Guard fic 2.4
The next instalment of the fic I'm writing.
One thing a guardsman always learns, from the lowest recruit to the Lord General Militant, was how to sleep. That might seem obvious, but putting everything aside and getting some shut eye during your allotted timeslot was not only a skill, but a deeply necessary one. Worrying about orders or enemies or arguments just made you less able to deal with them when they came back to the fore. Sure, everyone woke screaming from time to time when your dreaming mind decided it wasn’t going to play ball, but you just grew up, gave yourself a kick and went back to sleep - it was either that or go onto the constant cycle of tranqs and stims that some people needed to get past it, and that was a bad path to go down. So it would come to no surprise to any member of the Astra Millitarum that Commander Antonius King slept as well that night as he did any other night.
Though the few anonymous notes of thanks and support which had been crumpled under his door by some brave souls in the unit didn’t hurt, it must be admitted. King wasn’t sure how much of the discussion the troops had heard - though large sections had been unavoidable - but they had clearly decided that they were on his side over it. Either that, or they were just grateful he was talking the nutcase from the Commissariat away from them and no doubt some were hoping he wouldn’t bring her back.
The next day King swung out of bed bright and early, ready to see what this colony held. He didn’t buy the story about it being deserted and once again mentally cursed his superiors for assuming that it was safe not to tell him about their treachery. That would have been a fine thing to find out by walking up to a supposed ally, wouldn’t it? Rossaria wasn’t off the hook on that one either, seeing as she only told him about it by accident. Still, he found out, that was the main thing, and she’d get to test her theory about the regiment as he left it for potentially several days. Somehow, he didn’t think they’d fall apart without him.
“All right lads and lasses, everyone ready?” he greeted them cheerfully as he strode into the entry hall to a chorus of “yes sir”s. Jaks and Hunter were stripping down guns as they always did before a mission, Jaks because plasma were easily the most dangerous weapons in the Imperium for the wielder so it paid to look after them very carefully, and Hunter because she just liked doing it. It seemed to help her relax. She was actually doing a las gun at the moment, so she’d obviously finished her own weapon and was moving on to other people’s. If she found any issues with it he’d be having words with the owner, but he could turn a blind eye to Hunter’s quirks. Bill had brought his vox unit without having to be told - admittedly they were going a good thirty or forty miles beyond any chance of the short-range radio communications working and it was more likely that anything they did send would alert the enemy rather than an ally, but more than once in the past they had been thankful for the communications relay in situations where they hadn’t expected to use it, so it was always a welcome sight.
Sergeant Tocoain’s unit were likewise getting prepped, checking equipment, getting psyched up. The only person who wasn’t ready yet was Lord Commissar Rossaria Bharti, who was yet to make an appearance. Resisting the temptation to set out without her, King strode over to Tocoain to see how he was doing. His was one of the mixed platoons formed from members of both sides of the regiment, and so while Tocoain and six of his guardsmen were from the 3rd, the rest were 76th. Hopefully that wouldn’t cause problems. Most of the tensions seemed to have been ironed out by now, but it was always something King was wary of especially after last night’s argument which no doubt everyone on base could now quote verbatim.
Tocoain seemed pretty confident about the upcoming mission. He was sure of what they had seen and where, and when queried had no qualms about either the cohesion of his team or their ability to fight against former Imperial civilians. King didn’t bother offering any platitudes about how we hoped that wouldn’t be necessary, they both knew it would be. The best you could really say is that you hoped it would be easy.
Rossaria arrived, this time without the accompanying drama of her initial landing, but she still cut an imposing figure in her black great coat, boots and long braid. She was going to stand out against the snow like a Tyranid on Terra. Admittedly the rest of them had had to scrounge together most of their attempts at snow camo gear specifically for this mission - this being something else that high command hadn’t thought necessary to remember to equip them with - but the commissarial uniform was just ridiculous on ice worlds. Still, her look out, he just hoped she didn’t bring the Tau down on the rest of them.
They were heading out in two chimeras, the advantage of having half a Steel legion was the large numbers of vehicles they brought to the mix and so there was no problem with two being assigned out without risking affecting the fighting strength of the remaining forces. Rossaria would be riding with the command squad in one, and Tocoain and his men in the other.
“Come on Hunter, get that thing back together and let’s get going!” he barked over at her, though in fairness the gun was almost complete - she was very good. He and the rest of the men swung in through the open hatch to the familiar smell of grease and fumes that always filled a chimera. Rossaria followed suit, easily finding a space left for her by the others. They hung on to the netting for balance as the APC lurched forward, bumping its way across the floor and out into the snow.
