Sergeant Lanfried "Oracle" Machholter, of the 13th Task Force Regiment under Lord General Militant Davius Kern, was stationed at a forward post near the front lines on the wartorn planet of Starth, a planet under a rebellion of cultists. He was awaiting arrival of new recruits, his last squad of guardsmen having been wiped out in a battle with Orks on another far-off world. He was reviewing the files, impressed to see the service records of the soldiers, and a little surprised at the regiments they hailed from. Midway through the review, the base alert triggered, signaling an attack. Lanfried grabbed his weapons from their nearby resting place, and rushed to the defense.

After a long period of heated fighting, the cultists had secured most of the base, with the command building and helipad still under Imperial control. Lanfried received a comm from his microbead, with the person on the other end identifying as a Valkyrie transport bringing in the new recruits he was expecting. Managing to get the Valkyrie in for a somewhat-safe landing, Lanfried shouted out a greeting to the recruits as the door opened, a hail of enemy fire also greeting them.

"Welcome to Hell, meat! Hope you're ready for some killing, cause we've got work to do!"

Sten was sitting in the northwest corner of the Valkyrie staring at his feet, he was being pressed to a wall by another guardsmen, Sten had a depressed frown his face. but also a pissed off one. mostly because of the lack of space,

trying his best to ignore the obnoxious guardsmen's who were both bragging about their families at home. and then the Valkyrie landed and the door opened, revealing the Sergeant infront of him. Sten got up and squeezed himself through the group of guardsmen, grunting as he did so and stepping on someones foot. Sten Stumbled out of the Valkyrie but quickly regained control. and stood a line 5 feet away.

hoping the other guardsmen's would fill in the small invisible line and hopefully not attract attention to himself. Sten then looked at the Sergeant infront of him with a judging eye. Sten listened with equally judging ears.

Who The Emperor was this Heroic Ass. "Welcome to Hell Meat!". Well great. Sten knew this guy would probably never replace his older Leader. and infact this guy will probably get him killed in some Heroic Act of Stupidity.

Great. @Lord Coake@Whoami@Aegis1650@Zoldyck

Patrick sat in the uncomfortable Seat of Valkyrie transport, almost silent except for the slow wheezing from his rebreather. He thought of his predicament, and how lucky he must be to have been selected for this special assignment. He looked around at the others. They on the other hand must be the unluckiest basters this side of the galaxy to have been put on the same assignment as a legionnaire. His thoughts turned to the terrible hellhole they must be descending into. A rebellion on the planet Starth stirred up by cultist, just great. Xenos, sure, they have fancy gadgets, strange physiology even, but they are xenos all the same. They are abominations by purview of existing, and by eradicating them you give them the mercy their existence denies them. Heretics on the other hand, they are the Emperors children, there existence is no abomination. They are merely lamb lead astray, much like Patrick himself. What makes him so special, why does he get his chance at redemption and they don't?

He sighs heavily, holding his Aquila in his hand and rubbing his thumb across it, before bowing his head and closing his eyes.

"Emperor protect us, not only in body, but in soul. Do not let these misguided children lead us from your light. Steel us against their perverse ways, guide us to do only what you will. We are your servants, we are your hammer, we are your light in a galaxy filled with darkness. Grant us your grace so that we may always be so."

He finished intoning his prayer, and but a couple seconds later there ship rocked slightly, and the rear hatch fell open. There in the hatchway was a man, Catachan by the looks of him.

"Welcome to Hell, meat! Hope you're ready for some killing, cause we've got work to do!"

Abruptly the sound of solid rounds and lasfire filled the air, pattering off the hull of the Valkyrie. Patrick sighed again inwardly, figuring how typical that he meets a leader he may actually like, and he doesn't even get a damned second to introduce himself. Patrick braced himself for another helping of his atonement and exited the Valkyrie, body low, moving quickly, fluidly without much thought behind it. He threw himself against a box near the edge of the landing pad. Having some cover for himself now he looked expectantly at the man that greeted them off the ship, wondering if they were to head into the command building, or hold the helipad to cover the Valkyrie while it exfiled.

@Hipster@Aegis1650Lanfried, between firing bursts of lasfire from his carbine, turned to examine the new recruits. Most were your standard guardsmen, a few Cadians, a couple Mordians, but there were two in particular that stood out. A Ratling sniper, dressed in the garb of a fellow Catachan, and a Penal Legionnaire. He recognized their files, and decided to call out to them. "Listen up, I'm Sergeant Lanfried, your commanding officer!" He paused to gun down a cultist that got just a little too close to the landing pad. "I need most of you to stay here and hold this point. But you, Scopes!" He shot a look at the Ratling, "Get to the top of the command building, and lay down suppressing sniper fire." He paused again to throw back a frag grenade that had rolled up by him. It detonated in the midst of the cultist ranks, with screams of the dying echoing the blast. He then looked to the Legionnaire. "There's a heavy stubber positioned in a window facing the cultists on the second floor of the command building. I want you to man it." Suddenly, there was a rumbling noise, followed by the sound of lascannon and bolter fire. A baneblade, altered in appearance by the cultists to look twisted and villainous. The Valkyrie pilot took this as a sign to take off, but was too late. The Baneblade leveled its Demolisher cannon and fired, obliterating the Valkyrie in one shot. Lanfried shouted out to the recruits, "Get moving, do what I told you, now!"

