One week later
Barious Desert outskirts, midday
A mile-long mixed convoy of Gallian and Cadian vehicles stretched across the roadway leading into the desert of Barious. While abnormal to any human who would even bat an eye at such a thing, to the Guard the desert just turned into another hotspot to fight within. Leading the convoy were the Edelweiss and the Colonel's Baneblade, moving with a squadron of a few hundred-odd vehicles, including the Sentinel walkers that were farther ahead, through the midway point between the desert and the grasslands, where vegetation grew all the more sparse as dirt was replaced with sand.
Patches of grass still grew among the desert sands, but grew all the more sparse. Above them, midday made itself known as the scorching sun beat down onto the convoy, warming the hulls of the heavy transports and the Halftracks to the point of possibly burning any person that touched them. The colonel hanged out from the cupola, the air conditioning inside the superheavy tank either broken or nonexistent. Sweat draped him from head to toe and he found himself in need to push his dirty blonde hair out of his eyes.
He'd stripped himself of the armor's cuirass and left himself in only his short-sleeved tan shirt as he watched them enter deep into the desert, where the patches of grass were replaced with ever-larger dunes of sand and the track marks leading deeper in between the dunes. He looked to the Lieutenant, to see him also having stripped off the top of his flak jacket, leaving himself in nothing but a tank top. He gave a small smile to the Colonel, who returned a nod, before looking forward.
He spoke into the microphone of his Vox, "Attention, all allied units:We've entered Barious proper... Prepare for desert combat operations... And for the Emperor's sake, keep your canteens filled and ready. I don't want to lose anyone to dehydration." as he leaned onto the tank's only non-hot piece of metal:one of the vision slits. He switched to a direct com link between him and Welkin, then said "You doing well, Lieutenant?"
"About as well as can be... Even with the aircon Isara installed into the Edelweiss, we're slow-roasting in here." The Lieutenant remarked, chuckling.
"I know that feeling... Our Aircon broke inside the Baneblade." The colonel quipped, "Gotta get one of our Techpriests to fix it... What the hell are the False Imps and their Severan dogs even doing this far out in the Desert?"
"Some of our scouts reported a massive dig site deep in the desert, near the old city buried there." Welkin replied, "Something big's being dug up."
As the group trudged on, sand crunching against treads and wheels, a faint, but cool breeze began to blow, relieving the weary travelers. The column travelled on and aboard the Gallian Halftracks, pretty much everyone was sweating up a river at this point, even with the covers pulled on top of the vehicles and some form of air conditioning in the breeze wafting through the vehicle.
Alicia was pretty much soaked, murmuring to herself "Midday trip into the god damn desert and we got the sun blaring down on our heads. Wonderful idea..."
"War ain't always gonna be comfortable." Largo remarked, taking a puff from his cigar and blowing the smoke out the open back door of the vehicle, "Least no shells are raining down on us."
Alicia nodded, fanning herself with her bonnet, which she'd had to remove due to the heat almost instantly soaking it. She rolled her sleeves up to the elbow pads, granting herself at least some reprieve by also opening the top three buttons of her shirt. The others followed suit, with Rosie debating on whether or not to ditch her armor entirely for the sake of health. She said "Honestly, it could be way worse." as she, too, rolled up her sleeves, removing her elbow pads, "We could be the poor fuckers stuck with Edy's singing."
The members of the squad aboard the vehicle chuckled, the column moving forward. They crested one of the dunes, dipping back down into the lower areas of the desert. Far to the left, there was a massive cliff face, lined with caves and with a flat plateau up top. The Colonel kept an eye on it with his binoculars while they moved on, while the rest of the gunnery crew ensured nothing came around to attack them.
