The deafening roar of artillery awoke the Severan Dominate and False Imperial lines. Earthshakers struck the sands, sending up plumes of sand and dust and smoke that nearly blackened the sky. A thousand shells struck the trench lines surrounding the ruins. Thirty minutes of artillery shook the ground, then stopped as suddenly as they'd begun. The Severan and False Imperial troopers that had somehow survived the onslaught in the ever-more-broken outskirts of the RUins caught sight of the enemy.
Atop a sand dune, Colin stood at the forefront of the formation of several hundred Guardsmen and dozens of tanks, his Power Sword drawn as he stared down at the hundreds-strong enemy defenses. The weapon in his right hand pulsed an eerie blue as he raised it, then called out to all of the soldiers around them, "HEAR ME, GUARDSMEN, AND FOLLOW! GLORY FOR THE FIRST MAN TO DIE! CHARGE!" as he pointed the sword forth.
A raucous battle cry echoed from the Guardsmen in response. Commissar Cadets led platoons into the battle, swords and pistols drawn as they charged. Among them, Yuri followed with her own blade and pistol drawn, charging with Monyka's squad toward the enemy. Hellguns barked, lasguns scythed through the air and gutted the barely-awakened defenders and the Plasma cannons of an Executioner fired with a sharp hiss. A boulder of energy rammed into and melted a makeshift sandbag bunker, turning the sand into boiling glass and the men occupying the Autocannon inside into a thin, red smoke.
Beams of scarlet fire lanced forth as the enemy had regained their wits. Sand boiled under the feet of Cadian troopers as the assault began, with stubbers and standard Imp Firearms joining their traitorous brethren in the fire. Severan and False Imp troops soon engaged with ferocity as their own political officers led from the front. Colin met the leading man of this unit and the two crossed blades, sparks flying.
Power sword clashed with power sword as the two began a duel. Alicia saw the fight as she joined in the attack, following two Cadian soldiers into the trenches with Edy, Jane, Rosie, Homer, Freesia and Susie. She planted the butt of her rifle into the cheek of a False Imperial before putting two rounds into his helmet. Turning about, she parried a strike from one of the Severan Troopers' bayonets.
Jane jumped in, ramming her shoulder into the man before shoving the barrel of her SMG below the man's exposed face and squeezing the trigger, effectively pulping his face with a full magazine of ammo, blood staining the soft sand of the trench below. She grinned, then felt a hand pull her back as an Autocannon round struck through a ruin wall and into the ground. The shot would've punched through the wall and made her own head into a nice little bit of red paint.
Jane looked to Alicia, who nodded to her and said "Eyes open, Jane." before poking her rifle through a murder hole and squeezing the trigger.
The return fire came from the Baneblade. The heavy mortar mounted on the vehicle's hull let loose a large boulder of a shell that smashed into the enemy position, shattering the makeshift defense of uncured, barely-drying rockrete with a thundering explosion.
Intermingled between the hundreds of ruins of walls and houses were other enemy positions made up of rockrete and steel, most of which hastily set up, ramshackle and poorly prepared in expectation of the Guard forces. Still, the Autocannons, Heavy Stubbers and even Lascannons mounted in them could prove threats. The Edelweiss didn't lag behind, however. Rosie saw the tank advancing with the second half of the squad down the left flank, alongside two Guard Leman Russes.
She grinned, watching as Largo hoisted his Lance and aimed the HEAT-tip at an enemy Bunker that had opened fire with an Autocannon. The explosive flew straight between the slits, probably slamming into the ammunition for the heavy weapon as the bunker's steel superstructure buckled and blew outward, rockrete shards skewering a pair of East Imp soldiers as they moved to join the defense.
Following up, behind Rosie, a squad of the Tallarn folks appeared, shouldering lasguns and firing into the slits of another bunker with extreme prejudice.
Several rounds punched through the cover Rosie was hiding in, nailing a couple of the Cadians with indirect fire. The kids fell, their blood painting the sands of Barious an eerie red. A gust of wind began to blow between the lines as the Cadians, Gallians and Tallarn punched into the enemy's second line while outflanking the first. The massive, blue structure sat at the end of the maze of ruins and defenses.
