As promised, I am re-uploading When Duty Is Not Enough. Please keep in mind this is a legacy fic, and more of a first draft. There are many things I wanted to do differently, and I will do so when I release the new, improved version. I am reviving this draft due to public demand, otherwise I would have left it alone. That being said!
Hope you guys enjoy and have a good read!
Chapter I First Act - The Calling:
Initializing data log...
Year: 979.M41;
System: Cadian System;
Sub-Sector: Cadian Sub-sector;
Planet: Cadia Prime;
Continent: Cadia Secundus;
Region: Davos;
Location: Imperium Citadel Vengeance of the Faithful.
"Dad I cant aim, this weapon is too big!" Said an eight-year-old, with chestnut hair.
"HA, quit your winning Boy! At your age, I was firing a huge ass bazooka against hordes of cultists and demons."
Said a thirty-year-old, with the same chestnut hair as the boy in front of him.
"Yeah I know...you already told me that four times now. But I just can't! The iron sight is too far away from the butt of the gun! I need a shorter weapon if you want me to hit the target."
Said the child in a furious but cute way.
"Kid, life isn't fair, never is. So if I want to be a good father to you I must teach you a lesson about that. So no! You will fire the lasgun until you hit your target and you will only stop when you hit your designed target, am I clear soldier?"
The man chastised the boy in a fatherly way, before continuing.
"One more thing that is not the "Butt" of the weapon, say it properly! Is the stock. Know about your weapon as you know yourself son"
The man ended his speech with a smile and proceeded with his lesson. The place they are right now is in the outskirts of the living quarters of the Commissar of the 36th platoon Emperors fury, Kane Clarke. Kane is a commissar having dozens of condecorations for his distinguished services in the name of the Imperium of Man.
Eight years ago he married a normal citizen and settled down so he could take care of his family, but unfortunately, three years ago his wife died in one of many demonic raids to their cities, by sheer luck his son Erick survived the attack. After that he started living in the barracks with his men, consequently, he started training his son to protect himself.
Opening another log...
PERSONAL FILE:
I.D: Erick Clarke;
Imperial number: 83284821234218348992138828-ABA-661;
Parents: Kane Clarke and Erika Schwarts;
Blood type: 0;
Naturality: Cadian;
Age: 27;
Height(meters): 6.06 ft tall;
Hair: Chestnut;
Eyes: Blue Eyes;
Skin color: White skin;
In cadian fashion, Erick from a young age was indoctrinated in the ways of the imperium and the guardsman, his father was a very strict individual, always pushing him to his maximum.
With 8 years Erick learned how to shoot a lasgun, with 9 he learned how to navigate in the wild, with 10 he learned how to infiltrate and sabotage. Kane incentivized him to play tricks on his subordinates without getting caught (getting caught meant punishment).
With 11 he learned how to improvise booby traps to get small and large prey as well as hunting. At 12 he learned how to easily kill a humanoid, in this same age he got his first kill, a cultist infiltrator that would kill Bob Flanegan one of Kane's men, the boy killed him with his lasgun, and with 13 he learned first aid and how to seal his wounds.
When he reached 14 he went to his first battle as a supply auxiliary for the 41st ground Batallion Emperor Protects, his purpose was to bring supplies and ammo from the bunker to the mainline without dying. Seventeen was the age that he entered active duty.
Being in active duty meant that he was now a fully-fledged guardsman, Erick was assigned to the 22nd division. This group fought in the frontlines in the cadian line*, so the casualties were pretty common in this segment of the 41st.
At this age, he received the news that his father and the people he knew for nine years were dead in an ambush set by Lothgrar a Herald of Khorne. For this reason, he asked for his Commissar to assign him to the detachment that would try to retake the lost territory of the 36th platoon, the commissar accepted without sparing another glance to the guardsman, so many have already died on his command that the officer couldn't care less to even offer reasons to the boy to not go.
Then the boy went with the retake detachment to avenge his father's and friend's death. It took two months and two hundred casualties but the detachment retook the lost position. The young guardsman amidst the conflict managed to kill more than 15 Bloodletter, 80 cultists, and 20 flesh hounds.
In total, he ended the life of 115 enemies of the imperium. This got the attention of the Major of the 41st that ended up assigning him to a special unity called Gamma squad. The purpose of the group was to defend fortified positions making use of heavy ordnance and the heavy use of guerilla tactics like booby traps, ambushes, deceit, and sabotage.
The squad Had a defensive and an offensive role, they were highly adaptive to the situation at hand. He started as a normal rifleman, but soon the group of twelve started dying off in each suicide mission after another, in the end by his accomplishments and remarkable survival he earned the position of squad leader. At the end of its duty, it remained four members. These members being Sigilus Black, Emeritus Synth, Sarah Burke, and its leader Erick Clarke.
*Cadian Line - Was the main trench of the northern part of the region of Davos.
Opening Military Logs...
