Guard fic 4.6
And now, King's actual dastardly plan is revealed!
=-=
Rossaria was already aboard, her gloved wrists secured around part of the fixtures by smooth metal cuffs. Bill, Hunter and Bellis couldn’t look at her, but Antonius forced himself to do so.
“Could you not at least let her have a seat or something?” He demanded. Rossaria looked back at him like he was the worst of chaos cultists.
“Don’t trouble yourself on my account.” She snapped back, and when he began to speak she cut across him “I’m serious! Don’t think for a moment that you can salve your conscience by playing the gentleman now. You are a traitor, a coward, a heretic and a murderer, and I look forward to the day when I will personally make you pay for your crimes.”
Scar shouted something from the front of the crowded cockpit and Povree Sakea was there at his side to translate.
“The commander has suggested that, as the Lord Commissar is only here to ensure your loyalty, it will be better if she be moved to the back of the vehicle so as to avoid distraction.”
“No.” King replied flatly, adding “Thank you.”
“Unfortunately I have not translated well, Shas'O Sa’cea Lar’shi’vre Kir’gath Mont’or has ordered that this will happen as he cannot have distraction at this time.”
Sure enough, four of the fire warriors from the troops compartment came through to facilitate the prisoner move.
“Then if you need me, I will be in the back of the vehicle.” King replied with offended dignity. “It is bad enough that you refuse to trust me, you will not treat my friend as a piece of furniture!”
“Shas'O Sa’cea Lar’shi’vre Kir’gath Mont’or agrees that this is acceptable.” Povree Sakea commented, getting the upper hand in this particular exchange.
“Good!” King snapped back. He stormed through to the back of the vehicle, accompanied by Bill and Bellis and of course Rossaria, the Tau warriors taking no chances and snapping the cuffs closed again behind her back for even this short journey. They also made a point of standing behind her - probably stories of her assault on him had got around and despite their armour they were taking no chances.
The back of the Devilfish was vaguely reminiscent in style of the back of a chimera, though the main similarity was the row of benches along each wall and the addition of things to hold on to. Rather than the usual Guard webbing, the Tau had each bench divided into individual seat, slimmed down for the delicate fire warrior armour making the rather uncomfortable to a human frame and meaning that the only things to hold onto were the strange organically molded arm rests between them. Presumably the crisis suit things had servos or balance aids to allow their occupant to stand on the journey without being knocked around. Rossaria was escorted to the back seat furthest from the cockpit, and secured by means of fastening the cuffs around one of the arm rests, leaving her bent slightly forward in a position that was fine at first but guaranteed to become uncomfortable after a short time. King tried to protest, but his complaints fell on uncomprehending ears. Clearly if these guys spoke any gothic, they hid it well.
“Just shut up.” Rossaria ordered him, ending the discussion. Instead, King looked around at the ship he found himself in. Standing due to the uncomfortable size of the seats, he could see through the small doorway to the cockpit where Hunter remained intrigued by the blinky lights of the weird Xeno technology. Should have been born on Mars, that girl. Every surface on the skimmer was uncomfortably smooth, the sleek lines of its exterior continuing to the interior, and there wasn’t a straight edge to be seen. There were six seats on each side but only half a dozen Tau in total to occupy them, and so they were all sitting as far from the prisoner as possible, talking amongst themselves but with the pulse rifles always to hand. The light inside the back compartment came only from a long pale luminator in the ceiling, giving a sickly light throughout the room and creating freaky animalistic shadows in strange corners. With a glance from his eyes King directed the troopers to be opposite Rossaria, while he himself stood beside her, instinctively keeping himself out of her reach. A low whine began to echo through the compartment, like the sound of a plasma gun warming up, and with that uncomfortable thought in his mind they were up and on their way to take the fight to the Imperial Guard.
The Tau had their helmets stashed in a pile by their feet allowing them to keep chattering amongst themselves about whatever it was Tau talked about, but the humans sat or stood in silence, the athmosphere thickening as each thought about what was going to happen.
“What happened to you on the Gloriana Terra?” Rossaria eventually asked, the first time she hadn’t been snarling or shouting at him since he first declared his allegiance. “What was so special about you there that makes you turn against the Emperor?”
