Fan Fiction ❯ The Reya Campaign ❯ Boiling Blood ( Chapter 6 )

Boiling Blood

The Imperial Guard has universally one favourite hobby; drinking. A high number of Guardsmen spend their time off duty drinking. Of course not all Guardsmen are alcoholics some merely drink socially or lightly. Many however spend most of their life inside the bottle because they can never forget the things they've seen. The majority however are the social drinkers, meaning of course they only drink with others which is how the common misconception of the Imperial Guard being drunkards has spread.

To celebrate the victory earlier in the day the survivors decided to explore the city for a place to drink.

"Something about this place, Prett said more to himself than anyone else, "don't know what it is, but I like it." The design of the place was pretty basic and they served most kinds of drink. Most of the drinkers regarded the four Guardsmen, Prett, Silgan, Bist and Detta, indifferently. Two groups however behind Prett and near a door marked "No Unauthorised Access" seemed to be watching the newcomers carefully and suspiciously. Detta was aware of the stares he turned to face Bist and spoke softly:

"What do you think's up their arses"

"I think they're the ones who just hate strangers. Almost every bar has them."

Silgan shook his head. "Gangs, criminals, odds are this place is probably a front for something. They're probably thinkin' we're here on policing business."

Psych had taken a shine to Hox earlier in the day. Currently both of them were playing cards at a gambling den they'd found. Both were doing well and beating the dealer, the stakes were rising. The game was rigged, Psych knew it and Hox knew it. The trick was to work out when the dealer was going to start winning and quit just before it happened. The lighting was dim and the air thick with smoke. The lights were dim so that the dealer's switches would be less noticeable and the smoke was there because Hox was taking his medication. The obscura was the reason that the two had been invited to join the card game. So far they were up 75 credits between them, they'd barely lost anything. This was a common tactic the more confidence they have the higher they bet, when they bet high dealer wins. The hands were dealt out to the players. Psych won. 125 credits up. Another dealing, Hox won, 200 credits up. Pretty soon the dealer would start cheating. The cards were dealt out. Certain he would be unseen the dealer began to switch the cards in his hand for ones hidden in his sleeve.

"Can I ask you to keep those three cards in your sleeve?" Hox, whose eyes hadn't left his own cards since they'd been dealt out, asked. There was a pause. Everyone stared at the young soldier. Then two men by the door made for Hox with small clubs raised. Psych caught one in the jaw with his fist first then ran his foot into the attackers groin, causing the man to hit the floor in a breathless scream. Meanwhile Hox grabbed the winnings (and the current bets in the middle of the table) stuffed them in his pockets and made for the door shoving past the second man, who still hadn't decided which to attack. Psych followed suit.

Prett turned to see what had caused the bang. The guarded door behind him had been slammed open a hit into the wall beside it and charging out of it were two somewhat familiar guardsmen.

"Awww shite." Psych shouted, realising that he had just run into a crowd of about ten men guarding the way-out from the other side.

"Fancy seeing you here, Mr Orlis." Detta laughed. The result was a pause in which Psych and Hox joined the other four guardsmen and four men from the gambling room joined the already larger group of fellow gangsmen. They seemed to size up the six guardsmen. Then one charged and met Bist's new left hook head-on and quickly understood the power in a bionic arm as it crushed the side of his face splintering his jaw and cheek bones. There was another pause as the remaining number of gangsmen took in the past five seconds events. Then they quickly armed themselves with whatever they could find that might be usable as a weapon including bottles, cans, clubs and brass knuckles and charged simultaneously. Most quickly saw it wise to avoid the "old man with the steel arm" because his punches were much worse than ones from brass knuckles. Prett found himself a common target guessing it was due to his height, being shorter than average gave the impression that he would be a pushover. Prett was a heavy gunner one of the few who carried all his own ammo and of the even fewer who carried two weapons over a number of years this had given him great strength and stamina. He also found that his opponents went down easily enough as the majority of his punches landed on the skeletally unguarded midsection. He dodged a swing from a club before driving his fist into his attacker's stomach. Psych was where he belonged, in a no-holds-barred melee, he quickly liberated a club from its owner when he grabbed it and head butted the owner. Now armed, he threw himself relentlessly at any opponent in sight. Both Silgan and Detta had great difficulty in not drawing their knives but Catachans tend to be built quite tough so they had no difficulty in holding their own. Silgan caught an attacker in the stomach with a kick from his guard issue boot before smashing his knee into the man's face slumping him into a concussion. Detta grabbed another by the back of the head and slammed is face into a table. Hox was in the worst condition of the lot because he didn't have quite the same amount of expertise but found that most blows he managed to dodge. He unconsciously jumped sideways as a bottle has heading for the back of his head and smashed into the face of a man about to hit him with a club knocking him back by sheer force and knocking him out.