He didn’t know what was happening in the other chimera, but in the command vehicle everything was considerably quieter than normal. While he was used to the background banter, mockery and general noise of troopers being troopers, this time the journey was largely conducted in silence. It wasn’t a healthy start, but as the commander he couldn’t exactly start the chatter, so silence it was for the vast majority of the approach.
Having discussed it with Tocoain, King had decided to opt for subtlety over firepower and so the chimera were purely for transport to cover the distance to site, as well as to have something with a bit of kick to it to fall back to if they had to. Just before they came within standard imperial civilian scanner range of the colony buildings - the limit that Tocoain had said the initial scouts had reached before reporting back - the APCs rolled to a halt and the soldiers sprung out. The rest of the approach was a foot slog and the silence that had fallen over the squad was an advantage. It would be silence from here on in.
The noise of battle echoed faintly from the distance and King made a mental note to congratulate Trevanus on the effectiveness of his diversion. He certainly seemed to have drawn the majority of the Tau forces down upon him. Hopefully nothing more than they could handle, but there wasn’t a lot King could do about that now.
The colony was a spread out morass of buildings, hunched down into the snow like its own personal fox hole. The buildings were shades of white and grey, possibly for camouflage or possibly just because that was the colour that the wind, snow and ice left them. Tocoain was right so far, there didn’t seem to be any signs of life from this distance, but King held up his hand warningly and they stopped, hunkering down into the deep packed snow in echo of the buildings themselves. Magnoculars were raised and the site was scrutinised.
In an ideal galaxy, King would have stayed watching until he worked out what was going on there, but this wasn’t an ideal galaxy, they didn’t have infinite time, and his legs were starting to freeze solid. They watched for quarter of an hour but found nothing to indicate life, nor anything to give them any clue about where the artefact may have been found or where it is now. Quarter of an hour wasn’t anything like long enough for a full reccy, particularly given that it was currently snowing and so the falling flakes were obscuring their vision, but the absolute last thing that King wanted was for the Tau to figure out that the diversionary assault was exactly that. Time to get moving.
Giving the nod King silently rose to his feet, still crouching as the rest of his squad rose equally quietly to join him. The scout team was already on its feet, Tocoain looking to King for the signal to move.
Both units travelled swiftly through the frozen wasteland, the snow falling and swirling around them. The drifting snow made no sound as they passed, the advantage of fresh snow. The disadvantage was that their tracks would be clear to see since there was no surface to walk on, but with luck the snow would continue falling long enough to cover that. The drivers were smart enough to keep the chimeras clear for a quick getaway if they needed it, so that was one less thing to worry about. King loosened his sword in its sheath, ready for trouble. His paranoia was getting to him, and he’d learned to trust that over the long years of war.
The settlement seemed deserted and the troops fanned out cautiously, las guns raised. Sergeant Tocoain gestured briefly and a trooper gave the nearest house door a cautious kick, then a more sturdy one as it failed to open, finally looking back to the sergeant for confirmation before readying his las gun and blasting the door open.
Gun still raised high the trooper entered the building, flanked by two of his squad mates. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath, waiting for the all clear. Waiting for something.
A shout came from the building, followed by the harsh rattle of gunfire. The flash of gunfire shot from the windows, forcing the guardsmen to dive for cover. The three men hastily retreated back through the door, two bleeding from wounds to the chest and leg, cursing fit to warm the air. Rhys shouted them over to her, her position immediately being marked by a hail of inaccurate fire from various locations around them. The wounded guardsmen made it over to the medic’s position, but now the first shot had been fired secrecy had been abandoned by the defenders, and King could see heads raised at windows and ledges surrounding them completely. They may not be well trained, but they were well armed and easily outnumbered the guardsmen present. Eventually even the greenest civilian would get lucky. King raised his voice, making sure the orders could be clearly heard by friend and foe alike.
“We get what we came for and get out. Deal with any opposition quickly and cleanly and move on.”
Raising his voice even further, he bellowed clearly, addressing the traitors.
“I would imagine you people haven’t seen the might of the Astra Militarum before. Believe me when I say you don’t want to, and certainly not from the wrong side, which is where you currently stand. I expect you to drop your weapons and surrender yourselves back under the Emperor’s grace immediately.”
Well, perhaps ‘expect’ was too strong a term for it. As soon as he stopped speaking he ducked back down, noting the location the gunfire had come from. Good. Now he knew where the leader was.