“Wordbearers.” King replied, his eyes clouding over as he recalled events far better forgotten. “Horrific things, the frakking Wordbearers.” He shook his head and peered through to the front cabin. “Not a conversation for just now. I’ll tell you in a few klicks.”
Standing, he made his way through to the front compartment, wincing slightly at the pain as the ship lurched and he put his right arm out to steady himself. Overall the ride was smoother than he’d expected, but it seemed the odd bump couldn’t be avoided.
“How far out are we now?” He asked, shouting slightly to be heard over the sound of the engines and the roar of the wind. Povree Sakea turned to answer him.
“I cannot tell in your way of measuring. It is seventeen dal’mothe.”
“How long’s that in time?”
“I believe it would be about thirty minutes. Human time is easier than human distance.” That may actually have been a joke, or at least a pleasantry. King forced a smile.
“I guess I’ll have to learn Tau distance first then. Hunter, you ok up here?”
“Yes sir!”
“Not making a nuisance of yourself?”
“No sir!”
“Good work. Keep it up. But do come back and join us at some point, will you? Ideally before we land.” He smiled.
“You can always come up front sir? It’s only Imperials they have a problem with.”
“I think I made my feelings plain on that, trooper.” He replied, a slight edge to his voice, before heading back into the troop’s compartment. Bill was also pacing awkwardly, currently perched uncomfortably on the arm of the seat. His Vox was on the ship, but he wouldn’t get access to it until the attack was over and they landed - Scar was taking no chances. King silently counted the minutes in his head. Bill moved to the front of the compartment, leaning against the wall next to the Tau. Hunter came back to join them, then fell against the wall as the ship swerved wildly to the left. He heard the crackle of incoming fire - an Imperial standard issue las cannon, unless he missed his guess. Twenty four minutes, he made it.
“What the frak’s wrong with the codes?” he screamed through to the cockpit. Povree Sakea answered calmly.
“We have not used them yet Commander Antonius King. We are not yet close enough. We have a good pilot, do not fear. They will not hit us.”
“And I have good gunners! How long are we going to fly under fire?” King shouted through gritted teeth.
“Three minutes!”
“Three minutes.” he echoed back to the guardsmen in the back. It was a long time to be in range of a las cannon, and he knew how good the gunners on that thing were. Cronin and Khanum, their names were, or Myles and Shaheen were the other team. He moved again, leaning on the wall next to Bill, cursing the lack of handholds in this Emperor-forsaken ship.
“You seem restless, Antonius. Guilty conscience?” Rossaria taunted angrily. King grinned sheepishly, acknowledging the comment as though it were a joke.
“Just nervous I suppose. Which is stupid, of course I can trust him, but there you go.”
Rossaria frowned, noting the wrongness in the sentence. “Him?”
Without warning, King’s head snapped up, his body tense and alert. “Go!”
Instantly, he and Bill launched themselves at the startled fire warriors, with Bellis following close behind. Hunter moved to stand in front of Rossaria, shielding her from any potential retaliation. King kicked his opponent’s pulse rifle in her general direction before the Xeno could reach it and aimed a punch square at the creature’s throat. Bill had slipped round the back and had his opponent in a stranglehold, choking it. Bellis was wrestling with one while another had drawn a knife and was attacking him from behind. His great coat was practically armour though and the stupid thing was going for the chest where he had his flak vest anyway. Hunter grabbed the rifle and laid down covering fire through the doorway, causing Scar to duck back behind cover. All the active Tau were shouting - the others were too busy choking - and Scar was shooting back. Rossaria slid off her seat and crouched as much as the cuffs would allow her, making a smaller target and freeing up Hunter to concentrate more on the gun fight. The two unengaged Tau charged King simultaneously and he swung round just in time to face them.
Using a Tau helmet as a makeshift weapon King launched himself forward, bodyslamming one of them across the cabin and into the gunfire around the cockpit. The other was using its pulse rifle as a bayonet - fortunately for King, under the circumstances - and he felt the jarring thud as it slammed into his side but his flak seemed to spread the impact sufficiently to save his ribs.
