This account has been copied into the records by Nogai Albarazi, senior scribe and record keeper of house Haddayway. The most Noble of farming houses.
These accounts were taken from our noble masters diary's , and turned into a novel , so subjects of the Emperor can read and understand mistakes made, and victories won.
Looking back on my life it was not the first time my younger self relished the thought of battle over the thought of retirement and lasting long enough to see that day. While my career was dotted with mishmash regiments, or proud soldiers of the emperor, none were quite the same as the rag tag band of Guardsmen Known as the 10th Cadian Siege dogs. A regiment known for holding the line and wars of attrition. They were a strange bunch of men. But they did their duty.
It was early in the morning when a runner came knocking. I could already hear the distant sounds of earthshakers delivering the emperor's justices miles away, and also the sound of the jungle, the constant roars of predictors and the chirping of birds, was enough to drive lesser men mad. The Runner was a young lad, part of the Regimental HQ staff members . He wore his standard Cadian flak armour, which was slightly to big for his shape, though in the guard soldiers quickly learn there are two sizes, to big, or too small. He informed me with some unease that the Regimental commander, had requested my presence after breakfast , I nodded and waved him off, deciding I would take my time. The Regimental Commander was Paranoid , ill tempered and did not like the Commissars or the priests attached to his regiment one bit. He always kept a few of his most elite soldiers, decked out in carapace stationed close to him, brandishing hellguns.
After leaving my air conditioned quarters I instantly broke into a sweat, the humidity of this planet was something I had never experienced before the great coat did not help, the black felt like it was absorbing the suns rays , the leather smelt like it was burning, and my skin was starting to look a unhealthy red colour. Cursing I applied the cream one of the medics had give out to avoid this type of skin condition and made my way to the officers mess.
I had managed to get myself a warm meal and a cup of recaff. I remember I was sitting chatting with a few of the long knife’s officers and the few remaining Commissars. It was strange to be in a room with so many of my own, at least not since my fight ageist the blue skinned Tau. Throne knows these men were more experienced in every way then I, but they were all interested in hearing my thoughts on the tau. Though to be honest I exaggerated my role in the battles that took place. The regiment I was stationed with were highly disciplined, and the only Commissar work to be done was on the battle field making myself look pretty, in blue skin blood, and firing my bolter. Which at the point I entered the war with the regiment was easy enough .The Tau were cut off and broke, they only controlled one last strong hold a back water Ice planet. Do not get me wrong, I slaughtered my fair share of tau, but being the role of a Commissar, was to chat with the troops inspire them, and here in front of me is a Veteran of a Penal legion who had ten men try to murder him in the shower.
To my left is a long knife Junior lieutenant who has managed in a single campaign to rise from the rank of Private during his campaign on this world,. He was covered in more scars then self-harming ogryn. To say the least I was running out of stories and was glad when the running charged into the tent demanding that I would meet with the commanding officer. I offered the private my seat , throwing my great coat on. He looked surprised to say the least, but when the Lieutenant pulled him down shoved a cup of recaff in his hand, then went back to talking about how he stabbed an Ork to death with a rusty fork. I clipped my weapon belt on and left the tent.
The commanders meeting went as to be expect, which meant, i had to threaten to shoot his guards for trying to disarm me, then a request for me to go on a very important mission to recover a fuel refinery of some kind . I gave him all the pleasantry's one of my status would , but with a hand resting on the handle of my chain sword.
The commander Had stuck me again with Solomon’s squad. Solomon was a good man, a good fighter, but his squad was less then what I would call a fighting unit, though I was soon proved wrong. At the time there was a lose cannon operator, a medic that was scared of his own shadow, a guardsmen nicknamed gunny that would brag about how he popped a pimple. A ratling that loved his cooking pot as much as he loved his rifle and a Psyker who to say the least was due a bolt round drilled into his skull.
The mission was simple go the the refinery, kill the orks, secure it wait for back up. I would be watching over two squads of guardsmen each would have a Chimera armoured transport, commonly used in the regiments of the imperial guard. The seige dogs, seemed to have one for every squad and a few spare , not to mention every soldier had carapace, which I quickly managed to get my self a suit off to keep under my great coat.
