Fighting fifth: Blaquiere

[Ninjabob]

Spc. Jace Colber

Jace waits for the sergeant to finish his message before speaking up Sir, I believe I may be able to use the enemy's cannons against them. I was taught how to use a great many land vehicles, including the basilisk, during tech training.

[Grailkeeper]

Thats a Negative, we can handle this. Guns are priority number one, I make it 2 hours till the C-94s are in this airspace, guns need to be gone by then, most rikki-tik.

First Squad, I think I saw a clearing before Tango 2 when we were overhead, rendsez-vous there with second squad before moving up and spiking these guns.

Second Squad move out and make the clearing.

[Lycan 01]

Commissar Larkson listens to the radio chatter. She then looks back down at the soldier and scowls. "Strip off that uniform, and then run." She steps away from the soldier, and glares around at the rest of the men in her unit. "Let him go. The Emperor would frown on such a wanton waste of ammunition," she growls.

[LeSwordfish]

"Do yourself a favour." Vance advised. "Lose the uniform. And stay in the countryside for a few days."

While the man obliges, Vance turns to his squad. "Alright, folks. Two hours until the big noise starts. Battery one is clear, battery three is a work in progress, and we are headed out to rendezvous with squad two at a clearing for battery two. Load the stubbers and any extra gear into the truck. Lewis, Mordechai, any ammo that will fit our weapons, load it on the truck."

"Basilisk training, eh? Could come in very handy."

[Grailkeeper]

After sealing off the doors of the barn the squad mounts up. By now the enemy solider, divested of uniform, has long since made his way into the night.

The Truck is of a common kind found all over the sector, so there are no difficulties driving it, and the squad are well used to travelling this way, they just wish whoever had designed the STC had thought to include suspension.

Travelling with the aid of the stolen map, and following the most rutted roadway the squad finds itself just outside the clearing. Roughly half an hour has passed and there has been no radio contact. The squad dismount here so as to make as little noise as possible. A single figure emerges from the shadows and calls out "Night"

[Lycan 01]

Dismounting from the truck, Valeria hovers her hand just above her holstered bolt pistol. "Fog," she calls out sternly, before looking up at whoever is manning the newly-mounted stubber, and flicking her head towards the figure. "Keep your eyes on him..." he quietly warns the squad.

[DrK]

Cpl Rook

The big heavy perched on the back of the truck looks at the figure as the Sarge gives the countersign. THe massive barrel of the autocannon aimed his way in a slightly menacing manner.

"Ready to play with the big guns?" the whispered question to Austin, "Always!" the return answer as the tall blonde trooper runs a gloved hand through his long blond locks.

"Not the eyes we to keep on him sarge." Rook whispers back as he motions with a nod to the barrel of the cannon that points at the figure.

[LeSwordfish]

Timesplit: on the journey
In a quiet moment on the journey, Vance took a moment to make eye contact with the commissar.

"Good call." he said, quietly. "Lot of commissars I've known wouldn't have done that. Another reason to be thankful Crowe's not with us any more." That little heresy done, Vance turned back to cleaning the gore off the muzzle of his shotgun.

At the Clearing
Vance dropped down from the truck and walked toward the figure. "Squad three? What took you so long?"

Chainsword and pistol ready. Because you never know.

[Lycan 01]

Timesplit: On the Road

Commissar Larkson gives a small shrug, and maintains a neutral expression. "You know what they say. 'Cowards die a thousand deaths.' Killing him would have been doing him a favor. And," she smirks, "I was serious about wasting ammunition. We should save it for actual threats, not sniveling fools who pose us no immediate danger. But yes, do not be surprised if some of my methods are slightly more 'outside the box' than your previous representative of the Commissariat."

She glances over at Corporal Rook. "Most Commissars, for example, would have shot him after that little 'noise discipline' fiasco," she quietly tells the Sergeant. "But I would rather not so flippantly execute our best heavy gunner, as his talents are too useful to squander, and I doubt he will cause any further complications. And bolting someone thirty seconds into the operation is not the best way to integrate oneself into a new unit, either. Hopefully I will not come to regret that decision of lenience," she mutters with a roll of her eyes.

[Grailkeeper]

First squad. Or all thats left of it.

You recognise the trooper as Yanny Pederson, a relatively popular member of first squad. He's not looking well. He's lost his helmet and shotgun. His throat and chest are covered in drying blood. The parts of his face not blackened by gunsmoke have a distinct blue pallor and his eyes are glazed.