Aboard Edy's aforementioned transport, that being the rearmost of the three Squad 7 vehicles, the shrill voice of the girl had been cut off by Marina 'accidentally' ramming the butt of her rifle into the girl's side. Twice. Not hard, just enough for her to get the hint. Beside Marina, the scout Freesia York smiled, noticing a familiar face with his legs hanging off the side of the Chimera behind them. Alvin waved to the girl, his sister manning the heavy stubber of the vehicle. She waved back, her face growing red. She looked to Marina, who was cleaning her rifle, her shirt already hanged up behind her, then elected to keep her mouth shut. Marina wasn't the talkative type.
They felt the vehicles stop with a sudden jerk. Edy called to the driver "What happened!?"
"Colonel's orders that we halt. Captain agrees." The Gallian driving the vehicle answered. Oh, what was going on now?
Far ahead, at the front of the Convoy, the Colonel had climbed out the top of the cupola, standing on his feet atop the tank and scanning the dunes around them. The sands shifted around them as the breeze blew around specks of dust. One would take that as normalcy within a desert, especially one that covers much of the north-western area of a country.
The thing was, the sand shifted with a very familiar pattern.
The Colonel's eyes locked onto one speck of sand amongst a trillion, his hand hovering over the laspistol on his belt. He wrapped his fingers around the grip of the weapon, thumbing the safety of the weapon. The Lieutenant stared attentively from aboard the vehicle, watching what the young Cadian was doing. Squinting, the officer drew the pistol. He saw another slight shift in the sand, then cried out to those he knew very well "You may come out now, Raiders!" a wide smile on his face.
A hundred soldiers emerged from the sands they had so perfectly hidden themselves within, their uniforms made up of tan rags that covered their faces and draped over their flak vests. Tan-colored Kantrael-pattern Lasrifles were trained on the convoy, as well as a string of anti-tank rocket launchers with krak missiles, from the looks of things. He slid the pistol back into its holster and locked it into place, setting the safety back on, before jumping off of the Baneblade.
A slim, lean figure with heavily-tanned skin and the same kind of covers wrapped around her head as her comrades appeared. Two piercing green eyes stared at the Colonel atop his tank and one hand signal had the entire squadron around them lowering their weapons. Pulling back the rags covering her face revealed a beautiful young woman with dirty raven hair. She stared up at the Colonel, and her beautiful, red lips curled into a smile, "I'll be, Matias Telos! And I thought I had an actual Severan convoy almost ensnared!" She called out in a thick Middle-eastern accent.
"Captain Al-Ahad! It has been a while!" He called out to her, jumping off the tank, "And it's colonel now."
"So I see." She chuckled, then barked to her men "At ease! These are our brethren and their local allies, it would seem!"
"You know of the Gallians?" The Colonel raised a brow.
She bowed her head, "Indeed. The local tribes here have been kind enough to tell us of their compatriots. May our forces join your Convoy to wherever you may be heading? We've only seen the sands and the forces of the Severan Dominate for the better part of the damnable months we've been fighting here, as well as those False Imperial fellows. Many a patrol of theirs fell to our ambushes."
"Should we expect to find Dominate troops that are far more twitchy than usual?" Smirked the Colonel.
"By my honor, you know it to be so, brother. It would not be us if we didn't make the bastards quake in their boots!" She chuckled, gripping the Colonel's hand firmly and shaking. She looked to see the black-haired leader of the Gallian 3rd Regiment of Militia approaching.
The Colonel turned to Captain Varrot and said "Ah, captain Varrot. Welcome... This is Captain Farah Al-Ahad of the Tallarn Desert Raiders 915th Infantry regiment."
"And currently commanding the First Assault Battalion. Greetings to you, Captain Varrot of Gallia. It is a pleasure to know not all on this forsaken planet are hostile." She extended her hand. Varrot extended her own and found herself grabbed by the forearm, receiving a kiss on the cheek from Farah, much to the chuckles of her comrades and of the Tallarn. Some of the Tallarn were removing mines dug into the sand, of course, in prep for the ambush.
"A pleasure to meet you as well, captain Al-Ahad... More help is always welcome." She remarked, "Especially in the sweltering heat of this place."
