Captain Count Geranium of Bigbush and
Littletree jumped from the side of his Vanquisher, the Flammeus
Princeps, and, swearing loudly,
threw his cap to the dusty ground.
“Lads,”
he yelled to the crew of Charlie Three,
still struggling with the thrown track that had prevented them from
joining Task Force Lightning, “the bastard Xenos are on the move!”
His
tankers and comrades looked up in surprise, their eyes shockingly
white against their dust and grease stained faces.
Corporal
Tansy pushed his forage cap back and looked hard at his Captain.
“What did you say, sir?”
“The Xenos are coming! We need
to get moving into our defensive positions, you fool!”
Tansy
started, and looked again. Behind Flammeus Princeps,
driving in column, were a mix of Astartes and Guard armoured
vehicles. There were less than had driven out from Landing Zone
Primaris that morning. The Chimeras were straining under the added
weight of white-armoured Astartes, and as he stared, “Emperor's
teeth,” he thought, “some
of those Astartes are injured!”
Tansy
and his crew ran over to Count Littletree. He closed his eyes, and
ran his hands through his hair. He straightened, suddenly, to his
full height, and then slumped, a long breath sighing through his
teeth.
“The
bastard blueys have allied with some thrice-forsaken Orkoid scum. Our
intel just didn't mention them at all. We rolled in as planned, and
the first damn things we come across are Orks. Orks! The gropos
blasted them apart, though, but the shock of it put me off, lads, it
fair put me off. We had a bad time of it. The Astartes got the worst.
They went head to head with the greenskins and the greenskins just
rolled right over them. I saw them going down, boys, one by bloody
one.
“Sure,
they put up a fight, a damn good fight, but Throne! it just wasn't
enough. Then they were through, and Ash and his chaps went up. Some
big bastard with a... claw, it looked like a giant metal claw, he
just tore his tank apart like paper, and he detonated something. The
explosion took a few of the greenskins out, mind, Ash would've
appreciated that, but the big bugger was just stood there with this
grin on his face. And a chunk of armour plate through his chest
bigger than I am, and he was just stood there grinning like it was
the best thing ever.
“It
wasn't long after that that the Astartes told us to fall back. We
didn't even get past the crossroads. The Karaboudjani lads did their
best, 'sblood, they fought like tigers, and died like heroes, but we
just couldn't get through. The xenos spotted us withdrawing and
pulled back a bit into the town – they were taking potshots, but
the Astartes managed to get their casualties out. They seemed really
angry that they'd lost one of their tanks though. I mean, lads, they
were spitting mad about it. Their blood's up, I think, but... damn
me, boys, damn me, they've got tactical sense. There's not many Guard
officers'd've told us to fall back.”
“What
now, boss,” asked Peony, Tansy's driver, “I mean the LZ's still
fulla landers, it's not secure yet.”
“Well,
P, and this goes for all of us, the orders I got this morning said
that we need to fall back to Phase Line Alpha and dig in. So that's
what we're going to do. It's where the Karaboudjani boys are going
now,” he smiled, pointing down the road at the dust cloud, “and I
think we need to follow. How's the track repair?”
“Nearly
done, sir,” Tansy growled, “let's make those blue bastards pay
for Charlie Three.”
Task Force Lightning: Karaboudjani X Kataphraktoi and Valachian MXI units
Force Priam: Elements of Strike Force Priam, 2nd Battle Company, Righteous Fists
(Prior to the first battle of the crossroads...!)
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