The low hum of the Valkyrie engines reverberated through the small troop compartment. Quiet mumbles were passed around as the guardsmen from various regiments got to know each other. Outside of the Valkyrie, a fleet of imperial warships could be seen. The light reflected off of the planet shined through the small view ports of the compartments. The interior lights were on, but they were dimmed. Along the walls of the compartment were lockers and storage containers with all of the equipment a special forces team would wish to load out with them. along the middle of the compartment were the ten seats where the squad would sit while in transit. There was an eleventh at the back of the cockpit, a commissar sat there.

A servo skull floated up and down the compartment, scanning each individual and confirming their identities. When it reached Alexis, it she shooed it away. "You know who I am. You've scanned me twenty damn times in the past hour..." she rolled her eyes and shifted in her seat to get comfortable.

The commissar and smirked at her, "Is it driving you mad?"

She gazed back at him, "Wouldn't you love to know?" she paused and took in a breath, shifting again, "Truth be told, yes. You gonna shoot me?"

The commissar shook his head, "Luckily for you, no. Not the kind of madness I'm looking for. Seems you gotta suffer a bit longer."

Alexis sighed, "Wonderful..."

The compartment went back to its near silence, only the quiet mumbles could be heard among the low rumble of the engines. Alexis hated being couped up for so long in Valkyries. Sure, she loved the jump, but waiting for it seemed like a damned eternity. She'd much rather be aboard some cramped troop transport for a year while heading to another world. At least she had the opportunity to get to know her new team, which she didn't bother with anyways. She knew exactly what was going to happen the instant they jumped from the valkyrie. Nevertheless, Alexis studied them, maybe this 'special ops' team might end up differently.

Alexis looked over to the commissar, his name was Korlen, a commissar that served with the 514th Mordian Linecrackers. Her eyes shifted to the next, a Cadian. The man looked like a soldier you'd see in prop images. He was broad and stood straight up. His gear was clean and tightly fitted to his body. But he came from a heavy infantry regiment, Alexis figured he had never even jumped from a Valkyrie before, let alone one in high orbit. Standing next to him was a Harakoni, another drop trooper. His armor told her that he was a veteran, he'd most likely make it to the ground with her. There were a trio of Vitrians sitting together and talking among themselves as though they were friends. All of them had come from the same light infantry regiment. There was a Catachan as well, he'd die first. There was even a Valhallan and a Tallarn! Such diversity, Alexis thought. Her eyes came to the last member of her team and it was one she already knew. He was a cloudbreaker like herself, one who couldn't handle retirement. His name was corporal Michael, he had been apart of Alexis's last jump with the cloudbreakers and survived. She didn't know how well he'd do for his second.

Michael approached Alexis, "You look far too calm."

Alexis nodded and put her hands behind her head, "No need to stress out over something we've done hundreds of times."

Michael shrugged, "I suppose. How come you never worry about dying during your jumps?"

Alexis looked at him, "The Emperor protects. Any wrath dealt to me is deflected to those around me. It would seem as though a Saint watches over me."

Michael rubbed the back of his, "If only this Saint watched over everybody."

The catachan stood up from his seat and turned to face Alexis, "So, Elysian. Why do they call you 'Deathwish'? You look like you could charm an ork with that pretty face of yours."

Alexis and Michael both looked over to the Catachan. Michael spoke first, "Perhaps it's best you don't know why she is called that."

Alexis stood and put a hand on Michael's shoulder, "No. He should know. Well, 'Catachan'. They call me Deathwish because whoever is attached to my squad will most likely die before they even get their boots dirty. We always get assigned the tough missions and we always take fire on our way down. Let that sink in for a moment."

The commissar stood as well, "Sergeant, I should remind you that morale is important before a jump."

"I'm just giving it to 'em straight, sir. No need sugarcoating it."

Korlen pinched the bridge of his nose, "That's not what I'm saying. Keep your mouth in check."

"It's not something one should worry about. If you die, you die in service of the Emperor. The cloudbreakers have a saying that the skies belong to the angels, if you die in them, they catch you and make you one of them. There's your bit of peace, you can rest easy."

Korlen tapped his service pistol, "I don't want to hear any more of it."

