Chapter 3 Part 7
Chapter 3: On Death's ground
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Part 7
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Imperial lines
Pavonian Heartlands
Railgun slugs tore through the air overhead with piercing cracks. Plasma immolated the top of a small hill that provided the medical station with a bit of a cover. Imperial and Tau fighters and bombers duelled in the sky above even as artillery thundered in the distance sending shrieking shells in all directions. As if that wasn't enough, callous and hungry alien laughter came from just out of sight.
"We will hold the Xeno here!" A Commissar wearing the typical red hat and long coat of his station waved his chainsword and pointed it at the still burning top of the hill. "Take position at the ridge!" He ordered and led by example.
"You heard him! Up and at them!" Corporal Jana Hailstrom barked at her squad – the last flimsy line of defence between the evacuating wounded and the fast approaching alien hordes. She had to scream to be heard over the constant cracks of alien railguns and thunder of artillery.
Without wasting any time, her squad surged to their feet and ran after the Commissar. Before any of the humans could reach the ridge, an alien crest appeared over the top followed by a pair of reptilian eyes and razor sharp beak. The Commissar reacted before any of the Guardsmen could, raised his laspistol and shot the Xeno in the eye. A beam of coherent light vaporized the alien's eyeball, drilled its way into its skull and boiled away the alien's brain.
"Go, go, go!" The Corporal shouted, pushing her men to move faster. However, even as the Imperials ran up the slope, a large number of Kroot swarmed over the top of the hill and charged downhill.
The Commissar shot a second Xeno in the head before its buddies reached him. The Imperial revved up his chainsword and cleaved through a wicked looking staff an alien tried to brain him with. The Commissar proceeded to shoot a Kroot running at him in the throat and before that foul Xeno could fall to the ground, he gutted his first attacker with a deft strike. All the while, he didn't stop taunting and cursing the Kroot.
The Guardsmen entered the fray then, pausing their run uphill. They took care not to shoot the Commissar and instead did their best to prevent the aliens from successfully swarming him. Lasguns blasted away chunks or even appendages from Kroot who had skimmed on armour, while others could survive a few hits before their protection gave away. For a moment, it appeared that the Guardsmen would prevail due to superior ranged firepower. Yet, in the end there were too many of the Xenos and a number of them were too large and well armoured to bring down in time so the illusion of victory didn't last.
A large Kroot took advantage of the Commissar eviscerating one of its pack-mates to stab the Imperial in the thigh with the barbed head of its staff. The alien viciously twisted and pulled his weapon and its efforts were rewarded by the staff tearing out a bloody chunk of the human's leg. The Commissar went down screaming and the Xenos swarmed over him. Despite that, he managed to tear out the lungs of a Kroot before the rest began tearing him to pieces.
Meanwhile, the Guard squad kept on pouring firepower in the Xeno bringing more and more of them down. Unfortunately for them, a second pack made its way over the crest.
"Grenades!" The Corporal ordered. For a moment the shooting became ragged as her people grabbed said weapons from their combat rigs and threw them at the Kroot who were just above done with the Commissar. The frag grenades detonated in a shower of gore and shrapnel wiping out the survivors of the first pack.
The second one however turned out to be more cunning and better armed. They levelled their staffs downhill and opened fire with built in slug-throwers. Something heavy hit the Corporal in the gut, tearing through her flack vest and she suddenly found herself on her knees, trying to get her breath back. She saw one of her men hit the ground like a sack, a bloody gaping hole where his face used to be. The foul alien barking was coming closer and closer and she could no longer hear lasguns firing. Hailstorm muttered a prayer to the Emperor and her bloody fingers left her gut going for the few grenades she had left. She just managed to remove their safeties when something truck her head and she saw stars before everything going dark.
An explosion marked the death of the last line of defence between the med centre and the enemy raiders.
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Guard Field Medical station
Pavonian Heartlands
The Doctor managed to drag me out of the med centre just in time for whatever defence line the Guard covering it to collapse. A short series of sharp explosions came from behind followed by pained and furious howls that couldn't have come from human throats.
"Move! Get the wounded away! Now!" The Doctor keeping me steady screamed.
Some of the soldiers helping their buddies put them down and went for their weapons, a nearby Chimera turned in place and headed towards the hill to the right and the multi laser on its top opened fire sending blinding flashes of coherent light overhead.
"Incoming!" A nearby trooper shouted, shouldered her weapon and opened fire.
A Xeno screamed in pain, the Doctor's efforts to get me to safety became more frantic and we all ran out of time. More aliens let out battle cries and a whole pack of Kroot fell upon us. I hissed in eye-searing pain as I drew on the Warp and this time it began to claw at my sanity. I could feel Daemons taking a notice and looking for the slightest opening, yet I didn't have much of a choice. Despite the Chimera scything down as many of the Xenos as possible and the sporadic resistance from the walking wounded, there were too many of the Kroot – they simply absorbed the casualties and slammed into the makeshift convoy assembling at the entrance of the medical station.
An alien jumped from the hill on top of the med station and then sprang into action, razor sharp staff in hand. It landed nimbly and slammed its weapon in the back of a Guardsman trying to get a buddy to the nearby waiting Chimera. Both of them went down and the Kroot kicked the wounded soldier before bringing down his weapon on his skull, shattering it. The Xeno's triumph was short-lived. A livid Cogboy raced out of the med station brandishing scalpels and saws at the end of each of their eight mechatendrils, a short sword in one metal arm and a plasma pistol in the other. The Kroot didn't have time to figure out what hit it before literally exploding in a shower of flashing blades and flying organs. Another alien tried to jump the Cogboy from the top of the building only to be met by swinging mechatendrils that eviscerated him in mid-air. When in landed moments later, it was in a lot of pieces.
More Kroot came around the medical centre and tore through the few soldiers making a stand to the right. The last Guardsman barely managed to activate a grenade before four Xeno slashed him with their staffs and a moment later, the frag detonated tearing them all to bloody chunks. Yet, the rest of the pack was undeterred, if anything, the casualties merely made them more bloodthirsty. What followed was a bloody nightmare of a close-quarters combat.
I could remember frying Kroot with Warp blasts even as Daemons tried to possess me, the Doctor who dragged me out smashing the skull of a Xeno with the but of a rifle, the Cogboy becoming a blood-splattered whirlwind of spinning blades as he tore into the enemy, a large group of the bastards swarming the Chimera opposing them…
Then there was thunder that shook me to the bone and something large and burning came over the hill before twin lines of tracers pulped everything in their way. A Landspeeder flew overhead and a huge red form jumped out, landing on and crushing a particularly large and ugly Kroot. The Space Marine cut another one with a contemptuous slash of his chainsword and shot three more before anyone could process his arrival. I was vaguely aware that there were more large shapes coming over the top of the hill – Leman Russ tanks, I thought. Their cannons roared as one and the shock form the following explosions was more than enough to throw me off my feet. The last thing I managed to do was let go of the Warp in more or less controlled fashion. I heard Daemons screaming in frustration as my soul slipped through their claws and then knew no more.