At long last, the next instalment! Fingers crossed the next one won’t be quite as long in coming!
Grove stood inside the temporary HQ building, tucked safely behind the rockrete walls and defences of the siege. The windows of the building, their glass long gone, had been boarded up with flakboard, and hasty doors had been installed in the empty doorways. Holes in the roof had been hastily repaired with more flakboard and sheets of thick plastek. They’d not seen any signs of rain since their arrival planetside, but there was no sense in risking the leaky roof with so much electrical equipment present.
The room was dim, the only light coming in from gaps around the hastily-fitted doors and the various display plates of consoles about the room. The biggest light source was the main hololithic display which occupied the centre of the room, like a large, shiny black mushroom two metres across and waist high. Its flickering green glow lit the faces of the men stood around it, studying the image it projected into the air above it – The Gerhanna mountain range.
Grove took a mouthful from the cup of caffeine he held, and glanced around at the officers clustered around the display. Major Terner, the regiments armour commander sweeping her non-regulation hair back from her face. Commissar Koreol with his cap in hand, talking to Major Greer. Opposite Grove stood Colonel Chise DeGuine with two junior officers, the green of their uniforms glowing in the light from the display. Deguine was currently the highest ranking officer in the PDF, and de facto commander of the PDF forces on Merghast, under Grove himself. His uniform was loose on him now – he’d been a larger man before the arrival of the Tau, and had lost weight as he led the resistance during the xenos rule of his home planet. He was a hard man if his reputation were to be believed, but he looked tired. More tired than any amount of sleep could ease.
Another man lurked outside the glow of the hololithic display. His short black coat bore no insignia, and none of his garb was military in origin, but he seemed to exude a sense of menace that meant aides in the HQ avoided him, taking the long route around the command centre rather than pass by him. DeGuine regarded him coldly from time to time. Some of the other PDF officers watched him as if he might suddenly kill them all without warning. Grove couldn’t say he blamed them.
The last officer gathered leaned closer to the display and fiddled with one of the control panels, bringing up further data about one of the flashing red icons on the green image. Colonel Tarquin Saddler was a tall, lithe man without seemingly a spare ounce of flesh on his bones. His hair was steel grey and neatly trimmed, and his jaw was clean-shaven like every man of the 3rd. His left eye was a glowing augmetic – the mirror image of Groves own in his right - and it wasn’t the only augmetic part of Groves 1st officer and closest friend. The gaunt Colonel carried half a dozen augmetics, including his left arm and several internal organs. All courtesy of the Archenemy. He’d been with Grove on Cabride with the 25th.
Grove moved alongside Saddler “Another engagement?” he asked, gesturing at the flashing icon and it’s scrolling data.
“Yes sir” replied Saddler in his clipped tones – his family was wealthy and noble back on Arcadia, and his elocution was perfect “second platoon this time. They are moving to Sergeant Mayes’ last known position”
Grove nodded “Rossin’s mob should be able to-“
“General!” one of the troopers manning a vox station called out. Grove turned his head to face him “Sergeant Rossin’s reporting that the hostiles are… uh, different sir”.
Grove frowned and glanced at Saddler, who shrugged. He hurried over to the vox station and took the proffered headset . Saddler flicked the channel onto the display’s speakers “Rossin, this is Grove. What’s the situation?”
There was a hiss of static before Rossins voice crackled through. Gunfire could be heard in the background “Sir, we’ve engaged an enemy patrol of some sort. Kroot. But these are different sir”
“They’re aliens sergeant. They’re supposed to be different.”
