The Siege of Huan's port.

By Raven Khan, in Only War Fan Fiction and War Stories

Company commander Oliana watched the battle unfold via the master hololith. The lines were holding, but the enemy had almost reached them. After nearly two days of heavy fighting, it seemed to that her ever shrinking contingent was about to be wiped out. She cursed under her breath. The need for a drink, just something to take the edge of her stress away, welled up inside. She pushed it down as she glanced at the weary faces around her. Her command had fought hard against the mutant cult that had spilled from the jungle, but now it looked like her company and the Novus militia wouldn't last another hour....She pursed lips as all eyes in the bunker fell on her.

"Give the order." She said sullenly to the room. Voxes burst to life as the code was broadcast over the net. It consisted of a single word in the native Novus tongue. It meant sacrifice....

*****

Specialist Mop spat noisily over the barricade that came up to his chin before lining up another shot with his sniper rifle. At this range it was hard for the Ratling to miss and one more mutant's skull burst in his cross-hairs. Carefully, he ejected his spent clip while as he glanced over at his spotter Hugh, whom kept a steady rhythm of fire with his las gun. Hugh looked a little panicked at the enemies that grew closer despite the amounts of fire power being throw into them. Meaning to say something encouraging to his fellow Ratling, Mop only produced a loud belch in way of reassurance. Hugh rankled his face in disgust but kept firing. Mop smiled as he began picking off targets again.

Suddenly, the wave of mutants before the defenses rippled, as if unsure what to do. Mop scratched his greasy beard in wonder before he remember that there was some secret plan the commander had up her sleeve. His keen eyes picked up bushes and rocks that came to life on the flanks of the cultists and charged in with primitive spears and clubs. The civilian Novusites had been committed to battle in a desperate bid to survive the latest assault. He doubted most of them would make it....

Mop grunted in satisfaction as he saw the hoard slow and he took the opportunity to blast more shots into the them. He always scanned to see where his bullets could do the most good, dropping leaders and heavy weapons. A head shot here, a flamer tank there, each shot was a kill. Well almost....the battlefield was a chaotic place after all. Plus some of these uggos where about as tough as ork and more then once he had to put multiple rounds into a single beast.

Just as he was reloading his weapon again, a curious series of events took place. First, the mutants broke, some retreating others breaking off to attack the ambush along their flanks. Then the order to advance and engage was giving. Mop and Hugh looked at each other in puzzlement as most of the Araxain troopers around them vaulted the barricades and charged. Mop caught the eye of Lieutenant Yasha as she leaped to join the attack. He quickly signed he'd stay put and was glad to see the Lt. nod once in agreement before she was lost in the melee.

"Well Hugh." he said grinning. "Looks like we got out of that one."

"So it seems." Hugh replied as he watched combat quickly devolve into small groups involved in close range firefights and brutal hand-to-hand.

"No time to rest though." Mop drawled as he picked up a stinging beetle from his leathery foot.

"It's not?" Hugh asked in alarm as he look back to Mop.

"Nope." The Ratling said as he deposited the flailing insect in his mouth and crunched down on it's shell. Hugh winced at this but waited for his senior to finish.

"Still uglies out there to shoot. Now grab your monoculars so we can get started."

Hugh did as he was told, apprehensive about firing into a sector full of friendlies, but happy to look away from the bits of black shell caught in Mop's teeth.

*****

Newly promoted Lt. Raya Yasha stopped short in her head long charge as a shell whizzed past her hip. Her voxman Carver ran on heedless of the near miss. The shot had come from behind her and she looked back angrily at the barricades to find the offender. She caught sight of the two abhumans left behind in the advance order and scowled at them. She saw one head sink a little lower behind the defenses while one raised it's dirty hand to give a thumbs up. Raya's bionic eyes quickly calculated the trajectory of the round and found a gaping wound in the head of mutant she had thought dead, it's clawed hand reaching for a discarded flamer unit. She thought about giving some sign of thanks, but then heard a piercing scream to her left. She had a panicked thought it might be Carver and ran to the sound.