“That’s the thing about chaos space marines.” King shouted to Rossaria as he wrestled with the Xeno. “You’d think they’re all blood-crazed berserkers, but not the Wordbearers. They’re cold, sadistic bastards. When they invaded our transport ship, the first thing they killed wasn’t even a person, it was the lights - Bellis, the door! - because we can’t see in the dark, but space marines can.” He paused briefly in his explanation to smile a vicious acknowledgement as Bill put one of the Tau’s knives into his hand, then continued his fight with renewed vigour. “They can hear too, better than us, better than a damn comms relay. Aah! Right, you Xeno heretic bastard!”
He broke off the explanation as a blow to the head nearly knocked him from his feet, but with only one active opponent left in the cabin it was a foregone conclusion. Bill took up the story, digging with a spare Tau blade into the cuffs in an attempt to free the Lord Commissar.
“Gloriana Terra means extreme radio silence.” He explained. “We couldn’t make any sound and we couldn’t see hand signals, so the Commander ordered that every man has his head and act independently to work together. If you see what I mean. So now it’s like a code word. We didn’t know what the plan was, but we knew there was one so we just did what we could to support it. Shit, the blade’s just snapped! Sorry sir, I just can’t get this thing off.”
King stood up over the body of the now-dead Tau, wiping blood off his face, a mix of his blood and its. “Well one of these frakkers must have a key, sort it!”
Rossaria obligingly nodded to the Tau corpse in question which had dealt with her cuffs, and King turned to her, grabbing another pulse rifle as he did so to aid in the fire fight at the front. “I’m sorry I couldn’t explain. We knew they were spying on us and I couldn’t take the chance of being overheard.”
“Do you even recall that on my first day here I asked you if there was anything specific I needed to know?” was the caustic answer.
“Sorry. It doesn’t come up much.”
“Your betrayal is too late, Commander Antonius King.” Povree Sakea shouted over the noise of gunfire. “We have the command codes now and you cannot stop us. Surrender now and you will be treated fairly, that is all we will offer.”
“I make it we’ve got at least twice as many guns than you.” King shouted back.
“Pulse rifles. You cannot fire them in the cabin, you will shoot through the walls and crash!”
“Is that right?” King turned to Hunter, figuring that if any of them would know it would be her.
“Don’t think so sir, they’re just glorified las guns and we couldn’t scratch a devilfish.”
“You hear that Povree? We’re happy to keep fighting. Are you?”
“You are too late. We are broadcasting the codes now.”
The ship lurched as they dodged one last blast from the heavy support fire.
King held his breath.
The las cannon fired again. The view from the windscreen lit up with small fireworks as drone after drone exploded against the still-solid void shield. The troop carrier lurched again as the pilot pulled up and swooped left and skywards to the limit of the skimmer’s abilities to escape the same fate.
“Ok, you can tell Scar-face that under the circumstances I am prepared to forego that apology.” King grinned, unleashing another volley of pulse rifle fire that had their opponents ducking for cover.
“But you tested it sir, they must have been the right codes?” Bellis asked, confused.
“Oh they are, but I got Commissar Haine to cancel my authority before I left.” King replied breezily. Rossaria, now free, stood by his side with a pulse rifle and an unreadable expression. “The vox caster’s machine spirit didn’t get its update down-brief so it didn’t realise, but the base’s machines did.”
They ducked back as Scar and Povree Sakea unleashed a volley from their hand weapons, spraying the cabin with pulse shots until they managed again to get the upper hand. The battle may have swung dramatically in the Imperial favour overall, but here in this devilfish the hugely defendable doorway held them to a stalemate. Either side could rush the other, but it would mean charging headlong into gunfire and whoever did it would undoubtedly lose.
The stand-off was eventually resolved, after what was almost certainly mere minutes but felt considerably longer, when a stray pulse from the Imperial Guard’s side of the fight struck neatly into the plexiglas of the windshield, blasted a hole right through it. While mostly the explosion of Plexiglas went outwards, one of the shards bounced off the top of the frame and ricocheted downwards, striking the flight instruments in a cloud of sparks and smoke. The devilfish suddenly seemed to stop for an instant before roaring downwards in a cloud of smoke. Human and Tau alike, they braced themselves for impact.