“I know sir, but these – Jehryn, to the right! – these are different to the others we’ve fought. They’re deformed. Even uglier than the others.” Replied Rossin “I know how stupid it sounds, but that’s how it is sir”
Grove frowned at the vox station. Rossin wasn’t an idiot, and he wasn’t given to flights of fancy. He was a well grounded veteran, one of the most capable sergeants in the regiment. It wasn’t like him to make so little sense. “That’s not our business Sergeant. We’ll leave that to-“
“If I may General?” The black clad stranger had stepped stepped forward into the light cast from the central display, and revealed himself to be a mild-faced man with long black hair tied back loosely from his face. His arms were folded across his chest “It would perhaps be useful to have a specimen brought back here for analysis” he looked at Grove with eyes that appeared black in the half-light “With your permission, of course General” It was phrased as request, but Grove knew very well that it was a request he couldn’t really refuse
“Very well sergeant. Bring in a specimen – preferably a dead one – once you’ve reached Sergeant Mayes’ position. We’ll send in a squad to relieve you”
“Confirmed sir. We’ll pick the ugliest we can find. Rossin out”
He handed the headset back to the Vox operator, and turned to the other officers “What do you make of that?” he asked
“Maybe your sergeant’s just confused?” offered DeGuine
“Possibly. But I’m not so sure…” answered Grove, staring at the blinking icon that indicated Rossin’s squad. He shifted his gaze to the black clad man “Inquisitor?”
The man in black stepped back into the gloom “We’ll see when your man returns General” was all he said.
*
Kenrick could see flashes of gunfire, and hear the echoes of a heated firefight bouncing from the walls of the mountains, originating on the plateau just ahead. That was where Sergeant Mayes and his squad had been jumped, and that’s where Rossin was leading elements of 2nd Platoon. They’d already fought through a group of Kroot headed in the same direction. The ugly creatures had been scurrying up the scree slope towards the plateau eager to join in the bloodshed, and totally oblivious to the guardsmen behind them. 2nd Platoon had cut them down in a merciless hail of fire. That’s when they’d noticed the difference that had been reported back to command. They’d dragged aside several of the stinking bodies as possible ‘specimens’ for later collection. Kenrick forced himself not to dwell on the twisted image that rose in his head of the dead Kroot. Ahead and above he could hear a string of crude curses and imprecations over the crackle of las fire. Sergeant Mayes was still alive at least.
Rossin signalled for bayonets, and moments later lead the charge over the last lip onto the plateau. Kenrick followed close behind Jheryn, still wary of his friends over-eager use of the flamer. The survivors were clustered behind a large sliver of fallen stone blasting at the onrushing aliens. Dawn had seemingly broken as Kenrick and the others fought through the other pack of xenos, and the morning light shone on Kroot that were as twisted as those killed earlier by 2nd platoon.
Blue-white las fire lanced into the clacking mob of aliens felling half a dozen of them in seconds. The newly arrived troopers fanned out into the stone debris opposite the ledge that the Kroot continued to leap from, keeping a steady wall of firing up. The twisted creatures shrieked as they realised the new threat, and turned their attentions to the grey-clad guardsmen now re-enforcing the others.
Rossin reached Mayes position, blasting from the hip as he dropped down next to the shorter man “You can relax now Mayes. The grown-ups are here to sort this out” he called with a grin
“Nuk you” was Mayes’ snarled reply. Rossin laughed, and unleashed a hail of fire up at the ridge. Mayes dropped back into cover and started slapping fresh shells into his shotgun. He gestured to the cleft in the wall behind them, now clearly visible in the early morning light.
“Might want to check that” he called to Rossin “That’s where the first nukkers appeared. Been quiet since they dropped those two”.
Rossin looked over at the cleft, taking in the two grey-clad bodies at its mouth. It didn’t make sense; if the Kroot had forces in the cleft, as evidenced by the two dead troopers, why hadn’t they attacked when the trap was sprung? Mayes’ squad would have been trapped and ripped apart in moments, and all Rossin would have been re-enforcing would have been corpses.
Rossin fixed his prosthetic gaze on the dark cleft in the wall, frowing hard at it as his glowing eye cycled through its selection of alternate spectrum viewing. As it switched to heat sensor the cleft was suddenly full of glowing movement. Rossin swung his rifle up yelling “Behind us!”
