United Front

Weather: Heavy Snows, Moderate Wind
Predicted Temperature: -37°C

Andre looked through his magnoculars and saw the first hints of movement in the trees, “It looks like they’re back. It won’t be long until they begin their assault.”

“I can see them too,” Lilia said as she confirmed the movements with her long-las’s scope.

Hannah opened all of the channels on her vox bead, “All squads prepared for attack.” She paused slightly, “Squads one and two at the Cadian line how are things over there?”

“We’ll be fine, commander, the Cadians are preparing for the attack and we’re sure as hell we can hold them off.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Hannah removed her pistol from its holster, shoving a fresh power cell into the chamber. She then unsheathed her power sword, the blade shining in the bright sun. She pressed the activation rune and the sword hissed with energy.

Andre removed his swords, Retribution and Judgment, from their sheaths on his back and smiled brightly, “I hope we can fit in some close combat today, my blades are purring with eagerness.”

“As s my rifle, Commissar,” Lilia responded, lying down in the deep snow, steadying her long-las against a piece of broken metal.

The orks poured from the forest in a huge tide of green, screaming with bloodlust as they ran towards the Imperial Line.

Hannah screamed into the vox bead, “For the Emperor!!”

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Mockov loaded a rocket into Ferasen’s launcher and tapped his shoulder. The private fired a fragmentation rocket into the crowd of orks, tearing a hole into the wave of green.

Seconds later, Gregory felt another tap on his shoulder and he fired his launcher again. He watched as the orks trampled their wounded and dying, it seemed their only objective was to tear apart the humans.

The tow med quickly put down their rocket gear and armed themselves with their lasguns, “Sarge! I’ve gotten two with my las shots already!”

Mockov chuckled, “I’ve gotten four, boy! You’ll have to do better then that!”

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Sergeant Talichnikov fired his las-pistol into the horde, making sure every shot he made counted. He held his chainsword close, at the rate the orks were moving, close combat would be inevitable.

He chanced a quick glance at Rina who had her plasma gun bearing down on the enemy, each plasma bolt taking down an ork. Vladimir laughed to himself, That girl can be one mean special weapons operator.

Over the vox he heard, “Here they come! Hold the line!!”

Vladimir fired a shot that went straight through an ork’s cranium and yelled, “For the Emperor!”

Rina had not flinched a single centimeter, standing her ground with her plasma gun searing and burning ork flesh at point blank range. She was fast, but not fast enough. She turned to face an ork, its huge blade held high above its head ready to hack Rina in two.

Out of nowhere, Vladimir jumped in front of her. He kicked the ork’s knee causing it to bend over and placed his chainsword into its stomach. She heard him say ‘Piece of crap’ and he revved his sword to full power. Blood sprayed everywhere and the hot smell of entrails exploded in her nose. Vladimir pulled his sword from the ork’s limp body covered in blood and said with a wink, “We’re even.”

Rina followed Vladimir into the thick of fighting, covering him as he hacked down ork after ork. When her plasma gun’s cell went dry, Rina unsheathed her combat knife as an ork charged at her. Knife held high, she leapt at the greenskin and drove her knife into its cranium, unsheathing her boot knife and stabbing it into its neck. The ork soon fell limp.

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The fighting was tremendously fierce. Guardsmen and ork tangled with each other in a chaotic death struggle.

Lilia, a sniper, was ill-equipped for close combat and used her rifle as a type of club. She ran at in ork, hitting it first with the stock of her rifle, following a technique she learned in close combat training. After striking it a few times with her rifle, she took a step back and fired two point-blank shots into the ork’s sternum, killing it instantly.

Lilia turned and saw an ork ready to kill a fellow Guardsman. She couldn’t waste time to reload her las-rifle, so she removed the knife she had from its boot scabbard and threw it into the back of the orks head.

The greenskin pulled the blade from its head and turned to the officer, but before it could make a move a shot went through its brain.

Lilia helped the Guardsman up and picked up the bloody blade from the snow.

He saluted her and ran back into the fray.

Lilia watched an ork stikk bomb land at her feet; with fast reflexes she threw the grenade into a mob of orks to find that the weapon, for once, wasn’t a dud.

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When the orks had been only a few meters away from the line, Andre had jumped straight into the ork mob, his swords singing their deadly song.

The first ork felled by Retribution and Judgment was impaled through the stomach as it ran into the Imperial line.

Andre looked to his left and right; two orks were coming straight at him. He ran to his left and sliced the ork’s stomach open, jumping as the second ork came at him. Andre brought one of his blades down and with a loud crunch, split its skull into it two.

The orks were determined to kill the Commissar.

Andre threw his sword and killed an ork; he then did single fast spin cutting all the orks around him in half. Afterward, he pulled his blade out of the ork’s body and sheathed one of his swords to draw out his bolt pistol.

He fired into the orks with his pistol and defended himself with his sword. Every shot Andre fired tore fist sized holes into the greenskin’s flesh with the occasional exploding head. The Commissar was a force to be reckoned with.

As he rehosltered his pistol, he pulled a grenade from his belt and tossed it. Andre was rewarded with a satisfying explosion and seeing half a dozen orks blown into the air.

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Novisik pumped his 12-gauge shotgun and turned to a charging ork. He side-stepped to dodge the ork’s blade and fired a shot into the ork’s face, blowing it apart.

Seconds later, an ork was so close that Novisik could smell its breath. And with a bit of pressure from the trigger, the ork was no more spraying blood onto his face. He pumped his shotgun again and fired his shotgun into the group of orks. After he fired his last shell, he took his meltagun from his back.

