Fan Fiction ❯ The Reya Campaign ❯ Routine Patrol ( Chapter 7 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Faerio Avalon awoke in his quarters; he wasn't much of a morning Eldar so it took him a while to remember what was happening and why he wasn't too familiar with his surroundings. He took the place in at a glance, it wasn't his chamber on Deyja Craftworld instead he was in a small room of human furnishing there was a desk, chair (presumably it came with the desk) and a large box which if he remembered right was called a wardrobe or something . There were no windows, light was coming from a simple filament bulb, so he gathered he might be in captivity but the door to the room looked weak. He started to recall events from the previous night. He didn't understand why his head was pounding the way that it was . He recalled a battle, then a formal banquet and after that, with all foodstuffs cleared from the table, several decanters of liquids were set out. There were many varieties of liquids some opaque and some clear, some colourless and some coloured (a common colour was brown he had realised) and all of varying temperatures. The Farseer remembered tasting some and then his memory disappeared . He was snapped out of his memory recollection by a sharp rap at the door.
Faerio, you're required to perform an inspection tour.
Coming, Nioyu
They walked along the walls surveying the landscape and running basic defence checks. This was the north wall and the enemy city was to the south so they had said there was no real need for defences on this side. Rufia had tried to reason but Reyan High Command would not listen to her pleads. Looking out over the assembled soldiers she counted less than twenty of her own warriors, a mixed platoon of Cadian and Catachan soldiers, a platoon of Samu (the men under command of Daimyo Komotoko), one platoon of the City Guard and a number of Eldar. There was also what could only be described as a lack of artillery. The Canoness couldn't trust the Eldar nor was she certain about the capabilities of the local soldiers. The other guardsmen were just as unnerving to her, one was a mix of two different worlds which would murder morale and the other frightened her as much as the aliens. The men of Samu all wore decorative plate armour and often equally decorative helmets and masks but the thing that worried the Sister of Battle was their armament not one soldier had as much as a rifl e! All the men were armed with swords, spears and bows. That left only her soldiers who she could trust in the fray. She hoped that High Command was right. In her heart she knew they were wrong.
Komotoko noticed the look of worry in the woman's face but said nothing. He knew what was troubling her , he too had instantly noticed the weakness in the North of the city defences and he too had been cast aside when he brought it to the surface. He also understood the low regard he and his men were held in by most of the other defenders due to their technological weaknesses. Samu was not behind in technology terms it was as advanced as this hive his men were now defending. Others regarded the Samu as barbarians because the warriors fought with swords as opposed to firearms. This was not the case the warriors chose to fight in this way because they held the ancient teachi ngs dear to them. Komotoko remembered when he was attacked by the pirate aliens the so-called Dark Eldar aboard one of the troop frigates.
It had been around seven standard years back. The frigate was carrying Komotoko's men and a division of Harakoni Warhawks. They were crossing a section of space known as the black void, an empty area devoid of anything. Then the boarding sirens began to wail. The alien raiders had moved through the ship in a matter of heartbeats. They had felled hundreds of men before they had even armed themselves . The Daimyo himself had almost been one of the first to die as the enemy burst into his chamber. Two of the enemy pirates had burst in through the door. Had his reflexes not been so efficient they would have shot him through the back. As the case, was Komotoko rolled to the side picking up his sword from the floor next to him as the shots hit were he had been split seconds before. The human's sword opened the chest of one attacker as he was rising . The second opponent now swung his bladed rifle at the Samu only to have it deflected away and knocking him off balance. Before the alien could react Komotoko had separated its head from its neck in a quick slice. Hastily he had donned his most essential armour he left the room towards the bridge to defend the ship's captain. He hadn't gone very far when he encountered some of the Harakoni fighting half their number in the Dark Eldar known as wyches. The Harakoni were being slaughtered because they were trying to find room to use their firearms. The Daimyo tore into the back of two wyches dropping their lifeless bodies to the ground before they could usher a sound. No sooner had he dispatched of these enemies when another turned to face him she stabbed at him with a spear type weapon. When Komotoko sidestepped this attack she threw a net at him. Slicing the net in two the human was unhindered by this distraction and disembowelled the wych with his blade. The Warhawks had retreated mere seconds before the aliens, who hadn't noticed their interest switching to this swordsman. The leader of the wyches swung at him with two barbed knives he managed to parry one blow with his s word and block the other with his bracer causing it to become embedded . Not wanting to be attached to this force of destruction the leader let go of the knife and swung the other at his head. The Samu ducked under the slash and stabbed his opponent through the chest. The surviving three had fled in terror not wanting to suffer their comrade's fates. The human cut one across the back as he fled and another in the back of the calf knocking her to the ground. His final enemy was beyond his sword's reach further down the corridor. Komotoko pulled the knife from his bracer and threw it into the back of the would- be survivor's head he then walked calmly over to the wounded wych and effortlessly stabbed his sword down into her heart.