One thing a guardsman always learns, from the lowest recruit to the Lord General Militant, was how to sleep. That might seem obvious, but putting everything aside and getting some shut eye during your allotted timeslot was not only a skill, but a deeply necessary one. Worrying about orders or enemies or arguments just made you less able to deal with them when they came back to the fore. Sure, everyone woke screaming from time to time when your dreaming mind decided it wasn’t going to play ball, but you just grew up, gave yourself a kick and went back to sleep - it was either that or go onto the constant cycle of tranqs and stims that some people needed to get past it, and that was a bad path to go down. So it would come to no surprise to any member of the Astra Millitarum that Commander Antonius King slept as well that night as he did any other night.
Though the few anonymous notes of thanks and support which had been crumpled under his door by some brave souls in the unit didn’t hurt, it must be admitted. King wasn’t sure how much of the discussion the troops had heard - though large sections had been unavoidable - but they had clearly decided that they were on his side over it. Either that, or they were just grateful he was talking the nutcase from the Commissariat away from them and no doubt some were hoping he wouldn’t bring her back.
The next day King swung out of bed bright and early, ready to see what this colony held. He didn’t buy the story about it being deserted and once again mentally cursed his superiors for assuming that it was safe not to tell him about their treachery. That would have been a fine thing to find out by walking up to a supposed ally, wouldn’t it? Rossaria wasn’t off the hook on that one either, seeing as she only told him about it by accident. Still, he found out, that was the main thing, and she’d get to test her theory about the regiment as he left it for potentially several days. Somehow, he didn’t think they’d fall apart without him.
“All right lads and lasses, everyone ready?” he greeted them cheerfully as he strode into the entry hall to a chorus of “yes sir”s. Jaks and Hunter were stripping down guns as they always did before a mission, Jaks because plasma were easily the most dangerous weapons in the Imperium for the wielder so it paid to look after them very carefully, and Hunter because she just liked doing it. It seemed to help her relax. She was actually doing a las gun at the moment, so she’d obviously finished her own weapon and was moving on to other people’s. If she found any issues with it he’d be having words with the owner, but he could turn a blind eye to Hunter’s quirks. Bill had brought his vox unit without having to be told - admittedly they were going a good thirty or forty miles beyond any chance of the short-range radio communications working and it was more likely that anything they did send would alert the enemy rather than an ally, but more than once in the past they had been thankful for the communications relay in situations where they hadn’t expected to use it, so it was always a welcome sight.
Sergeant Tocoain’s unit were likewise getting prepped, checking equipment, getting psyched up. The only person who wasn’t ready yet was Lord Commissar Rossaria Bharti, who was yet to make an appearance. Resisting the temptation to set out without her, King strode over to Tocoain to see how he was doing. His was one of the mixed platoons formed from members of both sides of the regiment, and so while Tocoain and six of his guardsmen were from the 3rd, the rest were 76th. Hopefully that wouldn’t cause problems. Most of the tensions seemed to have been ironed out by now, but it was always something King was wary of especially after last night’s argument which no doubt everyone on base could now quote verbatim.
Tocoain seemed pretty confident about the upcoming mission. He was sure of what they had seen and where, and when queried had no qualms about either the cohesion of his team or their ability to fight against former Imperial civilians. King didn’t bother offering any platitudes about how we hoped that wouldn’t be necessary, they both knew it would be. The best you could really say is that you hoped it would be easy.
Rossaria arrived, this time without the accompanying drama of her initial landing, but she still cut an imposing figure in her black great coat, boots and long braid. She was going to stand out against the snow like a Tyranid on Terra. Admittedly the rest of them had had to scrounge together most of their attempts at snow camo gear specifically for this mission - this being something else that high command hadn’t thought necessary to remember to equip them with - but the commissarial uniform was just ridiculous on ice worlds. Still, her look out, he just hoped she didn’t bring the Tau down on the rest of them.
They were heading out in two chimeras, the advantage of having half a Steel legion was the large numbers of vehicles they brought to the mix and so there was no problem with two being assigned out without risking affecting the fighting strength of the remaining forces. Rossaria would be riding with the command squad in one, and Tocoain and his men in the other.
“Come on Hunter, get that thing back together and let’s get going!” he barked over at her, though in fairness the gun was almost complete - she was very good. He and the rest of the men swung in through the open hatch to the familiar smell of grease and fumes that always filled a chimera. Rossaria followed suit, easily finding a space left for her by the others. They hung on to the netting for balance as the APC lurched forward, bumping its way across the floor and out into the snow.
