Frozen Tundra

Weather: Heavy Blizzard, No Wind
Predicted Temperature: -75˚C
________________________________________
It had finally been confirmed.

The Iron Warriors were beginning to move their forces in Sarasita to Dothen in order to reinforce the main group. They must’ve somehow learned of the Imperial presence on Valetron and were preparing for the inevitable battle, sending small scouting parties in the direction of Winiske. Most of the cultist scouts had been engaged and eliminated by the 63rd Grenadiers, but a precious few bypassed the majority of the fighting and continued onward.

The 126th were tasked to neutralize the rest.

Hannah had volunteered to go with Andre a kilometer forward in order to see the enemy platoon before they got into the main firing zone. She kept her lasgun close to her, aiming it into the snowy hills before her.

Andre was prone next to her with a pair of thermal magnoculars.

Neither of them had spoken a word since they had moved forward. Andre was focused, but Hannah was just outright scared to speak to him. She wanted to ask him his thoughts; it took her a significant amount of time and courage to finally muster up enough confidence. “Sergeant? Sir?”

“How many times do I have to tell you, Hannah, you don’t have to call me sir.” His gaze didn’t move a millimeter.

“Yes, sir. Um, do you think those cultist managed to report back to their commanders via vox already?”

“Nope. I highly doubt that.”

“What makes you say that, sir?”

Andre chuckled. “You must have been subconsciously trained to say ‘sir’ all the time.”

Hannah sighed.

“You wanna know why I think that?” He put his magnoculars away and slowly got up and signaled her to do the same. “My own vox-bead isn’t working right, I’m trying to contact Mina and all I get is static.”

The private watched him as he pulled out his laspistol from its holster and checked the charge-pack. “Sergeant?”

“How well can you handle a knife?”

The question had been abrupt and surprising. “Excuse me, sir?”

Andre calmly repeated the question. “Did they teach you that at the Academy? Stealth tactics?”

Hannah slowly shook her head.

“Shit,” He slowly unsheathed his combat knife. “Imperial education... Just stick close to me and watch what I do. Over this hill are four cultists, alone. This’ll be a good way for you to brush up on your silent kills.”

She nodded.

“You won’t need your lasgun for this.” He positioned himself into a crouch walk and used hand signals in order to tell the young private to continue on without speaking. They went over the parapet of the snow dune.

Just as Andre had told her, four cultists were cautiously patrolling the opposite side. Their backs were turned towards the two Ice Warriors. The howling winds covered their approach. Andre held up his hand, signaling her to stop.

With his fingers he silently indicated the two that were somewhat lagging behind. He was aiming for the right cultist and she would take out the other.

Hannah slowly took out her combat knife.

They slowly and quietly stalked up behind their targets to the point that she could see the small clouds of steam leave their mouths. Andre gave her the signal to take him out.

Andre was the first to move and he moved quickly. Grabbing the first cultist by his forehead, he swiftly pulled the man down and with a single flick of his wrist broke the unfortunate victim’s neck.

There were only seconds for Hannah to react. The other scout turned to see that the man beside him had disappeared. He was about to call for his other comrades, but a gloved hand muffled his mouth. The private directed her blade into the man’s neck at a forty-five degree angle. In seconds, he was silenced.

They had made quick work of the first two, successfully keeping their profile concealed to the other two scouts.

Andre made the signal to move forward and take out the other two at her discretion.

Hannah held her blood-stained knife close to her body and crouch ran to the closest cultist. She pounced onto his back and slit his throat in a single stroke, the man fell forward into the snow.

The other cultist screamed, dropped his weapon, and attempted to run only to be greeted by the deafening growl of a revved chainsword. The blade appeared to materialize out of the falling snow. The fast-moving teeth came into contact with its victim’s chest and proceeded to gnaw through flesh and bone.

Once Andre was finished, his target had been hacked in half.

Hannah was breathing somewhat heavily; her scarf had drifted off of her face during the action. She could feel her heart pounding. Was this natural when one experienced their first kill? First blood?

Andre began to walk in the direction of camp.

Hannah fixed her face scarf. “Sergeant! Shouldn’t we bury the bodies so that they’re not seen?”

He merely looked up. “In this snow?” The sergeant continued to walk on and motioned for her to follow. “We’d be wasting time and energy. Hannah, nature will take care of that problem for us.”
________________________________________
Thirty guardsmen were huddled around a small fire when Andre and Hannah came over the adjacent hill. It took several minutes for Mina to distinguish the two figures that appeared in the haze and finally nodded to them when she recognized who they were. “So, what’s the news, eh?”