Farah smiled, bowing her head to the Captain in a show of respect, before turning to her men. One swipe of her hand later, five desert-tan Leman Russ Battle-Tanks roared over the crests of the hills, followed by a single Chimera bearing medicae markings on its sides, as well as a flamer instead of the usual auto or las-cannon. A few hundred more Tallarn emerged as well, carrying their heavy and light weapons with smiles on their faces as they joined heir Cadian counterparts.
"We'll brief the Tallarn when we reach our designated staging area. The second half of the Regiment probably has a head-start already." The Colonel remarked, "Until then, Captain Al-Ahab..." She looked to Welkin and, as if the boy knew, he nodded and the Colonel smiled as he offered "The Lieutenant is offering for you to hitch a ride on his tank. The rest of your Raiders may evenly divide themselves among our tanks and transports."
"Many thanks to you and the Gallians." The woman nodded, before marching on to climb aboard the Lieutenant's tank. Varrot looked to the Colonel.
He looked back at her, noticing the concern and waved it off, saying "I and Farah went to the same Schola. You needn't worry yourself, Captain... Now, let's mount back up and head on out. We've much to do." before he saluted the Captain and climbed his Baneblade, mounting up. Varrot sighed, then walked back to her own transport and boarded it. The Tallarn tanks filtered into the convoy, which now grew in length and the war column once more moved.
Aboard the 'command' Halftrack of the Gallians', two Tallarn soldiers, a woman and a man, boarded, greeting the people inside with curt nods and uncovering their faces, to reveal their tanned skin and their almost mystical tattoos. They sat themselves down and watched as their fellows boarded other transports, or climbed on top of already-mobile tanks and Chimeras with disregard.
"You guys new around?" Largo quipped.
"Not very." The Tallarn man shot back. He nodded to Largo and said "I am Sergeant Nazir, of the Tallarn 915th and this is my comrade, Zariyah Farouh."
"Greetings to you." She nodded, cradling a plasma rifle in her hands. She looked around at the people inside, ranging from Rosie to Alicia, to Homer Peron and Suzie and to Largo and two other Lancers, then remarked rather absentmindedly in her thick accent "I'm surprised how cozy this is." while Nazir sharpened his blade. Zariyah leaned back into her own seat, looking to Alicia.
The baker girl smiled at the Tallarn soldier and got a smile back.
The convoy had moved well into the place, with the Sentinel scout walkers reporting from a kilometer or so up ahead that the enemy had set up an encampment manned by dozens of soldiers and was currently holding near a tall structure bearing a spiral motif. The small joint army of troops meant to liberate the Desert and counter the enemy finally arrived at a large open bout of desert.
Within hours, the present forces had set up their forward operations base within the open area. Dozens of tents, a motorpool, several mess tents and medical tents, as well as guard positions made up of sandbags and heavy cannons had been prepared. The Tallarn were quick to introduce the locals to fighting in the Desert, while parts of their 500-strong Battalion went out scouting. The Sentinels returned for checkups as well. Sand was a pain to get out of the motors, after all.
Isara wandered around the FOB as the sun began to set. She went to the Motorpool to check up on the Edelweiss and the other Gallian tanks, only stopping as she caught a glimpse of a man in a robe presiding by a Cadian Battle-Tank. Beside him, two men stood, carrying weapons with wood stocks, gold inlay and gold handguards, as well as staggeringly-large energy cells and scopes. Their hands were covered by armored plating.
She approached them, noticing the man in the robes had the same kind of armor on his hands. She raised a brow, slowly walking toward them and hearing electronic whispering, like that of a machine. One of the two guards, also clad in red robes, turned to the girl. A metallic face with two mechanical blue eyes greeted the girl, followed by a body covered in heavy armor and filled with mechanical parts. She gasped, eyes wide as she stared up at the mechanical humanoid.
It spoke to her, more so ordered in a monotone, robotic voice, "HALT." as it readied its weapon.