Unit: Gamma Squad;
Unit I.D: 236512093512398459129816284519231-XXA-146 Role: Defensive/Offensive Heavy Ordnance Specialized unity;
Members: 12;
Active Members: 4;
KIA: 6;
MIA:2;
Unity Team:
Sigilus Black- A human male, has no hair, brown eyes, and a tan complexity by the exposition to the cadia sun lights. Was a heavy weapons specialist, responsible for eliminating enemy vehicles with the use of an imperial rocket launcher or plasma rifle, he was a very strong individual.
Emeritus Synth- Human male, his two arms have been replaced with mechanical arms with built-in tools to easily repair any damaged tech, has one blue eye, the other is a standard mechanicus glass eye, uses a cowl on his head, having only his eyes and face prosthetics showing.
Technician of the group, he used to repair the vehicles and equipment of the Gamma squad, he was an acolyte of the order of the Vengeful Spirit Machine, until he was resigned to serve in the frontlines with the squad led by Erick Clarke. At first, he was cold and distant, giving the fact he was raised in a mechanicus order, but after some time he started to value his comrades and truly enjoy their presence.
Sarah Burke- Human female, having red hair and brown eyes, has lightly tanned skin, since she is the squad marksman, having to stay put long times in the sun waiting for orders to eliminate targets or cover allies. At a young age, she was trained by her father to be a huntress, since that was the way of the family to survive in Cadia, she became fairly skilled with long-ranged weapons and fairly good at infiltration.
Opening Sororitas log...
PERSONAL FILE:
I.D: Silviya;
Imperial number: 83284123124534566756873233-EVA-727;
Parents: Unknown;
Blood type: A;
Naturality: Cadian;
Age: 25;
Height(meters): 6ft tall;
Hair: Mid-length white hair;
Eyes: Brown eyes;
Skin color: Light-skinned;
Silviya is a human female with freckles on her nose area, a scar on the upper lip, as well as a Fleur de Lis, tattooed on the right cheek.
Before she was recruited by the Order of Our Martyred Lady, she was an orphan, delivered as a toddler at the doorstep of the Order of the Eternal Candle. At six she was a trouble maker, stealing food and money from the people in the streets.
One day she angered a group of guardsmen after stealing their wallets, they ran after her, but never managed to catch her, unknowingly to her a canoness of the Order of Our Martyred Lady observed as she effortlessly evaded the guardsman while escaping their clutches, but when she was almost caught by them, she stepped out to stop the ruckus and recruit the young girl to her order.
After that Silviya started her training in the order, she became an outstanding acolyte, but something in her was different than the rest of her sisters. She never got used to death, particularly with her sisters, each one of her friend's lives lost was an emotional scar for her.
But what started this mindset was the death of canoness Brigith that recruited her. She died on an operation to the Eye of Terror, that everybody knew was suicide, even the own canoness knew. But Brigith didn't care, the last thing she told Silviya is that was their duty, to die for the Emperor, to die for his glory.
Silviya was a true devout of the emperor, but she didn't like this suicidal way of thinking, for the sister of battle, their deaths must have a tactical reason to it. When she became leader of the Celestine fury, she avoided unnecessary sacrifices, using more guerilla tactics than Sororitas tactics.
That got the attention of almost all sisters of her order, even with the huge success of her operations, everyone thought she was not suited for this ordos, some even suggested that her place was in the hospitallers. Since her attachment to life, in general, was not a good attribute for a militant Sororitas.
*Information gathered thanks to the confessional practice of the Sororitas*
Ending Database Search...
Closing Logs...
Farwell Inquisitor Albus Eburnus.
Closing Terminal...
Erick Clarke was clumsily looking through the standard imperium binoculars to the horizon. He received a radio transmission two hours ago informing that a group of 36 cultists was approaching Helios VI position, the position in question is located at the top of a hill 12 km away from the cadian line. Gamma Squad was assigned to hold this position until further notice since one of the main communications cables of the whole region is positioned there.
Sighing tiredly Erick states out loud.
"Still got nothing...It's been two hours since we received the last contact from the 41st."
Taking a deep breath, he takes the binoculars out of his face, before turning to Sarah beside him.
"Sarah did you get anything?".
The Redhead without taking her eyes out of the scope of the lasgun replies.
"Negative. Been laying on my stomach for two hours now, and not one single dammed thing. Not even a fucking rat!"
"Something ain't right...we should have seen something by now. Anything really..."
He pauses turning to look at the mechanicus behind him.
"Emeritus check communications, explain the situation for HQ, and request evac. I'm sick of this place."
Erick stands up, patting his dirty clothes, trying to clean the excess dirt on his fatigues.
The mechanicus without taking his eyes out of the vox station in front of him replied to his squad leader's order.
"Roger. Thisss isss unit XXA-146 over?"
Emeritus's voice is raspy with a clear hiss to it since his entire mouth has a contraption that allows him to speak. Nobody in the group knew why he chose to put the device on his face, but to be fair was not uncommon for people of his ordos to do such a thing.
