Post by Commissar on Feb 3, 2007 5:02:57 GMT -5
I woke up, it was my turn to keep watch.
As I krept from my cot I picked up my lasrifle, put on my greatcoat and slung my belts and buckles overtop.
My laspistol at my side, my rifle slung over my soldier, I grabbed my fur hat and put it on.
I entered the security code needed to exit the solid steel door to the bunker and stepped outside into the bleak desolate landscape, I told my fellow comrade who stood at the post to go inside, his shift was over.
The ork infested world we were on at the moment was cold, far away from the sun, the orks were dug in on the other side of the planet.
We made weekly strikes at their stronghold, the chimeras help us move quikly but they fall prey to ork suicide bombers that emerge from the mist.
Once I was in a chimera with my squad when we heard a large explosion, we opened the side hatch to see what it was.
The Chimera beside us was now a burnt out skeleton, filled with burnt out skeletons...the guardsmen in the chimera beside us didnt even know what hit them.
We now knew better, we had men stationed ontop of our tanks to keep a look out for those damned orks that tend to get past the hull-mounted bolter and lasguns.
As I stared off into the distance I could she shadows...they looked humanoid but I wasnt sure, they could be either guardsmen or ork, on one hand I could fire on possible allies or prevent a possible attack.
I went with my instinct and grabbed the heavy stubber mounted on the trench wall.
I fired 7 rounds off into the night, I hit one of the shapes and I heard it make an inhuman noise.
I suddenly remembered, the search lights!
I raced up to the top of the bunker, I swivelled the large light to the direction of the noise, I turned on the light and as a high powered beam of light hit the ground it became clear to me that what I shot at was a group of kroot.
I ran down the steps and quikly entered the security code on the door, I woke up my comrades as they quikly got dressed and grabbed their weapons, my officer picked up his bolter and told us to get into battle positions.
We started firing at everything that moved over the horizon, it soon became clear that more were gathering over the field.
The sergeant grabbed the vox caster, opened up the box and pulled out the reciever.
He shouted into the reciever "this is bunker number 231 we have engaged the enemy" as one of my best friends was shot in the head leaving the smell of burnt brains and bones smouldering in the air.
Then the vox caster cracked out "hold off the enemy as long as you can, we are sending in some support".
The sergeant got a pale look on his face as he looked at the vox caster cracking out orders.
He was thinking of running, I knew it and he knew we knew it too, however even if he did he knew that desertion was a quick way to a penal regiment or having your brains blown out from the pistol of a commissar.
We knew it wouldnt be long before we were over-run as the number of kroot advancing on our position was getting dangerously close to completely overwhelming us.
I saw one of the kroot looked different, he was carrying a staff and had was giving orders to his troops, I aimed and shot, the shot I fired blew off his arm, I knew he wasnt dead.
We heard a familiar sound, behind us there was a squadron of sentinels.
As the sentinels held the oncoming kroot at bay we ran into the bunker quikly destroying any of our regiments movement plans we had with us.
The Vox Caster spoke up again, "pull back to HQ".
That was the order the sergeant was looking for, he quikly grabbed some ammo cartridges and lead the way to the HQ.
We entered the gates of the steel walls.
A commissar walked up to us and told us to take positions ontop the walls with the rest of the regiment.
The Commissar shouted "where there are kroot there are most likely tau and ta--" He was cut off as a tau sky ray flew in through the clouds, cannons blazing blew apart the sentinels that were on their way back from the bunker we just ran from.
One of the lieutenants on the wall pointed at the sky ray as the las cannon turret blew a chunk out of the side of the tank.
The monstrous thing fluttered in the sky like a wounded bird and then plunged into the ground in a flury of flame and debris.
We were all a little freightened to see what one tank had done to the sentinel squadron.
We were a little surprised though at the same time that tau were on this planet, we already had orks to worry about.
Now tau?
Meanwhile a tau lieutenant commanded his troops across the field to meet with the remnants of the kroot mercenaries.
The few kroot left were fighting over who would get the carcass of the guardsmans corpse that was left in the trench when the guard had retreated.
The tau fire warriors approached the kroot, the tau looked at the creatures fighting over the now torn apart guardsman.
They thought the kroot were disgusting, beastlike creatures.
One of the tau sergeants got an order from his lieutenant to wipe out the kroot, this made the sergeant glad, he was happy not to be forced to work with these animals for one more day.
