Chapter 3 Part 6

Chapter 3: On Death's ground

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Part 6

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Guard Field Medical station

Pavonian Heartlands

Pain and thunder – that was the first thing I became aware of. Searing agony exploded in my right shoulder and the side of my head, especially my jaw. It was more than enough to jolt me awake and I tried to get up as disoriented as I was.

"He's awake!" A blurred figure shouted.

"I noticed." Another one added with dry sarcasm. "Hold him down and add more painkillers." A second blur leaned above me and soon became a face obscured by surgical mask. "Inquisitor, hold on, you're in a bad shape. Try not to move while we take care of you."

More thunder. What I was laying on shook along with the blurred figures who cursed and had to hold on me to remain standing. Dust came from the ceiling and the second blur cursed colourfully. "Clean it up now! The last thing he needs is an infection…"

I tried to speak only to find out that I had an oxygen mask on my face.

"The Xeno are coming closer. We need to evacuate the wounded, now!" A new voice shouted from somewhere to the left.

"We're in the middle multiple operations here! We need more time or our patients will die!" The second blur snapped.

"Can't be helped. We don't have enough troops in the area to hold this position. The General ordered general retreat to secondary defence lines. Get all who might be able to walk stimulant shots. We'll carry the rest and give the Emperor's mercy to anyone who won't survive being moved." By the sound of it, the soldier wasn't pleased by the orders. Nor was I for that matter when it dawned to me that I might be one of those to receive the Emperor's mercy. "It's either that or abandoning them to the Xeno."

"Damn aliens." The second blur looked back at me. "I'm sorry, Inquisitor, your arm is going to be a write off under these circumstances. Amputate, seal the wound and we'll fill him up with painkillers and stimulants. I don't want to explain how we lost the Inquisitor to the General or higher authority. I'm sorry about this, lad." He added then I saw another masked figure brandish an injector then the world blurred for a time and I could no longer focus.

At least the pain subdued as I drifted on a wave of chemicals or so I presumed before I felt another pinprick. Moments later something cold raced through my veins and the world sharply came into focus. With it came more thunder and shaking. Artillery or air-strikes coming too close to comfort, my mind supplied.

"Inquisitor? Can you hear me? We need to leave, now!" A man in a surgical mask and blood splattered scrubs shouted at me.

"Sit rep!" I managed to rasp through raw throat and parched lips.

"The Tau are about to overrun this position. We need to pull back, now!"

The fuck?!

Without wasting any more time, the Doctor, or at least I presumed he was a Doctor, grabbed me by the right shoulder and helped me sit up, something that momentarily made the world spin before coming back into focus. He slung my still not really responding right arm over his own shoulder and dragged me towards the exit. Only then did I notice that there were more blood and dusts splattered soldiers and medics doing their best to get the wounded moving.

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Contested territory

Pavonian Heartlands

The Baneblade's armour rang as a gong when a pair of railgun slugs glanced off the sloped thick frontal armour.

"More Vampires, ten o'clock!" The Auspex operator screamed in his Vox, nearly deafening the tank's crew. "Air support is fully engaged..." The young Leftenant added more quietly.

"The Hydras will have to take care of them." Captain Garrik, the commander of the super-heavy tank whispered to himself.

"Tau heavy in sight..." The Gunner announced. "Reload complete, firing." The Baneblade shook as its main cannon thundered shaking the whole vehicle and rattling the crew despite all of them being securely strapped in their seats. "Scratch one hover-tank..."

Through cameras and Auspex feeds, the Captain could see that the Sergeant was right – he in fact saw the AT round slice through the side of a large Tau hover-tank, which jolted back from the sheer strength of the kinetic impact before blowing up and crashing on top of a group of charging Kroot.

"Driver, keep pulling back. The infantry should have reformed their lines by now and try not to run over any of the crunchies, they get peeved off when it happens." The Captain ordered and returned his full attention on the situation at hand, which was FUBARed by the numbers. Just fifteen minutes after the Guard broke the Ork Horde, the Tau decided it was a splendid time to attack and threw all their mobile forces at the already weakened Imperial flank. The infantry lines that the aliens struck got overrun within thirty minutes though their sacrifice bought the rest of the Regiments in the sector time to react.