While pressing and turning some buttons on the machine the only answer that could be heard from the speakers was static. Trying to adjust the frequency to get some kind of response, Emeritus tries again:
"Thisss isss unit XXA-146 do you copy?"
Again the only thing that could be heard from the device was static.
"Sssomething ain't right."
Emeritus stated while slapping the device trying to get some reaction from the machine. With clear annoyance in his voice, he tries once again.
"Thisss isss unit XXA-146 do you copy? I repeat do you copy?"
At this very moment, Sigilus kicks out of the chemical bathroom door while fixing his belt, the blow on the door in turn startles Emeritus since the bathroom is beside the improvised radio station.
"I told you guys that would be one of those missions, where someone says something and the boss gets his panties in a bunch and send us off to the middle of nowhere to do absolutely jack shit."
Sigilus proceeds to pat the very annoyed mechanicus head while fetching his guardsman plasma that was leaned on the radio station.
Erick looks at Sarah playfully, showing his intent to do something to put an end to their boredom, the redhead taking her eyes off the scope, looking at him with a playful smile, knowing all too well what would ensue.
"Sigilus, I swear that sometimes, I confuse you to an ogryn. Cause damn you are huge"
Said Erick teased while still looking through the binoculars. Emeritus smirked on his own way as well as Sarah, the two knowing too well what would ensue.
"Hey, chief! Don't hate me cause I'm beautiful. And let's be real... everyone here knows that I actually look like an Astartes!"
The tall guardsman spoke while flexing his biceps and striking a pose. But is cut short by the hissing voice of the mechanicus near him.
"Yesss. If you are talking about a plague marine then you look just the sssame."
Emeritus said matter-of-factly. Erick and Sarah started to laugh loudly at the mechanicus remark. Sigilus pouted but soon enough started laughing alongside his friends. However, at this exact moment, a faraway explosion could be heard.
The quartet looked at the same time in the direction of the sound, seeing a huge smoke cloud. Sigilus frowned and with a nervous voice turned to his squad leader.
"Is that not where the cadian line is!?"
Erick had his eyes wide open in shock staring at the huge cloud of black smoke traveling upwards from where the cadian line was supposed to be. He shakes his head side to side trying to regain focus on the situation at hand.
"Yes, it is! Emeritus keep trying to contact HQ! Sarah bring the scout car asap!"
Erick pauses pointing at the taller guardsman, beckoning the man to crouch beside him facing the cadian line.
"Sigilus with me hold the perimeter until the car is here!"
Shortly after Sarah arrived in the scout car. Erick and Sigilus are still looking in the direction of the huge black cloud of smoke, and Emeritus is slapping the shit out of the radio station as he tries to desperately get some response from the machine. The mechanicus turns with a worried voice to his squad leader.
"We ssstil are cutted off! we are in the dark, whatever isss happening our communicationsss have been jammed!"
Erick quickly gets up and with a hurried voice screams:
"Shit! Forget about that! Everyone in the car NOW!" Erick shouts it.
The four hurriedly gathered their equipment and entered the vehicle. Sigilus is behind the wheel, he starts the car so they can go to the 41st operations base. The car went downhill really fast as the guardsman drove as fast as he can through the muddy dunes along the way. Through the car window, they can see in the sky huge dogfights happening between cultists and all sorts of imperial crafts.
The car goes through the mud, jumping from dune to dune at high speeds towards their base, as they got closer to their destination they could hear the sound of lasgun and gunfire, and as they got closer the noise became even more intense until the car got the top of one of the last mud dune and what greets them is grim. The entire position was compromised.
Most of the front line trenches were occupied by occultists, imperial soldiers' bodies spread it through all the sides on the front line, near the position of the 41st base they could see a few guardsmen holding the line and trying to push the enemy back.
"Sigilus avoid the trenches and get us closer to the base!"
Sigilus smirked while pressing his feet down on the pedal, making the car engine roar loudly.
"Roger that Chief!"
The scout car started going fast, the car going downhill at high speed. As the car reaches the bottom of the dune, it bounces as soon as the four wheels meet the now plain ground.
Sigilus drives around the trenches, trying to avoid getting into the crossfire between the defending forces and the attackers, he manages to skillfully avoid most of the enemy fire, as well as trying to avoiding the trenches dug up by the 41st that now was overrun with cultist scum.
Some of the enemies above the trenches ended up in the way, they were run over by Sigilus, in the process of trying to get to their ally's position. But unfortunately, the part where it didn't have trenches dug out was over, now the ground filled with trenches proved to be pretty difficult to evade or to not have the car falling in one of them. The car bounced on some of the trenches, even smacking some heads while driving through the warzone.
The car almost got stuck on the last trench, the rear wheels fell on the hole, now they are against the wall of the narrow hole. But Sigilus presses his feet strongly on the pedal, making the front wheels skid, however to their collective relief the front wheels manage to pull the car out of the narrow hole.