The robed man in their lead stopped whatever he was doing, slowly turning to the girl. A pair of burning red eyes greeted the girl, followed by a mask that seemed to be directly sown into the face of the man. Several small mechanical arms appeared from under the robe. The 'man', if Isara could even call him that, was almost entirely machine, with the few bits of skin and sinew that were visible gruesomely tied to what felt like it was more metal than humanity. He waved his presumably-similar robotic guardian down, then spoke, his voice more human, although sounding as if it was passed through a radio, "Do not be afraid..."
"... W... What are you?" Isara asked, partly scared, partly awed at the cybernetics on display.
"I am Techpriest Valon, of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Forgive my Skitarii, for they only mean to protect me in my sacred work." The 'man' explained, "What brings you to the motorpool, young Gallian?"
"I was coming to check up and do my regularly scheduled maintenance on the Squad tank?" Isara answered rather fearfully. The Techpriest offered a curt, respectful nod to her, however, waving his guards off. The two metallic men turned heel and marched back to a tent colored like the desert, bearing a cog insignia, half white and half black, with a half a skull and a half of a robotic face in the center.
"So you are among those few, blessed and gifted to know the secrets of the Machine." The Priest remarked, "Do you have a name, young one?"
"Isara. Isara Gunther." The girl replied.
"A pleasure. Do not let me keep you from your maintenance rites, young Isara. I was merely doing the same to our line of Leman Russes. Their Machine Spirits grow restless during the fall of night." The Priest nodded, "May the Omnissiah's blessings be upon you in your work." and with that, he turned back, reciting what sounded like a prayer to the vehicle. One of the Cadian Leman Russ Executioners with the Plasma cannons.
She'd have to ask Matt about that when they had some spare time, so she thought as she walked toward the Gallian side of the motoropool.
In the command tent, the Tallarn Captain had begun a short debrief regarding False Imp forces in the area. She pointed out the dig site on the map, then said "Their forces are entrenched deeply within the necropolis surrounding this central building. From what little I can tell, this is some sort of temple utilized by a foregone race of creatures that lived here."
"Perhaps it's a Valkyrian temple, going by the spiral design." Voiced Faldio Landzaat, the Lieutenant of Squad 1. The man was a charmer, born a Randgriz nobleman's son and a well-educated fellow, he was young, dashing and a welcome relief to even some of the Cadian girls. Farah hummed, staring the man right in the eyes and unipmressed by his charms.
She simply asked, "Do you know of these creatures?"
Faldio nodded, "The Valkyrur, Valkyria or Valkyrians, depending on how you want to call them, are one of the things I've studied in my major at Randgriz University, ma'am."
"They're the basis for the local false religion, Yggdism." Remarked Telos from Farah's right, garnering a look from another familiar officer nearby, "Some sort of special, very powerful pseudo-goddesses. For all we know, if they did exist, they may as well have been Daemons of Chaos. They're also the reason for the mistreatment of the local Darcsen population, some of them among us right now." And he motioned to the small officer cadre of the Darcsen Auxiliary Force, who simply smiled and saluted.
"That's a bit of an oversimplification of their status, Colonel, but yes... They are the Goddesses of Yggdism." Faldio returned.
"And I am not sure you should call the religion I ascribe to 'false', Colonel. In the spirit of cooperation, at least." The aforementioned officer spoke. Telos had seen this woman in briefings with Captain Varrot a few times and they butted heads at Vasel, about the correct course of action. The blonde-haired officer wore a standard variation of the Gallian Regular Army's dark-blue uniforms, her rank patches on her shoulders. A Major. She wore a spiral-shaped pendant around her neck, showing her allegiance to the false religion that had caused much pain.
Telos sighed, "Major Gassenarl, I meant no dishonor to you or to your family in regards to calling this fictitious belief of yours 'false'. I am just stating the obvious by calling it as such, however."
"How is it any more false or true than your own belief?" She practically demanded. Telos shook his head. He had no desire to deal with this bullshit before tomorrow's operation.