Tallarn soldiers looked to one-another as they felt the winds of the scorching desert blow the sands and dust, before nodding to one another and putting on their face covers and goggles. Telos noticed this from aboard his tank and called out over com "Be advised, folks. Sandstorm incoming..." before he ordered to the gunner, "Target, enemy Leman Russ Battle Tank at our two o'clock, elevation two hundred."
"In the crosshairs." Replied the Gunner in the turret.
"Load armor piercing and fire ranging shot." He said calmly, staring at the marked form of the Leman Russ, bearing the Severan Legion's inscribed number, XIV. The Loader gave the green light, looking down the scope of the coaxial 75 and firing a ranging shot. The round went straight for about 100 meters, before dipping ever so slightly at 105 and pinging off the armor of the Russ. He gave an approving nod, then called out "Shell, aim! FIRE!"
"AWAY!" The Gunner cried and the cannon let out a muffled roar, mechanical recoil compensators screeching as the vehicle's machine spirits worked to eject the shell and reposition the gun. A clang of sanctified brass hitting the lower floors of the turret later and the Loader was already slamming in the next round. The enemy's tank had rolled into a ditch, a broken wreck with a massive hole where its driver's vision port was. Moments later, it detonated in a plume of black and scarlet. The acrid smell of spent cordite filled the turret, the Colonel settling his Rebreather onto his mouth.
"Driver, forward at half-speed." He ordered via the vehicle's interior Vox system. The tank lurched forward, moving slow as per his command. He then called out over vox, "Bolter and Lascannon turrets, watch our sides. Coax-mounted twin bolters, engage any infantry you see... All armored units, prepare to switch to thermals and engage in low visibility combat!"
The detonation of the enemy Leman Russ had coincided with the arrival of a sandstorm. Alicia felt the burning of the sand as it entered her eyes. She covered her nostrils and mouth, then heard Rosie sneeze through the billowing winds. She looked to the girl, then asked the now red-faced redhead "Are you okay!?"
"Just... Allergies to dust..." Remarked the woman with an annoyed chuckle, "I'll be fine."
"You could've told us." Alicia remarked, before poking out from cover and scanning the only two feet she could see ahead. She dipped back into cover, then looked to see that a squad of their allies, specifically the ones clad in tan uniforms, armors and wielding tan-colored weapons, had vanished. The girl then looked to Rosie, feeling her heart sink as she asked "You see the Tallarn folks!?"
Rosie looked exactly where they'd been firing from and narrowed her lips, her eyes growing wide with concern, "Well, holy shit!"
"Hey!" Edy called out, taking cover, "Where's Frees!?"
The group then scanned for their missing comrade, the desert-bred girl from the local tribe. She, too, had vanished...
Well, vanished was a rather strong word. Freesia was used to the sandstorms of Barious, having grown up in them with her travelling folks. To her, it was second nature to navigate these desert landscapes. She poked out from cover, right behind a pair of East Imp soldiers manning an Autocannon. Her rifle barked five times and each man wound up with several bullets in their exposed backs. She dipped back into cover, switching out her half-empty magazine with a fresh one from one of her pouches.
She felt a hand land on her shoulders and turned to see a Tallarn woman. She uncovered her face, revealing herself to be the Captain of her fellow desert-borne. She smiled at Freesia, her eyes shining from behind the goggles as she rather happily exclaimed "You know your way around the sands!" to which Frees smiled and gave a quick nod of approval. The Captain patted her on the shoulder, then drew her dagger and took to Freesia's side.
She plunged the decorated knife into the throat of a Severan trooper, pinning him to the floor. She unclipped her pistol from her belt and squeezed off a few shots, killing another soldier of the Dominate and pinning his Imperial comrades behind cover. She made two motions of her hand and lasguns punched through the wall, opposite them, boiling the sands next to the Captain. Screams, muffled by the sandstorm, were then followed up by the sharp, sickly sound of bayonets tearing into flesh.
Frees watched two Tallarn soldiers emerge from the cover, their rifle bayonets soaked in blood and being encrusted by the sandstorm's winds. They approached the Captain and the surprised girl, before one of them reported, though yelling, "An enemy position has been wiped! Five Severan Dominate traitors were slaughtered by our squad within their bunker and we silenced a Lascannon!"