He gave the order to the rest of his troops to open fire upon the kroot.
Without hesitation they loosed fire upon the few kroot that were left, the already blood spattered mess that they were, were about to get a whole lot bloodier.
Not far away the ork war boss of the planet had heard the transmissions, both tau and imperial over crude interseption devices the orks had built.
They knew that there was going to be a battle waged on this planet, the war boss gave the order to attack as all the orks and grotts in the fortress picked up their crude armor and weapons.
Hundreds of orks were on their way to a battle miles away riding in crude battle wagons, bikes and stolen imperial tanks.
It was nearly midnight, it was getting dark, well it was pitchblack outside now, we heard nothing of the enemy.
General Fress gave the order to send out some small recon units and squads of snipers along the foot hills.
Hours had passed since the recon and sniper teams had been sent out, they reported sighting of massing tau tanks and large amounts of infantry.
The snipers had made some progress by picking off some of the tau officers, they even managed to lay down some mine ahead of the tau army.
However some teams werent so lucky.
One recon team was caught trying to lay booby traps around the tau base.
A recon team managed to achieve a succesful mission though, they found out that the planned attack was going to start at dawn.
The Leman Russ tanks rolled out east of the base to flank the rear of the tau army when the seige began.
Some men wore flack jackets over their great coats, that never really did much.
It only protects us against some bits of shrapnel but the more decorated officers wore carapace over top, this was very rare but if any of us needed it they did.
It was nearly dawn when all of a sudden, a large flash of light in the distance and a large explosion on the eastern side of the wall blowing out a large section.
Now there was a breach, we filled it with whatever extra autocannons could be found to try to keep any enemy infantry from breaking through.
The many small sleeping quarters and small buildings inside the base were reinforced, especially officers quarters.
That meant that we were safe while we slept, at least from some forms of attack.
As the medics tended to the wounded soldiers scattered around the breach we fastened the breach with landmines and barbed fire.
The tau began to attack the base with everything they had, some small pockets of tau could be seen stepping on the land mine laid down the night before.
Crisis suits flew in on jets punching small holes into the walls, the lascannon turrets mounted on the walls fired on any armor they could target.
A Command devil fish took multiple shots to the front and exploded, dead and wounded tau lay about the area with large shrapnel cut into them.
The crisis suits were also taking casualties, the lascannons fire upon them, blowing holes in them.
I look around me as my comrades fired rapidly on the multitudes of fire warriors advancing on the wall and specifically the breach.
The turret next to me was hit by a blast from a tau cannon.
One of the crewmen grabbed onto my arm, he was wounded and obviously dying, I picked him up and took him to a medic.
My sergeant, he took one look over the wall and saw the hundreds of tau massing outside the wall and he panicked.
He tried to run, he made it to the bottom of the wall and a Commissar quikly shot him in the head, spraying brains and bone about the side of the wall.
The commissar took command of my squad, he seemed fanatical about the imperial cause, he stood up on the wall firing at the tau warriors with his bolter, a tau sniper found his mark on the commissars head, sending his cap flying through the air and landing next to me. I could see the large holy through the front.
The Commissars body fell forward off the wall and into the tau horde.
We were losing men as the tau tanks pelted the walls with continuous fire.
The turrets kept on firing though, almost hell bent on wiping out all the tau.
The Gate was giving out but holding, a hellhound was stationed just inside of the gate ready to cook any of the tau that happen to get through the gate.
We never saw them, they moved like ghosts but a squad of tau stealthsuits got behind the walls from the sides and into the compound.
General Fress was inside his bunker in the center of the base talking to the men on the imperial cruiser orbiting the planet.
Him and his advisors were trying to get reinforcements to help hold the base, or maybe even an air lift to get us out of the base.
"Its too hot down there right now, we couldnt land any transports without taking heavy casualties on the way down and on the way back" the comm. system replied.
Meanwhile just at the back of his bunker a group of stealth suits were approaching.
The steel door to the bunker flung off the wall flying across the room and killing a lieutenant on impact.
General Fress pulled out his bolt pistol, firing off an entire clip into one of the stealth suits, dropping it instantly.
The Commissar was killed while pulling out his power sword, General Fress dropped the empty clip from his bolt pistol and a stealth suit tore his head off before he could reload. The rest of the guardsmen were butchered.