He'd then run on towards the bridge rallying his men to him and cutting down any pathetic resistance that the alien pirates could muster. The blast doors to the ship's bridge had been well defended. So well defended were they that only the Daimyo and two others a Samu and a Harakoni, one to his left and one to his right broke past into the main bridge. The other two had been cloven in two by the hidden enemy. Komotoko threw himself forward and rolled, turning to face his opponents. There they stood, taller than the human by at least one foot each, clad in black armour with their faces covered in a white mask. Both adversaries held a blood-dripping, long-bladed pole-axe in their skeletal hands looking like the messengers of death that they certainly had been for many a loyal soldier. These so called Incubi meant that he was very close to the leader of the raiders. Simultaneously they silently charged the human. He dodged both attacks, however this left him between the two. They circled him, waiting for his attack . The Incubi charged again. Komotoko parried one enemy attack unbalancing him and throwing him into the attack of the other Incubi the axe severing him from the left shoulder to the right hip. The survivor showed no sympathy for his partner or no guilt or more horrifying no anger towards the human more than what he fought with already. Now that he was no longer outnumbered Komotoko went on the offence. The opponent was skilled, as was expected, and managed to deflect and counter Komotoko's attacks, albeit only to be deflected and countered himself. Eventually the Samu brought his curved blade onto the shaft of the enemy's weapon cutting it cleanly. The alien looked at his weapon and while his face could not be seen he was obviously in disbelief that his weapon could be cut in two with such ease. The disbelief did not last long as the Incubi was quickly put to death by his final opponents blade. The leader of the Dark Eldar was hunched over a panel with some dead crewmen at his feet. The captain however was protected by a refractor screen cutting across half of the bridge, obviously for such emergencies; however the Lord of the aliens was breaking through the defence systems in an attempt to shut down the barrier, confident in the skills of his now-dead bodyguards to defend him. The alien was so rapt with the task at hand he didn't even realise the razor sharp blade cutting down the length of his spine until he collapsed in death. The other raiders guarding the bridge were discouraged when their lord's head fell in amongst their ranks. The majority of the alien force had been dedicated to defending the bridge once they had been disposed of the remainder posed little problem and their ship was destroyed by a barrage of Imperial space-cannon fire.
This had been one of Komotoko's many victories and this place he hoped, Reya, would be another. He was doubtful however, he had great faith in the common soldiers' courage and determination but the High Command were too weak and inexperienced to do the required task and too arrogant to listen to the advice of the more experienced commanders. The more experienced commanders, as Komotoko saw it, were currently all standing on the North Wall on a required inspection. They were Daimyo Komotoko, Canoness Rufia, General Mklure and Farseer Avalon . They were ignored because of weaponry, sex, age and race respectively. In honesty the Eldar were not, to Komotoko, trustworthy but the y were fighting for their own lives and to survive would mean co-operation with the Imperials .
You were right, Farseer. Nioyu said shaking his head in despair. This area is terribly under-strength. If attacked, it will fall undoubtedly.
Yes , Avalon replied. However the worst is I know it will be attacked, for I have seen it so. However I have not seen the outcome of the battle because there are too many potential outcomes which may come about. Unfortunately it seems that the only way we may see for sure is to let the time come nearer then the threads of possibility will be cleared away one by one making it easier to understand what will be the action and consequence. The Striking Sc orpion Lord flicked his roughly-cut, shoulder length, flame red hair from his yellow eyes. Then he raised one arm to about head height and slapped his forearm flicking his finger forward then jerking his thumb out backwards. On this signal the bodyguard of ten Striking Scorpion aspect warriors dispersed along the length of the wall.
I don't have your foresight. Nioyu said as much to himself as the Farseer. But I think these warriors will be useful here.