"Very well done!" The Captain nodded, cleaning her knife and sheathing it. She turned to the Gallian girl and extended a hand and saying "You would make an asset to the Tallarn, girl!"
"I appreciate that..." Freesia nodded, smiling, "But I'm with the Militia right now!"
The leader of the Tallarn gave the girl a grin full of pearly whites, then said "Your loyalties are with your people! Understandable! At least assist us in clearing another post, however! The Sandstorm and our cover will vanish soon and we will need to retreat!" to which the girl paused for a second. The Tallarn seemed much like her people, if her people had learned how to properly organize into a military force... Perhaps she should introduce them to each-other when they have the time, she thought, before lifting her rifle and racking the bolt, garnering a satisfying, muffled click as she brightly smiled.
Satisfied with the reaction, the Captain spoke into her microbead "Colonel Telos! We will advance to try and cut a path through. Warn the Gallians that one of their own is with us."
"Understood, Captain. Watch yourselves." Telos replied calmly, voice muffled by the crackle of the Voxcom as the main Baneblade cannon fired.
"We will... Say a prayer for the Severan Dogs instead." She grinned "Al-Ahab out." And she turned to her men "Scions of Tallarn! Show the enemy why the Sands will not save them!"
Through the blinding sands, flashes of scarlet energy scythed, cutting the defenders of several outposts to ribbons while the Cadians and Gallians advanced. Half of Regiment 3, Militia, had gone with the Sisters of Battle, as well as three Platoons of Cadian troops. The False Imp and Severan the Tallarn had not managed to eliminate had been met by the Regiments. Bayonets flashed and slashed through the air, rifles barked and lasguns chattered.
The sandstorm began to fade as the Cadians and Gallians had made it, with the support of their heavy armor, past the first line of defenses. The Valkyrian Ruin grew closer in their view, the blue skies finally emerging from the orange-brown dust. Pools of blood formed at the bottom of the trenches, corpses hanging off the lips with their throats slit or bearing the scorch-marks of Lasguns. The smell of burning flesh assaulted the nostrils of the Gallians and the Cadians as they pushed forward, taking the trenches for themselves.
Autocannon fire came from the second line, from positions perched high on a less-damaged ruin that was modified with added steel beams and 'murder holes'. A mixed platoon assaulted from the left flank, to be met by the focused fire of all three Allied parties present. The exchange of fire continued as Cadians and the Tallarn tanks moved past them, toward the second line.
Another Executioner, the Hammer of Dawn, charged and fired its main gun. The scent of ozone filled the area as the boulder of plasma struck another enemy bunker, boiling through the rockrete and steel and igniting the ammunition for the heavy weaponry inside in a flash of heat. A Tallarn Leman Russ greeted its Severan counterpart as it raced to reinforce the line. One shell in the turret's left cheek.
Hoisting up an Autocannon, a Cadian Heavy Weapons Team mounted the weapon onto the walls of one of the craters left by the artillery bombardment, opening up on the second line of defenses. By the time the rest of the Allied armored fist had made it to face the enemy's second line, the bastards had managed to regroup and coordinate. False Imp gunners kept them pinned down with machine gun fire while Shock Troopers moved to flank alongside scouts.
Severan Troopers also joined in, exchanging lasfire with the Cadians. Tallarn, meanwhile, moved on flanking routes, throwing grenades into any position they could surprise as Freesia utilized her own rifle to pin other Imps and Dominate men and women down before they managed to make it and reinforce the second line. She watched Captain Al-Ahab grab an Imp by the face cover of his helmet, before plunging her knife right between the seams of the armor at the man's throat.
She slid the small blade into the sheath under her tan robes and drew from underneath a large saber. Thumbing an activation Rune and whispering a Rite for utilizing the weapon, the woman also drew on her other favorite sidearm. She produced a stubby plasma pistol with a radiator atop that shined a deep orange instead of the standard blue that one would see on Cadian plasma weapons. Its mouth was plated in gold, with the model of a tiger on its tan-colored body.
