The tanks of the joined Regiments had been neatly lined up in the square. Gallians and Cadians had helped each-other set up tents for the command center and medical area. In the while, the Artillery had been brought down and set up behind the Town Hall. Freesia watched with a smile as the Cadians prepared themselves. Sure, they were a scary bunch what with their flashy guns and all that, but some of them seemed nice.
Freesia had always been free-spirited, since she could remember. The Desert of Barious had always been her home and that of her original people and the loss of her parents had been a bit traumatic. She didn't know them very well, since they'd died when she was very young, but alas... No time to be sad about that, as much as she'd like to. Her gaze swept over the Cadian lines.
She watched one of them stand up from behind a vehicle, hauling a pair of boxes over toward a tent. He had shorter black hair, but not buzzcut like most of his compatriots. He was pretty cute too, Freesia noticed. A few scars here and there, but that didn't detract from it... The tanned girl smirked, biting onto the index of her glove... Before feeling a hand hit her over the back.
She jumped, turning her head to see Edy, a smile on her face as she asked "Checkin' out the guys there, Frees?"
"U-Uh" The Desert-born stuttered, blushing.
Edy chuckled "It's alright." and she stepped up beside the girl, staring at exactly the boy she was looking at. She gave a nod of approval and said "Well, he's cute, I'll give ya that." playfully. The two girls staggered as the artillery pieces fired staccato into the enemy's positions. Edy followed one of the shells until it was supposed to vanish behind a building, but she saw it burst in the air, sending a wave of shrapnel down below... She cringed, then turned back to Freesia.
"If you two are checking out Alvin, may I suggest learning part of his story?" A Cadian's voice came over the whistles of shells.
The two staggered, turning back, to see a black-haired woman with teal eyes and a smile on her face. She chuckled, then said "Calm, calm, Gallians. I'm Yrine, of the Cadian 13th... And you two are staring at my brother, Alvin. AKA 'Auto-Gun Al'." and she joined them.
"He's your brother?" Freesia asked, brow quirking up.
"Yep. Alvin Karon. Lieutenant for Squad 7, Shock Infantry of the Cadian Youth." The girl responded, calmly.
"Heh,
"Why's the nickname 'Autogun Al'?" Edy inquired next, crossing her arms.
Yrine smirked "The idiot charged a heavy autogun emplacement atop one of the hills we were fighting to recapture during the Battle for Cadia. Alone. With a half-loaded Las-Rifle and his Cutlass." before looking at the surprise on the girls' faces and grinning. Seeing her brother turn toward them, she waved at him and showed him to come over. Dropping the crates where they needed to be, he grabbed his Lasgun, slung it on his back and approached them.
"'Sup, sis?" The Cadian asked, a voice smooth as butter. He tipped his helmet to the Gallian girls and he could swear he heard the tan one swoon a bit.
Yrine snorted. "These two were talkin' about ya. Figure you may want to get to know'em better." before patting him on the shoulder "I gotta go talk to the Gallian Army officers nearby. Colonel's orders."
The boy rolled his eyes and said "Alright, sis, see ya."
"Take it you're not a fan of the Colonel?" Edy held her arms crossed. The kid shrugged and looked to them. The girl pursed her lips and looked to Freesia... She wasn't sure what the reason was, nor if they should press on. The looks they gave one-another said that pretty much they should drop the issue. Edy then turned to Alvin and said "Well, skipping past any of that, my name's Edy Nelson, rising star of the Gallian Squad 7! And the gal behind me is Freesia York."
... Vanitous much, Edy? Freesia shook her head, then nodded and said awkwardly "Y-Yup. Hey there! I'm Freesia and I'm... Well, was a dancer before joining the Militia. Also desert-bred'n'all that..."
Alvin's smile returned and he snorted "Explains that nice tan."
"Y-Y-You think it's n-nice?" Freesia blushed, scratching her cheek and smiling awkwardly.
"Sure. It's exotic." Shrugged the boy.
Freesia giggled like a schoolgirl, blushing... And Edy saw fit to step off and away, leaving the two alone for now. She walked through into the Cadian Motorpool, to witness a squad of Cadian Engineers working on the tanks. She looked over to the multi-barreled monstrosity known as the Punisher to them and saw its crew testing hydraulics, whilst one recited a prayer?
