Post by Turtleboy(AWOL) on Oct 6, 2006 3:38:23 GMT -5
It had been a hard month, licking their wounds from their last encounter with the unknown orc warboss that had risen to meet them upon planetfall, the men of B. Co. watched the Summer sun rise for another smoldering hot day on Extilles IV.
The Cadian 551st had arrived a couple months ago to respond to the local governments reports concerning a sizable force of Orcs recently making planetfall and setting immediately to pillaging and open hostility.
Captain Knoll rubbed his chin, feeling the scar left from a close call with some plasteel shrapnel off a ruined building made lethal from a near miss on his command squad from a tau hammerhead back on Zedaxus VIII during their last campaign.
Narrowing his eyes as his memory recalled the first encounter with this mysterious Orc warboss, the Captain smiled inwardly, recalling the vidfeeds from his companies comm officers as the big orc was sent running to avoid his mens ambush. Victory had tasted so sweet after the punishment the regiment had suffered at the hands of the Tau on Zedaxus VIII.
Captain Knoll seemed to sober as his train of thought continued on within him, an unalterable record of what had transpired as time had proceeded. That warboss had seemed the typical brute orc that first time they had faced eachother down, but a month ago one of B. Companies platoons had sniffed out his warband again. Moving to action the Company had walked right into the foul xenos' trap and suffered painfully at the hands of its massed artillery fire.
The Captain had visited the medics tent after that second encounter with the warboss; it was awash with blood and there was no shortage of suffering. the only shortage had been in the medicines and supplies onhand to deal with such a horrendous amount of wounded from the fight that had transpired.
Reflecting back, Captain Knoll remembered the second encounter with the crafty Orc warboss.
The orcs had come hard and fast thru the ruins of the small town and from the beginning, Captain Knoll knew they were in for a rough spell. The first artillery had splintered the treeline above him and a platoon of his men and sent them all diving for the ground.
Counting the distant 'whumps' from the orc artillery, Captain Knoll assessed that his adversary was no stupid orc as he had origionally suspected, but was one of those rarely intelligent xenos heretics who was not only smart enough to realize it was facing an infantry company but strong enough to go and take the artillery from neighboring warbands to use against the Guardsmen that had forced it to face its initial defeat.
Reports came from all around that a massive horde of orcs had been sighted moving in the ruins of the burnt out village ahead of the guardsmen. Thundering explosions rocked the forest on the other side of the road leading to the shattered village to the right of Captain Knoll, where his flanking force had been advancing under the cover of near-dawn.
"Let Loose!" he'd ordered as he turned undaunted by the light artillery peppering the forest in which he and first platoon occupied with shrapnel. Nodding at his mortar crew, they fired an initial round of counter-battery fire in an attempt to score a lucky hit on the nearer of the whumping Orc light artillery pieces.
Captain Knoll reflected; he remembered a piece of shrapnel skipping off his carapace armor as he turned to his radioman and ordered Rover One, the company sentinel that had spotted the Warboss and his band early last night to advance up the companies right flank and hit the nearby orc artillery.
Suppressing his fear until an outward armor of calm fearless composure was the only thing visible to his nearby men, Captain Knoll heard a chorus of Orcs roar "WAAAAGH" as Rover One rounded the far side of the forest on the far side of the road to the right of the Captain and 1st Platoon. An initial volley of heavy tracer rounds erupted from the treeline which the companies sentinel was headed for, burning bright yellow-orange as they ripped thru the air and ricochetted off the armor of the walker with horrendous cracking sounds.
A fearsome roar of "WAAAAAAAAGH" erupted from within the ruined village and an unholy torrent of heavy caliber tracer fire poured from the eastern edge of the gutted remains of the once peaceful town that the orcs now occupied, the river of molten yellow-orange tracers teared at Rover One until finally, an explosion erupted from the back of the walker, a moment later the sharp "BOOM" of the explosion reaching the ears of the Captain and his men.
