Chapter 2 Part 6

=ATBS=

Chapter 2: Dawn of war

Part 6​

Six Hours later

Imperial Guard column

En Route to Victory Bay

"Multiple contacts, six o'clock." One of Whent's marines spoke in the platoon's general vox net.

"Confirmed. Aircars and bikes. Approaching fast."

From the direction of Jenova and the Chaos incursion that infested the peninsula. At least they weren't in a position to cut off our way. Not yet.

"Of course it wouldn't be that easy." I grumbled. "Get us moving as fast as practical, check if someone is free to provide some air-support and prepare for battle." I spoke in my vox, trying very hard to keep the resignation out of my voice. There was a small part of me that hoped that we would get back without incident.

I should have known better.

"Camera feeds?" I asked the driver – a young corporal called Oren.

Surprisingly, the IG regiment sent to pacify Kronus was equipped with top of a line kit, including some impressive networking compared to what most of the guards had to work with. That included cameras in all vehicles and automated turrets on most Chimeras - sparing a soldier the need to expose themselves to use the heavy weapon mounted on top.

There were only two such machines attached to the platoon and on the scramble to get away from Jenova, I didn't end in one of them. At least the LT and the stray I picked up were a bit safer than the rest of us.

On the bright side, there were still cameras on my ride, allowing me to see what was approaching once I went next to the driver.

Behind us, there was a small cloud of vehicles – aircars, bikes, and even two buses of all things. It was no surprise that they were able to overtake us. While the Chimeras were fast for tracked APCs, they had nothing on civilian skimmers that didn't need to mount much in the way of armor - just enough to maybe keep a rich idiot alive if they crashed into something.

The big question was what they were armed with because a few decent missile launchers could easily ruin our day.

"They're in range. Engaging." A marine announced over the vox an instant before I could hear bolters opening up.

Single shots aimed fire.

The enemy was still kilometers away, practically far beyond small arms effective range… against human-sized targets. Apparently for Space Marines with all their enhancements and whatever help their armor could provide, that wasn't true. They were followed by our heavy weapons speaking moments later.

Just a few seconds after the Astartes opened fire, an aircar fell out of formation, then crashed near the road. Despite what a movie might imply, the expected fireball didn't materialize, so the promethium tank survived the impact.

A biker lost his head next and his ride slammed into the back of a red aircar. This time, we were rewarded with a nice blue-tinted explosion as the two vehicles immolated themselves. The ensuring blast-wave and shrapnel scattered the nearby traitors and even downed a few aircars.

The swarm spread out and continued to approach undeterred by the losses. The cameras caught dull flashes appearing all around the enemy machines as their occupants started firing wildly our way.

At this range, they had to be very lucky to hit anything, yet given the amount of ordinance coming our way, they were bound to… A dull clang announced some kind of round ricocheting from the side of our Chimera.

Yep, even fucking traitors spraying and praying could get lucky.

A few seconds later, our gunner let loose a long burst of bolter fire. The heavy round flew true and ripped open one of the closest aircars, splattering its occupants in the process. Auto-cannons, grenades, and heavy bolters were taking their toll upon the approaching swarm.

A saner opponent would have broken off given the death toll that our heavy weapons and marines were inflicting. Yet, those were Chaos-aligned traitors – sanity was something that other people did.

Hell, a lot of them probably were glad to die for whatever foul thing they worshiped.

The worst thing was, that I was a spectator. There were no orders to give. No way to actively fight right now. Oh, we could stop, dismount and give the bastards a good fight. However, that might allow for something actually nasty to catch up and there was still no word on air support. Besides, doing so would make us easier targets for ramming.

It took them a couple of minutes to get close enough that their wildfire started hitting our rides at regular intervals. The Astartes didn't seem to mind – stubbers and las-guns weren't a big threat for their armor. However, the same couldn't be said about our gunners.

"Eli's down!" Someone shouted over the vox.

"Pull her down and take the gun. Medic!" Pickos ordered.

About two-thirds of the swarm was down when they were about to overtake us. The marines and gunners did a great job, but there were simply too many of the bastards to take out with our firepower.

Not before they reached us at least.

"Get off the road and evasive!" I snapped. I really didn't like the way the leading bastards were angling their vehicles towards us and considering that their shooting was really just an inconvenience…

"My EYES!" Our gunner screamed and the roar of his bolter ceased.

"Help me pull him down!" I snapped and stopped watching the battle.

I just had to think that, didn't I? I should have known better.

A pair of guardsmen rushed to my aid and within seconds, we had the poor bastards back inside the vehicle. We laid him on the floor and the two men who helped me started pulling out med-packs. I glanced at the rest of the troopers with us. All were injured to one extent or another, though most were walking wounded.

Fuck it. I hated being useless anyway.

I pushed my shoulders through the gunner's hatch and took a hold of the bolter just as our driver made a sharp turn, making me slam my ribs on a sharp edge. Fortunately, my armor blunted most of the impact, leaving me with only a nasty bruise.

I took a moment to get my bearings and make sure that I didn't accidentally shoot one of the marines riding on the ceiling.

