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Professor Chaos
Member
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Posted: Fri Aug 22nd, 2008 10:38 pm |
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Chapter 4
A volley of intense lasgun fire was let loose upon us. A las beam seared into my armor, burning a hole deep into my shoulder, boiling blood gurgled and my skin cauterized as my body reeled back in pain. Jerahim and the rest of the squad quickly took up positions behind cracked battle scared boulders and returned deadly fire into the two squads of imperial infantry. The infantry were in position behind a small hill fortification. Dirt, shrapnel, and splintered chunks of tree rained on my body as a mortar round blew up near me. The superheated photons of a lascannon seared, torching a line in my helmet. The heat of the laser burned my cheek. Anger and chaos power enveloped me, when three human scum arrogantly jumped up from their position, firing volleys of beams. I rolled back through the decaying autumn leaves taking cover behind a small boulder, the warp energy collected in my mind, emitting an aura from my eyes. The pain in my shoulder faded with each moment as potential energy built within my mind - I was chaos, and these humans would feel my wrath. Screams pierced the morning air, chests and heads exploded as the energy chaotically leapt from my head, serrating and mauling the three imperial guard. Blood showered onto the decaying leaves, pieces of body’s falling into the embrace of rot and putrefaction, a crimson jigsaw puzzle of human flesh. Darkness.
‘Phaethon!’ Jerahim yelled, bringing me back to consciousness as the pain took hold of me. I turned his way as the squad was still in heavy firefight. ‘We took out the Lascannon, and decimated at least one squad.’ A mortar round exploded near me catapulting burning shrapnel into my armor. It was strangely quit for an immense battle. I realized that the main thrust hadn’t started yet Fire, colors, and light blurred by us as we advanced toward the hill. Screams of men rang out as we decimated them. Ixonaea’s assault cannon and Neamion’s las cannon maimed the squad, reducing the infantry to a pitiful state. No commissar was with them, yet the remaining soldiers stood their ground steadfast. Foolish, soon they would be dead.
A power fist thrusted toward my chest as we charged into their ranks, with the power of chaos directing my dodge, armor and flesh parted to the teeth of Agenor, they had yet to know the pain I would unleash. Jerahim spilled blood with his claws, growing bigger and deadlier, blessed by the will of Khorne; soon, he would be possessed. The sergeant thrusted forward with his power fist, Jerahim routed it easily into the red soil. Right slash and a left slash, the human’s body shredded into so many small pieces; His skin darkened, rage burned in his eyes, but he held it back.
As soon at the melee began, it was over. Victory was ours again. Yet, the furies of battle were not released.
Deadly silence returned isolation in the dawn of spilled blood, as we stood alone in the battlefield. Heavy treads of tanks crushed the rocky ground around the thick forest, flanking our position while we walked toward the city. ‘We’ve been betrayed,’ Aegethius said aloud with spite frothing on his tongue.
‘Those imperial squads were there to slow us down,’
‘Is it because of me?’ Jerahim asked while his rage subsided into sanity. ‘You should have left with Igantius,” Aegethius sneered at Jerahim. Hate in his voice. Jerahim gazed back at him, holding back the blood rage born within his veins. ‘You should’ve sold your soul to the blood god.’ ‘It’s obvious Khorne has already possessed your soul. You’re of no use to this squad. You’ll be the undoing of us all,’ Aegethius taunted him, leveling twin chainswords. I didn’t think Aegethius jealousy of Jerahim would ever go this far.
Jerahim readied his menacing stance as Aegethius thrusted both swords forward. Jerahim parried both swords with his claws and head butted Aegethius, denting his helmet and knocking him out. His right arm cleaved at Aegethius’s chest, like a raptor, he swooped down for the kill.
‘STOP!’ I yelled and Jerahim stopped. I bent down and lifted up Aegethius; dazed, he could stand on his own. ‘If Ignatius sacrificed our squad as a diversion, he would not be trusted or followed by any other faction,’ I said with malice in my voice. ‘Yet, for us to fall back would be cowardice, by now Imperial Armored Fists squads have outflanked us and cut off any escape wrought.’
‘A glorious death in battle it is then,’ Aegethius, picking up his chainswords and his pride, said seething with bitterness and disgust. ‘I’m not ready to die.’
Again, the day was going to be overcast and the scent of rain was kept suspend by thick air. Thunder boomed in the distance, vibrations reverberated on my armor. ‘The storm shall cover our entrance into the city. We complete our mission and laugh into the face of fate,’ I finished. Many hours passed as we walked in stride with fate.
Four squads of Imperial stormtroopers sloshed through the mud. Forcing their Heavy weapons toward the earthen fortification we had destroyed, through the thick mounding mud. Once the troops got there we would be found out. I had to get us into the city soon.
As soon as the squads passed, we arose from behind a cyclopean decaying hardwood. A mildewey pungent odor radiated from the detritus of the decaying forest floor, touched by the omnipresent fungus of Nurgle. The rain was coming down in torrents, immediately hiding our tracks and drowned the noise of our movement over old sticks and branches.
A fencerow of hardwoods, bushes, and tall weeds went directly to the city with a weak chainlink fence stopping the row before a seven foot opening between two gutted battle scared buildings. About fifty yards on either side of the fencerow was a squad of guardsmen, one supported by a Chimera and the other by a Leman Russ. They patrolled the savanna like expanse between fencerows. About a quarter mile away to the right platoons of infantry accompanied by armor, moved from a main checkpoint on this side of the city. The clouds had became dense as the rain kept at a steady pace, the day had darkened, and soon we would make are way within the fencerow, vigilant of the distance of the squads. ‘We wait another hour because the day has darkened and fortune has smiled upon us with this dreary wet afternoon,’ I whispered as the pain in my shoulder began to lessen. ‘We go through the fence row on our stomach’s, and then find a way into those buildings, since the battle has yet to begin.’ I finished and the rest of my squad nodded in agreement.
