"Our ideals, like the gods of old, are constantly demanding human sacrifices."- George Bernard Shaw
Scouting was the Hoarfell specialty, or so Xavier and the rest of the squad had been told ever since the first day of their training. Never was it more apparent than now, sure on Tartarius they had done a little bit of recon, and even earlier in the campaign on Endurholdgun there had been recon missions. But those were different, for one they usually did more fighting than actual scouting, and two enemy forces ironically had never been as 'thick' as they were now.
Whereas in earlier missions it was 'here they are mostly in-front of you shoot them,' now it was 'dear Emperor we're behind their lines and surrounded by them,' and that was where Xavier found himself currently. His uniform and indeed everyone else's in the squad made them hard to detect due to their use of the materials inherent reactive camouflage capabilities. Sergeant Grimes had them moving like wraiths through enemy controlled territory ahead of the main battle.
Sneaking past the main lines of battle the previous night they, along with quite a number of Hoarfell ranger squads, had gone in with simple objectives in mind. Cause strife and terror among the enemy to destabilize them for the upcoming Imperial assault, and gather intel on chokepoints and enemy positions to relay back via vox. Thanks to Sergeant Grimes powerful self-preservation instincts they were luckily just reporting back enemy positions and chokepoints.
Xavier being the vox-operator had been doing a lot of work the past few hours and so he was glad for the moment of respite he had as the squad hunkered down in some abandoned building. Just outside the windows you could watch as mechanized battle squads of the enemy marched through the streets to bring the fight to the current frontline. Xavier had been absolutely frightened of the enemy war-mechs ever since he had laid eyes on one.
He had watched as they tore whole platoons apart before they could be brought down, it was of particular importance to warn the Celk tankers ahead of time about the towering mechs. So far they had done their best to give their comrades up-to-date intel, and from what they were getting back it was indeed saving lives, if only marginally.
He sighed as he sat down against the wall; Eli and the Sergeant were on watch duty for the moment, leaving him Cain and Hack in the room for a short lunch. Vitally important food was to a guardsman, or so the Sergeant always said, he always made sure they were eating as much as they could whenever the opportunity presented itself. As Xavier bit into his protein bar he ruminated as he usually did upon his life in the Guard.
Endurholdgun was worse than Tartarius, much worse, and from rumor he had heard via the regiment it seemed as though while they were doing well in their assigned zone the campaign overall was becoming more and more bogged down. It wasn't a matter of man power either, it seemed to boil down to one thing, the enemy was just better equipped than they were. Scary thing was from all he had heard their combined regiments were dealing with the lowest rung of available enemy wargear on the whole.
"This tastes pretty good," Cain mumbles from the right, munching eagerly on his protein bar, crumbs scattering as the dry food was chewed.
"Yeah, it's not half bad," Xavier finds himself replying absently.
"You two are just loosing your taste, this crude is kecking terrible," Hack spat out the bite he had taken to drive home his point.
Xavier grunted in response. "What's happening out there now Hack, anything new?"
Hack peered carefully out of the window they were nearby, the glass had been blacked out using a one-way screen, but they were still told to be careful. "Eh, still the full-metal shit parade out here. How many of those kecking things do they have?"
"Dunno, but however many it is they've gotta be making scrap outta our tanks, Celk tanks are barely tough enough to go up against them. Think about how well regular Leman Russ are doing in other sectors, it's gotta be an absolute slaughter." Cain finished his ration bar, eying the one Hack was holding in his hand. The medicae noticed and tossed the bar with hardly a glance at his target; Cain caught the meal deftly and shoved what was left into his mouth to be swallowed just like the rest.
"And all we're doing to prevent that is voxing in ahead, doesn't seem like it's going to do much good given the amount of them. I hope the Celk have a keck of a lot more tanks, otherwise we're going to lose," Xavier chewed on the last of his own bar, swallowing the dry crumbly edible, and getting a swig of water from his canteen to wash it down.
"Yeah well at least they're getting warning, we have to sneak around like rats and avoid patrols by the skin of our teeth. Though I guess we're lucky since by all indication the main force is making good progress and soon we'll be within friendly lines again," Cain supplied having since gone on to clean his fingernails with his knife.
"That's only if we don't get more orders to go further in ahead of our advancing forces, which I'm not gonna put behind command to suggest," Hack had gone on to inspect his lasgun and check charge levels on his powerpacks.
Sighing again Xavier pushed himself up from his seated position against the wall and went around inspecting their current hide. The building had been Endurholdgun's equivalent of a hab-block and the signs were everywhere. Well used but nice looking furniture suggested that whoever had lived here had been middle class or around there. It was quite nice, much better than even his old hab back on Surris in terms of comforts and space.
