"We cannot bear to regard ourselves as playthings of blind chance; we cannot admit to feeling ourselves abandoned."- Ugo Betti
Across the flat expanse of land between the lines they marched, lasguns ready, special weapons on hand for the coming assault. Thousands of Imperial guardsmen advanced behind the armored wall of moving Celk tanks, centaurs carrying scores more and providing mounted heavy weapons. To their front Jericus caught glimpses of the artillery bombardment, it was ahead of them by quite a few dozen meters, creeping toward the enemy lines at a steady rate so they could follow in its wake.
Watchmaster B-63 had been right, the bombardment had started that night, or rather in the incredibly early hours of the morning, the sun having not quite yet crested the horizon behind them. When it did it would be behind their backs and blinding the enemy to their front, a calculated advantage, though one that may not work so well given that the enemy tended to wear helmets with built in sensor suites, but any advantage they could get Jericus was glad to take.
Advancing behind the curtain of the barrage they would hit the enemy while they were still reeling, hopefully before they could mount their emplacements and other defenses. As it was heavily fortified pillboxes and bunkers still spat deadly hyper-rounds at them, though the Celk tanks thankfully took the edge off of the deadly projectiles and the fortified emplacements were few. Again Jericus was glad that command had taken this approach, it would put them in the trenches with the enemy giving the more close combat experienced Imperials the advantage.
His steps seemed to be in beat with the steady btooms of the barrage, seeing the creeping destruction as the heavy shells turned all before them into rubble and wreckage was oddly empowering. Jericus and the rest of his squad was advancing on foot, behind the 'Amor Fati' they walked at a steady pace forward, the advancing line was staggered in a very shallow wedge formation, and they were at the tip.
Pulverized dirt and rockcrete fragments with shallow to large craters made their progress forward slow, but they were still covering ground at a good pace. Jericus kept attention to his footing as they made their way through the torn terrain, alternating between keeping his sight forward and at the ground in front of him to correct for any rough ground. The barrage had just crept directly into the enemy trenches and emplacements, it wasn't meant to really kill any of the enemy as much as it was supposed to keep their heads down.
It kept up on the new position for a bit the Imperial line marching forward to get into range for the assault, the line stopped as close as it could to the wall of artillery shells falling just in-front of it. Jericus waited, every guardsman waited for the communication between the field commanders and those at the rear for the barrage to stop. It took some time, the heavy fire probably causing a bit of disturbance with the vox network.
Stopping gradually the last shrill whistle of a shell followed by its resounding boom signaled the true beginning. The Amor Fati rumbled forward as did the Celk armor around it, soon followed by Centaurs and infantry. Jericus and his squad followed the Amor Fati at a brisk pace, the tank crews made sure they were behind them, but they had to be quick. The remaining meters between them and the enemy line had to be covered before enemy troopers could recover and begin their defense in earnest.
Fenria was beside him, her longlas was slung over her shoulder, and in her hands she carried a lightweight lascarbine requisitioned for her by Watchmaster B-63. In the early parts of the upcoming offensive they were expecting most of the fighting to be close range, thus the carbine optimized for close fighting was welcome. They had already mounted bayonets in preparation for the cramped trench network of the enemy.
Within a dozen or so meters of the line enemy fire began to become more prominent as the city defenders finally recovered from the barrage. By that time though the Imperials were already within spitting distance, Celk tanks fired at targets of opportunity on the secondary enemy trench line while infantry hopped into the front trenches. Jericus jumped down boots hitting duck board at the bottom of the trench, Fenria right beside him, Watchmaster B-63 and B-80 were already ahead of them going to the right down the trench system.
Following his superiors Jericus was vaguely aware of the mass of friendly troopers practically pouring into the trench system behind him. Their sheer volume pushing the assault forward, it wasn't long before they ran into their first sign of resistance. The enemy equivalent of a machinegun crew abandoning their stationary emplacement and pulling out their back up weapons to fight; Jericus watched as B-63 barreled into the closest man his hellgun jammed into the trooper's stomach and going on full auto. B-80 stuck his bayonet through a second's stomach pulling it out quickly to bat the man's gun aside with the hellguns stock and smashing the weapons butt into his helmeted face.
