United Front

Weather: Moderate Snows, Fast Winds
Predicted Temperature: -32°C

The sixteen companies within the garrisoned building sat deathly quiet as they saw the orks flood into the plaza. As quietly as they could they charged their las-batteries and loaded their heavy weapons. Hannah, with her boltgun pointed down at the orks, heard the Colonel over the radio, “They don’t know we’re here...Open fire on my order.”

The orks stopped right in front of the stadium, from the looks on their faces, they had no idea that the Imperial forces were still there.

“Smoke ‘em.”

There was a simultaneous cocking of weapons, followed by a hailstorm of gunfire that completely engulfed and incinerated the orks closest to the garrisoned stadium. The greenskins had no idea what was going on and those that were not killed in the initial barrage, fled from the plaza in panic.

The night went slowly by, the constant pound of Steel Legion basilisks echoed through the night. The forces were at constant alert and the fear of being surrounded reverberated throughout the building.

An occasional ork raiding party would assault the building every now and then, but no large single assault occurred. Which frightened all of the regimental commanders; usually orks were quick to attack, but there lack of large assaults made them believe that the greenskins were preparing for a strong push.

Hannah sat quietly behind a counter in what used to be a small souvenir stand. The room was illuminated by a bright lantern. There was a somewhat decrepit table that stood in front of her. A small map was spread open on it and Hannah’s plasma pistol lay on top of the map. She took a sip from her vodivilisk.

Andre walked in and pulled up a chair by her, “Lilia’s got the next shift. She just relieved me a few minutes ago,” He sighed slightly and leaned back into his chair, “The soldiers are getting a little uneasy. I had to give ‘em a pep talk. They’re losing hope, Emperor forbid.”

Hannah looked at the commissar, a slight sense of worry passed between the two as they exchanged glances.

Andre took the magazine out from his bolt pistol and checked the breech, taking the bullet from within and pushing it back into the magazine. He gently placed it onto the table along with his visor cap and sighed again.

Hannah finished what was left of her drink, “Well, Comrade-Commissar, what is our situation besides the fact that our troops are starting to doubt?”

The commissar ran his hand through his hair, “We’re doing fine on ammunition for the moment, except for rockets. We definitely need more krak rockets for all those tanks the orks are gonna throw at us sooner or later.” He started to tap the top of his cap gently. “Our weapons are in good order, no jams and we’ve had a few overheats, but not enough to affect the weapons’ performance. Other than that we’re doing okay. We’ve sustained a few head and shoulder injuries from shoota shots, but those hit will be okay.”

The young man leaned forward in his chair slightly, “Now, Hannah, let me see that ankle.”

She smiled lightly as she placed her foot gently into his lap, “It’s nothing really. I haven’t felt it since we got here,” Hannah said as she started to un-strap her boot.

Andre shrugged, “Better for me to check, than risk you getting your ankle broken.” Once she had removed her boot and sock, Andre began to gently unwrap the bandage that covered her ankle. He applied small amounts of pressure along the joint, looking up every now and then to make sure she wasn’t in any pain. He nodded his head, “Well, it looks like you’re good.”

“I told you,” the young female officer persisted, “I’m fine!”

Andre smiled and started to re-bandage her leg.

“Andre, after you left the 126th, I never thought we’d see each other again.”

He looked up at her, “Where did that come from?”

“I don’t know, I guess in the end you start to think about the beginning.”

“Who said this was the end?” He asked as he finished bandaging her leg. He slipped her sock back on and placed the boot onto her foot, “It isn’t over yet! We’ve still got plenty of time.”

A small smile grew on her face, “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Hannah said with her foot still in his lap, “You usually are...”

A strong impact shook the building. Dust fell from the ceiling and the soldiers started to move like a bat hitting a beehive. The guard responded with a salvo from the 63rd’s artillery. Hannah jumped to her feet and the commissar ran out of the room yelling, “Is everybody alright?”

There was a series if ‘Yes sirs’ and the stadium lit up with gunfire.

Hannah grabbed a boltgun that was leaning up against a wall and ran to the nearest opening. With a pair of magnoculars she stared at the green tide. The number of rounds per second that they Imperials were firing didn’t seem to stall or curb the oncoming ork tide. There was a phalanx of ork armor following the infantry.

She propped herself up against a wall and firmly placed the rifle’s stock against her shoulder, firing bursts of bullets into the xeno tide. Hannah felt the pierce of the winter wind which knocked her aim off, but she quickly regained it and fired.

Andre was a few meters from the captain, a missile launcher firmly placed on his shoulder. He was looking down the scope at an oncoming ork tank, his aim centered at the side of the stole Leman Russ. The commissar gently squeezed the trigger and the rocket flew into the tank which engulfed in a fiery explosion.

