Leaving Badab.

[Trevak Dal]

"The Imperium always wins." that's what his sister had told him.  As he looked down at the shattered Aquila on his chest, Brother Elam wondered absently if his birth sister was still alive.

 

A massive face pushed it's way into his vision, his targeting sensors identifying the brutish figure as his Brother-Sargent Iago,

 

"On your feet Elam!" he snarled hauling Elam to his feet, "We got enemy targets inbound on our sector-no time for a frakking nap."  The autosenses adjusted and then reset as Elam blink-clicked warnings away, his genehanced body already starting to heal itself.

 

Inquisition Storm Troopers emerged from the smoke of the alley way, hellguns blazing.  Iago lifted his storm bolter and started to spit death at the Imperials.  Elam and the rest of the remaining astartes in Squad Aries returned fire.

 

"Throne-Damned Inquisition Glory Boys," Marcus growled, bracing his heavy bolter by locking his armor and then sending a torrent into the mind-wiped men and women-detonating their bodies.

The vox was insane.  There had been a call for general retreat-retreat.  Elam had hated that word for a long time.  He'd only just been promoted to the Scout Company when the Secession had been declared.  Retreat was all they ever seemed to do.

The Imperium always wins.

Less than ten minutes prior to Elam getting hit-the vox had reported that the Tyrant had been killed, and general retreat had been sounded.  His squad was trying to pull back to the rally point-but had met with resistance.  Star Phantom astartes, and the never ending horde of Inquisition Storm Troopers.

 

Elam had seen what became of other squads attempting to surrender-they were killed to a man.

 

His sister had been a colonel in the Tyrant's legion-no question Saria was dead.  His bolter rocked in his cradling embrace as he added his fire to his brothers' dropping the latest rush.  A scream and a rune crossed out as another of Elam's brothers' were hit by the sniper-Tomlin and not as lucky as he had been by the the indicator.

 

Tomlin had been in the same scout squad as Elam had been-he'd been more than a battle-brother they'd been true friends, he bent low to pick him up,

 

"Leave him Elam, take only his ammo."  Dolan said, as he reloaded the double stacked magazines of his storm bolter.

 

"Sir?" he asked.  Dolan's helm turned towards him, "You heard me, Marine." the brother-sargent said grimly, "We don't get a 'bird outta here, we're all going to burn with this rock."  A wave of emotions crashed over Elam, and he set his brother's arms up on his chest, taking the spare magazines from his combat webbing.

"Smoke!" Hansen called out over the vox, hurling the small disc between the sniper and themselves, as a cloud of smoke blotted out the snipers ability to see them clearly.

 

The sky was on fire as their shattered squad thundered down the side streets, Marcus had left his heavy bolter behind, taking a Plasma gun off a fallen brother in it's stead.  Parapets of anti-air guns roared into the night sky as Loyalist forces continued to drop into the Palace of Thorns.

The vox suddenly cleared, as the auto senses registered the threat.

 

Five Hulking terminators towered over Squad Aries.

 

"Don't stop-DO NOT ENGAGE!" Dolan shouted as they kept thundering down the street.  

The Terminators turned, covered in blood and gore but the sign of the Carcharadons on their shoulders as they scissored lightning claws towards their oncoming prey.  The five hulking monsters strode towards squad Aries, the rockcrete cracking under their weight.

"Squad Aries, hold your position!  Air assets inbound." Dolan's fist shot up and the squad took a knee, aiming their weapons at the terminators closing the gap.  Marcus chuckled darkly, as the twin storm talons shout out from behind a tower, assault cannons roaring, tearing the terminators to shreds.

 

A thunderhawk touched down at the intersection, as the two storm talons provided a hovering overwatch.  Sargent Dolan led the remains of his squad up the assault ramp and Elam turned back, watching his birth world burn.

"Officer on deck!" Dolan shouted, banging his fist to his chest in a salute, snapping Elam from his the view of hell to salute.  A legate stood before them, his helmet on his belt a scowl across his face,

 

"At ease Aries," he boomed as the ramp closed and the thunderhawk rose into the air.

 

"Hell of a day gentlemen," the Legate said, "You're the only survivors we've found in this sector.  We've been given the order to fall back to fleet."

 

"We going to board the Loyalist's ships?" Marcus asked, the legate shook his head once,

 

"Negative, we're going to cut and run, the Chapter Master is down-last heard he's not dead yet, but we are abandoning Badab Primus."

 

Elam felt his hands clenching, his rage building until it cooled like lava hitting the ocean.

 

"Sir, all we ever seem to do is retreat," Elam heard himself say, "Where else do we have to go now?".  The legate looked him square in the eye-his face a roadmap of scar tissue,

 

"Today has been bad, brothers," he says, rested a hand on Elam's shoulder, "The Rally point is inside the Maelstrom," he says.  "This fight ain't over yet-not for a damn sight."  Squad Aries strapped themselves in next to the other remaining survivors, twenty or so over all.  Elam thought back to the spires burning and the rage returned.

 

The Imperium Always wins.

 

He reached down, pulling his meter long combat blade from it's mag-locked sheath, slashing it across the Aquila, gouging the cracks deeper.

 

"Frak the Imperium."

[Olis]

Nice yarn, brother. I do feel the Terminators went down far too easily, though.

[Trevak Dal]

Well, I thought so too at first, but I remembered how in Soul Hunter how the Dred's Autocannon pasted the singular Terminator, I figured the assault cannons on the storm talons would have a similar effect.  Sort of had the vision of the hill charge from We Were Soldiers where the gunships raked the NVA troops.

[Green Knight]

The Imperium always wins.

 

Liked it :)

[Son of Carnelian]

It's a nice refrain and a nice story, though more could get done to trim it up. You have a a lot of named characters for a short story, so the reader could get confused. Maybe cut down the names to just one or two and have all incidental characters just called by their rank or given passing mentions to their identities. Some of the dialogue formatting doesn't flow perfectly, but that could just be the transition to a forum post.

 

Looking forward to more!

[Joeyray]

Very nice, enjoyed it thoroughly for a short story, easy to read and to the point.

[Lord-Captain Cepinari]

If I hadn't read the title I would have had a very hard time understanding what was going on; the story itself provides very little context.