They managed to reach the position hold up by the 41st, Sigilus park the car right in front of the command center of the facility, the squad gets out as fast as they can out of the car, but the group is approached by one of the guardsmen leaving the dug up bunker that is the command center.
"661 the commissar was trying to contact you, but our comms were down! He wishes to speak with you immediately!"
"Roger that. Sigilus, Emeritus, and Sarah join the ranks and hold the line, I'll return shortly."
He proceeded to go to the operations center, the place was a standard dug-up bunker with vox antennas sticking out from the ground, there is a hole with a metal stair that leads to its entrance, the entire command post of the 41st is located right behind that door.
Erick descended the stairs, the walls were sustained by rusted steel beams, by the end of it, there is a steel door with the eagle sigil of the imperium in it.
Opening the door he could see a lot of radio stations and operators quickly speaking on the vox channels of their unit, imperials running from side to side organizing supplies and weapons, one of them brushes past him with a box containing ammunition.
At his left, he could see two guardsmen operating a more complex radio station trying to contact Davos HQ. At the center of the room is a planning table, with maps and scrolls scattered onto it, around there are two people, the commissar, and the logistics supervisor.
Erick quickly approached the two and with a formal salute spoke:
"Sir unit 661 reporting to duty!"
The commissar without taking his eyes off the map in front of him addressed the soldier:
"At ease guardsmen. We are in big trouble, we lost contact with almost all the segments of the 41st, and the ones we still have contact with are suffering heavy losses."
The commissar takes a deep trembling breath before continuing, and with his eyes still fixated on the map in front of him, says with a somber tone.
"The casualties vary from five hundred to seven hundred."
Erick asks hesitantly.
"And the wounded?"
The commissar pushes his cap against his head as if he was trying to hide his shame with it.
"Wounded? We got no idea."
The commissar then in a quick motion turns to Erick and with a finger on his face.
"We need reinforcements asap. What we have here won't hold them off for long. I sent a messenger to the 40th requesting reinforcements..."
The officer couldn't even finish speaking when his aforementioned messenger came tumbling stairs down, the huffing the man turns to both men, and with terror in his eyes screams.
"The 40th is lost, commander! As well as the 42nd! I managed to reach the 39th *pant* *pant* They still had comms, this is a planetary raid, Cadia Tetrius has fallen!"
At this very moment, the entire room was dead silent, no one spoke a word until the Commissar broke the silence with a booming voice.
"What are all of you waiting for!? All men return to your stations!"
The people around the bunker snap out of the shock of the recent news, and soon enough the room was filled with life and activity as all soldiers returned to their duties. The commissar then turns to the other soldier.
"Guardsman return to the trenches, give them hell!"
The messenger nodded his head, quickly saluted the officer, and run back to the stairs that he just came from.
"Well, 661 it looks like your squad has a very important mission. Restore our comms, and help my men to push these heretics back!"
Erick saluted the commissar and proceeded to go back to the stairs, leaving the operation room, going back to the surface where the warzone is. Once back on ground level, the other three members of the Gamma squad were giving hell to the rushing heretics.
Sarah was positioned in a guard tower, taking shots against specific and high threat targets like cultists bearing flamethrowers, bazookas, plasma guns, or explosives of any kind that could damage their fortifications. Shot after shot, she killed the rushing enemies with surgical precision. But not long after bolter fire was shot on her position, preventing her from providing cover to the soldiers defending their position with her scoped lasgun.
While Sarah is pinned with the unrelenting bolter fire, Sigilus, shot a plasma ray dead center in the chaos marine firing in the redhead position. The body blowing up with the high-energy shot, only leaving its still standing legs, one second after, they fall flat on the ground.
Emeritus is repairing the auto-turrets around the perimeter in hopes of supporting the ally's position. His mechanical arms are quickly moving around on the damage tech, using a high-energy torch and small mechanical limbs coming off his hand to fix the damaged electronic parts.
Erick approaches the mechanicus, that is repairing one of the turrets near the dug-out base, and with a pat on his back, gets the cyborg's attention.
"We have no comms, so I need you to find the problem and fix it. Do it as fast as possible! I'll help the rest of the soldiers to defend this position"
The mechanicus only nodded, still focused on the work in front of him, however as soon as Erick left him to go to the mainline, Emeritus proceeded to go to the communication pole right above the command bunker, to repair the damaged device.
Returning to the defensive line on the trenches entrance together with other guardsmen Erick took a crouch position behind one of the stone walls, he proceeded to shot multiple shots against some rushing cultists coming from the trenches exit into the base, he managed to injure one while the others tried to find cover in the walls of the dugout holes.
Erick takes some grenades from inside his trench coat and starts to pull the pin of each one, and one after another he threw with precision in different segments of the trench. Explosions and the distinct sound of flesh exploding could be heard coming from the areas where the grenades landed.
Seeing the chaos that erupted amongst enemy's lines caused by the grenades exploding, Erick rushed inside the trench, leaving the defensive line behind, the ground on his feet was muddy, with the distinct presence of blood puddles, as his boots made a distinctive squelching sound when stepping on it.