Much of the jungle flora had been cut down in preparation of the siege, but here and there large tree stumps and creeping plants remained. It was behind one of these she found the source of the cries. A milkly white cultist held down a Novus guerrilla while it's raspy tongue licked the skin off it's hapless victim. Yasha cried out in revulsion and shock as she put two las rounds from her pistol into the mutant. She kicked it's dead weight off the Novusite and revved her chain sword as she prepared to behead the abomination. A sharp blow caught her in the shoulder and she fell next to the mutant. She cursed as gun fire kicked up dirt around her. Yasha looked to where the shot had smashed into the flak armor and was glad to find it still held. She smirked a little as her nick name "Lucky" came to mind. More rounds stitched around her and she grabbed the mutant corpse and pushed it between her and the incoming fire. The rounds smacked into it with wet thuds and it was then that Yasha first noticed the foul stench emanating from it. She gagged on it, thinking how much worse it smelled then Mop....

"Bad time to lose the squad." she lamented. But she was the one who ordered them to break off into pairs to better seek out pockets of resistance.


The fusillade ended and the Lt. jumped up, her las weapon already firing in direction of attack. The mutant ducked her shots and cursed at her in a bubbling drone. It tried in vain to reload it's battered autogun, but the whipping tentacles in place of fingers on it's left hand foiled it's attempts. Raya holstered her pistol and took her chain sword in a two handed grip. The mutant's eyes went wide as she brought it down on it's clavicle. Watery ichor flew from the wound as Yasha pushed her blade deeper. The teeth of the weapon sawed through cultist's rubbery flesh until it caught on the mutant's hip bone and she back handed the sagging carcass off her weapon and revved it once more to flick the gore from it's whirling chain.

She looked back to the Novusite to find him dead, full of autogun rounds. Breathing deeply, Yasha looked over the battle field. She knew Oliana's gambit would be costly to the Novusites, but the chances of beating back the enemy relied on their aid. Now it seemed they had defied all odds and actually broken the back of the mutants. She tried her micro-bead but found it crusted in blood. Cursing under her breath, she started running to the next knot of combat.

It was a savage affair of blades and claws, and in the opening blows she was ganged up on as the mutants were eager silence her deadly blade. She blasted one enemy point blank in the face with gun then cut another's weapon wielding fist off at the wrist. Still she felt some sharp stings as some mutant blades found their mark. An Aarxain in front of her gutted one heretic before a club to his back brought him down. She didn't see what happened next as something jumped on her back, it's fetid breath on her cheek. Just as it's weight brought her to her knees, bright flashes of las went went off dangerously close to her head. She felt the mutant slide off her and she looked up at her voxman as he held out his hand to help her up. She smacked it away and stood on her own.

"You have a bayonet on that gun you know." She said angrily. "And you're supposed to stick next to me."

"Your bleeding Lt.." He said nonchalantly set his gun aside. He unslung his heavy vox unit, only to bring it down onto a wounded cultist's head, smashing it into a brown paste.

"Stop that." she said looking up to see the fight was over.

"Yes ma'am." came the sullen reply

The remaining men ,a mix of Novusite and Araxains looked to her for leadership.She gave a terse order to move out when she caught sight of Yuri, the storm trooper assigned to her squad, leading his own band of troopers and guerrillas. He gave a her a quick salute before gunning down a charging mutant.

"Good luck." she whispered before turning to her own war band.

"Alright men, forward!"

*****
When the Lt. had order the squad break down into pairs, Storm Trooper Fortunus set off to find the nearest unit of Novus militia instead. Since they had landed, The Araxain 1st had been training the warriors of the Novusite tribes into a supplementary force. One that could hold ground gained and support the Araxains in taking back the promethium mines from the Orks. Now the militia was proving itself against a threat the Araxains didn't know it had to contend with. With only a company left behind to guard Huan's port and the rest of the regiment out fighting greenskins, it more often then naught fell onto the the Novus warriors to hold the line while the Araxains filled more elite roles. Yuri had grown to admire the Novusites for their courage, but found they still had a lot to learn when it came to the tactica imperialis.