He went into an adjacent hallway from the main room they were camped in, having cleared the whole apartment beforehand he knew that there wasn't any danger in exploring, he was easily within yelling distance, and their vox-beads worked well enough should they really need him. When they had cleared it he hadn't really paid any mind to the details of the place, simply had to make sure nothing was hiding in it, thus he missed the picture slates up on the walls.
They depicted the previous owners, either forgotten or abandoned when the enemy had evacuated the city before the Guards arrival. A family had lived here, and Xavier didn't let the irony that of all the habs they could have picked it would be the one with a family previously living in it. The feelings of shame that would normally well up within him at having caused the disruption and possible death—at least partly—of an innocent family was tempered by no small amount of revulsion.
Reason being was that according to the crystal clear images on the slates the family that had lived here was, well for lack of a better word 'mixed' and he had the slight urge to vomit thinking about it. The current picture he was staring at seemed innocent enough, a group shot of the family, two adults, and two children, two human and two xenos. A man and his daughter, and well he didn't know exactly what gender the xenos were, the only thing apparent was that one was clearly older than the other by fact of being taller and more filled out.
Chances to look at the xenos were strangely enough rare, on the battlefield they hardly looked different from humans in their armor, and they bled red just like their allies too, by the end of most fighting hardly anything was identifiable to the untrained eye. But here before him was a rare opportunity, and despite the slight rise of his gorge Xavier couldn't help his curiosity.
Treacherous is the mind of the xeno, that was all Xavier had ever been taught, all anyone had ever been taught anywhere in the Imperium. He reflected that it was most assuredly true, the orks had taught him that, and still tales told by Sergeant Grimes of ever more horrifying monstrosities that devoured whole planets confirmed it. But despite all of that, despite his current sickness at the sight of the picture he couldn't discount the fact that overall the family in the pict seemed happy.
As though nothing at all was wrong with the situation and they weren't two completely different species. The man and his daughter were uncomfortably close to the xenos and its own spawn, the look on the two xenos faces was what Xavier could certainly approximate as happy. It was the eyes, the one thing on the xenos face that looked remarkably human, they shone and crinkled with what was surely emotion.
Other than that they were completely alien, for one their bottom jaw was split, ridged face and head leading down to rather sharp looking teeth. Hands slightly bigger than the average human, and also ridged terminating in claw-like points at the four fingers. About the same size and shape as their human counterparts overall though.
He left the picture, grip tighter around his lasgun as he made his way further down the hall which terminated at a bedroom, the adults if the size of the bed was any indication. Entering he found it decorated with various knickknacks and furniture, the layout familiar, yet strangely alien to him all the same.
More picts were upon the dressers of the room, scenes of the man and the adult xeno, all had the two again sickeningly close, obviously showing affection to each other. Xavier felt as though his eyes would burn and his soul corrupt just by looking at such scenes of what amounted to absolute debauchery in the eyes of the Imperium.
"Suffer not the xenos to live," he muttered under his breath as he picked up one of the picts. Again he couldn't fathom how the two looked so happy, surely the man knew better, but as Xavier was learning things were never as clear cut as one might think. Despite the people of Endurholdgun being heretics for living alongside xenos he still couldn't fully give himself over to the coldblooded purging that he had been forced to participate in.
For Emperor's sake they were slaughtering children hundreds at a time anytime they took a city or town. Any refugees found were put on firing lines, families torn apart to be set up according to height to save on ammunition, sure a lot of them were xenos, but just as many had been humans. He found his faith being tested the longer he was part of the current campaign, why couldn't it have been something simple, like an ork incursion, at least then he wouldn't be having any moral compunctions.
The distinct whine-crack of a longlas reverberated from down the hall one hab over, exactly where Eli and the Sergeant were set up, the sound muffled though the walls, but audible nonetheless.
"Xavier!" Cain's voice was urgent and demanded his attention, thumping footsteps punctuating the importance. Xavier immediately put the picture back where he had found it and gave Cain his full attention as he appeared in the doorway.
"I know, I heard," Xavier said urgently. Cain nodded before legging it back the way he came, Xavier was right on his tail, they met Hack out in the main living space of the hab and the three immediately made their way to the door of their hab. Hack and Cain took position to either side of the frame, Xavier having been assigned point for their trio prior to their occupation of the hab.