"I should tell you, commissar. Eleven others have been attached to my squad before you. Not one was ever breathing after the jump. This is my domain, and without my leadership, you're all going to die in this jump. Save your bullet for when we're on the ground." Alexis knew she was going to live.

Before the commissar could say anything else, the vox came in. A large assault had begun at a key outpost. The culist force had fielded a baneblade and it was making short work of the outpost's defenses. Alexis spoke loudly to her team, "Suit up! You've got two minutes!"

The squad became a chaotic mess. Why in the hell would the admistratum form a drop troop squad out of these monkeys? The suit up took five minutes because she, and the the other two legitimate drop troopers, had to help them all into their equipment and grav chute harnesses. The Harakoni, thankfully, knew what he was doing. His gear was ready to go just moments before Michael's and he had managed to help two other's out with their own.

After the dreadfully slow prep, the team al lined up in two files facing the rear of the Valkyrie. Michael at the front of the other file, these rookies would need a veteran to guide them. "You afraid, Michael?" Alexis asked.

He fixed his respirator over his face and looked over to her. "I think my chances are good. Your usual fatality rate is, what? seventy percent? That leaves three survivors." he pointed at her and the Harakoni and then thumbed at himself. That little gesture made Alexis chuckle; the Harakoni did as well.

Korlen spoke up, "How many times do I need to say it? Keep your damn mouths shut."

(Mood Music)

The two Elysians gave each other a fist bump and remained silent. A red light came on and an alarm sounded as the compartment depressurized. There was a hiss and the rear of the valkyrie opened up. Alexis and Michael stepped forward to the edge of the ramp and looked down to the planet.

There was something entrancing about looking down at a planet at war. Below them was an imperial navy battlegroup engaging with a group of chaos warships in lower orbit, they'd be dropping straight through the battle. Below the clash of warships, the surface of the planet was pockmarked with large explosions across the hemisphere.

"Squad. Step forward." Alexis commanded. The rookies all did as they were told. There equipment was bogging them down; there was never a graceful way of walking out of a valkyrie in full drop gear.

The commissar looked over the planet and the space battle below. Alexis looked over to him, "Never fear, commissar! The jump only lasts about eight minutes!"

There was no response.

The visors of their helmets illuminated their drop sight and highlighted the baneblade. Alexis grinned when she saw the landing site. It -was- the baneblade. There were groans from amateurs. Despite how large a baneblade was, in comparison to a planet, it was one hell of a small dropsite. There was no room for error here.

"Prepare to jump! Keep the formation tight. Activate your grav chutes at five hundred feet unless you want point defense picking you off. Fly straight and fast through that space battle."

She heard the catachan breathing heavily under his mask, "This is suicide!"

"What happened to your balls, Catachan?" Alexis asked, "Squad! Deploy!"

Alexis and Michael jumped off the edge of the ramp, followed by the Harakoni and then the rest of the team. At first, their jump was more horizontal than vertical. Gravity was weak so high above the planet. But once they began to fall, their speed increased exponentially. The three veteran drop troopers fell in formation rather quickly, their didn't seem to be any translation issues in jump procedure between the Elysians and the Harakoni. The faced the surface of the planet, arms at their side.

Behind the drop troopers, the squad was a mess. The commissar had managed to gather himself and he was falling into formation shortly after. But the rest couldn't seem to get their bearings. The catachan was is a violent spin. The Tallarn was veering off course too quickly. The Valhallan was falling behind. The three Vitrians gathered themselves and were catching up with the rest. The cadian was following behind them.

Alexis heard struggled moans from the catachan over the vox. His spinning was starting to disorient him and blood was rushing away. He'd be dead in seconds at this rate.

The squad fell into formation, the Tallarn was missing. Two down only seconds into the jump. "Chaos frigate right low. Watch yourselves!"

The squad moved past the ship unnoticed. They were coming up on the battle now, two cruisers were exchanging fire violently and it looked as though neither ship was coming out of the duel alive. Alexis saw the melta-lance on the imperial cruiser charging up. "Grav up, grav up!" the squad used their grav chutes to shift out of the line of fire but one of the Vitrians panicked and didn't.

The lance fired and vaporized the Vitrian in an instant. It continued on to pierce through the chaos cruiser and rip a massive hole through the hull. Shortly after, a wing of imperial thunderbolt fighters flew past them and launched a payload of missiles into the hull breach.

There was a bright flash from the hullbreach and the cruiser began to break up. It was one of those freak accidents in war as debris from the chaos warship shredded through the valhallan. There was no time to consider the chances, one needed to be focused on staying on target.

"I can't breathe!" Alexis heard from the commissar, it made her grin. There was always that -one- set of drop equipment that was faulty, the munitorum just seemed to enjoy sending under-maintained to their troops.

Alexis listened in as the commissar suffocated during the drop. One less way to die, she reasoned. Michael chimed in, "Eyes right! Chaos fighter on intercept!"