Steeling himself grimly for a day of bombardment by these orcs, the Commander of B. Company ordered his men to fire on the advancing orcs, now emerging from the ruined town to their north fueled by a roar of feral brutality spurred to new heights by the imperial walker reduced to wreckage in the fields outside of their encampment.
The grots came hard and fast into the open, the larger orcs lurking menacingly as they worked their way thru the rubble towards the edge of the ruined town. Ordering his men to ignore the grots and fire on the larger orcs where the shot was good, the guardsmen rose to their heavy weapons and punished the orcs painfully with missile and bolt for the shelling they had been receiving as well as the destruction of the companies walker.
Captain Knoll smiled grimly to himself as multiple frag missles exploded in the midst of a large pack of Orcs courageous enough to emerge into the open following behind the grots. Black blood filled the air in a mist of xenos death as the brutes were reduced to a pulp from the volley. Cheers erupted as the loaders readied the missile tubes with their next volley and heavy bolter crews continued on relentlessly punishing the orcs that were brave or stupid enough to show their faces.
Turning to his radioman, B Companies captain called it in. "five five one bravo, requesting reinforcements, imminent overrun in sector whiskey two six." his men were in for a sound beating as soon as those orcs gathered up the strength to rush them. they'd been sending walking wounded back from the front since the artillery bombardment began and reports from the stand of forest to the east across the road were even worse. he'd been forced to send 1st Lt. Jenkins out across the open to reinforce the flankers there after their command squad had taken a few solid hits from the heavier artillery pounding on them on that side of things.
A lull in the firing left the grots out in no mans land, and for a moment they faltered, looking back and seeing a mess of black stained green corpses behind them they stopped. "LET THAT XENOS SCUM TASTE THE WRATH OF THE EMPORER!" Captain Knoll bellowed as he stood amidst the shrapnel filled air, pointing with coldblooded intent at the grots in no mans land. So loud had he yelled that he was sure the Orcs in the village had heard his voice over the din of battle.
All hell was unleashed into the grots and die in droves did they do, finally scattering in an anguished shriek and dispersing into the countryside.
A cheer of victory emerged from the battered men of first platoon which was quickly squelched by the size of the mass of orcs emerging from the edges of the village. behind a tide of green skinned xenos roaring "WAAAAAAGH" the warboss emerged clad in the same massive armor that he had worn when first B Company had driven him off. Today the tides were turned, the artillery had done it's damage, blood was visible on the ground and on the treetrunks almost every tree in this forest. 1st platoons numbers had dwindled as more and more walking wounded had crawled, limped, and staggered away from the fight as a result of the relentless artillery barrage from the orcs.
The high revving desil engined sound of friendly Chimerae from the rear was Captain Knolls only consolation at this point. Reinforcements were arriving and his company would be saved from total defeat.
Steeling himself to the oncoming orc horde which seemed to just suck up all the firepower that first platoons men could throw at it without ever running out of xenos meat to throw into the grinder, Captain Knoll detached the vox mic from the helmet of his now dead radioman and queued it, issuing quick orders to his squads.
moments passed as the fear and anticipation climaxed within the survivors of the platoon as the orcs neared, finally, time seemed to slow to a crawl and Captain Knoll recalled the word "NOW" spoken into the vox mic in slow motion that day, he could hear it echo from all the voxes in the platoon nearby and the whole mass of guardsmen lurched forward in unison. No one knew the whole plan, no one knew what he'd done, but they knew it had to be done just like he'd ordered. No one questioned, everyone had faith in the Emporer and in their Captain. The orcs slowed in suprise to seeing the mass of guardsmen charge forth to meet them and as the entire formation lurched to a halt, Captain Knolls plan, and sacrifice, became clear to everyone.