=-=
Rossaria was already aboard, her gloved wrists secured around part of the fixtures by smooth metal cuffs. Bill, Hunter and Bellis couldn’t look at her, but Antonius forced himself to do so.
“Could you not at least let her have a seat or something?” He demanded. Rossaria looked back at him like he was the worst of chaos cultists.
“Don’t trouble yourself on my account.” She snapped back, and when he began to speak she cut across him “I’m serious! Don’t think for a moment that you can salve your conscience by playing the gentleman now. You are a traitor, a coward, a heretic and a murderer, and I look forward to the day when I will personally make you pay for your crimes.”
Scar shouted something from the front of the crowded cockpit and Povree Sakea was there at his side to translate.
“The commander has suggested that, as the Lord Commissar is only here to ensure your loyalty, it will be better if she be moved to the back of the vehicle so as to avoid distraction.”
“No.” King replied flatly, adding “Thank you.”
“Unfortunately I have not translated well, Shas'O Sa’cea Lar’shi’vre Kir’gath Mont’or has ordered that this will happen as he cannot have distraction at this time.”
Sure enough, four of the fire warriors from the troops compartment came through to facilitate the prisoner move.
“Then if you need me, I will be in the back of the vehicle.” King replied with offended dignity. “It is bad enough that you refuse to trust me, you will not treat my friend as a piece of furniture!”
“Shas'O Sa’cea Lar’shi’vre Kir’gath Mont’or agrees that this is acceptable.” Povree Sakea commented, getting the upper hand in this particular exchange.
“Good!” King snapped back. He stormed through to the back of the vehicle, accompanied by Bill and Bellis and of course Rossaria, the Tau warriors taking no chances and snapping the cuffs closed again behind her back for even this short journey. They also made a point of standing behind her - probably stories of her assault on him had got around and despite their armour they were taking no chances.
The back of the Devilfish was vaguely reminiscent in style of the back of a chimera, though the main similarity was the row of benches along each wall and the addition of things to hold on to. Rather than the usual Guard webbing, the Tau had each bench divided into individual seat, slimmed down for the delicate fire warrior armour making the rather uncomfortable to a human frame and meaning that the only things to hold onto were the strange organically molded arm rests between them. Presumably the crisis suit things had servos or balance aids to allow their occupant to stand on the journey without being knocked around. Rossaria was escorted to the back seat furthest from the cockpit, and secured by means of fastening the cuffs around one of the arm rests, leaving her bent slightly forward in a position that was fine at first but guaranteed to become uncomfortable after a short time. King tried to protest, but his complaints fell on uncomprehending ears. Clearly if these guys spoke any gothic, they hid it well.
“Just shut up.” Rossaria ordered him, ending the discussion. Instead, King looked around at the ship he found himself in. Standing due to the uncomfortable size of the seats, he could see through the small doorway to the cockpit where Hunter remained intrigued by the blinky lights of the weird Xeno technology. Should have been born on Mars, that girl. Every surface on the skimmer was uncomfortably smooth, the sleek lines of its exterior continuing to the interior, and there wasn’t a straight edge to be seen. There were six seats on each side but only half a dozen Tau in total to occupy them, and so they were all sitting as far from the prisoner as possible, talking amongst themselves but with the pulse rifles always to hand. The light inside the back compartment came only from a long pale luminator in the ceiling, giving a sickly light throughout the room and creating freaky animalistic shadows in strange corners. With a glance from his eyes King directed the troopers to be opposite Rossaria, while he himself stood beside her, instinctively keeping himself out of her reach. A low whine began to echo through the compartment, like the sound of a plasma gun warming up, and with that uncomfortable thought in his mind they were up and on their way to take the fight to the Imperial Guard.
The Tau had their helmets stashed in a pile by their feet allowing them to keep chattering amongst themselves about whatever it was Tau talked about, but the humans sat or stood in silence, the athmosphere thickening as each thought about what was going to happen.
“What happened to you on the Gloriana Terra?” Rossaria eventually asked, the first time she hadn’t been snarling or shouting at him since he first declared his allegiance. “What was so special about you there that makes you turn against the Emperor?”