For Garrik and his command, that meant a counter-attack to blunt the enemy advance and buy enough time for the infantry to consolidate, move to better positions and reform their lines. At the same time, the Artillery Regiments had to pull back farther to avoid being plastered by enemy long range firepower and rearm before responding in kind. The only silver lining was that for once the Blood Ravens decided to be helpful and dropped what little reserves they had on their Battle Barge. Even now, Tactical and Devastator squads were skirmishing with the enemy providing infantry support while Devastators were digging in along with the Guard.

For all the good it was going to do.

"Stormguard Actual to all Stormguard Elements, sound off and confirm ammo status." The Colonel in charge of Garrik's regiment demanded.

"Storm Angel Actual to Stormguard Actual, combat status nominal. Ammo at forty six percent and counting." The Captain responded. "Mich, tank, one o'clock, kill it. APCs on the open, two o'clock."

Targets designated, the Baneblade's cupola turned right to aim at the Tau armoured unit while secondary batteries opened fire at the Tau transports. Heavy bolters, auto-cannons and lanscannons sent a storm of steel and coherent light which opened the APCs like tincans and turned their troop compartments into abattoirs. The enemy tank shot at the retreating Baneblade and its railgun tore through a heavy bolter before tearing a shallow rend in the armour. The main cannon spoke again and this time it was certainly an overkill – Garrik saw the shell slice through the target lengthwise before clipping an unlucky enemy walker that jumped down at the wrong time and place. The tank blew up a moment later obscuring what happened to the walker after its shoulder ceased to exist.

An alarm sounded into the tank's command centre. "Brace for impact! Enemy bombers incoming!" The Captain snapped. "Keep driving back!"

The Baneblade's close in defence weapons locked in the enemy's trajectory and filled the air with as many shells as they could. A surviving Hydra added its fury to the onslaught and managed to clip the wings of the rightmost bomber. The Xeno pilot lost control and its abominable ship crashed into the ravaged farmland vanishing in a blue tinted explosion. The remaining bombers flew straight in the teeth of the Baneblade's defences. At this close range, even the best ECM in the world was useless and the enemy had no trouble targeting the super-heavy unit. Missiles detached from under the bombers' wings and streaked towards the retreating Baneblade before the pilots opened fire with short range plasma weapons and heavy railguns.

The Hydra racked a second Tau flier with HEAP shells and tore its belly open before detonating an engine but by then it was far too late.

The Baneblade shook as railguns tore chunks of its armour and disabled weapons, then the plasma hit, boiling armour and frying everything in the vicinity of the hit. In one fell swoop, the super-heavy tank lost a third of its secondary weaponry along with its right track.

Then it was the missiles turn. Close in fire and various anti-missile systems did their best – a couple of the weapons were blinded in the last possible moment and barely missed the tank as it suddenly jolted and changed direction due to the lost track. Four more failed to survive the last ditch defence fire. That still left six missiles to strike the Baneblade. Three slammed in its front right. Their plasma warheads vaporised armour and tore the right front wheels of the tank significantly diminishing its mobility. Another one struck to the right, beside the turret where a secondary weapon emplacement used to be. Plasma boiled away yet more armour before breaching into the interior compartments and flooding a few of them with the fury of star-fire. Three members of the crew died ten and there, burned on their stations, which became their own personal crematoriums.

The remaining two missiles struck on the top of the turret in a quick succession. The first seared away any surviving equipment there and turned the well protected commander's compartment into sauna. The second sliced into the weakened armour and on detonation vaporized Captain Garrik. Despite counter-measures, the heat in the nearby compartments spiked beyond human tolerance forcing the Gunner and Vox operators to black out from sheer thermal shock.

Any other tank in the Imperial arsenal would have died then and there.

A Baneblade was built to survive this kind of punishment and more, then keep on going. Its enraged Machine Spirit broke through the soothing chants of the countless sanctified Servo Skulls meant to keep it more or less docile and protect it from Chaos corruption to assert full control of its wounded body. It used the engine to roar its displeasure and fury before swinging around the damaged turret to target and approaching Tau super-heavy unit that desired to finish it out. Before the Alien machine could target the Baneblade and fire, the Machine Spirit fired and its shot flew true. The front half of the enemy unit crumpled as if stepped on by a Titan before the rest of it sympathetically blew up as ammunition and fuel cells detonated.

Heedless of the tactical situation and lost in its fury, the wounded Baneblade charged the enemy, caring not it dragged its damaged mechanical carcass against impossible odds.

Behind it, the last Tau bomber got jumped by an Imperial Air-superiority fighter that splashed it in short order before it could attempt a second attack run.