Branches and grasses were fastened onto our extremities and weapons to camouflage our advance into the city through the fencerow. The rain had slowed down to a drizzle, but the day had become darker, as another thunderhead could be heard booming its war cry in the distance. Jerahim’s crimson skin was a problem; we camouflaged him heavily, for he would be in front in order to cut the fence with his razor sharp claws. We fastened Ixonaea’s autocannon and Neamion’s plasma gun to there backs and densly packed tied grasses onto the weapons. Ector also mentioned the use of mud and sand to dull the squads’ bronze heraldry because in his words, ‘The human whoresons might see a reflection.’ I couldn’t argue with such advice.
Late afternoon finally arrived, and yet the main battle had not begun. In the distance, at the other end of the city, I could hear another battle ignite. Artillery fire resounded like the thunder in the distance. Immediately the two squads went on high alert and searchlights beamed from the top of the buildings. ‘Jerahim,’ I whispered while tapping his foot. ‘Advance slowly.’ I rarely feel fear, but this situation warranted caution, because one mistake could be our doom. ‘Once we get passed the gate into the city remain silent and remove this camouflage. Jerahim and I will began looking for a sewer or an entrance into the basement of the buildings.’
The battle in the distance intensified, but the main front still had not moved. We had about 200 yards to cover under protection from the fencerow. The rain had turned to sleet, cold air whooshed from a down draft from the low pressure front. The clouds blotted out most of the light. We quickened our advance. After an hour of movement we were about twenty yards away from the fence, out of the arch of the searchlights.
Sandwiched in-between the two buildings, jumping out from the bowels of the underground sewer system, were a group of six mongrel orks, led by a fearsome looking Nob with a rigged iron jaw. They were armed with a menagerie of weapons, from shootas and lasguns, to choppas and chainswords. They looked unorganized, which isn’t so unusual, but many were injured and then quickly hid in the shadows. I picked up some Ork tongue when I was on the trade planet Goremunga near the orken worlds. It took many years of bloodshed and many Orken deaths to finally find the chainsword called Agenor, said to have been blessed with the spirit of the machine-god, eons ago by the Tech-priests of Mars during the dark age of technology. I decided to advance ahead of the rest of my squad to talk the Orks into aligning with us; I simply had no choice. I wasn’t worried about the imperial squads on either side anymore, it was obvious they were oblivious to our advance; their minds were agitated on something else. ‘Snet grot fenment ve me Phaethon,” I said soflty grabbing the attention of an injured ork, green ichor bleeding from his thigh. It skirted back in fear, while his brethren covered the sewer entrance with rubble. The Nob heard, and lurched to the injured Ork, swatting him out of the way. His eye’s beamed at me. The smell was almost overpowering as the green hulk of a creature centered in towards my helmet. His iron maw hanging, in front of my face, through the fence ‘Ve me Grom, chaot,’ he said. ‘ Wvvet fo yug.’ ‘Mmet uos in,’ I paused trying to remember the word deal. ‘A deal.’ The Nob let out grunts, probably laughing, and like a sickly green bull, he tore through the fence with his iron maw, opening a passage for my squad to pass through. They must have had no choice; otherwise the Nob would have not helped us.
‘Me n’da boyz be here f’years, s’nce da boss die,’ the Nob grumbled not trying to act menacing, while spitting links of the fence out of his mouth as he spoke. The vets were removing the camouflage, while grots tried to steal their weapons. Grom kicked one; obviously over the years Grom had learned diplomacy. ‘Me n’da boyz been l’vin wit da chaot cult ud’er da city. U’eds boyz not bad.’ He slapped me on the back, knocking the air out my lungs. ‘Gork n’ Mork still betta though.’
‘You’s here to gets me n’da boyz,’ he asked. I almost laughed but held it back. ‘No, we’ve been sent to destroy ammunition depots. Do you n’da boyz know were they are?’
‘Yes,’ he said flatly and almost like a human. ‘So you’d not come to get’s us.’
‘Yes,’ I replied angering Grom. ‘Only thing I can offer you is passage off this planet.’ He shook my hand in agreement, better an ork than a sniveling cultist. The battle on the other side of the city became even more intense. Loud thuds of artillery rounds became louder. The sounds of battle and carnage, death and destruction overwhelmed the soundscape.
‘Where did you boyz come from,’ I inquired.
‘Humies been hunten da cults since day last. Me n’da boyz gets away,’ Grom paused picking out chain link fence from his iron jaw. ‘neath da city n’ gut.’ I walked to the other end of the alley. Darkness had descended, but the buildings on the other side of the street were heavily fortified. Storm troopers, infantry and snipers held superior positions while Leman Russ tanks and Chimera’s blocked perpendicular side streets. They were in position for urban combat. We must have pierced their defenses.
‘We use the sewer’s,’ much to Grom n’da boyz dislike. Intense vibrations rumbled the city’s infrastructure as ordnance fell onto unfortunate victims. Bits of concrete and clouds of dust rained on us. Grom was in front with me leading the way through the sewer. Water cascaded down through pipes on the side of the tunnels, collecting into duel troffs on the floor, trickling to lower ground. Making the walls wet with condensation and slime from organic matter. Grom growled that there was an ammunition dump an hour away, but first we had to connect with the main sewer. According to the Ork we were only in a smaller connector tube.
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