One squad had been given the order to charge fully into the orcs, had thought that the whole platoon would be there with them, to slaughter, to kill or be killed, to defend eachother and defeat the xenos. but they felt the platoon fade away and knew it was their time, their lot had been drawn, their comrades left behind, they were the shooting star, they would burn bright and be gone but remembered.
Gritting his teeth Sergeant Anders sensed tears welling in his eyes as he commended his soul to the Emporer and screamed "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH" at the orc horde right infront of him, his men, knowing their lot had been drawn just the same, did likewise and joined him in a last battle cry as the rest of the platoon stopped and unloaded point blank into the orcs with every gun on full auto.
Cries rang out as the guardsmen dumped their lasguns powercells into the orcs "FOR THE EMPORER" one trooper cried, watching his comrades of years commit themselves to their ordered charge, praying the platoons massed fire would cripple the entire orc horde so badly that some of them would live, would survive, would share a drink and a joke again.
Captain Knoll let loose with his bolt pistol into the horde of orcs with more determination than any whole squad of men from the platoon. he was not losing his men, his friends, his companions, he was the one condemning them to their deaths. He hated himself, he hated this worse than any other part of war, he hated what he had to do to survive, but he did it because he would not let B Company become that shooting star itself, he would not let his company become a memory, he would see the sun rise and he would not be alone in seeing it, or he would die right here with the best men he'd ever known.
The carnal roar of combat erupted, the orcs severely crippled from the daring move made by the guardsmen and confused by the sacrifice only to be exposed to more punishment from the guardsmen as they struggled to react. Blood spilled and splattered, the finale was upon them and the smell of fear was thick in the air, as was hatred, determination, and, more than anything else, death.
Captain Knoll's bodyguard kept a perimiter between him and the company standard and the general mass of the melee so that the companies colors could be hoisted skyward and raised for all to see, a sign that B Company would not go into the night.
As the fighting turned more dire, the Emporer's grace descended in the form of Echo company and their chimerae born fast reaction force. Seeing the reinforcements rushing to join the melee, the Orc warboss bellowed a commanding roar and the orcs turned as one and fled, the few unwounded imperial survivors of the fight falling to their knees and not daring even fire a shot for fear that the horde might change its mind and turn and return to finish them.
B Company had survived, it had not perished, and in the end, one of the men from the squad ordered into the all out charge lived thru his wounds to return to the company. That squad would be rebuilt and it would have a sergeant who knew how far his soldiers must be willing to go.
"He's back sir" Master Sergeant Hicks said.
Half startled, Captain Knoll turned slowly in the morning summer light, stirred from his reverie to acknowledge his master sergeant who had snuck up on him as he sat reflecting.
"Good, see him in, Sergeant" Captain Knoll said.
Sergeant Hicks nodded and turned, motioning in the trooper who had survived the suicide charge.
"Welcome back Corporal Gres." The Captain said.
"Thank you sir" the young Corporal replied. "Sir; I just wanted you to know that if you ordered me to do that again, I would go to face my fate just the same as I did before."
"I know, son, and that is why I want you to have Sergeant Anders' chainsword." Taking up the chainsword, Captain Knoll said "Kneel Corporal."
Blinking and caught by suprise, the Corporal did so, to be made a Knight of Captain Knolls fiefdom back on Cadia, given a squad to command and a place at the table with his lord and captain when the time for feasting came.
"Rise, Sergeant Gres, and Knight of the Knolls. Be recognized!" Captain Knoll spoke with authority.
Word spread quickly thru the company of Sergeant Gres knighting but it did little to assuage the sinking feeling rising in the company. The orcs were near, and only getting closer. The recon walkers in their neighboring sectors had all failed to report in.
Captain Knoll had heard 2nd Lt Vickers' pleas to call in Rover One before they lost contact with it, and based on the amount of fussing the platoon had done to restore it to operational status, B Companies commander consented to its recall from its patrol pattern. "We know that xenos filth is coming, so there's no point in being short a gun when they get here." Captain Knoll had remarked.