He threw down a militia man as he tried to advance into a heretic firing line. Dirty las blasts and solid shot flew over his head as he looked back to make sure the rest of the men had fallen prone as well.

"Wait for them to reload." He commanded his new charges. He received nods of understanding and turned back to the mutants as they fired wildly in his direction. Soon the guns ran dry, and Yuri smiled at the lack of discipline the cultists showed.

"Now!"

He stood and fired a quick burst, dropping two of the mutants, before advancing with his men. They would go a few meters before dropping into a crouch to begin firing, waiting for those behind them to move up and repeating the cycle. It was sloppy compared compared to guard standards, but it was having a devastating effect on the enemy. Cultist bodies bucked and danced as las bolts pierced their unclean flesh. They fell in in heaps, and soon the rest lost what little nerve they had left, and began to flee. Some of the militia made to follow, but Fortunus held them back.

"Form up!" he ordered. "Advance carefully and check the enemy the dead. Shoot anything that so much as twitches."

Again they nodded and made to follow his command. He move forward into an over watch position, both to keep eye out and to supervise them. It was gruesome work, the mutants were some of the most vile things Yuri had yet to encounter. Worst for the fact that they use to be human.....His adopted unit put smoking wounds into anything that still showed life and formed up once again on his six. He felt a small sense of pride in these men and thought that with enough training, they'd make good guardsmen.

A large roar interrupted Yuri's thoughts and he saw a large mutant rampaging through a group of guerrillas. It's skin was a greenish grey and over much of it, plates of metal and been bolted into it's corrupted tissue. It stood over two meters, an intimidating foe to the men it butchered before it. They fell back into a panic away from the monster's crude mace and grasping hand, many of their number dead at it's feet. Yuri took this all in a moment.

"Firing line, now!" he shouted. The urgency in his voiced caused many to scramble into a good position, but the storm trooper was too busy firing to notice. His hot shot las bolts burrowed through the things makeshift armor where as his men's seemed to only sear it. Still the wounds he caused seemed not to slow it at all as it flung it's self at them.

"Prepare for close combat!" He called out as he pulled his knife from his boot while firing his rifle one handed.

"Get down!" Called another voice. Yuri's training took over and he threw himself flat awaiting what ever came next. He heard the throaty cough of auto launcher and the felt the pressure waves of multiple explosions wash over him. Soon, he and his men were showered with foul chunks of flesh as what was left of the large mutant tumbled around them. Trooper Fortunus looked around, first checking his men, then to the one whom had so timely intervened.

"Thanks Mercer." he said with a smile.

******
Corporal Ossian Mercer hefted his grenade launcher onto his shoulder as he flashed an even bigger smile to his storm trooper friend. His armsmen Zou stood to one side, looking out for anything else the might rise up and attack.

"We could have taken him." Yuri said as he stood up and brought his men to order.

"Yeah, but then I'd rather you didn't fight that thing up close." Mercer replied stroking his launcher. Yuri rolled his eyes but kept the smile on his face.

"Right, well we need to move." Yuri said seriously. "Lets go men, see you out there Mercer." he called back as he lead his men toward the sounds of fighting.

"That was close." Zou said still scanning the smoking battlefield. "I know we have most of them running.....but I think it's a bad omen to be..."

"Shut up Zou." Mercer retorted.

"Here." he said changing the subject as he tossed Zou his spent launcher. "Reload as we move, and hand me the shotgun." Henry Zou, dutifully as always, handed over the gun he had slung over his back then began fishing for grenade rounds.

"Besides old buddy, the more we kill now, the less we have to hunt down later." Mercer casually explained while checking the shotgun's clip. Fully loaded, as Zou always had it. He smiled and playfully cuffed his armsmen in the shoulder.

"Lets go."