Andre pulled his scarf down. “Oh yeah, they’re coming. We just took out their forward patrol. It won’t be long before they hit our position. Twenty or thirty at most. It should be an unfair fight favoring us.”

Some of the troopers around the fire chuckled.

Sergeant Kris Romanov took a spot next to the other three standing soldiers. “So, what’s the plan then?”

Andre pointed at the hill he and Hannah had just descended from. “They’re heading straight for us, they should be going right over that hill, but I say we beat them to the high ground and shoot down on ‘em.”

Mina and Kris agreed.

“But I do think we need to have one squad circle around to cut them off given that they’re going to turn tail and run when they start getting shot at.”

“We can do it.” Kris said nodding. “Besides, we already have an established reputation for bayonet charges.”

Mina laughed slightly. “Yeah. His men are best for that.”

“You should start moving now, that way you’ll be in position when the shooting starts.”

Kris nodded and rallied his squad. As he and his men disappeared behind the long sheets of snow, Mina and Andre were forming their squads into a prone battle line across the hill top. Their pure-white Valhallan great-coats helped them to blend into the snowy terrain.

They all watched in quiet anticipation.

Andre slowly dug out his thermal magnoculars to confirm their enemies’ approach and nodded to Mina. Both sergeants gave their squads hand signals to fire on their orders only.

In the gray of the falling snow, silhouettes began to emerge from the darkness. The first to walk into the kill zone was probably the sergeant wielding a chainsword like Andre’s and seemed to be calling for his men to follow.

One by one they trekked into the firing range until roughly about half of the men were visible.

Hannah clicked her lasgun into full auto double-checking the charge pack to make sure it was fine. The private trained her sights on the nearest cultist and watched in her peripheral vision for her sergeant to give the order to fire.

The unsuspecting chaos scouts inched ever closer until Hannah could see the blackness that made up their eyes.

Mina waved her hand and Hannah squeezed her trigger.

In an instance las-beams began to cut through the snow and surprised screams rang through the still air. The man Hannah had been aiming at bucked and shuddered as las-beam after las-beam shot through his body. His eyes appeared to roll back into his head as he collapsed to the ground.

As fast as she could, the private aimed at another soldier and started to fire. At the corner of her eye she saw that the chaos sergeant had managed to find the source of the fire and charged up the hill unafraid, only to get into a dual with Andre.

Sparks flew as chainsword teeth clashed together, each wielder attempting to get an advantage over the other.

Some of the enemy soldiers were trying to fight back in a futile effort while others were running as Andre had predicted. In the distance Hannah could barely make-out a Valhallan war-cry, probably Kris and his men re-routing the retreating soldiers.

Andre growled at the man who had his blade locked with his. The cultist leader’s face was covered in disgusting piercings and tattoos depicting the symbol of chaos undivided: the eight pointed star. By the God-Emperor’s name there was no way he would lose to such a heathen.

He feigned a loss of control and his opponent almost yelped in victory unwittingly creating a hole in his defense. The cunning sergeant twisted his blade under the cultist’s arms and in one fell stroke chopped the man’s hands off; his chainsword hit the ground and slowly came to a deadening stop.

In a final attempt to at least injure his foe, the maniacal chaos leader leapt for Andre and tried to pin him down with the nubs that used to be his hands. Andre side-stepped and easily avoided the attack; then he pulled his laspistol from its holster and made a single well-placed las-bolt into the back of the infidel’s head.

It was quite an interesting sight.

The cultist that had decided to run, were now coming back into the fire zone, chased there by the charging squad of Valhallan soldiers from the other side. The rear attack had surprised them and it appeared that they would much rather be shot, than face the point of a well-polished bayonet.

The small engagement had lasted only several minutes. The majority of the enemies were killed, leaving six alive all of whom had surrendered.

Andre pulled two of them out of the group of kneeling men and instructed Vasily and Carson to take them to the 126th’s Headquarters. Mina gathered everyone up to move back to camp.

One of the soldiers from Kris’s squad called to the sergeants. “What do we do with these prisoners?”

Kris and Andre began to lead the soldiers away and Mina approached the guards. “We don’t keep prisoners.”