The sponson guns rotated and one tracked her... Those things were 40mm Machine Guns... She froze...
"Wow, wow, turn that away!" One of the Engineers said, standing up and waving the Gun turret away. He was an older gentleman, with a gruff voice. He turned about to greet Edy and holygodabove WHAT WAS WRONG WITH HIS LEFT EYE?! It was a piece of metal stuck into a scar with a scarlet center! A prosthetic eye!? WHAT?! Edy felt a pit form in her stomach...
"You okay, missus?" The man asked, kneeling in front of her.
"I-I'm okay... What's wrong with..." She motioned to her own left eye, scared.
"Oh, that's just my augmetic eye. Lost my original one on Cadia and the Techpriests were kind enough to give me one." The man returned, helping the girl to her feet. He seemed nice enough. The girl nodded to him and was about to introduce herself, when an explosion once again knocked her off her feet... Overhead, debris and glass from the house that'd been hit rained down on them, leaving cut marks on Edy's face as she ducked...
She looked up and saw the older Crewmen board the Punisher quickly and felt a hand yank her to her feet. She turned to her right to see a girl in plate armor, with a cutlass, Commissariat peaked cap and las pistol drawn. She yelled out "Do you wanna die here, Gallian!? Get to your squad and man defensive positions! The False Ones are attacking us across the bridge!"
"They want our bridgehead back, Commissar?!" Called out the man with the bionic eye. The Commander of the tank.
"That they do, Captain!" The Commissar Cadet unhanded the Gallian. They saw a wry grin form on the commander's face.
"Leave that to me and my crew, ma'am. We'll make their infantry regret ever trying to cross."
As the man ducked back into the hatch of his tank, Edy stood to her feet and rushed to grab her SMG. She watched as the Baneblade took position in front of a now heavily-fortified bridgehead, where Cadian Heavy Weapons teams took positions... The 'Bolters' as they were called by the Guardsmen, were ready to fire, alongside high-caliber Auto-Cannons and what seemed to be an energy gun that was powerful enough to punch through tanks.
As artillery from the East Imps flew wide, the Cadians returned fire with extreme prejudice. The Basilisks rumbled and roared. 132mm Earthshakers burst into the opposite end of the river... And the Sevens immediately saw the approaching threat. Imperial Soldiers wearing lighter armor than most and no helmets charged first. They were in brown uniforms with a black stripe around their left forearms and some wore caps, others hats... Some even had the looks of Prisoners...
But to the Cadians they were just a target...
The Bolters let loose their thundering roar. Rocket-Propelled 40mm Rounds screamed through the air and cut into the Imperial line. Those that didn't explode upon impact were showered by the gore of their comrades. Lances of scarlet came from the Cadian rifles and the cannonade of artillery made the deep, thrumming contrast to their sharp whistles, snaps and cracks. A symphony of the devil played into the ears of the Gallians, all of whom stared with shock at the fast response of the Cadian units.
Troopers by the riverbank's lower area fired up onto the Bridge, sending the corpses of false Imperials falling into the water and Vox Casters communicated a flurry of orders and calls between the different Guard Platoons present. What put a cap on it was the rumbling thunder of the Punisher revving and sending an unending wave of bullets into the narrow corridor of the bridge. The roar was unbearable, to the point even the Boys and Girls in Blue fell onto their backs and covered their ears.
Welkin had ordered Isara to drive up beside the Baneblade as its cannon depressed, turret traversing toward the bridge. Welkin appeared out of the turret cupola and looked to see Matt appearing out of his. The Colonel pulled out his comm system and ordered with the most horrifyingly straight and unsympathetic face Welkin had ever seen from an officer and, much more, from a young boy "All guns, focus fire on the bridge. Not one passes! Not one gets the privilege of surrender! Gun them ALL DOWN!"
The gunfire intensified as the Gallians joined the line, with Marina taking cover behind the sandbags of the Autocannon nest. Edy and Rosie followed her, with the former seemingly frightened as she stood below the tower of their bridgeheads. They watched as the East Imperials, tattooed, insane or just plain scared, charged headlong into them. Some were vaporized, others were left with neat holes drilled in their skulls and many fell into the river.