Gun held at the ready, Ossian moved out, looking for another skirmish to participate in. It wasn't long before he found himself in a shoot out with a dug in heavy stubber. It had pinned down the pursuing Araxains and Novusites allowing many of the mutants to either escape or reform behind it. The vox net was alive with reports of similar encounters of heavy weapons on immobilized transports acting as rally points for the cultist forces. And while the bulk of the enemy was indeed broken, these pockets could cause more casualties that they could ill afford to take.

Mercer looked around and found three Araxians and seven assorted Novusites in with him. They sat trench that and been dug as part of the second defense line at had to be abandoned days again as they were almost overwhelmed. Here and there lay the dead of those days past, bug infested and sinking like specialist Mop after a days run. Tracer rounds flashed over head as the group huddled down against the deadly deluge. One militiaman stuck his head up too far and the top of his head exploded in a shower of blood and gore. He fell back into the trench, dead eyes lock on Mercer.

"See I told you, there was bad omens all arou..."

"Shut up Zou." Ossian snapped.

The Araxain troopers did their best in encouraging their allies, but there wasn't enough of them to risk a frontal assault. Mercer felt his anger rising. No way in warp-realm would he be beaten by some unholy mutants. Things whose very existence defied the perfect human form.

"Help me strip down." he ordered Zou as he put his weapons down.

"What are you doing?" Henry ask while unstrapping Mercer's ammo webbing.

Ossian didn't answer as he shrugged off his flak armor and undershirt. B Mercer always prided himself on his fit and powerful physique, so he couldn't help flex a little while unencumbered. The sole female Novusite in the trench couldn't help but look over with mild appreciation at the sight. It didn't go unnoticed by Mercer, he smiled and he shot her a wink. She blushed and turned away. His face fell as he got himself in a serious mind set. He took off anything he thought might slow him down, that is except the Astartes knife he'd been gifted. Better to keep that close he thought, even though it weighted a ton.

"Okay guys, I'm going over." He yelled to the contingent. "I'm making a run for the gun and I need you all to cover me as best you can." Most of them looked puzzled but nodded anyway.

"One frag, and the shotgun." he said to his armsmen.

"You sure about this?" Zou asked while handing him the requested items.

"Have a little faith buddy. And besides, I've got to get back to so I can give a lady sponge bath when this is all over."

Zou simple shook his head at this, but readied his las gun as Mercer made ready to go over the top.

"And lets not forget redhead in supply." Mercer continued to taunt. "I need to "requisition" some special from her."

Henry made to reply, but Ossian bounded over the top.

The trench opened fire to cover the half naked man as he darted to and fro, avoiding the deadly shells. The covering fire had an effect as the gun at times turned its lethal attention back to them. Soon the Mercer made it into range of his weapons and vented his fury on the mutants manning the gun. The grenade he threw killed most of them, but the trooper jumped in the gun nest, auto shotgun blaring. Groups of cultists behind the silenced stubber, jumped up and tried to overwhelm the lone guardsmen. Mercer fired into them until his gun ran dry. Undaunted, he drew his over sized knife (more like a sword to a normal human) and charged the mutants. Zou cursed, but was already halfway to the embattled trooper, as was the rest of the men with him.

Another group of enemies appeared on the right flank, forcing Henry and the others stop and engage them. Mercer kept hacking away at his foes, the hand to hand lessons he was taking with Lucky Yasha serving him well. Still it looked like he'd be overwhelmed if he didn't receive aid soon. Zou saw Mercer disappear under a mass of fists and claws and his heart sank.

"I have been sent to aid you, let us quickly be rid this scum." A booming, mechanical voice called.

The voice caused friend and foe to stop and look to find the source. Most were awed by what they saw. Mercer broke loose and cut down a gob smacked mutant as it stared at the armored bulk that had just arrived.

"Hey Vinlock." Mercer said before swinging his blade at a quickly recovering foe.

********

Tech Priest Vian Locke felt the need to shake his head in exasperation. That man annoyed him. There was a 99.7% chance that Mercer had mispronounced his name on purpose. Just like all the other times they had interacted. He sent a coded burst to his servitor to flame the flanking mutants while he piloted his hulking exo-suit into the throng around Mercer.