What I saw was pure chaos, pun intended. Bikes and aircars were doing their best to ram our wildly evading Chimeras, while others flew close in to provide covering fire. Others instead were doing their best to board us… which was sheer insanity considering that we had a pair of Astartes on top of each APC.

"In the Emperor's name, DIE!" I heard Anteas's voice rise from nearby and glanced to the left.

The Librarian was driving his bike with one hand while shooting over his shoulder with the other. Somehow he wasn't crashing even though he was unable to use his psyker powers to help find a safe route.

He was hitting things too – I saw him rip through a bike that flew next to the Chimera behind us. Bolter rounds blew apart the chest of its leather-clad driver, while his buddy – a naked woman – was jumping to on the Chimera. The bike flew out of control a moment before the heretic could properly leap and she bounced from the side skirt of the APC, then harmlessly blew up behind the speeding armored vehicles.

"Beware, suicide-bombers!" I shouted in my vox. That image made me stop gawking at the insanity surrounding me and I gripped the heavy bolter. It took me a moment to line up a target – an aircar that was diving at the Chimera behind us – and opened fire. My first burst went high – just a round or two clipped the trunk, doing no real damage. I cursed while correcting my aim and let loose. Heavy rounds stitched through the middle of the diving car and detonated, tearing it in two. The front slammed into the road behind us and crumbled like a tin-can under tank treads, while the back blew up spectacularly a moment after slamming into a tree.

That was fucking awesome!

A well-aimed burst pinged from the armor around my bolter. I tried to make myself as a small target as possible all the while doing my best to fend off the maniacs.

Despite our best efforts, they just kept coming. I saw a pair of cultists jumping on top of a Chimera that had to slow down to avoid a ditch. The marines on top trivially threw the bastards away, before they exploded in a shower of gore. An aircar slammed in the back of the last APC, only to crumble when whatever it was made of was found lacking compared to the armor.

Then one of the buses was almost on top of us. The madman driving turned it to the side, somehow making the vehicle drift in mid-air. For a heartbeat, I thought that the driver fucked up, but then the side aligned with our Chimera, revealing at least twenty people with guns pointing our way.

"FUCK!" I shouted and let loose, emptying the belt into the bus. The marines did the same, burning through what was left in their magazines in moments.

Our combined fire ripped the bus open – spilling people and pieces of people on the ground. Yet, the Emperor damned cultists didn't care and opened fire with everything they got. Slugs and las-bolts slammed into the top of our Chimera, either bouncing off or heating the armor. The marines simply shrugged the fire and reloaded, though the one to my right first pulled out a grenade and threw it in the bus, which was threatening to roll in the air and fall on the last APC.

The driver of the rearguard Chimera made the engine scream and somehow squeezed off just a bit more speed. The grenade flew in the bus, landing just behind the driver, and blew up, simply disintegrating the front third of the machine. The rest spun out of control and slammed into a patch of trees beside the road, where it flew apart.

"I need ammo!" I shouted to the troopers below me as I did my best to detach the empty belt.

Let me tell you, reloading a heavy bolter on top of Chimera's busy evading kamikazes was pure brass platted bitch. One cursed by the Emperor himself to boot.

Having fucking cultists trying to blow my head off didn't help either.

At least the marines next to me didn't arrange an accident that would have left Thule free to take out the Imperial Guard too.

I was finally able to reload and take a note of what the hell was happening around us when the never sufficiently damned cultists got lucky. The second bus, which had been hanging back, accelerated behind a wall made of the most remaining aircars. It chose the time well because apparently, all our heavy weapons ran out of ammo in just about the same time – which was a pure fuck up on our side.

The marines did their best as well as the few guardsmen who had clear fire lanes from the firing ports in the Chimeras. I opened fire too, ripping a pair of aircars to pieces.

It wasn't enough. We took down about two-thirds of the remaining cars, when the bus drove through two of its buddies, literally slamming them out of the air. I'm sure I saw at least two marines shredding the driver, making the machine lose control, but it was too late. It slammed in the back of the last Chimera, though at least the Astartes ridding that APC managed to jump out just in time.

The impact tore apart the bus, however, the damage was done. The Chimera was sent skidding into a low boulder. It hit hard, at the wrong angle and the whole APC went airborne for a few seconds before slamming into the ground and rolling a few times until it laid resting on its ceiling.

"We lost a Chimera! Circle around and prepare to dismount!" I ordered and opened fire at the remaining traitors.

"Belay that! Continue driving towards Victory bay!" Pickos shouted, giving me pause.

She knew better than to disobey an Inquisitor and she didn't strike me as a woman who would just leave eight of her people behind.

"Leftenant, explain yourself!" I growled in the vox.

"I just got word from HQ. Enemy bombers are vectoring on our position. The General sent interceptors our way but they won't reach us in time unless we keep driving!"

I glared at the traitors. What little aircars they had remaining were breaking off and heading towards the crashed Chimera, just as the pair of dismounted Astartes did.

We were in the open, with no cover to speak of insight. If a bomber or two caught us here, we were toast.

"You heard the LT. Once the CAP is in place, we're coming back." I growled in the vox, though I didn't really believe it.

Somehow, I had trouble believing that we would find anything but corpses… if we could get back in the first place.