Nobody knew this happened, we had no contact with the general since before the battle had begun.
It was now the late evening, the tau were triggering the mines in the breach and we were still holding out.
The lieutenant couldnt make contact with the general on the vox so him and a squad went to the bunker to see what was wrong, they opened the door.
The lieutenant was shocked as blood on the walls and the bodies of the general and his advisors were strewn about the room.
The stealth suits were in view and a guardsmen ran up front launching a grenade at the wall killing one stealth suit, the lieutenant shouted "dont fire, you'll damage the communications equipment!", he drew his power sword.
The stealth suit was still disoriented from the grenade blast a few moments ago, the power sword sunk through the suit like a knife through butter.
He grabbed the reciever of the vox box and ordered the Leman Russ company to pull in, they were outside of the base within moments, the cannons rang as they firing off multiple shot throughout the tau force, tau tanks exploded left and right.
The tau infantry was suffering great casualties, the cannons also caused some friendly fire for the few of us that were still on the walls, my fellow soldiers around me got hit by random fire.
Among the field covered in wrecked tau tanks and dead tau the remnants were beginning to retreat.
The Russ company started letting loose fire from heavy stubbers and heavy bolters practically tearing the running tau to shreds.
There was less than 50 of us by the time the battle was over.
Well this part of the battle.
The ork warboss of the planet and his ork horde could be seen on the other side of the fields.
The rest of our regiment were aboard large capital ships orbiting the planet, it was fairly quiet for the mean time as we called in for evac, and an aerial bombardment upon the base and the area surrounding it.
Almost immediately we saw large valkarie gunships flying through the atmospere.
We got onto the ships and as we made our way away from the base as it was filling with orkish hordes and the ork warboss that we had been fighting off for a full 2 years were completely and utterly destroyed by a massive aerial bombardment from our command ship.
I sat there in the ship next to a commissar, a few fellow guardsmen and a couple of wounded comrades.
I had been promoted that day to sergeant, as we boarded the capital ship we recieved orders to go back down to the planet in the next 2 days.
2 days later we were going back to the same place that had been completely destroyed and cost us a few hundred lives, a few hundred lives of the 445th Valhallan Regiment.
The End.
As I krept from my cot I picked up my lasrifle, put on my greatcoat and slung my belts and buckles overtop.
My laspistol at my side, my rifle slung over my soldier, I grabbed my fur hat and put it on.
I entered the security code needed to exit the solid steel door to the bunker and stepped outside into the bleak desolate landscape, I told my fellow comrade who stood at the post to go inside, his shift was over.
The ork infested world we were on at the moment was cold, far away from the sun, the orks were dug in on the other side of the planet.
We made weekly strikes at their stronghold, the chimeras help us move quikly but they fall prey to ork suicide bombers that emerge from the mist.
Once I was in a chimera with my squad when we heard a large explosion, we opened the side hatch to see what it was.
The Chimera beside us was now a burnt out skeleton, filled with burnt out skeletons...the guardsmen in the chimera beside us didnt even know what hit them.
We now knew better, we had men stationed ontop of our tanks to keep a look out for those damned orks that tend to get past the hull-mounted bolter and lasguns.
As I stared off into the distance I could she shadows...they looked humanoid but I wasnt sure, they could be either guardsmen or ork, on one hand I could fire on possible allies or prevent a possible attack.
I went with my instinct and grabbed the heavy stubber mounted on the trench wall.
I fired 7 rounds off into the night, I hit one of the shapes and I heard it make an inhuman noise.
I suddenly remembered, the search lights!
I raced up to the top of the bunker, I swivelled the large light to the direction of the noise, I turned on the light and as a high powered beam of light hit the ground it became clear to me that what I shot at was a group of kroot.
I ran down the steps and quikly entered the security code on the door, I woke up my comrades as they quikly got dressed and grabbed their weapons, my officer picked up his bolter and told us to get into battle positions.
We started firing at everything that moved over the horizon, it soon became clear that more were gathering over the field.
The sergeant grabbed the vox caster, opened up the box and pulled out the reciever.
He shouted into the reciever "this is bunker number 231 we have engaged the enemy" as one of my best friends was shot in the head leaving the smell of burnt brains and bones smouldering in the air.
Then the vox caster cracked out "hold off the enemy as long as you can, we are sending in some support".