The woman poked out of the cover, slashing at the midsection of a Severan trooper and splitting the man in twain. She then raised the plasma pistol, letting it charge with a deep, angry whir. She squeezed the trigger and a beam of gold-colored plasma slammed into the side of another Severan position, parboiling and melting the ancient wall of what once may as well have been a house, to reveal Severan gunners manning a Lascannon and a series of smaller Autoguns and stubbers.
She waved forth her Guardsmen, who exited their cover and formed a two-rank firing line, the ones at the front kneeling while the ones at the back stood. With one hand motion and a word in a language Freesia didn't recognize, the soldiers opened fire with their Lasguns, painting the opposing wall and the sands with boiling-hot blood that leaked into the trenches.
Another hand signal and the woman's squad scattered into the trenches. She followed, with Freesia close behind, entering the trenches behind the second line. The first Severan trooper she caught in her sight, she gutted with one side-slash. Following that up, she aimed for the neck of a False Imperial, his head tumbling into the hot sand a minute later.
To their right, they saw the Cadians and other Tallarn begin to push. The Baneblade broke through the walls, its main cannon thundering. A False Imp medium tank burst ablaze, a hole the size of a human left in its side before it detonated, raining shrapnel onto the enemy lines. Following the Baneblade were the Cadians' Vanquishers and the mighty Punisher, as well as the Edelweiss.
The Gallian tank's main gun fired, aimed directly at a Severan Leman Russ and, more exactly, for its only weak point:The hull-mounted Heavy Bolter. The 8,8cm cannon's high-caliber AP shell punched clean through the muzzle of the tank and into the vehicle itself, a lucky shot if the Tallarn could say so. They watched the enemy tank go up in flames while Cadian Infantry and members of the Third Regiment joined in on the assault.
Alicia stopped, turned toward the Tallarn, then said "So that's where you went, Freesia!" as she ran up to her fellow scout.
"Oh, Sarge! You guys were lookin' for me?" She asked, getting a vehement nod from the baker girl. The desert-bred girl winced, then said "Sorry... I ran with the Tallarn folks for a bit. They know their way around stealth in a sandstorm."
"We noticed." Alicia smirked, "Their second line broke the moment they started taking shots from behind."
"And now we're just mopping u-" Freesia got cut off by the thundering roar of the Punisher's chain-cannon. Explosive rounds raked the sands and walls, kicking up billowing plumes of sand and smoke and striking the retreating enemy units. The Third line had taken the brunt of the fire, most of its finished defenses shattered in a secondary artillery barrage that followed up. Freesia rejoined the Sevens, while Squads 1 and 2 pushed farther to their right, assisting the teams of Sisters of Battle as they went for the second dig site.
False Imperial troops, those few that survived the onslaught, approached the Gallians, surrendering to them. Alicia once again found herself needing to step between the Cadians and the men and women of the Imperial Army, while the Severan Dominate either fled, to be gunned down on their way to the other dig site, or died trying to fight the kids again.
The Sevens regarded the last of the Severan Dominate soldiers with awe, watching as the last of them was in a bayonet duel with a Cadian kid. The boy dodged a swipe from the desperate bastard, then parried another with his rifle. He kicked the man back, stunning him, before he thrust forward with the rifle. The bayonet struck just below the red-colored armor of the Several soldier, catching him square in the stomach. The boy pulled the blade out and raised his Lasgun, before squeezing the trigger once.
The Severan trooper fell, dead, into the ditch behind him, a hole drilled through his skull by the lasbolt. The desert had been painted a deep scarlet near the massive ragnite-colored temple of the Valkyrians. The few walls from the ruins still standing were littered with holes drilled by high-caliber weaponry and las-rifles. The Gallians watched the Imperial Guard's tide stream in. Far behind them, artillery thundered again in assistance of the Sisters of Battle and the rest of the Militia's regiment moving in to secure the place.
Alicia watched the soldiers secure the perimeter, while the creepy folks in red robes moved in to look over items of interest. Some of them retrieved the weaponry that the Severan soldiers were using, presumably to repurpose the lasguns and auto-weaponry for later usage. Captain Varroy had joined her, looking at their troops escorting the False Imp prisoners over to a holding pen area, before stating, "The enemy was quite heavily entrenched..."