He peered quickly and fluidly to the right, toward the hab door where Eli and Grimes would be appearing out of any moment. Cain meanwhile exited looking left down the hall to cover that sightline, Hack was last out taking position between the two of them and proceeding to follow Xavier's gaze.
Grimes emerged first, a look of worry on his face. "Had a priority target pop up lads, Eli got the bastard, but now we've gotta get the warp out of here before they swarm the building. We're taking route two, exiting through the side; you all know the way get going."
Priority target? It must have been a pretty important enemy leader if Grimes had Eli take the shot and blow their position like that when they were so close to enemy armor and a rather sizable force overall. Xavier went over his mental map of route two—one of their five preplanned escape routes out of the building should things get hairy—it involved a set of emergency stairs that were pitch black and led to the left side of the building that led to an ally closed off from the street the enemy was using as their main thoroughfare to the front.
From there it was going to be a mad dash through a labyrinth of back alleys and side-streets to get to their fallback point, another hab-building if he remembered right. Xavier followed Cain's lead as he went on point down the hall, they came to the emergency stairway soon enough. He could tell it was close to the outside wall because of the shouting and movement that could be heard from the enemy mobilizing to take the building.
They were lucky that thus far in the war the enemy didn't seem to be willing to cause great collateral damage if they could help it, fighting on one's home field carried certain reluctant connotations. Flicking on his torch as they entered the inky blackness of the stairs Xavier saw Cain do the same in front of him, the other keeping their lights off no doubt to keep both hands on their respective weapons and covering the stairs for any potential hostiles.
The sound of a door being kicked in reached their ears, as they were around halfway down the stairs. Below they could see the column of light permitted by the now broken portal leading into the stairway. Xavier and Cain immediately shut their torches off in time for the enemy troopers entering below them not to notice. It was black save for the light let in by the doorway, Xavier breathed slowly to calm his racing heart as they all stood stock still.
Enemy troopers had sensor suites built into their helmets, but their uniforms would take the edge off of most ways to be spotted, be it thermal or low light. If they moved slowly and quietly enough they wouldn't be picked up by any motion trackers and visually they were practically invisible so long as they gave the meta-material of their uniforms time to blend.
Waiting moments at a time they moved step by step down the stairs, allowing their uniforms to blend into the surrounding area. All the while the enemy troopers began to cautiously ascend up the stairway getting closer to them by the passing minutes; eventually they'd be able to see them. Though Xavier was hoping by the time they did they'd be close enough for them to take them out quietly.
He had his bayonet clenched in his off hand drawing it while he slowly let his lasgun hang by its sling. He imagined the others were doing much the same, they had to get past the group ahead without drawing attention and the best way to do that was with Imperial steel, lasfire would draw too much attention. If they could take the enemy out before they could get shots off then they'd be able to sneak out.
Coming closer he could identify only four faint shapes in the dark, the light from the doorway just enough to go by as they descended. Xavier watched as Cain came to a stop deciding not to go any further lest the sound of their steps give them away, crouching to get a better foothold and reduce any possible silhouette for the enemy to detect.
He followed his friend's example coming to a stop next to him he could see the garrote Cain seemed to favor for close up work in the man's hands. It worked marvelously even on their heavily armored foes thanks to the gap at their neck, and it was even quieter than a knife. Though Xavier had found it odd why the normally cheerful Cain would prefer a weapon that to him seemed a little too personal; strangling someone to death was a bit to long for him personally.
The first two enemy troopers were almost within arms reach of them now, and they hadn't seemed to notice the crouched nigh-invisible specters before them. Cain moved first his hands throwing the garrote around his marks neck, and then twisting the surprised enemy trooper around to strangle the life from him while pulling him off to the side of the stairway by the railing.
Xavier followed grabbing his target's weapon and pushing it to the side as he jammed his bayonet into the side of the man's neck and pushed his head into the wall on the other side of the stairway leaving enough space between him and Cain for two of their squad to spring forward and take care of the other two troopers. He was reminded of the time he had seen Jericus drive a bayonet into the wounded man on Tartarius as he twisted and dug his own blade further into his targets gurgling neck.
Light scuffling could be heard as each of them had small nigh quiet fights with each of their targets. Wrestling the life from his own man Xavier finally felt the body go slack; pawing hands at his face losing strength, until finally the fight left his target. He lowered the body to the floor—well stairs—slowly making sure it wouldn't slide down and cause a loud ruckus.
Hands shaking he wiped his bloodied bayonet on his pants leg and sheathed the blade at his hip, grabbing his hanging lasgun before turning to cover the stairway again. As he did he noticed the vague, almost unseen shapes of Eli and Hack placing their own victims to the ground carefully. To his left he could hear the struggled sounds of Cain's mark as the life was finally choked out of him and his throat cut into by the sharp wire.