After receiving our ordered Solomon took his squad into their Chimera and took point in our small convoy. I myself took charge over the second squad and the command Chimera. I never got the Sergents name, nor did I care after they passed off my self-offering them a few luxury’s . The track was easy going, with little excitement. I sipped on a mug of recaff getting updates from Solomons lead Chimera. All was quiet until a burning Valkyrie was spotted overhead. After a short conversation with Solomon an agreement was made that we would head off route to link up with downed Valkyrie. At the time it was thought that a few extra hands and weapons could not hurt. I did not know what such an important role they would play, but I am glad we went to their aid in hindsight.
It was a short trip though the bush , at this time I thought it would be best to check and perform the proper cleaning and maintenance rites on my weapons. I noticed that the guardsmen in the back were whispering to each other. I swung the command chair around, to face them. Slapping in a fresh magazine and pulling the large bolt handle back, chambering a round with a satisfying noise that silenced their whispers. I reminded them, holstering my pistol that the emperor was watching and that I was his eyes and his fist. I muttered a prayer in my hand as we carried on in silence for the rest of the trip.
Upon arriving we spotted the downed ship trapped in a river of some kind, and slowly sinking, at which time we began to make a rescue attempt. I pulled up on the opposite bank with my command Chimera. I ordered the squad out and set about forming a perimeter. Opening the hatch to the turret I pulled myself up, catching the humid atmosphere on my face, the hot temperatures instantly sending me into a sweat , the sound of the jungle soon met my ears, and I got the unnerving sense that someone , or something was watching. Sgt Solomon’s Chimera waded into the river in an attempt to rescue the crew. His squad managed to use a rope system to get the crew members off. Most of the crew were saved without issue, one almost fell into the water, but was quickly saved by Solomons Heroic efforts, luckily the Sargent was smart enough to lash himself to the vehicle and dove in after, his squad grabbing hold of the rope and pulled both of them in.
At this time I caught out of the corner of my eye, a large feline type creature. I swung the turret of the chimera around and let lose a burst of heavy bolter fighter, the bark silencing the jungle for a breath few seconds before a roar, erupted from the greenery with a thud soon after that. Before I had time to vox Sololmon three more emerged from the jungle, two were on Solomons squad , and two had already made it to me as I turned the turret to face it, unloading anther burst of bolter I caught one as it lipped towards me , the other sunk it’s claws into my chest, luckily I had remembered to put my armour on, and thanked the emperor this unit had carapace armour as standard, because those large claws would have torn apart flak armour. I found out later these creature were called jungle cats. A simple name for the uneducated to use for a beast . I quickly turned the turret around to meet my attacker, as it lost momentum in its attack, letting lose another burst of bolter fire I sent it falling to the ground.
My squad had been laying down covering fire , at some point I felt a thud that slightly winded me. The smell of burning leather , and the crack of a las shot meaning I had taken friendly fire, turning around I shouted demanding who it was, but received no reply. I jumped down and belittled the sergeant of the squad telling him that his squad was useless, it turns out one of the green horns thought his melta gun would over load, and had tossed it into the river. Anther had shot me in the back. Needless to say, I was angry beyond belief. I could have executed the men, and they would be punished, but eliminating half the squad and our forces would be foolish as we were unaware of the enermy's forces or strength, instead walked over to the corpse of the animals taking out my chain sword a managed to nicely skin the beasts stuffing my prized fur into my satchel. The guardsmen seemed to get the message as I took my anger out on skinning the beast.
I was soon re-joined by Solomon and heard his medic had patched the survivors up. It was a relief that our efforts had not gone to waste at least we would have more bodies to throw ageist the Ork filth . I would soon learn that Hypo as he was called, would be an asset rather than a hindrance, despite his habbit of find the nearest hiding place . It turns out solomons Operator, had turned their chimeras turret gun on his commanding officer yet again . He would be punished but not now. We quickly reembarked aboard the transports and set back off.