"Call the Rover in, it's time to circle the wagons, there's a green storm brewing and the clouds look like they're about ready to open up on us." the Captain said, as he turned to walk off into the morning sun.
The Cadian 551st had arrived a couple months ago to respond to the local governments reports concerning a sizable force of Orcs recently making planetfall and setting immediately to pillaging and open hostility.
Captain Knoll rubbed his chin, feeling the scar left from a close call with some plasteel shrapnel off a ruined building made lethal from a near miss on his command squad from a tau hammerhead back on Zedaxus VIII during their last campaign.
Narrowing his eyes as his memory recalled the first encounter with this mysterious Orc warboss, the Captain smiled inwardly, recalling the vidfeeds from his companies comm officers as the big orc was sent running to avoid his mens ambush. Victory had tasted so sweet after the punishment the regiment had suffered at the hands of the Tau on Zedaxus VIII.
Captain Knoll seemed to sober as his train of thought continued on within him, an unalterable record of what had transpired as time had proceeded. That warboss had seemed the typical brute orc that first time they had faced eachother down, but a month ago one of B. Companies platoons had sniffed out his warband again. Moving to action the Company had walked right into the foul xenos' trap and suffered painfully at the hands of its massed artillery fire.
The Captain had visited the medics tent after that second encounter with the warboss; it was awash with blood and there was no shortage of suffering. the only shortage had been in the medicines and supplies onhand to deal with such a horrendous amount of wounded from the fight that had transpired.
Reflecting back, Captain Knoll remembered the second encounter with the crafty Orc warboss.
The orcs had come hard and fast thru the ruins of the small town and from the beginning, Captain Knoll knew they were in for a rough spell. The first artillery had splintered the treeline above him and a platoon of his men and sent them all diving for the ground.
Counting the distant 'whumps' from the orc artillery, Captain Knoll assessed that his adversary was no stupid orc as he had origionally suspected, but was one of those rarely intelligent xenos heretics who was not only smart enough to realize it was facing an infantry company but strong enough to go and take the artillery from neighboring warbands to use against the Guardsmen that had forced it to face its initial defeat.
Reports came from all around that a massive horde of orcs had been sighted moving in the ruins of the burnt out village ahead of the guardsmen. Thundering explosions rocked the forest on the other side of the road leading to the shattered village to the right of Captain Knoll, where his flanking force had been advancing under the cover of near-dawn.
"Let Loose!" he'd ordered as he turned undaunted by the light artillery peppering the forest in which he and first platoon occupied with shrapnel. Nodding at his mortar crew, they fired an initial round of counter-battery fire in an attempt to score a lucky hit on the nearer of the whumping Orc light artillery pieces.
Captain Knoll reflected; he remembered a piece of shrapnel skipping off his carapace armor as he turned to his radioman and ordered Rover One, the company sentinel that had spotted the Warboss and his band early last night to advance up the companies right flank and hit the nearby orc artillery.
Suppressing his fear until an outward armor of calm fearless composure was the only thing visible to his nearby men, Captain Knoll heard a chorus of Orcs roar "WAAAAGH" as Rover One rounded the far side of the forest on the far side of the road to the right of the Captain and 1st Platoon. An initial volley of heavy tracer rounds erupted from the treeline which the companies sentinel was headed for, burning bright yellow-orange as they ripped thru the air and ricochetted off the armor of the walker with horrendous cracking sounds.
A fearsome roar of "WAAAAAAAAGH" erupted from within the ruined village and an unholy torrent of heavy caliber tracer fire poured from the eastern edge of the gutted remains of the once peaceful town that the orcs now occupied, the river of molten yellow-orange tracers teared at Rover One until finally, an explosion erupted from the back of the walker, a moment later the sharp "BOOM" of the explosion reaching the ears of the Captain and his men.