It hit us just after we got the message off. Some kind of red...daemon. I've never seen anything move so fast. Last thing I remember was it gutting the sarge. I dunno how I got away it killed everyone, I think, I can't remember exactly what happened it was all so fast. I dunno where the squad are or where it went, or even how I got here.

He takes out a lho stick, and lights it. His hands are visibly trembling.

[Ninjabob]

Spc. Jace Colber

Jace liked being behind the wheel. There wasn't any better. Course, the Emperor damned machine didn't have suspension. That only made it more fun. Not for his passengers. But their comfort wasn't his problem. They were in the Guard, not some pleasure outing.

He pulled to the side of the road near the clearing. Someone stepped onto the road, and Jace reached for his shotgun, only to hear the call. Dear Emperor, was that Yanny Pederson? They had just played tarot yesterday, and this happens. It exemplified life in the guard.

Daemon? Jace asks, getting out of the car. He walks over to Pederson, and swats away the lho stick.Light discipline. I'm gonna ask a question just to make sure its you, and not some... Impostor. What did we do yesterday?

While it sounds like he's giving Pederson a hard time, the concern in his eyes is palpable.

[LeSwordfish]

"Crap." Vance stopped in his stride, his imagination running free. "I... Crap."

"Get in the truck. Explain all you can. Have you voxed this to command?"

[Grailkeeper]

He lights another lho stick

Fug Light discipline. I just blew up a gun emplacement and watched my friends die, we are so fugging far beyond light discipline it isn't fugging funny.


Command doesn't know, the first one it took out was our vox operator. Daemon, Xenos, Mutant... what ever that red and black bastard is it's fugging clever as well as quick.


Yesterday feels like a fuggin long time ago now. He draws on the smoke. Lets see, I went to the command briefing, then afterwards I played a game of Shuggy and ate a can of peaches. Ya happy?

[LeSwordfish]

"Okay." Vance said, breathing and thinking quickly. "Sit down in the truck, catch your breath. We need to vox this to command ASAP."

His eyes flickered to the commissar. Unless they already know. But he didn't say that.

[Kiranvonstrom]

"Right, now Yanny?" Claudia speaks up, after an uncharacteristic period of silence. No one had been threatened with organ donation for some time. "Shut the frak up and let me stitch you back up."

Claudia let out an unsteady breath. Daemon. Her previous experiences with daemons had been attempting to staunch the bleeding on a stomach wound brought back to camp by a seabird who had stumbled back into camp with his intestines almost hanging out. How a red-hot blade hadn't cauterized the wound when it had gutted the man was a mystery to Claudia, and one she really never planned to find out. She had managed to close the wound after an hour of intense surgery. The man died the next day anyway.

Daemons were bad business.

"Symmone. Get your arse over here. You're next for treatment."

Claudia paused as she bagan to pull out her medikit.

"Um...Commissar? How are we sure that he isn't influenced? Like, unconscious-wise? His memory's bad, though that could be shell shock." Claudia said, suddenly worried. Seeing worry on the face of the psychopathic medic is...disconcerting, at the very least. Like seeing an Ork in a uniform.

"Yanny, I need you to say the Emperor's Creed. Verse 719, you know the one. Like he was right in front of you. I want to hear that faith." If he could say the Emperor's Creed, then he probably wasn't posessed. If he was, well...

Claudia pulled out her shotgun and nestled it firmly beneath his chin.

"Pray. You owe me for that hand of cards." She hoped the commissar would understand.

[LeSwordfish]

Vance put his hand on the man's shoulder. "It's Okay, Yanny. We can't be too sure. Just stay calm, do what the medicae says."

[Kiranvonstrom]

Claudia laughs darkly. "Music to my ears, Sir.

Tarquin, meanwhile, guides Symmone away to the bed of the truck, where he begins cleaning off his arm wound.

[Lycan 01]

Commissar Larkson watches the events unfolding before her, her mind racing as she weighs all of her options. How much do they know? How much should they know? Where does 'classified above your pay grade' end and 'need to know basis' begin? Should she explain her next course of action to them, or simply carry out her duty and spare them the reasoning behind it?

Then the Medic crams her shotgun up under the trooper's chin, under the assumption that he's possessed. Ah, so close...