Jericus and Fenria concentrated fire on the third man of the crew while F-920, S-548 and S-360 did the same to the forth, collective lasbolts and the close range meant the hits would be lethal. Melted sections punctuated by holes in enemy armor signified the deadly light energy had gotten through and did its damage. They moved forward quickly, the many friendly forces advancing behind them would make sure that if any of the enemy remained alive that they wouldn't stay that way for long.
Jericus and Fenria worked in sequence with each other, F-920, S-360, and S-548 were their own group while B-63 and B-80 led the charge through the trenches. Their squad was point for all those behind them, the heavier carapace armor making them ideal for the front of the attack. Coming upon more enemy troopers Jericus charged in with the rest of his squad, he and Fenria jamming their bayonets into one man Jericus' went into his unarmored neck while Fenria's found the man's kidney.
Around them their squad played out similar scenes as they attacked the enemy with mono-edged adamantium, lasguns wielded as clubs, and even fists. Resistance was heavy—if the sounds of battle were any indication—though if the enemy was in disarray from the offensive they didn't seem to care as they rushed to meet the Imperial attackers. Leaving his recent kill Jericus continued to advance with the squad, they turned down a branch in the trench system.
Looking to the tops of the trench Jericus could see scores of 82nd regulars advancing over the top of the system, they were hopping in and out of the system as they dodged streams of enemy hyper-rounds. Some were torn apart as they were hit by the hyper velocity projectiles, one shorn practically in half as they made a dive for cover, his front half flopping lifelessly to the ground intestine unraveling as his waist and legs followed soon after.
Jericus was glad he was advancing in the trench, as all of the chaos was going on around him, the loud reports of Celk cannons and mounted bolters tearing into enemy emplacements, grenades going off, and the cacophony of whipcracks from lasbolts and hyper-rounds alike was practically deafening. Looking around he could see the wave of korpsmen overtaking enemy positions, slaughtering the better armored enemy with close lasfire and bayonets.
Ahead of them Jericus saw a fire-team of friendly Korpsmen, they must have gotten ahead of his squad by going over the top and jumping down into the trench to avoid enemy fire. They were firing in the direction of the enemy when suddenly what looked like a bolt of electricity punctuated by a strange buzzing sound hit one man from a left side channel of the trench and jumped to the other four, their bodies seemed to pop in spectacular fashion one after the other. Remains—what little there was left—coated the trench walls and floor in a macabre display where the fire-team used to be, Watchmaster B-63 put his fist up to halt their advance.
He began to motion for them to go up and over, out of the trench, whoever had just killed their comrades was in the trench system and it seemed the narrow space was to their advantage. Behind them the regular Korpsmen continued on, as they got out of the trench, likely to hit whatever was around the corner of the channel head on and provide a distraction for them to flank it.
On the ground above the trench Jericus' senses were even more assaulted by the battle, the sight of lasfire and tracers from enemy hyper-rounds trading back and forth as the Celk tanks once again advanced ahead of the infantry, centaurs filled with more infantry providing cover-fire for the vulnerable tanks as they targeted the enemies heavy weapons and large troop concentrations.
They made haste to the lip of the side branch where the strange enemy fire had come from getting there just as their comrades rounded the corner and came into contact with the enemy. The Korpsmen who came around soon began to retreat as three of them met the same fate as their late comrades, popping as though they were suddenly filled with too much air when they were hit by the electrical bolt.
Coming to the trench lip Jericus and the rest of the squad made no hesitation as they liberally peppered the enemy trooper with lasfire, practically making him pop from the shear amount of lasbolts impacting his body. Not even the advanced enemy armor protected him from the close range flurry of seven lasguns. Armor melted and vulnerable joints were hit shearing off limbs as the lasbolts hit, the enemy soldier was soon in pieces on the trench floor. They wasted no time hopping into the now clear trench, Jericus landing in the remains with a wet splat.