Steeling himself grimly for a day of bombardment by these orcs, the Commander of B. Company ordered his men to fire on the advancing orcs, now emerging from the ruined town to their north fueled by a roar of feral brutality spurred to new heights by the imperial walker reduced to wreckage in the fields outside of their encampment.
The grots came hard and fast into the open, the larger orcs lurking menacingly as they worked their way thru the rubble towards the edge of the ruined town. Ordering his men to ignore the grots and fire on the larger orcs where the shot was good, the guardsmen rose to their heavy weapons and punished the orcs painfully with missile and bolt for the shelling they had been receiving as well as the destruction of the companies walker.
Captain Knoll smiled grimly to himself as multiple frag missles exploded in the midst of a large pack of Orcs courageous enough to emerge into the open following behind the grots. Black blood filled the air in a mist of xenos death as the brutes were reduced to a pulp from the volley. Cheers erupted as the loaders readied the missile tubes with their next volley and heavy bolter crews continued on relentlessly punishing the orcs that were brave or stupid enough to show their faces.
Turning to his radioman, B Companies captain called it in. "five five one bravo, requesting reinforcements, imminent overrun in sector whiskey two six." his men were in for a sound beating as soon as those orcs gathered up the strength to rush them. they'd been sending walking wounded back from the front since the artillery bombardment began and reports from the stand of forest to the east across the road were even worse. he'd been forced to send 1st Lt. Jenkins out across the open to reinforce the flankers there after their command squad had taken a few solid hits from the heavier artillery pounding on them on that side of things.
A lull in the firing left the grots out in no mans land, and for a moment they faltered, looking back and seeing a mess of black stained green corpses behind them they stopped. "LET THAT XENOS SCUM TASTE THE WRATH OF THE EMPORER!" Captain Knoll bellowed as he stood amidst the shrapnel filled air, pointing with coldblooded intent at the grots in no mans land. So loud had he yelled that he was sure the Orcs in the village had heard his voice over the din of battle.
All hell was unleashed into the grots and die in droves did they do, finally scattering in an anguished shriek and dispersing into the countryside.
A cheer of victory emerged from the battered men of first platoon which was quickly squelched by the size of the mass of orcs emerging from the edges of the village. behind a tide of green skinned xenos roaring "WAAAAAAGH" the warboss emerged clad in the same massive armor that he had worn when first B Company had driven him off. Today the tides were turned, the artillery had done it's damage, blood was visible on the ground and on the treetrunks almost every tree in this forest. 1st platoons numbers had dwindled as more and more walking wounded had crawled, limped, and staggered away from the fight as a result of the relentless artillery barrage from the orcs.
The high revving desil engined sound of friendly Chimerae from the rear was Captain Knolls only consolation at this point. Reinforcements were arriving and his company would be saved from total defeat.
Steeling himself to the oncoming orc horde which seemed to just suck up all the firepower that first platoons men could throw at it without ever running out of xenos meat to throw into the grinder, Captain Knoll detached the vox mic from the helmet of his now dead radioman and queued it, issuing quick orders to his squads.
moments passed as the fear and anticipation climaxed within the survivors of the platoon as the orcs neared, finally, time seemed to slow to a crawl and Captain Knoll recalled the word "NOW" spoken into the vox mic in slow motion that day, he could hear it echo from all the voxes in the platoon nearby and the whole mass of guardsmen lurched forward in unison. No one knew the whole plan, no one knew what he'd done, but they knew it had to be done just like he'd ordered. No one questioned, everyone had faith in the Emporer and in their Captain. The orcs slowed in suprise to seeing the mass of guardsmen charge forth to meet them and as the entire formation lurched to a halt, Captain Knolls plan, and sacrifice, became clear to everyone.
One squad had been given the order to charge fully into the orcs, had thought that the whole platoon would be there with them, to slaughter, to kill or be killed, to defend eachother and defeat the xenos. but they felt the platoon fade away and knew it was their time, their lot had been drawn, their comrades left behind, they were the shooting star, they would burn bright and be gone but remembered.