"Shit!" the Harakoni exclaimed.

The hellblade swooped in behind the squad and opened fire. The first autocannon burst caught one of the vitrians at the leg. The second burst punched through the cadian with ease. They'd all die if this fighter wasn't dealt with.

The Harakoni spoke, "I'll handle this! The Emperor protects!" He activated his grav chute to slow down and pass behind the Hellblade, then picked up his speed again.

The fighter had to match its speed with the squad to be able to fire accurately at them, it made an easy target. The Harakoni caught up with the fighter and grabbed a hold of it. He unlatched a demo charge from his kit and planted it on the belly of the craft. "Squad! Break off!" the Harakoni said, they all split into two teams as the Harakoni kicked off of the fighter and detonated the charged.

The explosion destroyed the hellblade with ease and pushed the debris forward and past the squad that had opened up their formation. The team slowed and the Harakoni fell back in. Alexis was impressed, this Harakoni was good.

The team entered cloud, the HUD in their visors highlighting the position of their target. The remained of Alexis's team were highlighted in green through the cloud. Once they broke cloud, they saw the battlefield and their target. The baneblade was firing from all eleven barrels, the destruction it was sowing was characteristic of it's design.

A squadron of vultures strafed the tank, one was taken down by lascannon fire. The payloads they dropped on the tank barely even scratched the hull of the baneblade. After the vultures cleared the bombing site, a hail of skyfire took them down. Alexis saw the stray skyfire was headed their way. "Open! Open!"

Flak began to pepper the skies they were dropping from. One directly hit the last vitrian, there was only red mist after the smoke cleared. It was just the veteran drop troopers now.

Eight hundred feet...

Seven hundred...

Six hundred...

"Five hundred! Slow descent!" Alexis commanded.

The three activated their grav chutes in full force and slowed down faster than what was recommended for grav chutes. But they knew what they were doing and their control was better than what was 'recommended'.

Direct landing, the three made it onto the hull of the massive tank and quickly dropped their heavy grav chutes. A small sandbag emplacement with heavy stubbers was quickly cleared out by Michael. In the middle of the emplacement was a hatch into the tank. He pulled it open and dropped a frag grenade in, closing it after.

There was a heavy thud, Alexis looked over to it and saw the splattered remains of the dead commissar, he fell on target at least. A small team of cultists climbed out of another hatch, the Harakoni spat out a full auto burst of las fire into them. Alexis ran up to the opened hatch and dropped a grenade into it.

"We're clear!" Michael announced.

"Set demo charges, two on the main cannon. Another on the demolisher."

The three quickly got to work. Michael and Alexis both set one of their two charges on the barrel. The Harakoni set his last on the demolisher.

"Set!" Michael said.

"Set!" the Harakoni followed.

"Everybody inside!" Alexis said as she opened up the hatch surrounded by the sandbags. They dropped into the hatch, Michael dropped two more cultists at the bottom. Once Alexis was inside and the hatch was closed, they detonated their charges.

The two demo charges ripped the main cannon of the baneblade apart, the round loaded into the turret's chamber detonated and took the entire weapon out of the picture. The demolisher cannon was replaced with a large hole for the troopers at the outpost to fire into.

"Our first target is the bridge. Let's clear it out first then we'll head for the reactor." the sergeant briefed quickly.

The corridors of the baneblade were tight, enough for only single file. Michael was on point and the Harakoni was on rearguard. On their way to the bridge, they met a cultist on either side of them. The compact las carbines of the drop troops bested the long las rifles that were standard in the galaxy. The three person team made their way to the bridge without an issue.

They came up to the doorway that lead to the bridge. Alexis unclipped a flash grenade from her belt and rolled it in. From the outside, the small view slits of the baneblade would flash a blinding white light followed by red flashes of las fire as the commandos cleared the bridge.

The baneblade stopped moving but the unknowing gunners of the massive tank continued to fire. With the loss of the tank commander, the fire became more sporadic and far less coordinated. "Michael, set your last charge on the command throne."

He did as he was told. The Harakoni opened fire suddenly, "Cultist squad!" Alexis moved to take cover behind a console and support the Harakoni in the defense.

"Set!" Michael said and started to add his fire.

A bullet from an autogun ricocheted and caught the Harakoni in the leg. He stumbled over from his cover and was riddled with more autogun fire. It was a shame, that Harakoni would have been a very welcome team member.

"Looks like it's just us cloudbreakers." Michael said as he rolled a frag grenade past the cover the cultist squad was hiding behind.

The detonation ended their firefight. "We need to take that reactor out."

Michael sighed, "Well we can do that. But the remote fuse took a hit on the charge. I've gotta blow it manually."

Alexis nodded, she had gotten used to being the sole survivor. "The Emperor protects, Michael."