No sooner had he yelled than Kroot spilled from the cleft, their shrill cries cutting through the sounds of the firefight in progress. Their bladed rifles were raised as they darted forward – and past the two sergeants. They leapt over the stunned Imperial Guardsmen and into the other Kroot. The imperial fire faltered and died as the two forces of aliens tore at one another, seemingly ignoring the humans on the plateau.
As the two bands of aliens fought, Kenrick was struck by the differences he saw in them. Even in the swirling melee it was clear. Those dropping from the ledge were darker – their skin, their beaks, even their blood. Not only that, but they seemed… twisted. Absurd as it sounded even to him to say that one lot of xenos was more twisted than the other, it was still true. There was a sense of wrongness about them that left him disturbed. It also worried him that after the initial charge, the darker Kroot were overwhelming the others. More and more of their kin were dropping down from the ledge above.
Sergeant Rossin had no idea what was going on, but none of the aliens seemed interested in killing his boys right now and that suited him just fine. He wasn’t going to get involved in some kind of xenos spat if he didn’t have to.
He activated his comm link “Ok boys, let’s pull back and let these ugly bastards fight it out” he looked over to Mayes who nodded curtly “Back down the way we came. Launchers, get some grenades up on that ledge, see if we can’t slow ‘em down some”. Moments later the hollow thuds of the platoons two grenade launchers echoed across the plateau. So far they’d been kept in reserve due to the close quarters of the fight and the risk of fragging the troopers they were coming to relieve. But now they rained explosive death down on the ledge as the grey clad Arcadians pulled back from the plateau.
Fire bloomed along the ridge above scattering stone shards and dead Kroot over the edge. The Kroot tearing at each other finally seemed to take notice of something around them and began to disengage, starting to scatter. A loud crack resounded across the plateau, and Kenrick glanced up at the ledge still bleeding smoke into the sky. A large fissure had appeared in the stone, and the whole overhang was about to drop down into them
“Move!” cried Rossin. The Arcadians broke into a run for the rubble dotted ramp that had lead them here, and the Kroot, seemingly realising the same as the Imperials – that the whole plateau was about to play host to a lot of falling granite – scattered.
Kenrick was running even before the sergeant had yelled. He wasn’t the farthest from the ramp, but may as well have been. He ran frantically, ignoring the sounds of stone falling from above, aware of other grey-clad bodies running around him.
Something hit him hard from the side and sent him sprawling on the hard stone. An awful stench assaulted him as he lay partially stunned. Beside him was one of the dark Kroot, scrabbling to regain its feet. Panic welled in Kenrick as the twisted creature turned its dark pupil-less eyes on him, and he scrambled for his rifle. A serrated blade appeared in the Kroots hand and it leaped at the fallen Guardsman. Kenrick knew he was going to die, and the world seemed to grow silent and slow down as he watched the barbaric xeno fly through the air towards him, cruel blade outstretched and eager for his flesh. The blade never reached him. He watched in numb shock as the dark Krot was caught in the ribs by one of the xeno’s bladed rifles. The up swung weapon embedded in its chest and knocked it across the plateau towards the edge.
Reality snapped back into realtime, and Kenrick finally grasped his rifle. His saviour, one of the lighter Kroot looked down at him, then grabbed his webbing and hauled him to his feet and towards the edge of the plateau. It squawked at him
“Jump!” it shrieked in crude gothic “Jump human!”
Kenrick glanced down – the plateau here ended in a steep un-climbable slope of scree pierced by blades of granite. A quick glance behind him showed him the whole upper ledge finally giving way and starting its brief collapse fall to the plateau. And him.
He jumped.
***
The mountains rumbled, like the sound of distant thunder, echoing from their granite flanks as the plateau so recently occupied by Sergeant Mayes and his men was buried by a grenade induced rockslide. When Sergeant Rossin returned to check the area after the engagement there was no trace of the battle that taken place. The plateau was now an impassable mound of shattered granite. He reported the situation to command, along with the reports of those troopers K.I.A. and proceeded with his orders to return to base with a specimen of these ‘uglier’ Kroot.
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