Gritting his teeth Sergeant Anders sensed tears welling in his eyes as he commended his soul to the Emporer and screamed "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH" at the orc horde right infront of him, his men, knowing their lot had been drawn just the same, did likewise and joined him in a last battle cry as the rest of the platoon stopped and unloaded point blank into the orcs with every gun on full auto.
Cries rang out as the guardsmen dumped their lasguns powercells into the orcs "FOR THE EMPORER" one trooper cried, watching his comrades of years commit themselves to their ordered charge, praying the platoons massed fire would cripple the entire orc horde so badly that some of them would live, would survive, would share a drink and a joke again.
Captain Knoll let loose with his bolt pistol into the horde of orcs with more determination than any whole squad of men from the platoon. he was not losing his men, his friends, his companions, he was the one condemning them to their deaths. He hated himself, he hated this worse than any other part of war, he hated what he had to do to survive, but he did it because he would not let B Company become that shooting star itself, he would not let his company become a memory, he would see the sun rise and he would not be alone in seeing it, or he would die right here with the best men he'd ever known.
The carnal roar of combat erupted, the orcs severely crippled from the daring move made by the guardsmen and confused by the sacrifice only to be exposed to more punishment from the guardsmen as they struggled to react. Blood spilled and splattered, the finale was upon them and the smell of fear was thick in the air, as was hatred, determination, and, more than anything else, death.
Captain Knoll's bodyguard kept a perimiter between him and the company standard and the general mass of the melee so that the companies colors could be hoisted skyward and raised for all to see, a sign that B Company would not go into the night.
As the fighting turned more dire, the Emporer's grace descended in the form of Echo company and their chimerae born fast reaction force. Seeing the reinforcements rushing to join the melee, the Orc warboss bellowed a commanding roar and the orcs turned as one and fled, the few unwounded imperial survivors of the fight falling to their knees and not daring even fire a shot for fear that the horde might change its mind and turn and return to finish them.
B Company had survived, it had not perished, and in the end, one of the men from the squad ordered into the all out charge lived thru his wounds to return to the company. That squad would be rebuilt and it would have a sergeant who knew how far his soldiers must be willing to go.
"He's back sir" Master Sergeant Hicks said.
Half startled, Captain Knoll turned slowly in the morning summer light, stirred from his reverie to acknowledge his master sergeant who had snuck up on him as he sat reflecting.
"Good, see him in, Sergeant" Captain Knoll said.
Sergeant Hicks nodded and turned, motioning in the trooper who had survived the suicide charge.
"Welcome back Corporal Gres." The Captain said.
"Thank you sir" the young Corporal replied. "Sir; I just wanted you to know that if you ordered me to do that again, I would go to face my fate just the same as I did before."
"I know, son, and that is why I want you to have Sergeant Anders' chainsword." Taking up the chainsword, Captain Knoll said "Kneel Corporal."
Blinking and caught by suprise, the Corporal did so, to be made a Knight of Captain Knolls fiefdom back on Cadia, given a squad to command and a place at the table with his lord and captain when the time for feasting came.
"Rise, Sergeant Gres, and Knight of the Knolls. Be recognized!" Captain Knoll spoke with authority.
Word spread quickly thru the company of Sergeant Gres knighting but it did little to assuage the sinking feeling rising in the company. The orcs were near, and only getting closer. The recon walkers in their neighboring sectors had all failed to report in.
Captain Knoll had heard 2nd Lt Vickers' pleas to call in Rover One before they lost contact with it, and based on the amount of fussing the platoon had done to restore it to operational status, B Companies commander consented to its recall from its patrol pattern. "We know that xenos filth is coming, so there's no point in being short a gun when they get here." Captain Knoll had remarked.
"Call the Rover in, it's time to circle the wagons, there's a green storm brewing and the clouds look like they're about ready to open up on us." the Captain said, as he turned to walk off into the morning sun.