The suit, something left behind long ago on the planet by the Cult Mechanicus for reasons unknown, was closer to Kastelan Bot then anything. While not forbidden tech, it was dangerously close to it. However,
Magos Raken had assured him that it was a sanctioned weapon of the Mechanicus. He futher said since he was to first to make contact with it's old machine spirit, that he should be the one to use it in battle....for the time being. Vian found the unit to be temperamental, it's odd pattern of gatling light diffusion weapon already malfunctioning, refusing to fire most of the time. Still, the power fist worked fine and he used it now to crush two creatures that tried to attack Ossian in the back.

"Move trooper, least you fall under the enemies numbers." His vox enhanced voice boomed.

Mercer wisely took The Tech Priest's advice and darted under the suit's legs. With him safely out of the way he brought his fist around in a wide arc, catching seven mutants and sending their shattered frames flying. Half of the
mutants left fled from Vian's assault, but the rest, either too brave or stupid, attacked. Autogun rounds sparked and pinged off his armored shell. Locke tried his gun again, it only spat a few blasts before jamming again. He dismissed the blinking error icon away with much irritation. But its was enough to drop one cultist and force the rest to charge the suit least they be gun down by it.

He crushed a mewling thing with his crackling fist as the rest swarmed around him. Blades and clubs caused a loud din as they hammered the suit with their fury.One knee joint rocked back as a nasty blow almost caused it to buckle. Kicking a pus-ridden thing away from him, he summoned his servitor and commanded it to flame the mutants around him. He killed two more enemies before a wash of orange enveloped the melee. Warning lights kicked off as the temperature climbed dangerous levels. Some circuits burned out with hot pops but over, all Vian was safe from the flamer's violent spray.

The cultists broke, flailing as the flames ate at rancid flesh. One appear to have living organisms under it's skin, that could be seen writhing even through the fire. It screamed one last keening cry before it exploded in grim shower of burning chunks. He killed the few that still moved, or tired to run while he ran a damage report on the suit. He found he was still 84% combat ready, more then enough to what his Cult deemed acceptable for a mop up action.

He scanned to see how the Mercer and the others had fared. Despite another, larger mob of mutants showing up to engage them, they had all survived. Even now they looked ready to move again.

"Praise be the Omnissiah, for his enemies have been laid low." Vian boomed. Mercer shook his head as Zou helped him back into his gear.

"Whatever you say cogboy." he replied. Locke narrowed his eyes in annoyance. Not that the trooper could see this through the armaplas visor.

"My Name is Vian Locke. Tech Adept Vian Locke, Corporal Mercer."

"Yeah, that's what I said, Pincock." he said grinning from ear to ear. Vian let out exasperated sigh.

*******
Back at the barricades,
Oliana toured the lines. So many dead, so many that might still die from their wounds. But she knew it was the right call to use the civilians rather then evacuating them into the jungle. They, like her regiment, needed to give all if they were to win this conflict. Some of her weary troopers, the ones her line officers left as a rear defense, nodded or saluted has she and her entourage past. She dearly wished that she could have been out there with her men when the fighting started, but someone had to conduct the defense of the port.

A foul odor wafted to her nose. So Oliana scanned the lines till she found what she sought. Sitting lazily behind the defensive wall were two ratlings. They were from Yasha's squad, the very same squad that had warned her of the mutant threat. She took a deep breath as she approached them. Their keen ears picked up her foot falls and they turned toward her. The one she recognized as Hugh, jumped up to stand at attention, dropping the ration pack he was about to open. The other ratling, specialist Mop simply waved at her through mouthfuls of food. She let it slide this time.

"You boys doing okay?" Oliana asked.

"Yep." Mop replied "All relatively quite here for the past five minutes or so....err ma'am." he added hurriedly.

"Good, carry on then." she said "I'll send out a recall after the men reach the first abandoned defensive lines. Assembly will be an hour after that.....make sure you bathe before then trooper Mop."

Interesting will there be more?