The orks were countless and the imperials were laying down as much fire as they could. Lascannons, autocannons, missile launchers, mortars, boltguns, lasguns, all manner of imperial weapons were focused on the alien wave of green; all that firepower seemed to do nothing in the long run.

The greenskins crashed against the coliseum attempting to find some hole that they could get through and pour into the building to slaughter the occupants within. Guardsmen tossed grenades into the mass with great affect...for at least three seconds there was a hole that was eventually filled with more xenos.

Hannah let another empty clip fall from her boltgun and reached for another, but suddenly her arm went numb. She turned around to find another boltgun magazine when she felt someone grab her. It was Andre.

“Hannah! By the Emperor’s name, what happened to you?”

The captain attempted to respond. She opened her mouth but no words came out. Her legs failed her, and she collapsed.

Andre stood stunned for a few seconds after Hannah had fallen, and when he regained his senses he yelled as loud as he could, “Medic!! I need a medic over here now!”

The commissar looked left and right and when no one came he started to do what he could. He tore a hole in her greatcoat to expose the wound, and then with his knife he cut a strip of cloth off of his own coat and used it to apply pressure to the wound.

He again called for a medic, but it seemed no one would come...

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Gregs looked through a pair of magnoculars from the roof of the field hospital on the other side of the river. The night sky was illuminated with gunfire and explosions from the stadium which the Imperials were holding.

Mockov sat against a crate, “Gregs, we can’t do anything from here. There’s no use in watching.”

The missile launcher operator stood for a few more minutes before peeling his gaze away from the battle scene. The sounds of distant explosions resonated from across the river and echoed in the empty streets below.

“That is where you should be looking,” Mockov said nodding his head in the general direction of Landergrasse. Though you could not see the city itself, the direction in which it was in relation to Tsorograd was illuminated brightly. “Remember, Gregs, you should thank the Emperor that you weren’t sent there.”

A medic came up to the roof when the wind started to pick up speed, “You two should come down inside, the winds are getting faster and we can’t risk you tow getting frost bitten.”

The two soldiers obliged. Ferasen took one last look across the river before he disappeared into the building.

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The battled had continued into the early morning, the Imperials grasping an amazing victory over incredible odds. The once ornate plaza of Tsorograd now was pock-marked with craters and littered with ork bodies.

Andre sat in the souvenir stand. He propped his legs up on a nearby chair and sighed deeply, his missile launcher was leaning against a nearby wall. In that entire battle, he had destroyed at least fifteen ork tanks, at least!

Lilia walked in and took a seat at the table, “Comrade-commissar.”

“Yes?” He asked. It took some effort for him to turn his head.

“Last night, we lost fifteen soldiers and sixty-seven sustained major head and shoulder wounds. One of our Lascannons is out of commission and two autocannons misfired. Squad three from second platoon reports that they don’t have any rockets left and they’re low on las mags. Squad two and squad four of first platoon reports that they’re low on autocannon ammo and las mags. And-.”

Andre waved her off, “I’m sorry, Lilia, but I can’t listen to that right now. You know as well as I do that even if we requisition some ammo, it’ll take days before we get it, even if we get it.”

The sniper sat quietly, “Understood. But I do it to make them feel a bit better. After last night, even I’m starting to doubt.”

“You shouldn’t.” He said sternly, “Right now, I may be the only political officer in this company, but you are their commander! Make an example for others to follow.”

“Hannah will be okay, that’s what the medics said to me at least. But they also said that if she doesn’t improve in the next two or three days she’ll be evaced to the hospital across the river,” Lilia sighed as she started to inspect her sniper rifle.

“Emperor forbid,” The commissar said, “They obviously don’t know how important that captain is to her company...”

The two sat down for a few minutes in silence before an officer interrupted them, “Ma’am, Colonel is on the line.”

Lilia took the vox, “Sir?”

The slight static somewhat distorted Sugechov voice, “Lilia? Where’s Hannah?”

“Wounded at the moment, sir.”

“Ah, just needed a status report.”

Lilia referred all of her information to Sugechov.

“I’ll tell you right now that we may have to pull out earlier than anticipated, we got the latest report from the Pride of Valhalla and...not...ork...signature...--.” The message was cut short through static.

Andre was listening with Lilia, “I think he was talking about the ork heat signature. If he’s telling us we might have to pull out earlier than planned, the ork force must be getting bigger.”

Lilia tried to hail him again, but to no avail.

There was a snow storm blowing in through the west and it was interfering with vox systems. If they wanted to get a message out they would have to send a runner to the field HQ stationed by the northern bridge.

As the snow started to heavily fall, Andre gazed out the window and to the plaza where the orks sat...waiting...