Behind Enemy Lines.

[Brother Anvilus]

Greetings my Bretheren,

After reading through alot of short stories here in the librarium, I thought I'd have a go at this myself.Seeying as I recently ( a few months ago ), decided to repaint my chapter into the Minotaurs capter, I chose them as my story's subjects.

This is my first time I've written anything like this, so please be gentle.It also isn't completely finished, wanting to have some criticism and comments.

Also keep in mind English isn't my native laguage, so point out any spelling errors, I hope I didn't make alot of those ;-).

Without further ado; here it is:

Behind enemy lines.

The slow ticking of cooling metal woke Sergeant Dioneses up.Taking a deep breath, he blinked the dizziness out of his head.His HUD showed his armour to be intact, no serious breaks of integrity, just a few dents.Grunting with effort he pulled himself up from the ground, looking at the wreckage of the blackened droppod that had been his squad’s ride down to the planet.It had been a hard drop from the outset.Chapter Master Asterion Moloc had ordered an all-out drop as soon as they were in range.Little did the Chapter Master care that it was a drop in the middle of a space-battle.The pod had been hit by a flakk burst when they entered the atmosphere, faulting the descent trajectory.That in turn had faulted the machine spirit’s calculations, so that the retroburners had not fired when they had to.And that had ended up in a hard touchdown.

Dioneses saw Brother Mylex, the squad’s plasmagunner, stumble out of the droppod’s interior, cursing the enemy in a rather colourfull way.Mylex always was a colourfull figure when it came to his language, wich made him the squad’s natural storyteller.Kicking the remnants of the hatch he had came out, Mylex turned to his sergeant. “Brother Mylex, status”, the Sergeant asked with a gruff voice. “A few broken ribs and left wrist sprained, nothing serious Sergeant”, Brother Mylex replied, checking his plasmagun. “Get on the lookout, Lambda pattern”.

Moving to the other side of the pod, the Sergeant saw a few others of his squad, some tending to their wounds, one laying on the ground, not moving. “Oibalos, report”, he called out to the squad’s second-in-command. “Some broken bones, some battered heads and one casualty, Brother Soos is at the Emperor’s side, broken neck.Otherwise everybody’s able to move.”, was the reply. The sergeant looked grim, thinking for a moment before speaking, “Get Brother Soos’ progenoids, strip his ammunition and get the rest of the squad ready to move in 3 minutes.Alpha pattern, we move to the north ”.

Shattered glass and debris from the ruins around them cracked under their heavy boots as they walked carefully in the direction their sergeant indicated. “According to the map, we should be about 3Km behind the enemy front lines, Manufactorum District Orlen.”, said Brother Lelex, the squad’s dedicated auspex operator. “Good, while our bretheren keep the front busy, we will try and behead the snake that has infested this city.”

They encountered little resistance, moving carefully through the city towards where their reports said the enemy leader would probably located.What little resistance they did encounter, they dealt with quick and brutal, ripping trough checkpoints and sentries as tough they were mere trainingdummies.The first sign they were going in the right direct came in the form of a rhino APC clad in the colours of the traitorous World Eaters, rumbling through the street towards them. “Defensive Pattern Lambda, Brother Menelaus, take care of the rhino.All the rest of you, kill anything that comes out of it once it stops!” shouted Dioneses, sprinting into the cover of a fallen pillar.

Brother Menelaus placed his first krak missile straight into the left tracksection of the rhino, doing nothing more than peeling back the ablative armour.The second missile penetrated the track itself, blowing an entire chunk of track links and armourpanels off, rendering the rhino immobile at last as it slew to a halt, grinding it’s right flank to the front.The squad sighted along their bolters, keeping their eyes trained on the rhino, awaiting the inside to come bursting out any moment.They all knew what to expect, each and every one of them having undergone the hypno-indoctrination that was part of their training.Only a few of them had actually fought the blood-crazed berzekers before, one of wich was Sergeant Dioneses himself.His power sword drawn in his right hand and his bolt pistol in his left, he watched as the side-door to the rhino openend, the revving of several chain-weapons clearly heard from within. Dioneses didn’t wait any longer, knowing the enemy would charge as soon as they were able to, “Brace and fire at will!”.The side of the rhino erupted in a storm of miniature explosions as 8 Minotaurs opened fire with bolters and boltpistols.The moment the command left Dioneses’ helmet, the enemy charged out, ignoring the storm of bolterfire they were running into.One of the berzerkers fell, his throat blown out.Revving their chainaxes and –swords, the enemy kept coming, wildly firing their bolt pistols as they came. As the enemy charged, Dioneses sent a signal through the vox, prapring his squad for a counter-charge.Activating the blade of his powersword, he sent the second signal, powering over the pillar he had been taking cover behind.

The first berzeker came howling at him, slashing down with his chainaxe.Barely dodging the stroke, he trust upwards with his power sword, finding the weak spot between the ribs and the hp armour.A dark, gritty smoke came out the wound, as the sword’s powerfield burned through the armour and the flesh beneath.Retracting his sword and arm, Dioneses spun on his back foot, avoiding the backstroke of the chainaxe.Chopping down hard, using the momentum from his spin, Dioneses aimed for the neck.The wound in his side slowing him down, the berzeker wasn’t able to get out of the way fast enough, the tip of Dioneses’ sword slashing his torso armour open from top to bottom.Foul blood leaked out as the berserker leapt back.All around them, Minotaurs and World Eaters were fighting brutally, the Minotaurs using their bolters and combat blades agains the bolt pistol and chainweapons of the World Eaters.The fight was harsh and over quick, each side giving their all to eliminate the enemy.Dioneses saw Brother Eurotas fall to a knee, a deep gash in his abdomen from an enemy chainsword.The next second, Eurotas was decapitated in one quick stroke, blood gushing from the stump of his neck.Roaring, Dioneses charged the world eater, firing off a quick couple of shots, forcing the world eater into a defensive stance.Leaping at the last second, Dioneses trust his power sword at the world eater’s helmet.The tip of the blade entered through the eyeslit of the helmet, effortlessly cutting through the glass and into the head behind it.The world eater shivered for a last time and dropped on his back, his brain turned to a slush inside is head.Dioneses looked around, seeying his squad victorious, although every single one of them had at least one wound to show for it, the worst being Brother Argos, who’s left hand had been amputated. “Squad, Form up.Oibalos, get Eurotas’ progenoids.We move in 2 minutes.” ,Dioneses ordered.

That's about where I got, hopefully you enjoyed it so far.Any constructive criticism and comments are welcome.Any unconstructive criticism and comments...well...please don't