"We can discuss this when we are not in the middle of planning an operation to dislodge your greatest foes, Major." He shot back, then asked rather snidely "Now, will you assist in the planning, or would you like to be briefed after we've decided what to do? Because even someone who got demoted to a Major's rank may be of assistance to us." and that little burn got a few muted laughs from the other officers, both Regulars and Militia. Audrey gritted her teeth, then rolled her eyes.
"Very well..." She then breathed out, calming down. She approached the map and pointed at the central road and the dunes surrounding it, before speaking "A concerted assault with heavy armor should be able to dislodge both the Imperial forces and their newly-acquired aides, the "Severan Dominate'. Your Leman Russ tanks should be more than a match for them."
"Their defenses are thick, Major." Captain Al-Ahab replied with a tinge of disgust in her voice, "I would suggest we utilize the Cadian Artillery that was brought along to reduce their numbers or at least scare them into hiding before we commit an all-out assault. My forces will maneuver behind the enemy following the barrage while yours can take advantage of it and attack. This place is prone to Sandstorms, however, so..."
"We'll have our artillery set up and under guard. The False Imperials and their Severan Lapdogs may have something up their sleeves..."
The entire room grew quiet as metallic boots thundered against the plywood floor. They turned to face the Sisters of Battle as they marched in, their blades sheathed and their bolters in their hands. The Canoness appeared from among them, turning to the Colonel and Captains. She bowed her head, then said "We've taken the liberty of joining the briefing. Forgive the tardiness, however."
"It's understandable, Canoness." The Colonel bowed, as did Al-Ahab. The young man said "We were just drafting up the plan."
"Very well." The woman nodded as they walked in to join, to the surprise of Audrey Gassenarl.
"There's still the matter of extraneous defenses and a secondary dig site my men have spotted somewhere close by." Captain Farah remarked, pointing toward the upper-right area of the map, "Some sort of structures made of black basalt are being dug up as we speak. At least my men believe them to be black basalt... Whatever they are, anyways, we may need to secure them."
"A two-pronged attack, then." The Colonel murmured, "Canoness?"
"My Sisters and I can take that outpost." She answered, "We will have it secured."
"My thanks." The Colonel nodded, before noting "We will be providing support for each part of our forces as we move. If either of the camps is dealt with first, reinforcements will be redirected to assist the other camp. No unnecessary losses will be accepted." He turned to his Commissar and Kasrkin, then said "Commissar. You and Major MkVenner will join the Tallarn in their flanking maneuver. Take a two platoons of Guardsmen and the Kasrkin to assault. We've brought almost all of our Regiment to Barious to ensure the ousting of the enemy. Let us make it so."
"Sir." The officers of the Cadian 13th nodded.
"Third Regiment. We'll be by the side of the Guard all the way through this scouring. Barious will be cleared dune by dune and sand speck by sand speck." Captain Varrot joined in, looking at her own officers calmly as she stepped up, "Where our allies go, we go. Where they fire, we fire. This'll probably be the longest part of the campaign to liberate our lands to date. You've all proven yourselves as capable commanders for your platoons. You retook Vasel and secured Kloden, both incredible feats in their own right. The Imps've pushed us back to the brink. The Front line is a mere one hundred kilometers from Randgriz now. Your country needs you now more than ever and you all know what's at stake... Let's make Barious the turning point... Ready your squads. Tomorrow, we start showing the Imps what a REAL war looks like!"
"Yes, ma'am!" Chorused the entire Militia Officer cadre, getting a smile out of Varrot and the others
"We all know our places. Dismissed." The Captain nodded to everyone, then looked to the Colonel, "We'll see each-other on the field tomorrow, Colonel."
"That we will, Captain. Our first foray into Barious will be securing that wretched temple of false idols." He nodded, then dismissed his own officers. The officers divvied themselves up, each returning to their squad's tent while Cadian forces stood guard for the duration of the night. All of them were raring to go. So far, it had indeed been mostly defensive operations, like recapture of cities and destruction of enemy supply bases.
This was gonna be the turn of the tide. The march to beat back the enemy and throw them out.