Looking at the weapon Jericus saw that it was rifle sized, obviously one man portable, and from what he had seen very effective at close quarters. It wasn't something they had seen the enemy use before, though with how advanced their opposition had been thus far Jericus wasn't surprised to find out they had such a deadly weapon as part of their arsenal.
It seemed to have two barrels running parallel to each other from the stock with what looked like small spikes protruding in the space between. There was a large cylindrical container attached to its underside below the weapons butt, probably the power supply.
"F-920, seems like your kind of weapon, take it and figure out how to work the damn thing, you're gonna be on point," B-63 stated clearly. Standard doctrine stated that they weren't allowed to utilize enemy technology, but as always B-63 was a practical man and being that it was made by the enemy it might be more able to defeat their defenses.
Picking up the weapon F-920 brushed off its previous owners remains and stepped to the front of the squad. The operation seemed straight forward; it had a trigger, a grip, and a stock. F-920 pointed it down the trench and test fired it, the bright electric-like bolt of energy shot forward dissipating about fifty meters down the trench. Obviously it was meant for short range engagements, which meant they would probably be running into more of them and could use one as an advantage.
"Ready to go when you are Watchmaster," F-920 stated loudly over the din of battle.
"Good, then move," B-63 responded right back. F-920 took off at a brisk pace, everyone following closely behind; the trench wound to the left and took them further into the enemy lines. The trench floor was a quagmire of pulverized dirt and the pulped bodies of enemy troopers that had died when artillery shells had made a lucky landing. F-920 slowed as they approached another corner, bracing his foot at it and slowly peering around, not a microsecond later he brought his new weapon to bear and fired at the unseen enemy.
The weapon's distinctive buzzt was followed by the sounds of enemy troopers bursting as the high energy hitting them caused them to come apart. F-920 motioned for them to continue and went around the corner, leading them into a scene that Jericus would have only seen in a horror vid in his previous life. In one shot F-920 had caused a chain reaction taking the lives of what had to be at least eight enemy soldiers if the significant red stain punctuated by small chunks of previously living life-forms all over the trench walls and floor was any indication.
"Yes this will make the fighting a fair bit easier I think," B-80 commented as they went through the carnage. In his peripheral vision—what little he had with his mask—Jericus was keeping note of the fact that the armored assault combined with the mass infantry on the ground above the trenches seemed to be going well. At the rate they were going the Guard would soon have a foot hold of what had previously been the enemies frontline. Once they took the area they could dig in setting up to better conduct operations within the city should the battle become prolonged.
Another buzzt sound from F-920's borrowed weapon sounded and ended the lives of three more enemy troopers who had just turned around a bend ahead of them. Progress through the trenches was going well and soon they came to the exits of the first trench system of the enemy front. Now faced with the open expanse again they could see the battle going on in earnest. Jericus could see well off into the distance more than a few of the fearsome enemy mechs tearing into the assaulting Celk tanks.
He watched as one of the tall bipedal warmachines wrenched a tank's turret from its chassis as though the tough Celk metal was mere paper, spurting flame into the open wound and incinerating the crew with a wrist mounted flamer. The enemy pilot's victory was short lived though as another Celk tank plowed into its right leg, the impact of its front mounted dozer blade crumpling the natural weak point.
The Celk tank kept on going freeing itself from the toppling mech and clearing the area as two more of its brethren put heavy cannon rounds into the off-balance mech. Anti-armor rounds pierced the flickering shield and went through the composite hull of the warmachine bringing an end to the pilot within. It was a valiant effort put forth by the Celk tankers, but there were still dozens of the bipedal mechs ripping apart Celk armor with ease thanks to their hyper-round cannons.
Guard infantry tried their best to offset the enemy's advantage in heavy armor support by lending the Celk tanks their own man-portable anti-armor weapons. The only reprieve the Guard had was the number of assets it could throw at the enemy's defenses. Enough drops of water can eventually erode even the mightiest of boulders.
Enemy ranks were beginning to fall back, but they did not simply turn tail and run, no it was a tactical retreat. Very familiar to Jericus and every other Korpsman, they retreated one squad after another leapfrogging, one line of men providing covering fire while the other made to run. It bogged down the assault and slowed the Guards advance.