How's things goin' sarge? Glym asked.
Well, Glym, Bist answered. N obody seems to be nuts yet, well I expect Psych is but he's somewhere else and has been like that for a while. I'm also kinda glad that I was able to get Meric transferred to this platoon after Kleece died , although Kleece was a good man.
Yeah, he was . They paused for a while in memory. So what do you think so far of the city?
The sergeant paused for a while. It's big and has plenty of bars, which is always good. The locals weren't too friendly last night though
What happened? The general asked with a note of severity.
Well we didn't do anything Psych might have. There was a bar-brawl.
Who was involved and were there any injuries?
Well, myself of course, Prett, Psych, Silgan, Detta and a new recruit called Hox. We were involved from the start then Malk broke it up
When you say Malk broke it up are you implying that he peacefully stopped the fight or incapacitated so many opponents it couldn't continue?
Little bit of both. You know that when Malk starts throwin' punches people clear away, well that happened. Then two fellas tried to shoot us but Bedan knifed one and Meric shot the other. Bad news is I think we might have stirred some bad blood with a big gang.
Glym just shook his head. It was self-defence and if they try to hit back , then they want a war and that's our job. They won't last five days.
The old sergeant smiled. By the way, Glym, there's something about this place, dunno what but something seems off. Any guesses?
That could be the air. It's actually clean. You see Reya is a planet made almost completely of radioactive metals under a huge thick lead crust. Quite fortunate really otherwise the planet would be uninhabitable but they're able to use the uranium and stuff from under that crust to generate the whole planets power . As a sort of added advantage I guess you could say it means no-one would ever destroy the planet coz the blast could wipe out the whole system. Because all the power is nuclear there's no air pollution which is why you aren't choking on smog at the minute.
Glym?
Yes?
Where the fuck do you find all this out from?
Further along the line Meric scanned about with his scope. He looked over the green plains straight ahead and the forest of alien trees to the right. He sighed slightly remembering back home in the jungles. He'd lived in the jungles of Catachan and he longed to be back among them, or at the very least among trees. Here he was now on top of an armoured wall and the trees sat within his sight but he knew he couldn't get to them. He could almost hear their mocking voices calling out to him. He played his scope along the trees taking in the colours the greens of the leaves the strange colours of the barks. He passed over it, not really taking it in immediately, then he froze, he panned back, certain that he was right. Meric's eyes were sharp it was a known throughout the men. He checked the spot where he was certain he had seen it. There, a glint of light reflected from armour. Touching his microbead link he whispered, more through habit than necessity . There are Chaos in the woods.
Bist jumped when he heard the sniper's voice whisper over his com-link. Potential attack ! The sergeant roared. All troops prepare to repel !
Within minutes every man, woman and Eldar was in position . As the orders were none of the Earthshaker guns in the walls fired due to no target or direct orders which none of the commanders wanted to issue just yet.
They waited, unmoving, waiting for the enemy to show themselves. Nothing happened. After an hour Rufia had decided to approach Glym to insist that they give the stand-down order. Glym refused claiming that if Meric said they were there then they were there, he was backed by the Eldar Farseer who claimed that he could feel the presence of the enemy. Instead the three commanders crouched behind the chest high battlements with their heads just above the wall and surveyed the forest through their scopes .
I see nothing the sister snapped impatiently and almost immediately. Ignoring her, the Guardsman and the Farseer continued to search through their scopes realising her impatience Rufia rejoined them. Avalon wasn't using the magnoculars to search out the enemy as it seemed, rather he was holding the piece of technology to his eyes and psychically searching for the traces of Chaos. He found them first and directed the two others' gazes toward the targets. They now knew the location of their opponents but they weren't in range of any weapons they had except for the powerful Earthshaker cannons set in the walls.
Should we issue the order? The three jumped at the sound of Komotoko's voice.
I don't think that would be a good idea. Commissar Judix put in immediately making the three start again. We don't know the strength of the enemy, nor do we know their intentions. I would advise holding fire until the enemy strikes first or we receive a direct order. Then again I'm not an officer, just a commissar. Rufia nodded in agreement, Glym made a noise of understanding and the Farseer spoke his approval of the commissar's insight. They readied to continue inspection of the few troops on guard at this position when a shell struck the walls. The enemy had attacked the North wall!