After our short delay getting lost and a very tense journey, we stumbled upon a small Village of natives. Solomon called a halt to the convoy, at which point I took the time to stick my head back out and let the natives gaze upon the emperors finest, and to see if I could catch a look at the native girls. We had a chat with the locals and handed out food and some spare weapons. We managed to cut a deal with the locals they would help us take our objective and we would give them a new home. It seemed a fair trade, they had managed to find a way to survive the ork mense, so clearly were cable fighters, and would free up imperial assets to destroy the green skin horde, while they kept watch, every one wins.
Hypo found himself busy curing ,patching up, and clearing shaving every Civilian in site, at which point he managed to see everyone in the village in our short stay. Our medical supplies were drained but it was clear that villagers were happy, I tossed a few ration packs to the locals, but kept to my-self , paranoid more jungle cats would show up, or the guardsmen in my chimera would try something. We soon found out where we were supposed to go and quickly headed off in that direction.
The journey took few extra hours but was noticeably quicker with the guidance of the locals. We soon came into site of the compound, a large clearing with a walled perimeter; we could make out the refinery and guard towers. The stench of the orks was clear. We could see them sulking up and down the walls, but a closer look would have been impossible with-out detection from our vehicles. It was soon decided that the Rattling, guardsmen Korneli kobak would scout ahead, his small frame and scoped rifle would was sent forth to scout ahead while the rest of us took up a defensive position.
We waited around for his return, the air was hot and I was growing increasingly uncomfortable in my heavy trench coat. I sipped on a mug of recaff and viewed the surroundings, Solomon had arranged his men outside of their Chimera, I had left the deployment of my squad to its sergeant. After a short while Guardsmen Kobak, came riding out of the bush on a sqig, being chased by the entire ork force from the Compound. I do have to admit I was quite shocked at that, diving back in the chimera I pulled the turret hatch shut, and shouted for the guardsmen to get out. One refused, and they all shared the look I had been warned about in the Schola Progenium I draw my chains sword knowing what was going to happen and beheaded the traitor knowing full well what they were planning to do. The chain sword bit deep into his knee as it roared into life, splashing all the occupants with his blood. His head easily popped off, and body fell to the floor.
Before they could ready their weapons, I drew a fragmentation grenade and ordered them to get out. Knowing they could gun me down in this confined space, where my sword skills would be ineffective. After a tense moment they quickly retreated , the sergeant had a quick whisper with the operator who I soon learned was named Smith. I jumped in the gunners seat and quickly thumbed the trigger on the bolter, engaging the charging horde. The battle was brief and fierce. We sustained two direct hits, but came out unharmed. The bolter barrel quickly heated up as we scored hit after hit on what the orks called a battle wagon. A large Vehicle with bolted on weapons and armour. It looked as if it could barely keep hold together
The bolter shells peppered the armour.I am sure it did damage but the ork menace kept coming. It was only after combined fire from both vehicles and an improvised explosive device to take them out. The stragglers were quickly finished off with a few stray rounds. I commended Operator smith on his fine driving. Luckly the rest of his squad had been whipped out during the course of the engagement, so two birds with one stone.
After we cleared the field of battle with a victory we proceeded to head towards the compound and secured it. The place had been ravaged by orks, two ork trucks had made a makeshift barricade, which we quickly pushed away. Each tower had crudely orkish armour added to it, though there auto cannons and the machine spirits of these weapons still held their loyalty to the emperor. The living quarters had been turned into a ork den. Excrement lay everywhere. I suppose even orks have no understanding of a latrine. I ordered the men to scout out the Refinery, while I set up the command Chimera in the centre of the compound. Having a few of them men clean up the ork mess and burn the bodies.
After being called over by Mr Burnham the witch.. I was surprised to see an ork Nob, broken and twisted, coughing up blood, it snarled as i approached. Raising my Bolt pistol I took careful aim. My finger squeezed the trigger but before I could destroy this xeno’s filth in the name of Emperor, it’s head exploded. Looking in somewhat amazement wondering if the tech priests had lightened the Trigger on my weapon causing an earlier than expected discharge.