The men guarding the remaining four cultists looked at each other and understood what they needed to do. They firmly placed the barrels of their lasguns to the backs of the prisoners’ heads. As some of them began to beg for mercy, four shots echoed through the valley.
________________________________________
Night was once again beginning to fall on the city. It had gotten considerably colder. As a result, to maintain body heat, Mina and Andre had pulled their squad’s into the same room. Most of the twenty troopers had already fallen asleep leaving only a handful awake.

Mina was sitting quietly across the table from which Andre was writing in his journal. “What do you know that’s so important to keep in your journal? You make an entry every day.”

Andre shrugged. “Dunno. It’s a hobby I picked up from my girlfriend back on Valhalla. She gave me this journal and she said something that’s stuck with me ever since: Write down everything that’s happened. No matter how small it is, it’s important. After all, you don’t know how much longer you have to live.” He rubbed the sleepiness out of his eyes. “I’m not quite sure why I still do it; I probably won’t see her ever again anyway.”

“You look terrible.” Hannah somewhat startled him.

“Eh, nothing I can’t handle.”

“When was the last time you got any sleep or had a good meal?” The private asked quietly.

Andre shrugged. “Can’t remember.”

Mina winked at Hannah who smiled, “When was the last time you got laid?”

He looked up with a small smile. “Why? You offering?”

“Maybe I am? What would you do?”

“I wouldn’t go for it.”

“Why not, Andre? You could use a good time!”

“I’m not accustomed to getting in bed with my sister.”

All three of them chuckled quietly. Hannah sat down next to Andre and watched him as he wrote. A look of pure interest plastered her face as she watched his hand glide over the pages. “How long have you been doing this?”

“A couple of years, since I started the guard actually.” Andre responded as he continued to write. The sergeant looked up from his journal and finally got the chance to sincerely look at the young private that was seated next to him. To his pleasant surprise, Hannah was more appealing than he had first thought her to be.

Somewhere along the line, she had learned to roll up her rather long sleeves to improve her mobility. It partially exposed her skinny and fragile-looking hands; she was obviously built a small girl. He couldn’t help but wonder how she passed training in the first place.

The absence of her helmet allowed him to examine her face. Hannah had dark-blonde hair that fell down to her shoulders and her eyes were an intriguing shade of sparkling bright blue. She was an attractive woman in all aspects of the word’s definition, so why did such a beautiful girl pursue the Guard? There were plenty of other things she could’ve done that didn’t put her in harm’s way, so why voluntary military service?

Mina sensed the tension in Andre’s blank stare and excused herself to the bathroom.

“I’m curious, Hannah.” He tapped the open journal with his pen, “Why did such a young woman such as you join the Guard? I can understand Mina and the others in your squad. They were conscripted. But you? You could have lived a safer, more sheltered life than this.”

“I’m well aware.” Hannah cracked her knuckles and relaxed into the chair’s back. “I have my reasons of joining, of course. They’re personal and, no disrespect intended sergeant, but I don’t trust you enough to share them.”

Andre was somewhat taken aback. That was not an answer he had expected from the former blue-collar private, but because she had been so firm with her response he did not push the matter further than that.

Several minutes of intense silence followed.

“I have to admit.” The sergeant said out loud as he slowly closed his journal. “You aren’t half bad with a knife, given the fact that you weren’t trained in stealth tactics.”

Hannah gave him a small smile and a light shrug.

“So, how did you feel when you made your first kill? When you felt the archenemy’s blood flow across your blade?” He folded his arms and looked at her intently. Her reaction would tell him whether or not she’d be fit to survive.

The private shuddered slightly and sighed. “Well, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would feel. I had the impression that killing people would scar your mind; I was very reluctant at first. But then I realized that these people probably weren’t who they used to be and I should put them out of their misery.” She shrugged. “I guess we could say we’re doing them a favor. Emperor have mercy on their souls.”

Again, Hannah responded in a fashion Andre did not expect, but it pleased him nonetheless. Perhaps the young girl does have what it takes to be a very able guardsman. However, that skirmish wasn’t quite a real battle, so he wasn’t in a position to make any judgments. Yet.

That bloody first battle would soon be upon them.

Mina reentered the room and took the seat she had left several minutes ago only to discover that the tension she had tried to avoid was still in the air. In another effort to give them some time, she got up to prepare herself a kettle of caffeine. “Anyone want some? It’d help get rid of the stress.”

Andre raised his hand for her to also get him a cup.

“What was her name?”

He looked up surprised. “What?”