"Not good Watchmaster, they're gonna draw us in for a metric shit-ton of crossfire positions," B-80 pointed out. Jericus could understand what he meant; out in the somewhat open expanse of the trenches the Guard had the advantage in numbers. However, once the enemy had them in the city proper they would probably run into any number of preplanned ambushes. Plus the sheer size of the Guard forces would make them easy targets for the defenders, and the Celk tanks while quite nimble would be absolutely no match for the warmechs of the enemy in the confined streets.
"I know that Corporal, nothing we can do but push on, we can't lose the momentum now," B-63 yelled back.
It wasn't like the previous city, the Guard hadn't the resources or time to first soften the enemies defenses up by sending in saboteurs before the initial assault. Buildings began to loom ominously over them as they got into the city proper, having chased the enemy right into the rockcrete jungle. They were immediately set upon by the very ambushes and crossfire that they had feared.
Celk tanks and centaurs tried to provide moving cover for the Guardsmen as they fought through the streets, but enemy anti-armor weapons and emplacements were punching through the sturdy Imperial machines as though they had no armor to speak of. Guardsmen tried desperately to take out the enemy troopers operating such weapons and were having mild success. But enemy forces were dense, and their defense solid and well planned.
Jericus watched as a group of Korpsmen ahead of them, near a full platoon was rapidly exterminated by the crossfire of several of the beam weapons they had first seen in the trenches. The Celk tank that the Korpsmen had been covering raked the building side the enemy fire had come from with canon and heavy bolter fire, practically bringing the whole side of the structure down and probably killing the enemy troopers within. Before the tankers could so much as turn their turret though an enemy hyper-round punched through their tank's side armor taking the crew with it as it exited the neat hole it made in a comet of red.
Despite the frightening displays of the enemy's true capabilities transpiring around him Jericus focused on fighting first and worrying later.
"We're going into that building, get ready for more CQB. F-920 I want you to stay on point, S-1049 get ready to put your eye to good use. Everyone watch your corners and take out that anti-armor, we've got to clear the way for our armor if it falters the offensive will be one hell of a failure," B-63 yelled loudly while also gesturing for the rank and file korpsmen behind them to continue on ahead down the street to get the other buildings.
Their target was the small hab that housed whoever had gotten the kill on the tank ahead of them; they were backed up by another full squad of korpsmen. They hardly concerned themselves with caution as they barreled through the entrance, checking corners and scanning rooms with fluid efficiency. F-920 did most of the heavy lifting with the energy weapon in his hands making more than one enemy burst apart. Though he couldn't get all of the enemy troopers hiding in the rooms of the hab.
Korpsmen rushed down hallways breaking down doors and spraying down whole rooms just to kill single enemy combatants. Jericus even saw one of them pull the pin of the grenade on his webbing and rush into a room of startled enemy troopers, taking out the five of them and himself in a hail of shrapnel and concussive force. Jericus and all in the Korps had been taught that such tactics were acceptable, but he felt no overwhelming need to utilize them himself.
Instead he busied himself with using his eye's various sensory settings to catch enemy movements through walls and prepare his comrades with said positions and other useful information.
"Up on our right, third room down Watchmaster, seems to be the anti-armor that hit our tank, six targets," Jericus stated over the vox-channel. The fighting had become too intense for verbal communication and he wasn't on point to give hand signals.
"Got it, everyone form up by the door, B-80 ready a frag-grenade I'll kick it down," B-63 obviously didn't want to risk F-920 in the breach.
They did as ordered, B-80 on the left side of the doorframe, F-920, S-360, and S-548 with him against the wall while B-63 took the right with Jericus and Fenria in tow. B-63 counted down on his fingers before breaching the door with a lasbolt followed by a mule kick so as to lessen his exposure to possible enemy fire. B-80 immediately pulled the pin of the frag-grenade and tossed it into the room, everyone bracing themselves for the explosion.
The boom of the grenade signaled their entrance, they swept through the room, Jericus and Fenria put lasbolts into the wounded troopers on the right, while F-920 merely decimated whatever was on the left.