He turns left, stopping right on the corner to the next corridor where he can hear the footsteps of rushing enemies, he picks up his last grenade, counts to three before throwing it in the direction of the sound, the people on the other side of the trench wall screams in a panic to the coming explosive, but is too late, the exploding sound signaling the probable end of the heretics coming to his direction.
The guardsman goes out of the cover into the corridor, he sees a pile of steaming flesh all around him, blood splattered on the walls and onto the ground, he counts in his head the number of bodies in there confirming the death of 4 cultists.
Rushing footsteps can be heard coming from the other corridor behind him, he hits the ground with his lasgun pointed in the direction of the footsteps, blood, and mud covering his clothes and face as he waits for the coming enemies.
He starts counts in his head in preparation, "1...2...3.." he doesn't even manage to end to count properly when a hooded cultist with a gas mask appears branding a crude knife appears at the end of the corridor. Pulling the trigger he hits the forehead of the target, the energy shot leaving a clean round hole on the guy's head.
The man falls like a sack of potatoes, shortly after Erick proceeds to get up and starts going further in the trenches, he turns left, then right, and then left again, and that's when he spots a group of cultists coming into his direction, they spot him, however, they didn't start shooting yet. This time he doesn't have grenades, so he can't afford to confront them directly without having a good cover.
So once again he lays down and waits as the group of 6 cultists with lasguns came rushing towards him in line, he shoots his lasgun hitting 3 in the chest, the shot going through them, leaving a gaping cauterized hole in their chests.
The other 3 take cover in the gaps on the mud walls of the corridor, they start to fire in the direction of Erick, the shots landing too close to Erick's liking. But before any of them could hit him, Sigilus from his position behind the stone walls of the 41st base managed to shoot a heavy blast of plasma energy onto the three heretics position, completely pulverizing the area.
Short after Erick's comms buzz with life.
"What would be of you without me chief?"
Erick only managed to smirk to himself, before activating his comms.
"Emeritus did you managed to restore communications I presume?"
The hissing voice of the mechanicus came from his vox communication device.
"Yesss, only locally tough. They are probably trying to jam the entire communicationsss of the planet."
With the local comms back online Erick tried reaching the commissar vox channel.
"Here is unity 661, comms are back online. Proceeding to clear the way".
One minute later came the commissar's sigh and somber voice.
"Abort the second task, repeat abort the second task, return immediately."
At that Erick still laid down on the ground, shook his head in confusion.
"What do you mean? Don't we need to take back this trench, over?"
"No, we have different orders. Came directly from HQ, get back here immediately soldier that's an order!"
He stood there, down on the ground without understanding what had just transpired. Never in his life, he received an order like this, and the tone of his commanding officer, in his five years of service as his subordinate, never heard this tone before.
He quickly got up and started running back from where he came, he heard some shots, soon after he started to run, the energy shots and bolter fire coming close to hit him, but none managed to hit him. Taking fire from pursuing cultists he runs desperately until he manages to arrive back.
Passing through the damaged stone walls surrounding the base, he sees the commissar and a group of guardsmen were already taking boxes of ammo and supplies and loading them on the supply truck.
Erick sees the commotion, as well as the defending guardsmen that were previously fighting, are now retreating into the transport trucks until they couldn't fit more soldiers. He runs to the commissar said furiously asking:
"Commissar, what is happening? Why do you order us to retreat? We do not retreat..."
Before he could finish his rant, he receives a hard backslap on his right cheek, from the very angry officer.
"Compose yourself, soldier, the 41st is retreating to HQ. Cadia is falling, soldier! And our orders are to retreat, and that's what we will do!"
Erick's eyes widened for a moment before being replaced with fury.
"WHAT!? Cadia falling? Never! The command must have been fooled or is a decoy from the enemy. We must keep fighting we are Cadians we fight to the death! We don't give up! We are the main defenses of mankind against the horrors of the Eye of Terror!"
The commissar takes out his cap revealing his blonde hair, staring at the hat his hat dejectedly.
"Orders are orders...what we think or want doesn't matter, we are soldiers and we will do our part so only obey."
The officer takes an angry deep breath before resuming with his loud authoritative voice.
"Don't give me a reason to shoot your head off right here, for not obeying your commanding officer! So obey or we will have problems, do you understand guardsman?"
Erick could only dumbly nod, as the scene unfolds right in front of him. His battalion hurriedly loading the trucks and going one after the other like a caravan in the direction of the citadel. The guardsmen that couldn't make it into the transport trucks were following them close behind on foot as they proceeded to their destination.
Sarah pats Erick on the shoulder, snapping him out of his daze.
"Orders are orders, Erick, you better than anyone knows that, now let's get in the car."
Gamma's squad entered the vehicle, but before entering the car with his teammates, Erick looks behind to the raging battlefield right behind him, and without a word, enters the vehicle.
