

It was a crude but effective strategy when combined with their element of surprise. But as they got past the first emplacement of enemy troopers Jericus soon saw that there were far more and numerous ahead of them, and they were at a good distance off. Looking at the mass of enemy guns pointed in their direction Jericus knew that they were about to be pasted, they couldn't close the distance, and most of their own return fire would be shrugged off by enemy armor at the distance.

As he predicted the enemy tore into them, he saw F-920 knocked off his feet as a hyper-round ricocheted off his carapace chest plate, it ended up practically taking off the head of a Randon trooper beside him and continued to go through the leg, taking it off at the knee of another unfortunate trooper. Their squad had time to hit the ground as other guardsmen in-front of them took the brunt of enemy fire.

Hyper-rounds shredded armor, flesh, and bone as they tore through reeling guardsmen; the ground was soon littered with bodies, and blood saturated the rockcrete. Jericus and Fenria crawled their way over to F-920 who was breathing hard with a large dent in his chest plate, but otherwise unharmed. They grabbed him pulling him toward some abandoned cars, the rest of the squad doing similar actions as the guardsmen sought out cover from the enemy onslaught.

Making it to the car Jericus and Fenria each began to look around the dead bulk and take shots when they could at the enemy. They coordinated as best they could, Fenria more successful because of her longlas and its hotshot clips, but they only were able to take out maybe three or four of the multitude of enemy troopers. The assault was at a standstill as the enemy ruthlessly pinned them down.

Jericus knew from prior firefights that they had no chance; the enemy's weapons seemed to have near limitless ammunition capacity. Hence why the guard attempted to avoid prolonged firefights and instead close the distance.

Suddenly a very welcome sound appeared over the whip-crack of enemy fire, the sound of a Celk battle tank. Jericus, Fenria, and F-920 all watched in awe and relief from their position as the composite juggernaut of Celk engineering crashed through a building front to roll over the enemy position. It crushed enemy troopers flat, and then the tankers inside opened up with their heavy bolters to slaughter the troopers still reeling from their sudden entrance.

Guardsmen around them immediately cheered as they rose up and started to fire upon the enemy again, N.C.O's bellowed orders and got everyone back into formation, and they continued with the assault. Their main forces had arrived and it was time to push the advantage.

"Alright ground-pounders form up behind us and let's kill some rebels," the tank commander bellowed over the tank's external vox caster. His declaration was met by another cheer as they did just what he said, grouping up around the protective vehicle to continue the fight. Enemy hyper-rounds pinged off the tough front armor of the vehicle as it continued to pour heavy fire from its front-mounted bolters. Jericus peered around when opportunity presented itself to take shots at the enemy with Fenria and the still okay F-920.

For a while the battle was in their favor again, the battle was continuing up the road they were on, all the while they were picking up more and more guardsmen to help with the assault. As they came to an intersection in the roads, the tank they had been following which Jericus had noticed was ironically named the 'Halleluiah' suddenly stopped. The troopers not to far behind watched as the 'Halleluiah' rotated its turret as quickly as it could go, all the while a rather ominous thumping sound could be heard even over the din of battle.

The hallmark of an enemy hyper-round attack made itself known as it pierced through the side of the 'Halleluiah' creating a neat hole in both sides of the tough armor and taking the crew with it in a red trailing comet as it exited the other side of the tank. Jericus and everyone around him stopped and immediately went to cover; some of the Hoarfell troopers they had joined up with as well as a few Death Korps prepare anti-armor launchers. As they continued to hear the thumps growing closer Jericus had a sinking feeling in his stomach about what they would be facing.

It seemed to stroll casually around the corner, oversized weapon in hand and front sensors glowing an ominous red as it glared balefully at the guardsmen in their paltry cover. Leveling its weapon it fired, the hyper-round ripping through the air and anything else it came across, in this case some hapless Randon taking cover behind a derelict truck. The towering war-mech continued to fire off shots with its cannon, the only reprieve the guardsmen had was the two to three second delay between shots, but each shot was enough to kill even if it got within a few feet of where you were standing.

Jericus watched as teams of guardsmen prioritized troopers with anti-armor launchers, making sure they could get off shots with the weapons by focusing on enemy troopers that were rallying around the mech. One after the other three Imperial rockets hit the behemoth, some invisible force around it flickered as they impacted, the force doing little more than stagger it. Jericus realized what it was, the mech had a shield, similar to the heretic on Tartarius, only much bigger, and unfortunately more able to take damage.

"I repeat enemy walker, lost armor support, need backup, sector five!" Jericus heard Xavier shouting over his vox-caster, his friend had made his way over to him while all the confusion of the mech's arrival was happening. Jericus himself didn't know when, but his whole squad had taken cover, all of them having thrown themselves to the ground to avoid the onslaught.

Looking around his gear Jericus found something that could be helpful, an extra melta-charge, the Watchmaster had given him extra in case the squad needed it later, and Jericus was sure that now they needed it. He couldn't wait for any approval, and the mech would tear them all apart soon if it wasn't stopped, or at least slowed down. With his augmetic arm giving him the extra rotation he knew he'd be able to make the throw, activating the charge he set detonation on a delay of ten seconds, enough time to throw it and have it clear the distance before it went off.

He went around the right side of the car he was behind to give himself better cover as he went to throw the charge, seeing his chance as the mech focused on his fellow guardsmen to the left Jericus chucked it. The charge seemed to fly through the air in slow motion, Jericus had aimed high so that it would arc down and still hopefully hit somewhere vital. To allow for more accurate shooting the mech's pilot opted to stand in one place confident its shields and armor could withstand the crude Imperial rockets and small arms fire.

It hit high on the machines left leg, the charges clamps activating as it hit the surface, the shields seemed to not register it, maybe it was going too slow, Jericus did not think about that though, he had dropped down back to cover the moment the charge had left his hand. The time delay hit zero, the distinct hiss-bang of a melta-charge became clear over the battle, metal groaned as the mech toppled over, and its dense alloys eaten through by the molten blast of energy.

Before it fully hit the ground it braced itself with its right arm, several more rockets hit it head on, its shields flickered and finally died as the last rocket hit. It bit through the armor, smoke and fire billowed from the entrance of the hole made. But it was still up and functional, just as it was about to return unholy vengeance it seemed to be thrown to the side, another explosion taking it from its left.

Celk armor had finally arrived, just in time again to save the day. Jericus peered around his cover as three more Celk tank cannon rounds hit the mech, blowing the tough chassis open like a tin can. They then sent the enemy troopers scattering under heavy bolter fire, again Jericus was moving forward with the rest of the guard as they advanced to meet the Celk tanks now chasing the enemy away through the streets.

As they shot into the backs of retreating enemy soldiers Jericus reflected that so far this campaign had been just back and forth. They would get the jump on the enemy, the enemies superior technology would beat them back, but then the guard would just throw more bodies and tanks at the problem. So it went on, they would clear this city, of that Jericus had no doubt.

See you all in one week, at most two.

300-709.