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?"