Looking he saw Cain's shape give one final tightening pull to make sure as the body went slack, and then lower it to the floor as well. Everyone straightening themselves Cain and he traded places with Hack and Eli careful not to disturb the bodies and taking point once more. All their training in sentinel removal had just been tested and as far as Xavier was concerned they had passed with flying colors, the situation could have gone very wrong very easily.
Emperor granted miracle that they had accomplished four silent kills nigh simultaneously without giving away their position. Continuing quickly down the stairway they stopped at the doorway careful not to blunder directly into the lighted rectangle without checking if there was anymore enemy troopers beyond. Confirming the coast was clear they began making their way down another hall toward the emergency side exit.
They had picked this particular building based on the fact that it was both overlooking the enemy's main thoroughfare and that it was rather large. This currently afforded them the benefit that they had hopefully run into the squad responsible for their current area. Coming upon the side-exit Cain pushed the door open slowly and cleared the left while Xavier did the same for the right, and then continuing on down the alleyway toward their next hide.
The pace as they proceeded through the ally's and backstreets was as brisk as they could make it without being caught. Twice they had almost been spotted on their way to the second hide, but their meta-material uniforms had saved their necks. Finally they came upon the hide, another large hab, this one distinguishable by the bright red double doorway at the front.
It was pre-scouted so they knew where the side entrance was, going through there and making their way to the room they had chosen on the first floor. All the while they cleared as much of the bottom floor as they could. Most of the buildings were unoccupied by the enemy, and those that had been were heavily fortified and obvious to the casual observer.
They settled down in a hab-unit close to the opposite side-entrance from the one they had entered, all let out loud sighs of relief as though they had been holding their breaths the entire way there. The only one that was actually calm was Sergeant Grimes, unsurprising really, the old veteran hardly ever looked worried, only tired.
"Good work, damn good work out there lads," Grimes clapped each of them on their shoulders. "We've made it here without a hitch, so let's catch our breath for an hour, vox into command the situation and see where the battle is then. Hopefully friendly's will be close and we can stop sneaking around with the enemy surrounding us, or we're just going to be told to go farther in. Relax for a bit you've all earned it, Xavier come get me in an hour for to vox in, until then I'm going to catch some shuteye, Eli you better get some too."
He left going into a side room, no doubt to find a bed, he and Eli had been lying awake in one spot back at the other hab observing enemy movements for four hours before they had taken the shot. That amount of time on optics with full attention on one particular area drained you. Eli gave a small smile to the rest of them before finding a comfortable spot against the wall and promptly passing out.
"Best take up watch then," Xavier voiced first, checking the time on his chrono before taking position at a table that faced the door. The blinds to the hab had already been closed so there was no issue of anyone accidentally peaking in and seeing them. Cain and Hack took seats opposite him and likewise kept their eye's loosely on the door, though when Cain pulled a deck of cards from his webbing none voiced objection as they started a game they only half paid attention to in order to pass the time.
Fire had exploded within his chest as he had pulled himself off the corpse of the doc. But his hatred kept him focused, even as he lost blood, that damn skull-face, two times he'd been stabbed. Twice by some miracle that damn knife had missed his heart. How had he gotten the knife in the first place? He dashed the thought from his mind, it didn't matter at the moment, he took stock of his situation.
He must have passed out from the shock, and the slowed blood flow stopped him from bleeding out along with the knife miraculously missing his heart. Plus his armor auto-injecting a chemical cocktail into his body probably helped out a great deal.
Graves didn't know for sure, but he did know that there was a store of some medkits close by, if he could get to them down the hall before he bled out that was. That hope was looking more unlikely by each passing second, the damned invaders had taken everything from him so far, he supposed his life would be next. But Graves had always been a stubborn man, never took failure well, never gave in when others decided to.
He pushed himself to his knees coughing up what seemed to be the rest of the blood circulating in his body. Weak, his body felt weak, he almost collapsed again, catching himself with one arm while the other kept pressure on his wounds.
"B-bastards," flecks of blood rocketed past his lips in a violent fit of coughs. That was when his ears decided to alert him to the footsteps from outside the door which was opened and allowing him to view one of the invaders string down at him in amusement. He wore a tattered long-coat, sword at one hip, pistol at the other, and for some reason Graves couldn't place the man exuded a disturbing aura about his person.