"Clear, move it out troopers," B-63 stated. Filing out of the room they began to hear confirmations over the vox-net from the other Korps teams that had entered the building with them giving the all clear for the building. Soon they were moving out, back on the street another Celk tank greeting them with an escort of two centaurs. Forming up around the friendly tanks and keeping the centaurs on the outer edge to give them cover they began to proceed down the street.
Heavy fighting could still be glimpsed up ahead and every time they came to a crossroad Jericus could glimpse what seemed to be a mirror image of fellow Korps with their own armored escorts. He mused that it was the closest thing to a parade he had ever been in, the kind that the Surrin PDF put forth yearly when a new regiment of their numbers was selected to join the Imperial Guard and go on crusade. Though those parades were filled with quite a bit more cheering from crowds and not deadly weapons fire from exotic and powerful technology.
Their Celk tanks were laying in heavy on the building faces ahead of them, blowing any cover and concealment the enemy could have to pieces. Hopefully they were getting more than a few kills, Jericus watched their timed explosive rounds enter through the building faces to explode at a set distance in so as to do as much damage as was possible. No doubt the concussive force and shrapnel was at least getting a few of the most likely hidden enemy.
"I don't like this B-63, our artillery was supposed to flatten this Emperor forsaken hole before we even assaulted, why in the warp are we trying to take the damned thing intact that wasn't the plan that was discussed," B-80 shouted over the noise, taking advantage of their momentary lack of enemy targets to voice his opinion.
"Don't know, but whatever the reason command seems to have thought this the better option, let's just hold out for the best and do our damn duty." B-63 replied back keeping sight down his hellgun.
Fenria threw a look Jericus' way, the silent statement clear to him, 'stay alert,' it was more for the efficiency of the squad than out of concern, but Jericus still felt the personal undertone in the message. He gave her a nod back and they went back to covering their zones, Jericus kept eyes on the side alleys and the rubble that used to be building faces as they passed. Pings off the side armor of the centaurs clued everyone in to the fixed gun emplacement directly ahead of them.
Jericus ducked immediately, as did all those around him on foot, their seeking of cover was short lived though, and proved unnecessary as one of the tanks quickly traversed its main cannon and blasted the enemy machinegun emplacement into oblivion. It was in the end a rather foolhardy and all too gung-ho action taken by the enemy defenders, though a ricochet did claim the life of one of the Korpsmen in the formation, Jericus didn't know the man thankfully enough.
Nonetheless he felt a small passing sympathy for his comrade's now lifeless body, a large ragged hole punched through his chest that seemed to have completely removed the formerly beating lump of flesh which had kept his body alive.
Continuing the offensive their impromptu column persisted down the street their immediate ranks having swelled as even more of the main Imperial force rallied behind them. The multitudes of Guardsmen keeping staggered as much as possible so that one high explosive payload or enemy antipersonnel emplacement couldn't take out too many of them in one sweep.
Tank cannons and mounted heavy weapons kept raining destruction and mayhem upon all in-front and to the sides of them. Imperial artillery may not have reduced the city to rubble, but the might of the sons of Celk would if they had any say in the matter. Jericus noticed that there was a sudden shift in the noise around him as the Celk tankers began to broadcast what sounded like an orchestra over their external speakers. The triumphant sounding tone and rhythm meant to enforce their morale as much as it was meant to crush their enemies resolve to hold the outer edges of the city.
Thus they fought to the sound of some ancient song created by their forefathers in the name of Imperial conquest. If the enemy was experiencing any hindrance in their psychological wellbeing they hardly showed it, save to attack even more voraciously than before. Jericus saw the mech almost too late, but he was thankful as he felt Fenria roughly force him down to the ground with her as most every other trooper around them followed their example.
"Anti-armor target that Emperor damned machine!" some Watchmaster shouted as the Celk tanks opened fire. The mech merely stepped aside as the heavy cannon rounds sailed by it impacting a building quite a far ways down the street. Smaller rockets impacted its chassis doing little but to agitate it's shielding, firing off a round from its heavy hyper-round cannon it nearly took out the Celk tank to Jericus' left. Lucky for the tankers it wasn't a direct hit, though it did carve a nasty gash in the thick hide of the tank as it went through the material leaving the crew and their tank still in the fight.