"He protects us all." Michael responded, "Get off the tank, this thing is going to explode something brilliant."

Alexis nodded and headed back for the hatch they entered through. Michael made his way to the reactor alone. As Alexis made her way through the corridor, a cultist rounded the corner and ran at her with a large knife.

She raised her carbine and pulled the trigger, out of ammo. Alexis threw her lascarbine at him to slow him down while she drew her own knife. He swung first, missed. Alexis jabbed with her knife at his stomach, the strike connected. He grunted and punched with his other hand. The blow hit her helmet and took it off, Alexis staggered.

She quickly collected herself and dodge the follow-up, then stabbed under the arm pit. His arm slumped down, useless, and he screamed. Alexis followed up and put the knife deep into his throat. He fell back and gurgled. Alexis gathered her lascarbine and climbed up the hatch.

"Michael, how's the charge coming?" she asked, watching over the battle as it began to diminish. The lost of the cultist's baneblade had crippled their momentum and the guard were pushing back effectively.

"Charge is set. I'm going to blow it in twenty seconds so you better get your ass off of the bloody tank if you aren't already."

Alexis made a run for it, jumping off of the front of the baneblade and making a break a sturdy piece of cover. "I'm off!"

"It was an honor jumping with you, Fox!" Michael said and laughed, "Michael out."

The explosion started by blasting out of the back of the tank. Then the ruined turret exploded into a blaze, followed by the rest. There was a bright white flash and a deafening howl as the explosion dominated the battlefield. The explosion was near apocalyptic.

The husk of the tank remained and the cultists were in full retreat. Alexis woke up moments later underneath a piece of rubble. Her ears were ringing and bleeding, her head was suffering from a serious headache. She pushed herself away from the rubble and stood up, looking over the remainder of the baneblade then up to skies. "This is Sergeant Alexis Marquis." she started over the vox, "Is anybody left in that outpost?"

Lanfried watched in sheer amazement as the droptroops took out the Baneblade. A bit disappointed to see only one of the three make it out, Lanfried took a glance at the survivor, and immediatly knew why. Alexis 'Deathwish' Marquis, notorious among the Special Forces regiments for routinely getting her whole squad killed on assignments. Lanfried heard her call out over the vox, and was quick to reply. "Well, well, well! If it isn't Mrs. Deathwish herself. This is Sergeant Lanfried Machholter, commanding officer of squad 3 of Task Force Regiment 13. My squad and I, as well as what's left of the outpost's garrison are holed up in the Command building and landing pad. We'll be out to meet you shortly."

@Lord Coake@Aegis1650@Whoami

Sten listened to the Sergeant and then noticed the Cultist attack, sending him into a alert, Massive sounds blasted into both of his ears, obscuring most of the sound around him. yelled out Got it sir! and ducked, as what he thought was going to be a quick and easy briefing turn into a firefight in 10 seconds.

He grunted and smiled, hearing that his Sergeant bothered to read the Dosser and acknowledge his Sniper skills. he quickly assumed the man praying right next to him was the Legionaire, he forcefully grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the Command area, he yelling You heard the sarge!.

The Valkyrie exploded into a blast of flames. gibbing a poor Cadian who needed to use the toilet. Sten barely acknowledged the Valkyrie's explosion. he needed to pay attention or else he'll get shot by some overzealous freak.

Pulled the Legionaire through the battlefield Sten ducked and dodged Bullets and lasers flying by, he heard Alexis's voice on the coms, obscured by most of the sound he spoke through the vox, smiling

Calvary's here already?. Anyways, Scope's here. a Squad just arrived and all that stuff. Me and some legionnaire guy are heading towards the Command Building. I'll let the Sergeant fill ya in. he spoke into the Vox as he continued to pull the Legionnaire past the Battlefield and into a Hallway. Scope read a map on the building, so he knew where to go.

The Catachan barked orders over the sound of the firefight, returning fire even as he did so, "Yeah, I like this one," thought Patrick. He curtly nodded and began to head off to the Command center when hell really did break loose. There was the distinct sound of lascannons and heavy bolters, but that too failed to compare to the roaring of the Demolisher cannon firing, and detonating both itself and the Valkyrie. The sheer force of the explosion threw Patrick though the air, he tumbled over at least three times, he lost count, and then consciousness. When he landed, he did so head first, and the ferrocrete of the landing pad was far from forgiving. He regained consciousness to see of all things, a ratling sniper scurring to his aid, the small abhuman managed to help him to his feet, and lead him through the firefight the rest of the way to the command center. Once inside Patrick was able to regain more of his senses, enough to realize the ratling was talking to apparently nobody. That was until Patrick remembered that microbeads even existed. "How hard did I hit my head?" He asked running his hand through his hair. Feeling something wet he pulled his hand back infront of his face. "That bad huh," he said looking at his own blood. He leaned back against the wall, and slowly slid down it. He was still heavily dazed, and was having a hard time even thinking, there was just, a feeling, as though he had forgotten something, and it was nagging at the back of his mind. He force the thought away, as bad shape as he was in, he could hardly afford to be distracted as well. He placed a hand on the ratling's shoulder, "Thank you, I owe you one, but I do have one last favor to ask, as you probably have to head past anyways, mind helping me to the new toy the Sargent has felt all to polite to give me?" He shakily got to his feet, steading himself against to wall for support. In this condition he knew that his rifle would be pointless, he slung it across his back and pulled his Auto pistol from his pocket, a belt from the other, and after a minut or so of fumbling, had finally managed to load it. "What do ya say?" He asked the ratling extending a hand down to him.