Commissar Larkson draws her bolt pistol - an action sure to get everone's attention. "Alright, soldiers, stow the chatter!" she barks. "Eye open, weapons hot! The thing that slaughtered Trooper Pederson's squad was no demon. It is mortal, it bleeds, and it can be killed! But if it gets the drop on us, we're frakked! So stop dawdling around and interrogating this man, and focus more on the fact we're probably about to be attacked!" she snarls.

"Besides, Trooper Pederson is not possessed," she states factually, before assuming a rigid posture with her left hand behind her back, and her bolt pistol leveled directly with the man's forehead. "He's infected."

And with that, she blasts the majority of his brain matter out the back of his shattered skull.

[Kiranvonstrom]

Claudia barely blinks when the commissar kills Yanny. Such are the benefits of homocidal psychosis.

"Aw, commissar, but he owed me money..." Claudia ignores the fact that she is now covered in blood and brain matter. In her line of work, that isn't exactly an unusual condition.

"Right then," Claudia lets the body drop, and ***** her shotgun. "Eyes on our sides?"

Claudia carefully didn't ask what infestation meant. Let some other poor frakker ask, and get their head blown off for curiosity.

OOC: apparently, the act of preparing a shotgun to fire is censored. Oh, well, GiantITP. You all know what it means.

[DrK]

As the Commisaar mutters the word infected Rook slides away from the 1st Squad man - a wise move as seconds later his head explodes in a mass of red gore. The blood spraying over Rook's face.

Wiping the mess clear Rook looks worriedly at the Commissar. "Er Maam, its not catching his disease eh?"

Waiting for the answer he goes back to looking down the long barrel of the gun at anything moving in the darkness.

[Lycan 01]

Valeria flicks a skull fragment off of her sleeve, a look of mild disgust and disdain on her face. "Contagious? No. Dangerous? Indirectly," she observes sternly.

The Commissar passes her bolt pistol to her left hand, and as her right hand reaches down to unbuckle her chainsword from it's sheathe, her eyes shift to the men and woman around her. A scowl tugs at the corners of her mouth. "My orders were to keep this information 'need-to-know,' but leaving you in the dark will likely just hamper combat effectiveness." She draws her chainsword and twirls it in her hand, performing a duelist flourish with the un-revved blade. "I'd rather you know about it now and prepare accordingly, and not scream and die like idiots when it finally decides to show itself. The thing that got 1st squad was a Genestealer," she growls. "Just like any living creature, human or otherwise, it dies if you shoot it. Do not underestimate them. But do not fear them. Just keep your wits about you, and you'll be fine."

[LeSwordfish]

Vance releases the man's shoulder, and the ruined corpse of trooper Yanny Pederson, first squad, fifth platoon, 010503994, chief dodge-passer of the regimental scrumball team, fell from the truck into the dirt and lay limp.

"We've still got a job to do." Vance said, dropping from the truck to take the man's dog-tags, and then looking each member of the squad in the eye. "Don't matter what beast spreads its **** on this rock, if we don't silence those guns, a lot of good men will die. Ninety minutes, soldiers. We don't have time to cower."

"Colber, pass me the vox-horn, and start driving us towards the objective. Everyone else, stay sharp."

When he recieves the horn, Vance swings it up under his chin. "Bigbird, this is two leader. Squad one is down. Repeat, down. Continuing with previous orders."

[Hazzardevil]

During the journey
Symonne nurses his arm and whimpers during the journey and when he gets out he gets out the car to be treated.

Once they arrive
Gantz speaks up after the Commissar speaks:
These Genestealers, do they were any sort of armour? Are they purely organic or would it be more efficent to use my meltagun on them to melt armour?

[Lycan 01]

Commissar Larkson watches Vance retrieve Trooper Pederson's dog tags. As he stands back up, she tries to make eye contact with the Sergeant. "The man you knew was gone," she quietly tells him. "I did him a favor."

She then turns towards Gantz and his inquiry. Great, now they're asking questions...

"It's chitinous hide serves as a natural armor of sorts, but it's nothing that can't withstand a round of buckshot, a revving chainblade, or a blast from a melta-gun," she smirks confidently. "You've all read your Primers. Shoot them. Kill them. Rinse and repeat. It's as simple as that."

[Ninjabob]

Spc. Jace Colber

Jace recoils sharply from the loss of his friend. Of course it wasn't his friend any longer. He was filthy. He was profane. He was Xenos. He takes a moment to remember the man he knew, and to wipe bits of him off his face, and then continues with the matter at hand, tossing Vance the vox horn. He grabs his shotgun and pumps it, and lays it across his legs in the truck.