As rockets from small anti-tank launchers continued to pepper the mech's hull it decided not to wait for its main cannon to recharge for another shot. Opting instead to simply charge forward at their column, in five long strides it closed the distance slamming into a centaur. Screeching metal and yelling troopers signaled the centaur's doom as the mech flipped the heavy vehicle over crushing a few unlucky troopers who had been hanging over the sides to get out of the open back when it had flipped.
Jericus and Fenria scrambled out of the way with the rest of their squad as the mech leveled its cannon again and fired into the column of guardsmen behind them. The large hyper-round carved a straight path of destruction and carnage as it hit the dense Imperial formation, the street practically painted red in its wake. Those lucky enough not to be torn to pieces by a direct hit found their arms or legs torn from their sockets by the sheer velocity of the round, while other were lucky to get off with just having the air sucked from their lungs from the vacuum created by the passing of the hyper-round.
The Celk tankers tried furiously to turn their turrets to get a bead on the titan cursing all the while over the open vox castor broadcasting the triumphant tune. One managed to get a shot and have it connect, though it only impacted the mech's cannon making it inoperable. Jericus still thanked the Emperor for that though, until the mech's pilot decided to used the weapon as a very large club and bring it smashing down on the Celk tank that dared disable its weapon.
Tank armor crumpled as the mass of metal and composite crashed down into it effectively disabling the tank crew's ability to fight back. Continuing its rampage the mech began to simply kick and punch the small mortal Korpsmen around it that it caught out in the open. Massive metal fists and feet crushed unfortunate men and women into paste, their flattened forms almost comical on the pavement. One man burst as he was hit by a backhand from the mech.
The remaining Celk tank—Jericus could make out the name 'Brick' painted on its cannon—rotated as quick as it could to get a shot on the rapidly moving mech weaving a path of mayhem within the ranks. In a very vindictive move on the mech pilot's part they picked up a singular Korpsman and made to crush the hapless fellow in the massive mechanical grip. Before he could be fully pulverized the man pulled the pin on a krak-grenade and threw it at the mechs central chassis.
Magnetic clamps on the krak-grenade engaged as they hit the hull of the mech and moments later the anti-armor explosive went off creating an implosive force and its iconic krak ripping right through the chassis of the mech severely damaging it. Unfortunately the near fatal wound didn't stop the mech for throwing the brave Korpsman into a nearby building wall splattering him all over.
Finally the 'Brick' managed to get a proper shot on the mech and blasted through its crippled form, the cannon blast reduced the pilot to nothing as it plowed into the central chassis and created a mangled hole. As the dead mechanical giant fell dead to the ground Jericus cautiously stood up from his position on the ground. He went over to the crumpled form of the Celk tank Fenria right on his tail with F-920 tagging along.
Fighting alongside the Celk tanks had given Jericus a basic understanding of the war-machines and so he knew of the escape hatch at the rear of the armored bulk. Pulling the hatch open he peered inside with his augmetic eye's lowlight vision, aside from the loader and commander the driver and two gunners seemed to have stayed alive. The commander and loader had been crushed by the mechs impromptu club as they had been in the turret of the tank.
Jericus reached his hand out to the tankers; they each took it in turn as the three of them climbed out of the wreckage. They had distinctive Celk armor on, a bluish tinged kind of composite breastplate that seem polished to a high sheen and skeletonized lascarbines.
"Thanks windup, guess you all ain't so bad, Emperor bless you," The last man he pulled out said, clapping him on the shoulder as he passed by. They hustled toward the other tank clambering up on its side and making themselves at home after they had gotten past Jericus and the others. Celk tankers never seemed to like to be away from one of their precious vehicles if they could help it, even if they were only riding hull on a comrade's tank. The man who had thanked him waved as the 'Brick' started to move forward again, the assault had to continue.
Jericus turned to Fenria and F-920, he nodded to the two, and they made their way back to Watchmaster B-63 who was waiting with the rest of the squad.