@Aegis1650@Lord Coake@Whoami This was probably the first time a guardsmen was ever nice to Sten. or atleast. the only time Sten could remember. Sten looked around and stared at the Legionaire's Head. their was a small sized hole and a ton of blood. But Sten didn't care.

Sten, Smiled and shook the man's Hand firmly. Ah. your welcome bud. the name's Scopes by the way. he spoke with a smile. Sure. I'm no heavy weapons guy but I can teach ya a couple tricks.

Alex stepped out of the back of the Valkyrie, taking a moment to take in the scene around him. He completely ignored a man that looked like a sergeant and spotted what most interested him. Cultists. A lot of them. That was pretty much it. Taking the grip of his hellpistol, the Junior Commissar gave a tiny chuckle without any kind of mirth whatsoever as he drew his sword as well, breaking into a run.

"Emperor, ive been waiting for this."

Alex drew his pistol, firing several shots almost lazily. Two cultists fell, the majority of their torso's obliterated. Before the corpses hit the floor, he was walking along slowly, firing shots every step and killing another two cultists.

No one was running. On either side. That was good, Alex thought, as a autopistol round buzzed past his ear, only for the shooter to drop his gun as a nearby guardsman turned his skull into ash. Despite all the chaos going around him, Alex couldnt help but smile.

"Really? This is i..."

His words were punctuated by an explosion. The Valkyrie he had just exited was blown apart in a explosion like he had never felt. He felt the heat blister his face and shards of melted metal hit the floor like a lethal rain. He was on his side on the floor, somehow. Slowly, he got up. His shoulder hurt. He wondered if a piece of metal had struck it, but decided against trying to ease the pain. It was his left shoulder. He rarely used that one anyway.

He got up, and looked at the offending enemy unit.

"...oh. Wonderful. How in holy terra are we going to bring that thing down?"

HE turned around, about to yell a command to find him a lascannon team or something that could destroy the baneblade, only to see several drop troops falling towards it. As he watched, the troops landed on the baneblade, and began to place something. Alex was almost controlled by the sight, but his training came back to him. He aimed his pistol and shot down a cultist nearby, then another, and another, and...

The baneblade exploded. THe drop troopers had moved away, but several cultists hadnt. THe explosion completely obliterated everything near it like it was determined to take as many lives in its own death as it had with its guns in life. For the second time that day, Alex was thrown on his back, narrowly avoiding impaling himself on his own power sword. He recovered much quicker this time, looking around. The cultists were running, much to his irritation. Pathetic. How could they hide behind a baneblade and not consider the fact they might lose it? Cultists and rebels were all the same. All the intelligent ones never joined in the first place.

He felt his face, feeling a shallow gash above his eye. It wasnt too bad. He could deal with it until he found a medic.

Then he remembered the sergeant. He really should have introduced himself first, but duty had called. He found him next to the vox, talking to one of the drop troops on it. How nice. One had survived.

"Ahem." He said, clearing his throat and attempting to look affable despite most of his face being covered by his cap and the face that wasnt covered by the cap being covered in blood. Not to mention that it was near impossible for a commissar to look affable, even a junior one.
"You seem to have lost a few men, but no one ran. Im pretty impressed by that. Usually i would expect to see a few cowards in a force this size. My pistol didnt need to kill any of them." He said, genuinely trying to be pleasant and failing badly.

"Well, well, well! If it isn't Mrs. Deathwish herself. This is Sergeant Lanfried Machholter, commanding officer of squad 3 of Task Force Regiment 13. My squad and I, as well as what's left of the outpost's garrison are holed up in the Command building and landing pad. We'll be out to meet you shortly."

Great... Of all the people Alexis could have saved in the outpost. It had to be the Catachan. Alexis rolled her eyes, "That's Miss Deathwish, Lanfried. Never married. Now, is your team going to keep hiding in your cardboard fort or are you going to come out here and secure the area?"