The sergeant got a pale look on his face as he looked at the vox caster cracking out orders.
He was thinking of running, I knew it and he knew we knew it too, however even if he did he knew that desertion was a quick way to a penal regiment or having your brains blown out from the pistol of a commissar.
We knew it wouldnt be long before we were over-run as the number of kroot advancing on our position was getting dangerously close to completely overwhelming us.
I saw one of the kroot looked different, he was carrying a staff and had was giving orders to his troops, I aimed and shot, the shot I fired blew off his arm, I knew he wasnt dead.
We heard a familiar sound, behind us there was a squadron of sentinels.
As the sentinels held the oncoming kroot at bay we ran into the bunker quikly destroying any of our regiments movement plans we had with us.
The Vox Caster spoke up again, "pull back to HQ".
That was the order the sergeant was looking for, he quikly grabbed some ammo cartridges and lead the way to the HQ.
We entered the gates of the steel walls.
A commissar walked up to us and told us to take positions ontop the walls with the rest of the regiment.
The Commissar shouted "where there are kroot there are most likely tau and ta--" He was cut off as a tau sky ray flew in through the clouds, cannons blazing blew apart the sentinels that were on their way back from the bunker we just ran from.
One of the lieutenants on the wall pointed at the sky ray as the las cannon turret blew a chunk out of the side of the tank.
The monstrous thing fluttered in the sky like a wounded bird and then plunged into the ground in a flury of flame and debris.
We were all a little freightened to see what one tank had done to the sentinel squadron.
We were a little surprised though at the same time that tau were on this planet, we already had orks to worry about.
Now tau?
Meanwhile a tau lieutenant commanded his troops across the field to meet with the remnants of the kroot mercenaries.
The few kroot left were fighting over who would get the carcass of the guardsmans corpse that was left in the trench when the guard had retreated.
The tau fire warriors approached the kroot, the tau looked at the creatures fighting over the now torn apart guardsman.
They thought the kroot were disgusting, beastlike creatures.
One of the tau sergeants got an order from his lieutenant to wipe out the kroot, this made the sergeant glad, he was happy not to be forced to work with these animals for one more day.
He gave the order to the rest of his troops to open fire upon the kroot.
Without hesitation they loosed fire upon the few kroot that were left, the already blood spattered mess that they were, were about to get a whole lot bloodier.
Not far away the ork war boss of the planet had heard the transmissions, both tau and imperial over crude interseption devices the orks had built.
They knew that there was going to be a battle waged on this planet, the war boss gave the order to attack as all the orks and grotts in the fortress picked up their crude armor and weapons.
Hundreds of orks were on their way to a battle miles away riding in crude battle wagons, bikes and stolen imperial tanks.
It was nearly midnight, it was getting dark, well it was pitchblack outside now, we heard nothing of the enemy.
General Fress gave the order to send out some small recon units and squads of snipers along the foot hills.
Hours had passed since the recon and sniper teams had been sent out, they reported sighting of massing tau tanks and large amounts of infantry.
The snipers had made some progress by picking off some of the tau officers, they even managed to lay down some mine ahead of the tau army.
However some teams werent so lucky.
One recon team was caught trying to lay booby traps around the tau base.
A recon team managed to achieve a succesful mission though, they found out that the planned attack was going to start at dawn.
The Leman Russ tanks rolled out east of the base to flank the rear of the tau army when the seige began.
Some men wore flack jackets over their great coats, that never really did much.
It only protects us against some bits of shrapnel but the more decorated officers wore carapace over top, this was very rare but if any of us needed it they did.
It was nearly dawn when all of a sudden, a large flash of light in the distance and a large explosion on the eastern side of the wall blowing out a large section.
Now there was a breach, we filled it with whatever extra autocannons could be found to try to keep any enemy infantry from breaking through.
The many small sleeping quarters and small buildings inside the base were reinforced, especially officers quarters.
That meant that we were safe while we slept, at least from some forms of attack.
As the medics tended to the wounded soldiers scattered around the breach we fastened the breach with landmines and barbed fire.
The tau began to attack the base with everything they had, some small pockets of tau could be seen stepping on the land mine laid down the night before.
Crisis suits flew in on jets punching small holes into the walls, the lascannon turrets mounted on the walls fired on any armor they could target.