"Ever the humanitarian S-1049, that's why we like you," B-80 commented adjusting his carapace which had gotten mussed up in his dive for cover no doubt.
"Yes now that you've helped our fellow guardsmen how about we continue on with the offensive troopers," B-63 remarked offhandedly. He began to lead them again; regular Korps had since started to pass them by following the remaining tank and centaur into more action up ahead. Thankfully they had not found another enemy mech and were make quite good progress.
Another block down and their column began to converge with the other columns that had been advancing in parallel with them until that point. The fighting started to calm down, mere skirmishes compared to the initial offensive; they had gain a lot of ground. Most of it now rubble thanks to the Celk tankers penchant for demolishing the surrounding architecture and thanks to second, third, and even forth wave of infantry flooding in behind them Jericus could rest assured that the area behind them would no doubt be clear.
Watchmaster B-63 put his hand to the vox-bead in his ear, stopping his forward movement soon after and putting up his hand in the signal for them to stop.
Turning to them his stance shifted and his shoulder drooped slightly. "Opening offensive is done for us for the moment troopers, enemy is pulling back further into the city, and command doesn't want to give chase just yet. Sweep and clear the surrounding area, we're meeting up with the second wave and consolidating with 'em to bolster our overall strength for the next push."
B-80 scratched an imaginary itch on his helmet. "Why stop now when we've got the momentum Watchmaster, this whole offensive doesn't make any sense," the veteran's exasperation was palpable.
"Ours is not to question why," F-920 intoned from the back.
"Follow F-920's example B-80, besides it's not that I don't agree with you, it's just that things have been backwards for this entire campaign so far. Meaning that this shouldn't surprise you anymore than it does me, and that's not at all friend," B-63 stated as he started to walk back toward the secondary wave.
Following Jericus and Fenria brought up the rear of the squad, falling to the position naturally as B-63, and B-80 took point while the rest of the squad took up the middle.
"B-80's right, I don't like how command is handling this at all, we should be keeping up the offensive while we have the enemy on the retreat, gain ground while we have the momentum. Stopping now doesn't benefit us in the slightest, in any case I guess we should just be glad that we've been so successful so far, it's been rough," Fenria commented.
Jericus cast a glance her way rotating his augmetic wrist as the phantom pain overtook it. "Yeah but there's got to be a reason for it, the Watchmaster has it right too, there's got to be something important here otherwise what's the point of taking this city whole."
"Right and with as heavy as the resistance has been so far the enemy is protecting something more valuable than just this city," Fenria put in.
Sighing Jericus cracked his neck. "Well we're not going to get answers to that question, after all we're just grunts, and command isn't going to tell us their whole plan. Should be used to it by now really, besides so long as we make it through this I don't really mind not knowing; though the fact that this whole thing makes no tactical sense is troubling when thinking about our future success in this war."
"I guess your right, just watch out for me and I'll watch out for you, we have to get through this S-1049, we've come too far to die on this planet," she snorted with laughter.
"Don't worry S-1050 we'll definitely get through this, if some heretical nut-job with a power-sword couldn't kill me than I'm sure as keck not gonna let some backwater xenos lovers put an end to me," he replied with humor, though the sentiment was very serious.
"And I'll hold you to the same standards," Jericus added as an afterthought. Looking over to his friend he would swear she was smiling under that mask of hers, she nodded in approval before they resumed their focus on the mission.
A/N: As always a thanks to those who have read, special thanks goes to the Guest reader who reviewed. I hope you've all been enjoying the story thus far, if anyone would be kind enough to review and give feedback that would be appreciated. I figure I'll set the bar a little high for this chapter, I'm looking to get up to thirty-five reviews in total. Tell me anything ladies and gentlemen, though I ask that it be constructive if not entirely pleasant. This monster is now over 100,000 words, how crazy is that, please let me know that they're not 100,000 words of meaningless drivel if you please and kindly review :)
See you all within the week, possibly two given the upcoming holiday I may not make my next deadline, but I shall try my best. Also happy holidays to all that celebrate them :).
300-709.