He ran into the crowd of orks and released the super-heated contents of his meltagun. All the orks he fired at were immediately turned into molten slag. Not a single ork in the group he attacked was left.

He put his meltagun back on his back and reloaded his shotgun. He ran to save a Guardsman’s life, pressing the barrel of the gun against the back of the ork’s head and blowing the skull apart.

Novisik stood up and let ork after ork charge at him, felling each one with a powerful shot from his shotgun.

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Hannah’s plasma pistol was wreaking havoc in the ork ranks, each shot taking a greenskin down with the power of super-heated plasma. She stood with a few other Guardsmen around her. Each with a lasgun, bayonet attached.

Hannah yelled into the vox bead, “Don’t let up, guys! They’re still coming!”

As the orks charged towards their commander, the five Guardsmen formed a line in front of their commander, prepared to defend Hannah to the last.

Hannah holstered her pistol and held her sword with both hands and waited for them to come at her.

The soldiers fired a volley and charged into the orks. Hannah followed them into the combat. She slashed an ork across the neck, and turned in time to see one of the Guardsman fall to an ork blade.

Fire burned in her heart, and she ran at the ork that felled the guardsman jumping in the air and bringing her blade down onto the ork’s head. In a heated fury, Hannah turned to an oncoming greenskin and stabbed her blade through its stomach and pulling the blade up through the ork’s head.

She stabbed her sword into an ork nob, killing it, but getting her blade stuck within its crude armored plates. She picked up a dead soldier’s lasgun, bayonet still attached. Hannah turned in time to throw the lasgun into the sternum of an oncoming ork.

Hannah pulled her blade free and struck another ork, slicing off its appendage. She took her pistol from its holster and fired a shot into the greenskin’s head.

Hannah took her combat knife and threw it into another charging greenskin. And simultaneously, while pulling out her combat knife from its chest, she killed the ork with her sword to its stomach.

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Lilia was able to ease her way out of the close-combat and began to pick off the last few orks one by one with her long-las. She took a quick overview of the battle; the Imperials were putting up one hell of a fight. The orks were getting hacked down by the bayonets and swords of the Guard.

After the battle the line reformed and Lilia, Hannah, and Andre met in the 6th company’s command dugout.

“How bad?” Lilia asked with a hint of worry.

Hannah shook her head, “We lost too many.”

Andre looked at the map, “Emperor have mercy, we won’t hold for another week. I expected we’d hold longer.”

“Captain, the Colonel’s on the line,” Lilia said handing her the vox.

“Captain Scarbrough speaking.”

“Yes, Captain, I heard the situation and we’re pulling in the reserves we have to your position seeing as you’re line appears to be the one that continues to be hit hard.”

“How many would that be?”

“Only ten, but it’s better than nothing, Captain.”

“Thank you, Colonel.”

“One more thing, Captain, are you alright?”

“Yes sir, I’m fine.”

Andre looked at Lilia, Lilia shrugged.

When she was finished, Hannah hung up the vox and poured herself a cup of vodivilisk. She sat herself in the chair and began to gently rub her head.

Andre looked at her, “Are you alright, Captain?”

Hannah simply nodded, “Yes, I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”

Andre looked at Lila and guided her out, saying as he left that dugout, “Take care, Captain.”

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Andre sat in his room, he was sitting at his table cleaning his two blades of the dark blood the covered their edges. When he was finished he took both his boltgun and bolt pistol apart and cleaned them of the cordite residue.

He drank down a cup of Vostroyan rhazvod. And turned to the window, the snow was still falling heavily.

Andre continued to watch the snow. His memory of the first time he met Hannah replayed in his mind. He could remember the battle of Tilankes Plains, during the Valetron Campaign they were both part of 126th Valhallan. Hannah was just a purely fresh guardsman, but she took her position very seriously.

Andre had just come out of his last battle; he was already a veteran when Hannah made planetfall. The Valetron campaign was one of the bloodiest campaigns the Imperium has known. A new guardsman’s lifespan after planetfall on one of the Valetron system’s planets was a mere seven hours, which was very believable with the ferocity of the heretics that they fought.

Andre had taken her under his watchful eye, thankful that she was finally moved to his squad. Though she was the only woman, she fit in very well. After the planet was cleansed, Andre learned the reason why she was moved into his squad. Her original squad was massacred, not a single one survived but her.

He learned from their Colonel that they found her on top of a hill, holding off a squad of cultists with only a laspistol and a knife. She seemed to have been infuriated by her squad’s untimely death, because she killed fourteen cultists before another squad found her and pulled her out.

Over the course of the next six battles they fought together, Andre had grown somewhat attached to her. In a way, you cold say that he was in love with Hannah, but conveying his feelings to her didn’t seem to feel right, not at the time at least.

Even now, he wasn’t sure what to do. The only thing he was worrying about was that his feelings would cloud his judgment. But so far, that hasn’t happened yet.

He poured himself another cup of rhazvod and picked up his pistol, examining the weapon. Andre had executed only two men so far during his term as a Commissar. He gave many of the soldiers a second chance, and afterward his soldiers fought harder than before.

He perched his feet up on the table, drinking his rhazvod when he heard a knock on his door.

“Come in.”

Hannah peeked her head in, “Hey, Andre, may I come in.”

He put his feet down off of the table, “Of course, Captain, you’re always welcome here.”