Soon after they are following the convoy of trucks. Looking through the window he can see the many familiar trenches. Many of which he already helped or even saved, now these lines that he fought and bled on are raging battlefields or death zones, filled with imperial corpses scattered on the ground, the scavenger birds of Cadia already flying above the bodies of fallen comrades.
In the sky, he can still see various crafts engaging in heated combat. War is not something new for him, but something about this whole situation seems alien to him. If there was something that he learned through all his career is that a retreat is never an option, so why would it be now?
It takes them 10 minutes before arriving at the open citadel gates, likely waiting for more people to come. The gates are made of hardened steel and they are huge, circling the city is an ivory steel wall easily surpassing the gates. Inside the perimeter near the walls are houses used by civilians and personnel alike, in the center is a tower with the same color as the walls having at least 30 meters, and all around it has a variety of fortifications, bunkers, vox casters antennas, and fortified defensive positions.
This tower is the HQ, where the communication and command center of the Davos region is located. The convoy stops right outside the tower, where a man using a heavily decorated blue Commissar uniform approaches the party. This man is Major Wallace Weimar, one of the most important figures to the cadian military on this side of the planet. He is one of the greatest strategists that the Imperium has.
He is responsible for foiling many chaos incursions, including ones that were almost deemed impossible to foil, the major to most appears to be a cold heartless strategic machine. With a stoic voice, he addresses through a Vox amplifier all the 41st.
"Loyal Guardsman of the imperium is with great heaviness in my heart that I must declare retreat. We still have contact with Cadia Primus and today at 5 p.m Terra time we received the order of retreat. They are sending rescue ships to our position, is expected that in the next hour we leave the planet. I wish I could bring better news but unfortunately, I do not."
He pauses.
"While the Rescue doesn't arrive, every man to their stations! Hold these walls, and fight bravely! Remember the Emperor is watching, make HIM PROUD!"
After the brief speech, the guardsmen watching cheered at the last words said by the Major. The commissar of the 41st gathered his unit and started to organize them to hold the perimeter outside the walls in the dug-up trenches outside the citadel. After organizing most of the units around him the officer approached Erick.
"I need your unit in these trenches, do what you do best! Fill that place with booby traps, mines, and whatever your smart-ass head comes with. Hold these lines until the end got it?"
"Roger, commander!"
Gamma Squad left the scout car and the compound behind to join the ranks in the trenches. Outside the gates, there are four marked trenches spread around the city they are: W1, W2, E1, E2, and S1. The identification letter being the direction and the number is the position in this direction.
Erick opted for the S1 where the enemy would probably try to overrun since it was directly behind the citadel, in a plateau where they would have a slightly tactical disadvantage since they would be at the same level as the approaching enemy.
They go outside the citadel and circle around its walls so they can get in position. The walk takes some minutes, when they arrive just outside the trench holes Erick makes the team form a circle and turns to them, as he proceeds to brief the group.
"Now we hold the line, the enemy will come soon. Sigilus prepare your explosives, and arm them around the choke points of the trenches also leave the detonator in the base of the rear line! Emeritus you will do repairs and salvage any damaged equipment, we need all the machinery up and running to help us stall them. Sarah remember to focus on key targets and cover the frontline. And I will do what I do best...use their own stupidity against them."
Ending the explanation they broke off, each one going in different directions. Erick jumps inside the rear line trench and from there he starts to do his job. Starting to place and bury mines starting in the rear line to the front lines. He makes some makeshift traps along the way with some razor wire. The soldier marks each one of its traps with an arrow, in the walls or in the ground next to it so other retreating soldiers and himself don't activate it by accident.
As Erick reaches the front line, he proceeds to take some mines out of his backpack and positioned them outside the trenches, around their perimeter, managing to cover 50% of the line, but that's when Erick alongside the other guardsmen hear the noise of running feet, thousands of them in fact.
Shortly after he heard what appear to be a thousand voices chanting heresies. He peered above the trench wall, and in the horizon some miles away there is an entire Chaos legion coming to their positions.
His comms came to life with different reports through all the trenches around the citadel. The east and west side are reporting the same thing, the presence of one chaos legion coming their way. Command estimates that the citadel is currently surrounded by three legions from all sides.
The chances aren't good. Erick was certain that if they had two thousand guardsmen present around the walls was already a stretch. The chaos legions have at least six thousand for each legion, so they are probably surrounded by 18 thousand heretics.
The guardsman runs his hand over his forehead to wipe the sweat off, talking to himself somberly he utters.
"We are totally screwed..."
Turning his squad vox channel open, he asks with a morbid tone.
"Emeritus status?"
"We have almost all of our auto-turretsss working, sssix are down, I'm on my way to repair it. I fixed the four remaining mortarsss that were damaged in a raid four daysss ago. We expect to fire a heavy mortar barrage againssst the coming enemiesss sssoon enough."
Erick grabbed his small imperium rosarius, before saying to his team.
"That the Emperor embraces us with His holy light"
He prayed on the radio while preparing himself for the coming onslaught while supporting his lasgun on the ground aiming down the sights. Erick knows the drill, he has to wait for the whistle of the commissar, to start giving the enemy hell.