He didn’t know what was happening in the other chimera, but in the command vehicle everything was considerably quieter than normal. While he was used to the background banter, mockery and general noise of troopers being troopers, this time the journey was largely conducted in silence. It wasn’t a healthy start, but as the commander he couldn’t exactly start the chatter, so silence it was for the vast majority of the approach.
Having discussed it with Tocoain, King had decided to opt for subtlety over firepower and so the chimera were purely for transport to cover the distance to site, as well as to have something with a bit of kick to it to fall back to if they had to. Just before they came within standard imperial civilian scanner range of the colony buildings - the limit that Tocoain had said the initial scouts had reached before reporting back - the APCs rolled to a halt and the soldiers sprung out. The rest of the approach was a foot slog and the silence that had fallen over the squad was an advantage. It would be silence from here on in.
The noise of battle echoed faintly from the distance and King made a mental note to congratulate Trevanus on the effectiveness of his diversion. He certainly seemed to have drawn the majority of the Tau forces down upon him. Hopefully nothing more than they could handle, but there wasn’t a lot King could do about that now.
The colony was a spread out morass of buildings, hunched down into the snow like its own personal fox hole. The buildings were shades of white and grey, possibly for camouflage or possibly just because that was the colour that the wind, snow and ice left them. Tocoain was right so far, there didn’t seem to be any signs of life from this distance, but King held up his hand warningly and they stopped, hunkering down into the deep packed snow in echo of the buildings themselves. Magnoculars were raised and the site was scrutinised.
In an ideal galaxy, King would have stayed watching until he worked out what was going on there, but this wasn’t an ideal galaxy, they didn’t have infinite time, and his legs were starting to freeze solid. They watched for quarter of an hour but found nothing to indicate life, nor anything to give them any clue about where the artefact may have been found or where it is now. Quarter of an hour wasn’t anything like long enough for a full reccy, particularly given that it was currently snowing and so the falling flakes were obscuring their vision, but the absolute last thing that King wanted was for the Tau to figure out that the diversionary assault was exactly that. Time to get moving.
Giving the nod King silently rose to his feet, still crouching as the rest of his squad rose equally quietly to join him. The scout team was already on its feet, Tocoain looking to King for the signal to move.
Both units travelled swiftly through the frozen wasteland, the snow falling and swirling around them. The drifting snow made no sound as they passed, the advantage of fresh snow. The disadvantage was that their tracks would be clear to see since there was no surface to walk on, but with luck the snow would continue falling long enough to cover that. The drivers were smart enough to keep the chimeras clear for a quick getaway if they needed it, so that was one less thing to worry about. King loosened his sword in its sheath, ready for trouble. His paranoia was getting to him, and he’d learned to trust that over the long years of war.
The settlement seemed deserted and the troops fanned out cautiously, las guns raised. Sergeant Tocoain gestured briefly and a trooper gave the nearest house door a cautious kick, then a more sturdy one as it failed to open, finally looking back to the sergeant for confirmation before readying his las gun and blasting the door open.
Gun still raised high the trooper entered the building, flanked by two of his squad mates. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath, waiting for the all clear. Waiting for something.
A shout came from the building, followed by the harsh rattle of gunfire. The flash of gunfire shot from the windows, forcing the guardsmen to dive for cover. The three men hastily retreated back through the door, two bleeding from wounds to the chest and leg, cursing fit to warm the air. Rhys shouted them over to her, her position immediately being marked by a hail of inaccurate fire from various locations around them. The wounded guardsmen made it over to the medic’s position, but now the first shot had been fired secrecy had been abandoned by the defenders, and King could see heads raised at windows and ledges surrounding them completely. They may not be well trained, but they were well armed and easily outnumbered the guardsmen present. Eventually even the greenest civilian would get lucky. King raised his voice, making sure the orders could be clearly heard by friend and foe alike.
“We get what we came for and get out. Deal with any opposition quickly and cleanly and move on.”
Raising his voice even further, he bellowed clearly, addressing the traitors.
“I would imagine you people haven’t seen the might of the Astra Militarum before. Believe me when I say you don’t want to, and certainly not from the wrong side, which is where you currently stand. I expect you to drop your weapons and surrender yourselves back under the Emperor’s grace immediately.”
Well, perhaps ‘expect’ was too strong a term for it. As soon as he stopped speaking he ducked back down, noting the location the gunfire had come from. Good. Now he knew where the leader was.