“I love the smell of promethium in the morning.” -Captain Shambas of The Valhallan 597th
M31.004 22:20/Volk, the Volk system/the city centre of Vrantanius
Max was shouting orders over the rising sounds of running men and the roars of the Valkyries taking off again.
Squads rushed around organizing into platoons before moving out to complete their objectives. It may have seemed like chaos to the untrained eye, but to someone who knew a little about tactics, I knew it was chaos.
Of course, that was no slight against Max, this was just how these things went.
I stood in the middle of this scene, holding the standard high, as I had nothing better to do. Freya must have noticed my contented boredom (or perhaps she was just genuinely insane) when she spoke up, “Einherjr, we’re moving up with Second and Third Platoons,”
“Yes, Ma’am.” I followed Freya as she began to jog towards a knot of troopers who were marching directly towards the Palace.
Second Platoon was around twenty men wielding promethium-filled flamers, ten with power axes, and forty with lasrifles. Third platoon was much the same.
"Lieutenant," Freya shouted at the small crowd, probably in an attempt to single out whoever was in charge.
"Your Highness," a man decorated in a suit of standard issue void carapace (including the helmet) and an officer's coat. I didn't recognize him, it wasn't my job to.
"Lieutenant, if you don't mind, I think we'll be coming with you." She said, receiving a grunt in response.
Suddenly the cracks of ionized air materialized overhead. Lasbolts.
"Contact! Twelve O'clock!" I shouted while I drew my volkite pistol.
"Get to cover!" the Lieutenant shouted. His Platoon immediately complied as did I and Freya, though I did pause for a few moments to fire off a few beams of whatever the fuck it was my pistol was shooting and to get a good idea of who we were facing. I then ran to cover like Hel herself was at my heels.
"Single Section1Lasrifle Section: a unit of around 20 lasrifle-armed men lead by an NCO. This formation is no longer in use amongst the Volk Army, however, it is crucial to the structure of the Solar Auxilia.” I reported to Freya, who was crouching behind the same half-collapsed wall as me.
Once she finished relaying my cursory report to the Lieutenant she turned to me, “You might want your axe for this.” She was right of course, and so I un-hooked my axe and placed the banner into its little claw-holder-thingy.
Freya seemed to be staring at something. “They’re advancing.” She told me without peeking out from the cover.
“How can you tell?” I asked, trying to stay calm as my heart hammered like a war drum in my chest.
She gave me a puzzled look, "Servo skulls. Obviously.” She said it like it was the most normal thing in the world, though I had never seen a servo skull up close before. They were always the business of the Mechanicus and people more important than me.
“Squads One and Two, be prepared to engage contacts!” The Lieutenant said over the Vox.
“Those are the power axe ones,” Freya put in helpfully. “You should lead them.” She added, unhelpfully. But, seeing as I couldn’t refuse, I repositioned myself all the while saying as many prayers as I could.
“Gods guide me.” I whispered, before shouting, “For Volk!” As I sprung upwards, thumbing the activation rune on my axe. Immediately, I engaged the troopers who were only a few meters away.
Immediately I swung my axe down onto a still surprised soldier who tried to raise his lasrifle to block my axe. But it was no use, I put the axe through his skull with satisfying ease.
I turned, where another trooper had a bayonet in his hand, but I acted first, swinging the axe into his arm, slicing it clean off. The axe worked like a hot knife to butter I thought, as I swung the axe into his neck, cutting off his banshee scream.
I turned to see if first and second squads had joined me yet, but they were only just getting out of cover. Despite that most of the enemy section was making a full route, only one turning back to fire at me.
Not wanting to let them get away now I chased after them and quickly caught up with one who I took in the back of the helmet immediately killing them. I ran past them, seeing the one who had decided to stand and fight.
I lunged forward at him as he fired a burst of las-bolts in my direction. Panic must have been making him inaccurate. Only one shot hit me, and while it was directly in the face, I was lucky to be wearing a helmet.
In a second I took my axe to his chest, making him scream out in agonizing pain. Now, contrary to popular belief, power weapons are sometimes less lethal than a non-powered equivalent, this was especially true now, as the power field on my axe instantly cauterized the wound I inflicted upon the soldier. And so I raised my axe preparing for a decapitating strike.
For a second I wasnt on the battlefeild.
I saw, a kilometre ahead of me, enemy commanders were arguing in the basement of the palace.
I saw, fifteen kilometres above me Lightnings, Thunderbolts, and Avengers duelled for dominance over the clouds, little did I know at the time, nearly five hundred men would die in the dogfights alone.
I saw, twenty kilometres behind me, the Second Armoured engaged the remains of House Regold, while civilians who didn’t get the chance to evacuate cowered in their homes.
All as the axe fell.
***
M31.004 17:47 Ship Time/in warp transit/Aboard ‘The Sorceress’ Maw’
Katla was never one for socializing.
First of all, she was a Space Marine, secondly, she was a psyker. Combine those with her hatred of being perceived, and she was prone to only emerge from her quarters when she needed to.
She had hoped that would have changed with Luschien’s arrival, but he had told her he needed time to set up a workshop. Katla understood, or at least pretended to, but inside? She felt miserable, and the thirteen days since then could have been the worst in her century of life.
Yes, even topping the Xenos with corrosive blood, topping the planet with the impenetrable atmosphere that she nearly died on. It almost topped the feeling in her stomach on Prospero when she saw the child… She grimaced, trying to purge the image from her head, the sounds from her ears, and the smell of charred flesh from her nose.
A voice broke her out of her haze, “Katla you fuck! Open! I’m not asking!” Katla didn’t respond, she could only be here with bad news. Katla was not in the mood for bad news.
Besides, the Sorceress thought, she couldn’t get in even if she- WHAT.
A small blind woman walked through the now open doorway, mumbling Fenrisian curses under her breath.
“The Tech-boy taught me a trick or two as you can see.” The small woman laughed. She was an astropath, one of two onboard her ship. And out of the two onboard her ship Katla liked her more. Her name was Pricilla.
“Why have you come,” Katla stated trying to keep her booming voice at a tolerable, quiet, and bearable level.
“The Choir on Volk has responded to your call," Pricilla stated, "News is mixed and nearly unreadable." The astropath paused for a moment in order to gauge the Sorceress's reaction, though the superhuman giant stayed impassive as ever, waiting for the Astropath to continue.
"Never one for the dramatic, were you?" Pricilla said. Katla didn't disagree, "Fine. From what me and Karl could parse it seems that there is fighting on Volk."
"The Orks are back?" Katla asked, reasonably enough. When she was still a Blood Claw she was there to exterminate the Ork menace. That was when she befriended King Owyne. That was nearly a century and a half ago.
"No." That didn't bode well, "It seems Volk is engaged in some sort of civil war."
Katla paused for a moment, pondering. A part of her, a pessimistic part, said that this 'civil war' could have been caused by a succession crisis. but that didn't make sense, Owyne was nothing if not cautious, and even a century and a half ago he already had plans for an heir to the throne. Katla decided to stop catastrophizing and ask, "Why?"
"No idea," the blind woman responded with a shrug, "What we can make out is that the astropaths on Volk believe that the final battle of this 'civil war' has begun."
"Then we can only hope that we are not too late," Katla said with determination in her voice.
"Sorceress." Katla's head snapped to the doorway at the sound of a familiar voice. It was Luschein. "If you are ready, I would like to take you to my laboratory. I am ready to perform your first procedure."
Katla had never been more ready for anything in her life.