The guardsman has been in this situation too many times before, he knows that the chance of them getting alive out of this situation at best is near zero, but for some reason, he managed to survive the improbable before. The time passes, but for Erick, each second is an eternity, everything comes back to him when he hears the clear screeching sound..."FWEEEEEEEET".
The sound of the whistle rings through all the southern trench, all units start to open fire. The sound of multiple lasguns shooting deafens Erick, the display of red colors flying against the enemy, is almost as beautiful as a fireworks show. The roar of mortars firing starts somewhere behind him, which further deafens his ears.
In the distance, he sees the mortar shells arriving with a show of explosions and shrapnel, the charred pieces of what were once cultists fly around as the shells fall against the hordes of enemies. He fires his weapon against the coming crowd, he shoots three times, two of his shots hitting a rabid Flesh hound, making the deformed rabid dog fall tumbling on the ground, as he stepped on by a Khornate berzerker, that doesn't even notice his fallen heretic ally.
He keeps aiming and firing, one shot after the other, prioritizing fast enemies over the average cultist, which it makes more difficult of hitting since the fastest of them all is the disgusting flesh hounds. But something cuts him of his reverie as he sees that some running cultists have plasma guns. They crouch taking aim at their position.
He could only hear the distinct sound of a high-speed energy bolt before some meters to his right a plasma ray hits. He is sent flying at least two meters in the air before falling on his back on a nearby trench wall.
Plasma rays keep hitting the frontline breaking the formation, one of them even made it to one of the mortars behind his line sending sand and debris in all directions.
The entire trench is in disarray trying to get back to formation but more plasma shots hit their positions further damaging the formation and the structure of the dugout holes. At this very moment, Erick hears the distinct voice of Emeritus on his comms.
"Yesss! I did it! All weapons are back online they should be firing any moment now..."
The mechanicus didn't even finish speaking when all the auto-turrets started firing. The only thing he could see was the great quantity of automatic fire in the enemy's direction. The ruthless response made a cloud of blood as the turrets kept firing at the heretics, the cloud made out of bodily fluids was so huge that kinda looked like a red dust storm.
The battlefield became silent as the cloud of red liquid floated on the air, but the silence is cut short, as the heavy sound of footstep starts again this time more rapidly.
Through the cloud came anti-tank missiles, hitting hard their position once again furthering the casualties of the defenders, not only that, but most of these missiles hit the auto-turrets. Before the dust could settle came a horde of screaming Khornate Berzerkers through the thick of it.
Brandishing Chainaxes the mad Astartes started running at huge speeds in their direction. Erick starts to stand up, screaming on his vox communicator.
"Sigilus focus plasma fire in the rushing berzerkers! Sarah focuses on the enemies closer to the front line! Emeritus how is the situation with the turrets?"
"Unsssalvagable. They obliterated 75% of our auto turretsss! I advissse requesssting a mortar barrage againssst the berzerkersss. I will do what I can, but it won't be much..."
Erick switched to the vox channel of his commissar.
"Commissar I request mortar strike on the rushing berzerkers, bearing 180 degrees asap!"
The raspy and strained voice of the commissar answers back.
"Roger that soldier!"
Shortly after cutting the communication, the familiar sound of mortar fire rang behind him.
The barrage landed on the approaching Astartes. This time a cloud of dust erupted from the ground thanks to the kinetic force of the heavy explosive rounds. But differently than last time, the screaming didn't lower in volume, and the stomping of feet didn't stop either.
Actually, it only got louder as the berzerkers were almost at their position and the barrage didn't manage to do much against the armored space marines. However before Erick could fall into despair the auto-turrets came to life firing a volley of steel and fire into the rushing enemies, this time the barrage of bullets managed to thin down their numbers, not by a considerable margin but enough that the next defensive maneuver could do a difference in this situation.
When the approaching hulking menaces were a few meters from his line, already brandishing their chain axes the mines were set off. Explosion after explosion, the berzerkers were sent flying or exploded leaving only chunks of metal and meat scattered on the ground.
The mines thinned down, even more, of their numbers, but that wasn't enough, the corrupt Astartes managing to jump on the trenches. Not so many of them were on his side of the trench, but others weren't so lucky. Erick could hear not so distant from him the distinct sound of chain axes, screaming, and meat being dilacerated.
He couldn't think for much longer as he hears even more screams but this time is the entire enemy legion that is encroaching on their position. Erick gets his comms and shouts out nervously on it.
"Sigilus keep firing your plasma rifle, try to reduce their numbers as much as you can!"
He pauses before continuing to scream on the device.
"Emeritus how long to activate the auto-turrets again?"
The comms dazzled with life as the hissing voice of the mechanicus answered.
"3 minutesss max! They mussst cooldown before another volley of fire."
Erick was starting to worry, the enemy was getting much closer now and they already had berzerkers on their trenches murdering and maiming everything that moved.