A Command devil fish took multiple shots to the front and exploded, dead and wounded tau lay about the area with large shrapnel cut into them.
The crisis suits were also taking casualties, the lascannons fire upon them, blowing holes in them.
I look around me as my comrades fired rapidly on the multitudes of fire warriors advancing on the wall and specifically the breach.
The turret next to me was hit by a blast from a tau cannon.
One of the crewmen grabbed onto my arm, he was wounded and obviously dying, I picked him up and took him to a medic.
My sergeant, he took one look over the wall and saw the hundreds of tau massing outside the wall and he panicked.
He tried to run, he made it to the bottom of the wall and a Commissar quikly shot him in the head, spraying brains and bone about the side of the wall.
The commissar took command of my squad, he seemed fanatical about the imperial cause, he stood up on the wall firing at the tau warriors with his bolter, a tau sniper found his mark on the commissars head, sending his cap flying through the air and landing next to me. I could see the large holy through the front.
The Commissars body fell forward off the wall and into the tau horde.
We were losing men as the tau tanks pelted the walls with continuous fire.
The turrets kept on firing though, almost hell bent on wiping out all the tau.
The Gate was giving out but holding, a hellhound was stationed just inside of the gate ready to cook any of the tau that happen to get through the gate.
We never saw them, they moved like ghosts but a squad of tau stealthsuits got behind the walls from the sides and into the compound.
General Fress was inside his bunker in the center of the base talking to the men on the imperial cruiser orbiting the planet.
Him and his advisors were trying to get reinforcements to help hold the base, or maybe even an air lift to get us out of the base.
"Its too hot down there right now, we couldnt land any transports without taking heavy casualties on the way down and on the way back" the comm. system replied.
Meanwhile just at the back of his bunker a group of stealth suits were approaching.
The steel door to the bunker flung off the wall flying across the room and killing a lieutenant on impact.
General Fress pulled out his bolt pistol, firing off an entire clip into one of the stealth suits, dropping it instantly.
The Commissar was killed while pulling out his power sword, General Fress dropped the empty clip from his bolt pistol and a stealth suit tore his head off before he could reload. The rest of the guardsmen were butchered.
Nobody knew this happened, we had no contact with the general since before the battle had begun.
It was now the late evening, the tau were triggering the mines in the breach and we were still holding out.
The lieutenant couldnt make contact with the general on the vox so him and a squad went to the bunker to see what was wrong, they opened the door.
The lieutenant was shocked as blood on the walls and the bodies of the general and his advisors were strewn about the room.
The stealth suits were in view and a guardsmen ran up front launching a grenade at the wall killing one stealth suit, the lieutenant shouted "dont fire, you'll damage the communications equipment!", he drew his power sword.
The stealth suit was still disoriented from the grenade blast a few moments ago, the power sword sunk through the suit like a knife through butter.
He grabbed the reciever of the vox box and ordered the Leman Russ company to pull in, they were outside of the base within moments, the cannons rang as they firing off multiple shot throughout the tau force, tau tanks exploded left and right.
The tau infantry was suffering great casualties, the cannons also caused some friendly fire for the few of us that were still on the walls, my fellow soldiers around me got hit by random fire.
Among the field covered in wrecked tau tanks and dead tau the remnants were beginning to retreat.
The Russ company started letting loose fire from heavy stubbers and heavy bolters practically tearing the running tau to shreds.
There was less than 50 of us by the time the battle was over.
Well this part of the battle.
The ork warboss of the planet and his ork horde could be seen on the other side of the fields.
The rest of our regiment were aboard large capital ships orbiting the planet, it was fairly quiet for the mean time as we called in for evac, and an aerial bombardment upon the base and the area surrounding it.
Almost immediately we saw large valkarie gunships flying through the atmospere.
We got onto the ships and as we made our way away from the base as it was filling with orkish hordes and the ork warboss that we had been fighting off for a full 2 years were completely and utterly destroyed by a massive aerial bombardment from our command ship.
I sat there in the ship next to a commissar, a few fellow guardsmen and a couple of wounded comrades.
I had been promoted that day to sergeant, as we boarded the capital ship we recieved orders to go back down to the planet in the next 2 days.
2 days later we were going back to the same place that had been completely destroyed and cost us a few hundred lives, a few hundred lives of the 445th Valhallan Regiment.
The End.