Corpses began to pile from the fusillade of Laser striking the bridge, forming cover for their still-living comrades... Behind them, the rumble of tank treads came. And Colin, standing at the forefront, called out "FALSE IMPERIAL ARMOR! AUTO-CANNONS, MAKE THEM REGRET SHOWING THEMSELVES!" and raised what appeared to be a bolt pistol. His first shot sent an East Imperial tumbling to the floor, missing his head.
One got too close for comfort. The Powered Sword in Colin's hand severed the man's head in one slash. The Headless corpse stumbled forward two feet before it collapsed in front of a horrified pair of Gallian Girls... Juno Coren gagged, while Susie immediately passed out... But Colin and his Commissariat Cadets were unfazed, as were most Cadians, just continuing to fire.
Their guns echoed and thundered. Imperial soldiers were felled by the dozen. And the Punisher's cannon didn't relent, to the point they needed to bring in more ammunition for it. The Commissars cut swathes with their Power Swords into the lines of East Imperials as they came too close, throwing some off the bridge while simply letting others pile up as corpses by their feet in a slaughter brutal enough for Khorne to feast for a century...
Alicia joined Susie and Juno, picking up her passed-out friend and leaning her against the sandbag walls, before looking to Juno and asking "What's going on!?"
"The Cadians, Sergeant! They..." She turned her head and raised her rifle, firing twice, before an East Imperial pounced into the trench. She stopped the tip of his bayonet from entering her chest and saw the angry, tattooed prisoner, probably a Penal Trooper, glaring at her with killer eyes. Juno struggled with whim, whilst Alicia raised her rifle. Before either could do anything to get the False Imp bastard off, a Cadian soldier, a girl, plunged her bayonet into the man's side and kicked him off, before stabbing him right in the throat and snapping off a single las-shot that vaporized his head.
The girl grabbed Juno by the arm, yanked her to her feet and barked "Stand, Gallian! It isn't your time to die yet! Not while we're here! Stand and FIGHT!" and she slammed the Gallian-2 Rifle into Juno's chest, before turning back to battle. Her Lasgun cracked the air and another Imp fell. One round hit her in the shoulder and she spun, falling to the floor and grabbing onto the wound...
She groaned in pain, then let loose a string of colorful curses as the East Imps, before pulling out a grenade from her belt and throwing it toward the wall of flesh, guns and steel that advanced toward them... The detonation was deafening, sending waves of shrapnel into the line that skewered or outright gutted East Imp troops. Juno knelt behind cover, eyeing down the sight and firing into the crowd... Alicia joined her in a combined attack. They couldn't miss even if they tried...
Alicia froze, eyes wide with fear, as the Commissar's power sword cleaved one of the East Imperials in half. His bolt pistol cracked the air and another East Imp fell into the river, without a head. He dropped the empty magazine, bisecting another Imperial with a swing and stabbing the next through the chest while he reloaded. Using the one Imp impaled on his sword as a shield, he put up the Bolt Pistol and pushed forward, firing the weapon into the crowd...
He ducked under an AT Shell that flew just over his head and struck the Baneblade's front armor, bouncing high and exploding in the air. The Baneblade gave an 11-gun salute that pretty much vaporized a swath of the East Imps on the bridge, luckily not hitting anyone of their own. Yet the East Imp Penal Battalion didn't relent. Colin pulled his sword out of the East Imp's chest, letting the corpse fall to the floor, before watching as the Punisher's rounds saturated the tank wrecks which the Imps used for cover with High-Caliber shells.
Welkin advanced beside the Riverbank, where a few Cadian Mortar Teams were laying heavy fire onto the Imperial Bridgehead. The Chimeras repositioned themselves and brought the lascannons in their turrets about... Bursts of light struck the support beams and the advancing Imperial Platoons even harder... Corpses piled on and on at the bottleneck. The Artillery struck the other side with impunity...