His reverie was cut short as the noise of mortars blasted again, the explosions caused another cloud of blood and remains to permeate the plateau.
But soon after they appear again as more cultists got out of the cloud rushing on their locations, now he could hear the heresies that they were uttering against his Imperium and his Holy Emperor, this strangely enough only further motivated him to fight. He got on the front line again and supporting his gun onto the ground started to shoot again, not missing one shot.
Many cultists falling as the energy shots tear it through their flesh, he was killing a lot of them, the heretics falling tumbling on the ground as the shots kept hitting them.
His mind is on autopilot as he reloads his lasgun and keeps firing shot after shot. Did he kill how many of them until now? Eick lost count actually, now his only objective is to kill the maximum of heretics that he can before he accomplishes his duty dying for the Emperor.
Unfortunately, his killing routine is cut short as he hears the revving of a chainaxe on his left. Erick turns his head to the source of the aforementioned sound, to his utter horror and shock is a Khorne berzerker a few meters from him looking directly at him coming slowly in his direction.
He can feel the stare of the huge menace coming his way, the stare is taunting him, daring Erick to run or worse yet...to fight it. He manages to send a hurried transmission to Sigilus, before running.
"In my position right now, backup."
He almost couldn't finish the transmission as the heretic comes rushing like a madman. The guardsman dashes for one of the corridors behind him, he manages to run uphill on the corridor, but with the Astartes on his tow, the sheer size of the marine made the man bounce in the walls while chasing him.
Erick sees a few meters from him a wall with the arrow symbol he used to mark one of the traps. He jumps it and keeps on running, he waits for the sound. He hears it but has a terrible surprise as he looks behind him to confirm it. The trap activated, but the razor wire contraption he made so it could cut the legs of the victim only scratched the marine armor, worse yet he cut the wire with only the strength of his legs as he kept running after him.
Erick is getting out of options so he does the next thing he could think of, which is to go to one of the corridors where he had put a mine, the marine almost caught the collar of his uniform as he made it into another tight corridor, seeing the arrow marking the place he jumps it and turns around firing lasgun in the hulking heretic, in hopes of distracting the opponent from his rouse.
It works like a charm he steps on it and instantaneously explodes the device sending Erick on his butt, and a cloud of dirt rises from the ground from where the Berzerker where.
He cant believe that he managed to kill such a menacing enemy, from all the chaos forces on the battlefields of Cadia certainly the former Astartes are the worst of them all. But his happiness is short-lived as a hulking figure steps out of the cloud of dirt.
"You should fight like a warrior loyalist scum. You fight like one of those conniving cowards of Tzeentch! Now...die like a warrior!"
The figure raised his weapon well above the head ready to strike, only to be cut short by the sound of a plasma shot being fired, and in a blink of an eye half of the marine body was no more. Erick could see Sigilus behind what was once a huge heretic, branding in one hand a chainsword and in the other a Plasma pistol.
"What would be of you without me, hm, chief?"
Erick got up from the ground while brushing his uniform off blood and dirt. Turning with a playful smile to the tall guardsman he teases
"Well, Sigilus you could certainly come sooner... I wouldn't complain if you did. At least I would not be covered in heretic guts."
Their playful moment is cut short as more of the revving sound could be heard but this time coming from all the directions around them. Erick and Sigilus slowly turn their backs to each other as they look in opposite directions. This segment of the trench is a U so they don't have anywhere else to go, so they nervously wait as two berzerkers appeared on each side of the corridor that they are in.
Erick nervously gulps as he says, while pointing his lasgun at the hulking heretic in front of him.
"Well, Sigilus ill admit you look like an Astartes, but you still stink like an Ogryn!"
The taller guardsman lets out a playful laugh while revving his chainsword.
"Well, I love you too chief!"
There is a small pause as the hulking heretics start to run to them screaming at the top of their lungs. Erick and Sigilus wait in silence looking for an opening, or for some way to get out of this situation alive.
But once again the dreadful moment was cut short as the distinct sound of a Thunderhawk calls their attention, the four-man stops to look at the approaching huge craft. It's flying close to the ground raining bolter fire in the entire southern trench.
When it flies by their position the ship fire a volley of bolter shots on the two heretics, their bodies shake uncontrollably due to the number of bullets hitting their bodies, making them nothing more than piles of distorted metal and flesh, this clears the way for both.
The sound of more revving axes can be heard, not so far from their position, but Erick could not resist the urge to analyze the craft that flew by them just now.
Erick didn't have a good look at the craft when it saved them from the Khornates. But now that the airship is landing to drop troops he can clearly discern to whom this vehicle belongs. The Thunderhawk is black, having a big red strip on his two wings along with a Fleur de Lis on its sides and doors.
Erick's eyes widen with shock, he had only heard about such force in legends, even thinking that it was in fact just that: a story to bring hope to desperate soldiers in their time of need. But now that he is actually seeing it with his own eyes, he can only utter.
"Why there are Sororitas here?"