Detta saw it first, the glint of metal, the man holding the knife dived off a table for Bist, whose back was turned. He could have killed the sergeant, had he reached him, instead he realised he was suspended in midair then his knife was removed from his hand and he was raised up a little higher. The knifeman looked into the face of the giant, twice as tall as he was and holding him in a single hand. The appearance of the thing apparently on the side of the guardsmen caused the fighting to cease instantly. The giant was the ogryn sergeant, Malk Rockbust, smart, by ogryn standards, and strong, even for ogryn standards. Malk looked into the terrified face of his catch and smiled.

"You was gonna try an' kill Bist wasn't ya?"

"N-n-n-no." The man stammered desperately trying to break free, however the ogryn's hand was firmly locked around most of his body.

"Don't make the mistake of thinkin' I'm fuckin' stupid."

"No, sir. Never would, sir." Malk seemed about to set the man down then reconsidered. He deftly threw him into the air and punched him hard. The limp form flew almost comically across the room before colliding with the wall with a sickening crunch.

In the following silence many of the gangsmen fled into the streets to get away from the men and the giant. Bist looked around; Silgan was bleeding from a glass wound in his side, Prett was bruised from blows from the brass knuckles, Detta was kneeling down doubled up in the classic "Just had the shit beat out of me" stance, he himself thought he might have a broken rib, Psych looked like he'd just had the time of his life and if he was feeling pain didn't show it, Hox however was phenomenal, he hadn't even been hit once. Two of the gangsmen were left the card dealer and another. Both reached into areas of their clothing and drew firearms, small concealable revolvers, and aimed them at the group of Guardsmen. There was a crack and a thump. The dealer fell back with his face replaced by a bloody crater and the other fell forward with a 12 inch knife buried, to the hilt, in the back of his skull, both before they'd even turned the safety off their weapons. Standing in the doorway of the bar were the sniper Meric, aiming his laspistol at were the dealers face had been mere seconds ago, and the scout Bedan with the scabbard at his side missing a knife. Bedan walked over to the corpse lying on its face, pulled his blade from the head and wiped it on the dead man's clothes before resheathing it. Meric turned to face Bist.

"We were searching for a place to drink," he said casually, "and heard violent noises from here."

"And I suppose curiosity got the better of you?" Bist finished

"I'm not complainin', Sarge." Detta gasped.

The men got ready to leave as the bartender reappeared from his hiding place. The man was trembling and when he spoke his voice was quavering and he was in shock.

"Y-You just killed some of Morza's men."

"Who's Morza?" Meric asked.

"G-Gangboss Morza."

Psych turned to face the bartender. "So?"

"M-M-Morza basically controls this city. Y-You fuck with Morza he fucks you up."

Bist smiled. "If Morza asks, tell him that if he or any of his men try anything to get back our bosses won't hesitate to have him wiped off the face of the system. If he still wants to know who was responsible here tell him he can find us at the warehouses in the western industrial sector."

With these words the nine guardsmen left the bar, empty except for the bartender watching in shock as they left.