“Wordbearers.” King replied, his eyes clouding over as he recalled events far better forgotten. “Horrific things, the frakking Wordbearers.” He shook his head and peered through to the front cabin. “Not a conversation for just now. I’ll tell you in a few klicks.”
Standing, he made his way through to the front compartment, wincing slightly at the pain as the ship lurched and he put his right arm out to steady himself. Overall the ride was smoother than he’d expected, but it seemed the odd bump couldn’t be avoided.
“How far out are we now?” He asked, shouting slightly to be heard over the sound of the engines and the roar of the wind. Povree Sakea turned to answer him.
“I cannot tell in your way of measuring. It is seventeen dal’mothe.”
“How long’s that in time?”
“I believe it would be about thirty minutes. Human time is easier than human distance.” That may actually have been a joke, or at least a pleasantry. King forced a smile.
“I guess I’ll have to learn Tau distance first then. Hunter, you ok up here?”
“Yes sir!”
“Not making a nuisance of yourself?”
“No sir!”
“Good work. Keep it up. But do come back and join us at some point, will you? Ideally before we land.” He smiled.
“You can always come up front sir? It’s only Imperials they have a problem with.”
“I think I made my feelings plain on that, trooper.” He replied, a slight edge to his voice, before heading back into the troop’s compartment. Bill was also pacing awkwardly, currently perched uncomfortably on the arm of the seat. His Vox was on the ship, but he wouldn’t get access to it until the attack was over and they landed - Scar was taking no chances. King silently counted the minutes in his head. Bill moved to the front of the compartment, leaning against the wall next to the Tau. Hunter came back to join them, then fell against the wall as the ship swerved wildly to the left. He heard the crackle of incoming fire - an Imperial standard issue las cannon, unless he missed his guess. Twenty four minutes, he made it.
“What the frak’s wrong with the codes?” he screamed through to the cockpit. Povree Sakea answered calmly.
“We have not used them yet Commander Antonius King. We are not yet close enough. We have a good pilot, do not fear. They will not hit us.”
“And I have good gunners! How long are we going to fly under fire?” King shouted through gritted teeth.
“Three minutes!”
“Three minutes.” he echoed back to the guardsmen in the back. It was a long time to be in range of a las cannon, and he knew how good the gunners on that thing were. Cronin and Khanum, their names were, or Myles and Shaheen were the other team. He moved again, leaning on the wall next to Bill, cursing the lack of handholds in this Emperor-forsaken ship.
“You seem restless, Antonius. Guilty conscience?” Rossaria taunted angrily. King grinned sheepishly, acknowledging the comment as though it were a joke.
“Just nervous I suppose. Which is stupid, of course I can trust him, but there you go.”
Rossaria frowned, noting the wrongness in the sentence. “Him?”
Without warning, King’s head snapped up, his body tense and alert. “Go!”
Instantly, he and Bill launched themselves at the startled fire warriors, with Bellis following close behind. Hunter moved to stand in front of Rossaria, shielding her from any potential retaliation. King kicked his opponent’s pulse rifle in her general direction before the Xeno could reach it and aimed a punch square at the creature’s throat. Bill had slipped round the back and had his opponent in a stranglehold, choking it. Bellis was wrestling with one while another had drawn a knife and was attacking him from behind. His great coat was practically armour though and the stupid thing was going for the chest where he had his flak vest anyway. Hunter grabbed the rifle and laid down covering fire through the doorway, causing Scar to duck back behind cover. All the active Tau were shouting - the others were too busy choking - and Scar was shooting back. Rossaria slid off her seat and crouched as much as the cuffs would allow her, making a smaller target and freeing up Hunter to concentrate more on the gun fight. The two unengaged Tau charged King simultaneously and he swung round just in time to face them.
Using a Tau helmet as a makeshift weapon King launched himself forward, bodyslamming one of them across the cabin and into the gunfire around the cockpit. The other was using its pulse rifle as a bayonet - fortunately for King, under the circumstances - and he felt the jarring thud as it slammed into his side but his flak seemed to spread the impact sufficiently to save his ribs.