Sarge, I suggest I drive this truck forward into the middle stubber nest, with at least myself and Gantz in it. From there we would have great positions against the basilisks.

[DrK]

As the road passed under the wheels of the truck Rook watched the cliffs and the berm through the greenish tint of the photo-visor. "3 Nests eh? Do we supresse the left and centre or right and centre?"

He glances at Austin - "You going in with the strike team?". Austin smiles a winning smile with his gleaming white teeth and hefts his shotgun. "Emperor's Faith aye." He nods.

Spoiler

Show

Austin will, if needed go with the strike party. I guess I can load myself

[LeSwordfish]

Vance studied the topography for another minute. "Right. This is the plan. Colber, Mordechai, Symmonds, Ganz, Lewis, you're team one. Temporary control is Colber's."

Lewis, the adjudant, opens his mouth to speak. Vance silences him with a gesture.

"Colber'll be driving. He wont need a passenger telling him where to go. Take the truck, drive down to that nest there. Drive casual as far as you can, take it out from as close a range as possible. Team two- me, Rook, and Austin, will remain here with the stubbers, and on your signal will keep both the other nests pinned. Head down to the beach and take the basilisks. Commissar, wherever you feel you'll be most useful."

"And one last thing. There could be any number of alien gribblies running around on that beach. I don't care. I don't care what things will come out of the bushes to try and eat you, and when you stand in front of the emperor and give him that excuse, he won't care either."

[DrK]

Rook glances down into the bushes at the Sgt's words. "I wish you hadn't said that Sarge..." The words followed seconds later by Austin and Rook hopping off the side of the trick and finding a good fallen log to hunker down behind with the autocannon braced on the top sweeping left and right as he watches the berm.

"Just givethe word sarge and I'll take down the nest"...

Spoiler

Show

Hunker down behind a log bracing the cannon.

Then if time allows I will full round aim at the central nest and wait to shoot

[Lycan 01]

Commissar Larkson nods to Sergeant Vance. "I will accompany Team One."

She then takes a step forward, her posture straight and rigid, with her left hand folded behind her back, and her right hand holding her bolt pistol aloft. "Guardsmen, I will not lie to you. The Sergeant is right; there is a very real probability of Xenos presence amongst the enemy," she states with a stern expression, her voice firm and authoritative. "Your initial reaction to them will, no doubt, be fear. It is only natural that such abominations against nature and the Emperor's Grace would create such strong emotional reaction within you. But Guardsmen, do not let that fear weaken or control you. Instead, harness it! Turn it into rage. Turn it into righteous fury. Let it guide your hand in the destruction of the things which summon up such feelings within your soul. Let your soul be your guide; destroy that which it abhors."

She slowly looks into the eyes of each man and woman in her presence. "Should anyone come into close contact with a Genestealer and be bitten, I shall examine them afterwards for possible signs of infection. However, even if I fall in the coming conflict, you have already seen the symptoms firsthand. Fatigue, disorientation, memory loss, open wounds, blue pallor, vacant stare... And should I show these symptoms myself, just shoot me. But ONLY those symptoms. I'd rather not be shot over a sneeze," she quips, a wry smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

Valeria ejects the current clip from her bolt pistol, and slams a fresh, full magazine into. Racking the slide to chamber a fresh round, she then adjusts her hat and sash before striding back towards the truck. She clambers up onto the back of the truck, and stands up so that the team can clearly see her. "Well soldiers, it is time to move out and perform our duty to the Emperor. Let no man or woman be found wanting in thought and deed. Do not falter, do not fail. Press on, Guardsman of the Imperium. Press on, and triumph!" she proclaims.

[Ninjabob]

Spc. Jace Colber

Colber nods at the Sarge. It was time. The commissar's speech made him smile. After all, how many times do you find a commissar asking to be shot.... Okay, literally asking to be shot.

Everyone, mount up, and stay low. We'll try and get in as close as we can before combat. If we get shot at before then, it may get a bit bumpy. Everybody, check ammo. Moving in 30 seconds.

Colber feels the adrenaline starting to rush through him. Mordechai looks the same way. The enormity of their objective had hit him. It wasn't about if he died. It wasn't about if his squad died. If they were successful, they would save thousands. Nonetheless, Mordechai looked a little jumpy.