Hannah pointed at the now closed journal. “The girl you said that gave you your journal. Your girlfriend? What was her name?”

“Winona.” The sergeant said with a small smile. “Winona Petrova, I just called her Winry for short though. Our families lived on the same floor of an apartment and Winry and I worked in the nearby factorium.”

“Were any of you parents or grandparents part of the Imperial Guard before you? Anyone?” She asked leaning into the table using her elbows to prop up her head.

“Nope.” Andre responded with a small, sarcastic chuckle. “My family had a long and well-established history of being an extensive line of skilled welders.” He looked up at Hannah. “I happened to be lucky enough to be the minimal age when the draft was issued. The recruitment officers, however, passed over Winry because she was a year too young and too weak to their eyes.” Again he chuckled sarcastically. “Then, they gave me a total of three hours to say goodbye to all of my friends and family.”

Hannah frowned slightly and gently placed a hand on top of his. “Well, the good thing is that she’ll be able to live a safe life back home on Valhalla, right?”

The sergeant smiled and nodded. “True. Thank the Emperor for that.”

Mina returned with two steaming cups of caffeine and was somewhat shocked to find Andre tolerating Hannah’s touch. It was perhaps the first time in years that she’d seen Andre allow a woman to lay a hand on him. She sat down quietly and handed her fellow officer one of the mugs.

The private yawned and used her arm as a pillow, laying her head down on the tabletop.

“I found out we’re going to begin our advance in a few days.” Mina said to Andre. “Like the Colonel said, the 126th will be forming the lead rank of the battle group. We’ll be relying on the 63rd’s Vendettas and the 4067th artillery regiment for fire-support; according to command we’ll be taking the brunt of the expected chaos infantry charge.”

“How do they know it’ll only be infantry?” Andre sounded skeptical.

“They don’t.” Mina folded her arms and relaxed into the back of her chair. “I know exactly what you’re thinking.”

“Do you know where we’ll be setting up?”

“There’s a plain about twenty-seven kilometers out that’s supposed to be the ideal staging ground. Headquarters hopes that we will be able to beat the archenemy there and be able to dig in before the bulk of the enemy forces arrive.” The female sergeant slowly shook her head in frustration. “It’s a huge gamble if you ask me.”

“It’s a dangerous gamble at that. The mechanized might be wiped out in the wrong type of situation.” Andre picked up his mug and took one long sip of caffeine. “I hope they understand that we’re ill-equipped to take on heavily armored vehicles.”

“Same. I requisitioned for you to be on my flank seeing as you have a lascannon that can compliment my autocannon. And Jay’s meltagun might come in handy as well if we get stuck in a rather tight situation.”

Andre nodded in acknowledgment.

A peaceful quiet filled the room and the only sound that could be heard was that of the Imperial vehicles that zipped to and from various locations. A slight wind had picked up and it whistled lightly passed the boarded windows.

The seasoned veteran could tell that there was something on his friend’s mind and whatever it was it bothered her. “What’s on your mind, Mina? You look a bit worried.”

She checked to make sure Hannah was asleep before she opened her mouth. “She seems enamored with you, you know? And from the looks of it, you seem to be growing attached to her. You let her touch you, and that’s a big step after what I’ve seen.”

Andre merely shrugged. “You’re being ridiculous, Mina. Hannah’s growing to be like a little sister, not a lover.”

Then again, he had to deliberate for himself. Hannah was indeed a very attractive girl and only a year younger than him. Was he perhaps nurturing an attachment to her because her face reminded him of Winry? Was he falling in love with her?

Andre pushed the idea out of his mind. After all, there were more important things he should be thinking of.
________________________________________
The order had, in fact, been made later that same night. Hannah had managed to pick-up bits and pieces of Mina and Andre’s conversation before she had dozed off. Her sergeant had been correct and it was made an urgent issue for the 126th to mobilize as quickly as possible.

The battle plan had been finalized the night before and it called for the forward regiments to make all do haste toward their given objectives. If the fully-loaded Chimeras moved at their top speed, given the snow and wind, it would take them at least half a day to make it to the Vedell Plain where the frontline would be established.

Andre had pulled her aside before they left and told her to make sure that she was ready. According to him, the small skirmish she had experienced when they encountered the recon party would be nothing compared to the action she would probably see before the end of the coming week.

She was nervous beyond all recognition.