“That’s the thing about chaos space marines.” King shouted to Rossaria as he wrestled with the Xeno. “You’d think they’re all blood-crazed berserkers, but not the Wordbearers. They’re cold, sadistic bastards. When they invaded our transport ship, the first thing they killed wasn’t even a person, it was the lights - Bellis, the door! - because we can’t see in the dark, but space marines can.” He paused briefly in his explanation to smile a vicious acknowledgement as Bill put one of the Tau’s knives into his hand, then continued his fight with renewed vigour. “They can hear too, better than us, better than a damn comms relay. Aah! Right, you Xeno heretic bastard!”
He broke off the explanation as a blow to the head nearly knocked him from his feet, but with only one active opponent left in the cabin it was a foregone conclusion. Bill took up the story, digging with a spare Tau blade into the cuffs in an attempt to free the Lord Commissar.
“Gloriana Terra means extreme radio silence.” He explained. “We couldn’t make any sound and we couldn’t see hand signals, so the Commander ordered that every man has his head and act independently to work together. If you see what I mean. So now it’s like a code word. We didn’t know what the plan was, but we knew there was one so we just did what we could to support it. Shit, the blade’s just snapped! Sorry sir, I just can’t get this thing off.”
King stood up over the body of the now-dead Tau, wiping blood off his face, a mix of his blood and its. “Well one of these frakkers must have a key, sort it!”
Rossaria obligingly nodded to the Tau corpse in question which had dealt with her cuffs, and King turned to her, grabbing another pulse rifle as he did so to aid in the fire fight at the front. “I’m sorry I couldn’t explain. We knew they were spying on us and I couldn’t take the chance of being overheard.”
“Do you even recall that on my first day here I asked you if there was anything specific I needed to know?” was the caustic answer.
“Sorry. It doesn’t come up much.”
“Your betrayal is too late, Commander Antonius King.” Povree Sakea shouted over the noise of gunfire. “We have the command codes now and you cannot stop us. Surrender now and you will be treated fairly, that is all we will offer.”
“I make it we’ve got at least twice as many guns than you.” King shouted back.
“Pulse rifles. You cannot fire them in the cabin, you will shoot through the walls and crash!”
“Is that right?” King turned to Hunter, figuring that if any of them would know it would be her.
“Don’t think so sir, they’re just glorified las guns and we couldn’t scratch a devilfish.”
“You hear that Povree? We’re happy to keep fighting. Are you?”
“You are too late. We are broadcasting the codes now.”
The ship lurched as they dodged one last blast from the heavy support fire.
King held his breath.
The las cannon fired again. The view from the windscreen lit up with small fireworks as drone after drone exploded against the still-solid void shield. The troop carrier lurched again as the pilot pulled up and swooped left and skywards to the limit of the skimmer’s abilities to escape the same fate.
“Ok, you can tell Scar-face that under the circumstances I am prepared to forego that apology.” King grinned, unleashing another volley of pulse rifle fire that had their opponents ducking for cover.
“But you tested it sir, they must have been the right codes?” Bellis asked, confused.
“Oh they are, but I got Commissar Haine to cancel my authority before I left.” King replied breezily. Rossaria, now free, stood by his side with a pulse rifle and an unreadable expression. “The vox caster’s machine spirit didn’t get its update down-brief so it didn’t realise, but the base’s machines did.”
They ducked back as Scar and Povree Sakea unleashed a volley from their hand weapons, spraying the cabin with pulse shots until they managed again to get the upper hand. The battle may have swung dramatically in the Imperial favour overall, but here in this devilfish the hugely defendable doorway held them to a stalemate. Either side could rush the other, but it would mean charging headlong into gunfire and whoever did it would undoubtedly lose.
The stand-off was eventually resolved, after what was almost certainly mere minutes but felt considerably longer, when a stray pulse from the Imperial Guard’s side of the fight struck neatly into the plexiglas of the windshield, blasted a hole right through it. While mostly the explosion of Plexiglas went outwards, one of the shards bounced off the top of the frame and ricocheted downwards, striking the flight instruments in a cloud of sparks and smoke. The devilfish suddenly seemed to stop for an instant before roaring downwards in a cloud of smoke. Human and Tau alike, they braced themselves for impact.