Alexis's ears were still ringing; everything was still dull. She was amazed that she even managed to hear Lanfried over the vox at all. Mending eardrums were the most common form of medical aid in the imperial guard. There were so many explosions, pressure differentials and sounds on the battlefield that nearly every trooper needed them fixed after a battle. Alexis spat on the dusty ground, her spit carried some blood with it. When leaned forward to pick her lasgun up from the ground, she winced. Alexis looked down at the source of the pain and saw a piece of shrapnel that had pierced through her carapace armor. The metal jabbed into her skin enough to cause bleeding, but it didn't dig into her ribs far enough to cause any real damage. Alexis sighed and grabbed a hold of the shrapnel. She gritted her teeth and pulled the metal out quickly, "Ah... Son of a..." she mumbled.

Alexis took a moment to catch her breath and then leaned down to take her lasgun without the shrapnel causing excess amounts of pain. She put a new power cell in the weapon and pocketed the discharged one, she'd recharge it later. Alexis walked alone across the rubble that the baneblade had created from the outpost. Her fiery red hair blew in a light wind, it was a stark contrast in the gray warzone. As she headed toward the ruined outpost, Alexis heard a gurgle.

The Elysian stopped and looked sidelong to her right, catching sight of a cultist who was missing his leg. He gripped at pieces of rubble and pulled himself toward the outpost. All along his bandolier were grenades and demo charges, this fanatic was going to suicide bomb the place. She looked around and then turned to head toward the bomber. She whistled to get his attention, but he was more deaf than her. Alexis smirked and walked right up to him, her shadow was what it took to get his attention. He sprawled over on his back and saw the red haired Elysian in black and gray armor. The cultist raised his hand with the detonator, but Alexis simply kicked it from his hand and shot it with her lasgun. "Oh, I'm sorry. Was that important?" she asked the deaf man.

He screamed obscenities at her, she didn't know what he was saying, nor did she care. Alexis planted a steel toed boot in his ribs, cracking some. He screamed again. Alexis started stripping his bandolier from all of the explosives. "You chose the wrong god to worship, you know that?"

She pointed at the wreckage of the baneblade, "I was right next to it when it blew up. I'm completely fine. You're here, missing a leg. Seems the Emperor does protect." It seemed the cultist heard that, he hissed.

Alexis put the toe of her boot in his mouth to keep it open. "You want to know who's your god now?" she thumbed at herself, "Me. And she's fresh out of mercy." Alexis took of the man's grenades and replaced her boot with it. He bit down on the hard shell of the frag grenade.

"This grenade has a five second fuse. Better start saying your last words." she pulled the pin and walked off.

She was well out of the grenades explosive range when it detonated. Her eyes scanned the area some more before speaking through her microbead again, "The outpost is secure. You lot in the command chamber should be calling in for field engineers right about now."

Just after Sten finished speaking he noticed a figure outside the window, beating the everloving shit out of a cultist and proceeding to waste a perfectly useful grenade.

Another War hero. Sten muttered under his breath. it was always the Heroes that got themselves killed. You gonna respond to that. Sten spoke onto his vox He noticed the savage didn't bother to even welcome him, anyways she wouldn't last a day. crazy Elysian.

Anyways lets get to it. before we run out of cultists to kill. he told stoically Patrick.

@Lord Coake@Whoami@Vulkan

Lanfried had begun ordering the remaining troops about, securing the rest of the outpost buildings. He stepped out from the landing pad building, to meet with Alexis. He also noted the Junior Commissar assigned to his squad standing about, and reminded himself to meet with him as well. Approaching Alexis, he gave her a saluting gesture as a greeting and spoke. "Well, that was some nice work there. Glad to see you're here too. It'll be nice to have someone else who knows what the hell they're doing around here.... Now then, if you don't mind me asking, is there anyone left alive in your squad that we should note down, or are you the only one left again?"

@Whoami

@Hipster

Patrick nodded to the small ratling, "Scopes" he thought short ratling referred to himself as. His head was still swimming from the blow, hopefully there was a medic that was still alive here that could give him something for it. Sure he did have something he could administer himself, but strangling the one who just saved his life to death is not what anyone might consider polite. He herd the krump of a grenade going off outside. He thought it odd, considering that the gunfire had stopped. Now that he thought of it, why did the fighting stop, last he remembered the enemy were bearing down on them with a goddamned baneblade.

Pain surged though his head, cutting off his train of thought. He unsteadily ambled forward, using the wall for support. The base floor of the building they were in had a few imperials. They seemed to be planetary pdf mostly. That didn't seem good, most planetary pdf were fairly green, not well versed in combat doctrine execution. To add to that they looked pretty young, and quite afraid. The fear was good though, thought the commisariate may disagree. The fear kept you on your toes, alert, and when you finally overcame what it was you feared in the first place, that fear became courage.