Squad Nine was standing at attention before the open hatch of their sanctioned Chimera and Mina was going through last minute checks. Only after double-checking and reconfirming that all of her troopers were present and their equipment was loaded did she give the order to get on board.

Hannah shouldered her lasgun and looked up at the sky when she heard the deep sound of igniting vector-thrust engines. The dark profile of a trio of Vendetta gunships zoomed loudly overhead. Mina gently took the private by her arm and led her inside the awaiting vehicle. “That’s the 63rd; they’ll be in position by the time we arrive on site.

The APC’s hatch closed with a metallic clank. Its engine started soon after and the Chimera began to move.

Hannah took out her charge-pack from her lasgun and then reinserted it nervously. Her sergeant quietly and inaudibly whispered to her. “I’m about to give you a major responsibility. Due to the weather, the 4067th have to rely on ionic bursts instead of voxed coordinates.” She handed her an awkward looking device that somewhat resemble a plasma gun. “If you judge that the area is getting too dangerous, point that straight up into the air and pull the trigger once. You won’t see anything, but the artillery commanders will.”

Taking it, she nodded and placed it into an easily accessible pocket on her great-coat.

“Don’t forget that you have it, alright? That artillery may be the difference between life and death.”

Over the grumbling engine, Hannah could discern another group of aircraft fly over head. “Talila, how, exactly, are we going to ‘dig in’?”

“We’re going to try and build up a small ice wall.” She responded with her helmet over her eyes. “Only tall enough to cover you if you’re crouching. We don’t have the type of supplies to build a sturdy defensive position, so we’re going to have to make do with trenches and the like.” Talila readjusted herself into a more comfortable position. “If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to place some explosives out front to give ‘em a little surprise.”

“Would you need help?”

“Mm, I could use someone to cover me. You can tag along if you like.”

The transport hit a bump that rocked the passengers in their seats. If her calculations were correct, Hannah was estimating that they had another five or six hours before they arrived and she really hoped they’d be the first ones there.
________________________________________
Only a few hours had passed since they had left Winiske and once again the wind had died down. The snow fell eerily onto the ground, the cold was biting and it forced Andre to be careful as he sat in the opened top-hatch of his Chimera.

His face was covered in two scarves, one covering the top of his head and another covering the bottom leaving his eyes uncovered but he wore a pair of ice-resistant goggles to protect them from the sharp, cold temperatures. Andre held his thermal magnoculars up against his face.

They were approximately eighteen kilometers from Vedell and luckily he had yet to see any movement except the occasional patrolling Valkyrie or Vendetta gunship. Turning to his left and right, he saw the distinct heat signatures of Squad Nine and Squad Three’s Chimeras proceeding at their flanks.

The sergeant slipped back down into the vehicle and shut the top hatch as he did so. Shaking the snow off of his body, Andre pulled the scarf off his face to get a breath of warm air into his lungs.

“Anything, Andre?” Vasily asked him as quietly as he could.

He shook his head in response. “No, nothing. And it bothers me. You’d expect them to do something since we completely annihilated their scout squad. I would’ve thought they’d get moving.”

Some of the troopers sighed nervously. There were two major possibilities and Andre didn’t even want to speculate on since both of them were bad. It really didn’t matter what happened. Either way, things going to get very dangerous and very bloody.

Not to mention the infantry... They’ll be in major trouble since he assumed that most of the battle would be fought between armored vehicles. Andre had a strange feeling in his gut that his squad’s meltagun was going to see extensive use.
________________________________________
Hannah wasn’t sure if she was awake or if she was asleep, but her head was hurting. It seemed the confined space and strong fumes were finally getting to her head in the cramped compartment that made up the back of the Chimera.

Her lasgun sat idly in her lap and she struggled to focus her eyes so that she could make sure that the safety was on. She relaxed her head against the seat’s back and sighed. What Andre had said to her before they had departed had been imprinter in her mind...

A strange tingly feeling shot down her spine at the idea of an early death. She had just turned nineteen several weeks ago and it was hard to imagine that perhaps she had only days to live.

I want you to remember to be very careful, Andre had said to her, it’s going to be extremely dangerous. Most of the coming battles will not be a cake-walk. You’ll probably kill lots of people and I’ll guarantee you that most, if not all, of your comrades will not make it off-planet.

I was lucky, Hannah. He paused for a long time. Mina and I saw a lot of our friends die in our first years. We were extremely lucky, thank the Emperor. Then he smiled and gently squeezed her shoulder. Let’s hope that you are too.