Welkin watched from aboard Edelweiss as the Cadians held back the enemy assault with zero regard... The wall of guns was so powerful that the Gallians found themselves lowering their weapons and just watching the onslaught, with eyes wide. The Seventh Platoon lieutenant watched as the Colonel got out of his tank and joined his Commissar Major in the line... Yet he had an even more horrifying weapon.
A sword whose cutting edge was made up of teeth was in one hand, whilst in the other, a weapon similar to the Executioner's plasma gun, but scaled down to pistol form. He raised it and aimed it at an Imperial tank... And before he shot, Welkin could swear he saw the boy mutter a prayer...
Once he squeezed the trigger, it didn't take long for the small, fist-sized ball of blue fire to strike its target. The Imperial tank's forward plate melted upon impact and the driver inside was doused in the superheated metal. The rivets in the plating became hot shrapnel inside the tank, that killed the gunner of the fixed right turret. The man didn't even have time to scream...
The spine-chilling hiss of the Executioner's own supersized Plasma Cannon was what followed, as the ball of heat flew over the Cadians' heads and struck the tank in force. It and whoever was around it just blinked out of existence the moment the projectile exploded. The supports of the bridge heated too... And the Colonel tapped his microphone and spoke via vox "Executioner Wall Breaker, cease your fire. We're not here to melt the bridge, we're here to take it."
An East Imperial soldier, this one clad in proper armor and with a bayonet affixed, charged the Colonel. Without flinching, the colonel let the engine of the weapon roar to life... And he slashed the man in half in a shower of blood and gore. It wasn't fast or gracious, like the Power Sword. It was gruesome... And the blood-curdling, heartbreaking scream that the Imperial let loose upon feeling the teeth of the weapon tear into his armor and flesh had ten Gallians pale, five of which threw up or nearly fainted... Welkin merely watched as the bloody mess that was once a man fell to the floor and blood and chunks of flesh hanged off the teeth of the Chain-Sword...
His mouth dried up and he swallowed empty, then looked to Isara, who'd shielded her eyes from the slaughter...
A trumpet called the East Empire's retreat... A dozen soldiers of the Regular army turned about, in fear, as the Cadians let lasers loose onto them. The artillery fired at the Imps' bridgehead, thumps of detonation muffling the screams of those damned to be greeted by the mortars and 132mm Shells. The Cadians didn't cease fire even as the enemy fell back, their expressions deadpans, their eyes locked onto their prey... The screams of the soldiers did get to Alicia and her comrades, however. Susie was hiding her face behind her palms, Rosie had paled and Juno was leaning against her rifle, having taken her glasses off. The brown-haired Second-in-Command to Squad Seven was scared... Not for the Imperials, because they were the foe, but because she was bearing witness to what an army of children could do, given enough motivation
"Cease fire!" Alicia cried to the Colonel, scared. "Colonel, CEASE FIRE! THEY'RE RETREATING!"
As she watched the Cadians continue firing, the girl couldn't help herself... Clambering over the Sandbags, she rushed the Colonel, pulled him by the shoulder and forced him to look at her and begging, half with tears in her eyes, half with the voice of a concerned mother "COLONEL! THE IMPERIALS ARE RETREATING! WE'VE BLOCKED THEIR COUNTERATTACK AND WON! ORDER YOUR MEN TO CEASE FIRE, PLEASE!"
The Colonel had almost snapped off a shot into her stomach... But he soon realized she was a Gallian... Shaking his head, he looked Alicia in the eyes, noticing the tears... Then he looked over to see Welkin hanging off the top of the cupola and staring at them and... Isara, covering her mouth with her hands... He took a moment, then cued his vox "All units, objective accomplished... Cease fire immediately. I repeat, Cease Fire immediately..."
... He took a moment to look back at the corpses and bullet holes that riddled the bridge, then spoke "Get me a cleanup detail on our side of the bridge too. We've made quite the mess..." calmly. He stepped off and away from Alicia, toward the CP tents... The Gallians helped each-other up, while the Cadians went back to their usual business... Edy pursed her lips, watching the Karon brothers step away from the battle... Chatting...
Welkin went to get Alicia... The girl was stuck for a moment...
And Isara looked toward the Colonel as he went to talk to a stunned Captain Varrot...
They probably needed to have an actual talk after this...