"Anyways lets get to it. Before we run out of cultists to kill," said the ratling beside him. It made Patrick chuckle, the sound distorted and awkward from behind his rebreather. "You know bud, all the stories I heard made you ratlings out to be cowards. But you, nah, you ain't half bad bud," Patrick said. The blood coming from the gash on his head was beginning to slow down by now, though hadn't completely stopped. It had matted a fair amount of his hair, and run down the right side of his face. He and Scope began for the stairway, "If you don't mind me asking, just who were you talking to? Sad to say, they don't like us run of the mill legionnaires having vox access."

@Aegis1650 Sten walked up the staircase, the command building seemed to have a lot of wear and tear, with bullet holes lining the walls, a couple stains of red here and their, and if you searched hard enough you could find the corpses of the previous occupants that the janitor forgot to clean up.

Sten felt a warm fuzzy feeling. I guess this is what you call friendship Sten thought.

Sten pointed to his vox caster. I'm a sniper so I get the cool toys. I'm talking to some Elysian chick. anyways, sucks to be a legionnaire and not a catachan huh? Sten talked to Patrick. he noticed the wound on his head gotten a bit worst.

but Sten didn't tell him because he didn't want to be shot because he "Deserted" His post to help someone.

Alex had attempted to be affable to the catachan, so he was surprised when the sergeant simply strolled past him to talk to someone else.
He paused, just as shocked as he was irritated. A simple sergeant, ignoring him? He would have been less offended if the sargeant had...well, offended him! What kind of guardsman disrespects a commissar...

"Junior Commissar..."

...oh yeah, right.

While he was thinking, the sergeant had gone, robbing Alex of a chance to take him down a peg. Typical. The cultists were being mopped up as he through, there were no cowards to shoot, and no future-cowards to threaten. Wonderful. The other guardsmen would be talking to each other soon, badmouthing the cultists, their officers or their bad luck.

Or how their bad luck resulted in their officers making them shoot cultists. Alex didnt know. As long as the guardsmen didnt break any rules, he couldn't care less. Talk was for grunts anyway. He had cultists to find and kill, if the cowards hadnt got away from him.

During his thoughts, he strolled into a area he wasn't familiar with, ignoring the PDF falling over themselves to get away from him.. He saw a guardsman wearing the most peculiar set of armor, composing of rags and parts of carapace armor. Near him was a ratling sniper, with a vox caster.

What would a ratling be doing with a vox caster? And come to think of it, why wasnt he sniping the cultists? Instead he was talking on a vox...

"Guardman? Mutan...I mean, Ratling, what are you two doing in here?" He asked, addressing them both as he pulled his cap lower over his face.

@Vulkan Sten immediately noticed the inquisitive commissar. Talk to you later. he send to Patrick, frowning. Sten wasn't offended by the commissar almost calling him a mutant. but he silently noted it down in his head. The Commissar. Zealot. racist. has trouble deciding whenever Ratlings are mutants. lenient.

Sten's arm flew up in a arc, landing on his four head with extreme patriotism, performing a salute. he obediently answered Sir!, We were ordered by the sergeant to stand here and shoot anything heretical that passes by this window sir! Sten then pointed at the open window right next to him. A great day for the Emperor sir! he added with a bright smile.@Aegis1650@Whoami@Lord Coake

@Hipster@Vulkan

Patrick turned to see the man who had addresses them. Guardsman, not very descript. Ratling on the other hand, well, Patrick was convince he was standing next to the only one on the whole Emperor forsaken planet. He was greeted with the sight of a Junior Commissar. Patrick frowned, an action that was hidden most thankfully do to his rebreather. Commissars, got along with Penal Legionnaires like fire got along with gasoline. Great for one, but the other would be used up to the very last drop.

He was working his way around to greet the Commissar properly. However, not surprisingly, the ratling beat him to it. His response to the Commissar though, sent Patrick in to a fit of laughter. He seemed for to genuinely pleased about this whole situation, to an extent that Patrick thought it had to be an act. If the Commissar thought it was and they needed to be disciplined to show that joking was unacceptable, then Patrick was at least gonna enjoy it while he could.

"Aye Commissar, that we are, reporting to our appointed posts to bring the God-Emperor's finest retribution to these heathens in all it's glorious forms!" he said after finally regaining his composure.

@Aegis1650 Sten elbowed Patrick in his arm quickly and effectively. whispering the words You wanna be blamed? to him. every guardsmen knew that if a commissar asked you what you were doing you are to act as patriotic as possible. commissars love patriot's

Sten was mildly pissed off that Patrick completely ruined Sten's act. after all Sten didn't want to go this far and die because of this guy. Sorry sir. ever since I told him a joke about how Weak and utterly Useless these heretics were he wouldn't stop laughin'! Sten "apologized" to the Commissar.

Sten then quickly seached his mind for a commissar-approved joke in his head incase the commissar bothered to ask what the joke actually was.@Vulkan@Lord Coake@Whoami