"I wonder why..." Alicia murmured, then winced, feeling her side.
"Are you okay, Sergeant?" The Captain looked at her with concern. She gave a quick no.
"Got scratched by a round from one of the Imp Snipers." The girl then replied absentmindedly, staring forward with a pair of scared brown eyes as she watched the Cadians mop up alongside the Tallarn. An allied mechanized platoon also mobilized to the second dig site at the behest of the Canoness and her soldiers. Pillars of smoke, tilted by the winds of the Desert, rose high into the sky, shadows covering the massive temple whose stairwells were now being combed over by Cadian forces, to ensure their security.
Colonel Telos approached the two women with his voxcast operator. He donned his full armor set now, as well as two pieces of wargear, one of which was new. A Bolt Pistol and his chainsword sat on his hips, sheath and holster attached to the armor's belt. He regarded the temple with an air of distaste, then spoke "So this is what the Valkyria would build... All of it looks as if it is made from Ragnite..."
He also noticed statues at the entrance, of women clad in robes and wielding lances and shields with a spiral motif.
Varrot nodded, "Lieutenant Landzaat certainly believes so..."
The Colonel looked over their battlefield. Only now did he notice the massive gashes and wounds in the ground and the massive rock faces and cliffs around, all with the epicenter in that temple ahead of them. The wounds in the sand and rock were ancient, eroded by time and countless sandstorms, but still visible. It was like a massive deflagration had boiled the grounds. A giant blade that had cut mile-long trenches into the sands and stone.
"What could cause such damage?" He wondered, approaching one of the standing ruin walls around the temple and running a hand over one of the holes. He wiped away dust and grime, to reveal a very thin, but reflective layer of opaque glass, "This isn't from any of our Las-weaponry. This damage is old... Ancient even." And he looked to Alicia, Varrot and the newly-arrived Welkin.
"This is the spot that the Darcsen Calamity is said to have occurred in, Colonel. It's why the Desert is as it is." Varrot remarked, looking at the shell-shaped Valkyrian structure in the place.
"If the Darcsen did this, the weapon they utilized must've been of an order of magnitude similar to Terran nuclear armaments. Weapons forbidden by Imperial law due to the sheer damage they could cause." Telos looked to the three Gallians, to see their surprise. He nodded, then said "Tactical nuclear armament was utilized during a troubling period in Terran history, known as the Age of Strife. While, to us, it may as well be myth, some remnants of information are taught at the Schola Progenium, with ancient pict-graphs showing nigh-similar damage... Although, admittedly, the weapons we utilized were in the Megatons, maybe even Gigatons and generally flattened everything near the center of detonation..."
"... Megatons?" Alicia asked, staring with fear.
"Yes. Megatons of TNT, a very ancient measuring standard for the explosive capabilities of weapons like that." He sighed, "I know you Gallians also have TNT, though it must be different, since it utilizes a powder made from Ragnite, does it not?"
"Yeah." Welkin nodded, approaching the Colonel, "And you're telling us these Nuclear weapons exist?"
"Mhm..." he hummed, "And they're capable of levelling an entire small settlement, much like the one around the temple." and he looked further out. More remnants of small structures resided around the temple and at a farther distance than the ones they currently sat beside. Indeed, the city here must've been a grand one for the time. He looked over to the Lieutenant and spoke "My men will wish to burn this temple to the ground once we are done investigating it."
"Faldio's not gonna like that..." Welkin remarked.
"I do not care, frankly." The boy answered calmly, "I'll have my artillery level it the moment we're out of it. It's no use keeping something like this alive."
"Major Gassenarl is not going to be exactly thrilled by your suggestion, colonel." Varrot smirked, looking at the temple as well. The Colonel snorted. If Audrey Gassenarl had a problem with him deleting False Gods' temples from the face of the world, then she may as well take it up with him. when they all returned to their respective Forts. Until then, the Colonel gathered his officers and the Gallians to explore.
It was time to see what dark secrets the Ancient Valkyrians had hidden in their little blasphemous effigy...