"My, my, Jericus certainly did a number on you my friend, I dare say had I not been around you may very well be about to die. Though today would be your lucky day, because I have plans for you yet Sergeant," the man walked forward to come within a foot of Graves crawling form.
"Just kill me and be done with it, you people have taken enough from me," he spat on the man's boot, thick blood spattering on the worn leather.
"Not a very good listener are you? I said it was your 'lucky' day, not 'I'm here to take your soul to the warp,' honestly people always have such a difficult time understanding me lately, I wonder why that it?" his hands touched his chin thoughtfully, before he shrugged and shook his head vigoroursly. "Anyway, time to get you up to snuff, I've already let command know of the breech. Your forces will be slowing them down as they continue to the STC, and reinforcements should be here very soon from other parts of the base."
"Why tell me all of this," coughs interrupt his speech as Graves forms the words. "You're one of them, I can tell, why let any of my people know about any of this, are you a traitor?"
"I'm no traitor I assure you, but I am on your side my good Sergeant, now if you please you have troops to lead and I believe you'll want to kill the man that did this to you yes?" The man had bent down to his knees to be on eye level with Graves.
Grave let out a strangled laugh, flecks of blood spraying in the crazed man's face, though he made no move to wipe it clean. "If you hadn't noticed I'm not exactly up to it at the moment, even if I believed you."
"Ah, I see your point," the man reached down and grabbed Graves shoulders, pulling the dying man to his wobbly feet and holding him there. "We'll just have to fix that then won't we?"
"Wha-?" Graves confused question caught in his throat as pain the like of which he had never experienced surged through him, making his chest wounds seem like pinpricks in comparison. So great was the agony that he couldn't even scream as it wracked his body with spasms, eye's clenched shut along with his mouth. So it came as a great relief and surprise when it ended as abruptly as it had come on.
He opened his eyes, the man was nowhere to be seen in the room, just his dead comrades, and curiously he felt no pain in his chest any longer. Looking down he saw his wounds where gone, his armor and clothing mended as well, as though he never had two great stab wounds. But that wasn't right, was it? Already things began to slip from his mind, memories became fuzzy.
The prisoners had escaped, that one had gotten free, taken out everyone in the room except for him and he had been knocked out. He had reinforcements coming to meet him and help flank the bastard while they were pushing further into the base. Those thoughts seemed to materialize as he saw a few comrades begin entering the room and sweeping the area.
"Sergeant, it's good to see you. We came as soon as you called in the situation, we're ready to go, got a platoon ready for your command sir," a Corporal reported to him right away, also handing him a rifle which he accepted gratefully.
Graves nodded, this was right, he had a job to do, make that skull-face pay for what he did, to him, his comrades, and his family.
"Good Corporal, get the men moved out they're heading for the STC, we've got forces stalling them, but we'll be the one's to put a stop to the invading bastards." Graves stated sternly, the full authority of his voice getting his men moving. He had a job to do, and he would be the one to put a hyper-round through that bastard's skull. Graves moved with purpose out of the room following his men.
After all had cleared the room Georgii materialized from thin air as he let his powers relax. He smiled widely, and began to whistle a jaunty tune to himself as he made his way to the door, though he turned to take the opposite direction Graves and his own men had went, after all he didn't need to see how it would play out. No he was content as his master was to just lets things fall as they may, he had done enough to make things interesting for the moment.
Besides the main Imperial force would be descending upon the base soon, it was time to make himself scarce.
"Ah Jericus, I hope you enjoy the little gift I just sent your way. The Sergeant seems like such a nice fellow too, I hope you don't disappoint me." He continued his whistle making his way toward the nearest exit. "Now I just need to remember my way out of here."
A/N: Apologies for the shortness, I've been having technical difficulties and wanted to nonetheless stay on schedule. Thus the chapter you see above, I hope you enjoyed it, kindly review if you please.
Shout outs go to...
CookieMonsta1233- Indeed, grimdark after all am-I-right?
Commissar Critical- That explains it, I can relate, though the only time I've been flying was followed shortly after by me jumping out of the plane (Nope not kidding, skydiving is pretty awesome, highly recommended)
JohnDoeSIGMA1- First I'd like to welcome you, I don't believe I've had the pleasure of a review from you before, so thank you kindly for that, and such a nice lenghty one at that. Hope the coming chapters will live up to any expectations. You might be on to something with that idea of yours, I'll be fleshing out the aliens in future chapter, bit by bit.
ARC N7- Thanks for the Favorite and alert.
360-death- Thanks for the alert.
Without further ado, I bid you my fine readers a fond farewell. See you next week, two at the most.
300-709.