Too my surprise standing before me were operator Cheslav Solovyev and Guardsmen Levi Tauber. It turns out their squad had been in the area when it was whipped out. After dishing out orders with Solomon we began to fortify the compound and giving him two new guardsmen I set about making my bed for the night. I had asked for a bag of teeth from the ork corpses, had at the time a basic understanding that the green skins used teeth much like a currency. I had Tex, one of the crew we rescued and somewhat of an explosives expert, rig up a booby trap. The trap was crude and simple enough. A sign stating that teeth were there, painted in red, and a trip write rigged to a demo charge.
The fortifications went as best we could manage. We barricaded the entrance with what was left of the wreaked trucks and other orkish vechiles. Burned the bodies of the dead. We reconstructed the living quarters and cleared it out, but the ork smell was still there. I chose to make my bed in the back of the command Chimera, at least the machine spirit kept it cool in there. Sergeant Solomon and Guardsmen Jorell began to train the locals that had apparently joined us, it seems they brought half the dam Village! But I can hardly blame them, and some of the local woman were pleasing on the eye.
During the night it seemed that Hypo had a party with a few of the local girls, resulting in the husband of one, being shot while attempting to break up the engagement. It turns out that the man failed to follow guardsmen Tauber’s orders to fault when he was out after hours. It matter not, the medic hypo was sleeping around, and personally I did not think he had a back bone for it. Burnham reported it to me, the strange man seemed to have added a written recording of it.
The orks had already started to work on whatever it is they seem to do to the emperor’s holy sites, we managed to take most of it down, and use it to reinforce our defenseless. We were soon joined by the rest of the locals, and after a few nights we had prepared the compound as best we could with what we had.
The next day I executed ,Guardmens Mallus for firing on his Commanding officer , endangering the squad, and making heretical actions .I will not go into details but the Traitor would have killed us all, he died a traitors death and got what was indeed coming to him. The rest of the day was spent preparing for the upcoming battle.
I was first notified of the assault when a sentry called out that a group of Gretchen setting off one of our booby traps. Killing most of them. The sound of a orkish Waarrgh, which I do not have the right amount of sputum to get accurate sounded from the south. The mountains of smoke from there Vehicles . I Vaulted down from the wall I was patrolling and made a break for the Chimera. As I landed I felt a screaming pain run up my leg, with no time to focus I dived into the rear hatch, shutting it, braking at Smith to take flight and point the Emperors chariot in the direction of the horde and to war.
The charging war band contained a few buggies, trucks and battle wagons. Our guns opened fire, filling the sky with the emperors holy will and fire. Our auto cannon rounds ripped holes into the ork armour, sending buggies out of control , crashing into the larger battle wagons. I pressed hard down on the trigger, of the turrets heavy bolter, it’s violent bark music to my ears, the sounds of battle a choir in it’s own right. The ork’s returned fire with little effect, and set to ram our walls.
Shells spilled into a Battle wagon igniting it’s fuel supply purging it’s self in holy flame. The second wagon stalled , it’s crew cut to shreds as they attempted to flee . It was then we noticed the ork leader, a large foul beast, in the rags of metal plates it used for armour, riding on the back of a buggie, as it turned to flee, our auto cannon fire spilled into it, destroying the beast.
We managed to dispatch the orks without taking a single lose inflected by the orks, a cheer went out among the men, and the gun fire soon died, with a few pot-shots being taken at the few orks still in range, or still alive for that matter. Our attentions were quickly drawn to the sky, as a ork aircraft burst over the horizon . By the Emperor’s grace it seemed to explode in the air, crashing down on what was our new living quarters. It was my understanding that a private stubbs was killed. One of the Men accompanying us, that i never really noticed till that point. The Emperor must have looked on us with favour, tampering with the orks payload, forcing it to expload. That or indeed the Ork Vehicles were death traps
But from what I heard he was incompetent anyway. No great loss. Though guardsmen Tauber was attacked by some local villages, though this was due to a matter about shooting a uncooperative native. These two men were killed .He seemed to be alright in our medics care, anyhow.
I ordered the bodies to be burned and the fires to be put out.
Today was a good day.
Today was a Victory this planet surely needed.
