Chapter 3: A New Hope at the cost of an Old Life
Two years have passed since Andre has started teaching me how to keep my soldiers alive and how to keep myself alive. His motto was something that I would hear every day, everywhere I would go around our main camp and even in the outposts put in some tunnels.
At first, it was kind of annoying to keep hearing the same battle cry every time we fought against gangs or cultists, but once you get to understand the meaning behind those words, it would become something akin to breathing, something that would follow you to the rest of your life.
The first time I get the green light to lead a group of ten guards, we got ambushed by fifty –four gangers. These gangers were fairly well equipped for just a small gang which made me remember Andre's words.
[The Vipers has started recruiting like crazy lately, maybe it's the right time to put them to sleep?]
They matched the colors used by The Vipers and seeing how aggressive they were, I couldn't only prepare myself for the upcoming massacre. Eleven versus fifty-four, not only we are outnumbered five to one, but we are also outgunned, thankfully there wasn't any Ogryn or Psyker amongst their ranks or we wouldn't have any chance of getting out alive.
We quickly took cover behind some rocks and as soon we got away from their sight, the gangers opened fire in our direction. Thankfully the rocks were sturdy enough for us to get unscratched from the first two volleys, but I'm pretty sure that these rocks won't hold under heavy fire. Without wasting any more time, I signaled my platoon to be ready and in the next second, we returned fire. Firing my laspistol at one ganger, I saw his head exploding like a balloon when the last bullet hit his head.
Thankfully for us, these gangers weren't the smartest bunch so without too much trouble we managed to kill one third in the first exchange, but once they saw that we were killing their fellow gangers, they start going for some cover and our one side battle turned into a battle of attrition.
As we continue to exchange volley after volley, one of the rocks that was protecting two of my men exploded into tiny pieces when one plasma projectile hit the rock. Unfortunately for my men, they couldn't survive the focus fire that was filed against them, not even with my Psychic Ward helped.
Seeing that we were slowly getting killed and that our shots barely killed anyone, I decided to gamble, after what can I lose?
Opening myself to the Warp, I slowly let the Warp enter my body before I Weaken their resolve, followed shortly by a set of five Lighten Arcs. The sudden display of psychic power managed to kill ten gangers that were close to my position while the rest of them start running away thanks to the Weaken Resolve ability.
As soon as I removed myself from the Warp, I felt my head going into overdrive to keep me from losing myself and the last thing that I saw before falling unconscious was the worried face of my second-in-command.
When I woke up, I found myself on a bed in what I could describe as an infirmary. Slowly getting myself up, I saw one of the medics running towards me with a worried look on his face.
"Wait, wait. Don't force yourself, sir. You just had your first proper fight with the help of the Warp. Emperor knows what could be happening to your right now, so please listen to me and lie on the bed until I'm done checking you, just in case you got wounded ."
Listening to the doctor, I did what he asked me to do and see that I couldn't do much before he was done checking me from any wound that I may have got while fighting.
Lying on the bed, I heard the doctor asking me something that made me curious about him.
"If you want, can you tell me how was to fight?"
"Stressful, not only do I have to think about the way to end this quickly, but I also had to think about the right method to bring all of my men back alive, and as you probably know, I have failed to do. I lost two good men to a rookie mistake, if only I could have used the Warp earlier then those two could have been alive."
"Sir, I didn't fight once in my life against someone, but I believe that you did everything you could to keep the rest of your platoon alive. The Emperor protects us and I'm sure that those two fallen soldiers wouldn't hate you for keeping their brothers-in-arms alive. That's the life of a loyal soldier of the Emperor."
"Thank you, doc, for everything."
"You are welcome, sir. It's my duty to help my patients get better from physical or mental wounds. Also, sir, if I may talk freely, it was your first mission and I know that no matter how prepared you think you are, the reality would slap you in the face the least you expect."
Leaving the infirmary, I made my way towards Andre's office. By the time I got there, I saw many familiar faces running around caring for weapons or equipment, and that's never a good sign.
Opening the door to his office, I saw him talking to one of the sergeants.
"How bad it is Ivan?"
"We lost two platoons and the fifth outpost. The only thing that we found there were pieces left behind by the only thing that could do that…"
"Gene stealers. Fuck me; we don't have that much time left, then. The Inquisition will purge the planet to exterminate the Xenos threat and everything on the planet at the same time. Gather everybody and prepare for an evacuation. We need to save as many people as possible."
As soon as he heard the order, the sergeant left in hurry, leaving me alone with Andre.
"Solomon, take a seat."
I did what he asked me to do and as soon as I sit on the chair, he starts talking.
"For the past two years, I did everything in my power to prepare you for the worst, and as much as it pains me to admit, my body can't take it anymore. Maybe I could get another year or two before I die, but seeing how bad our current situation is, I have to say something to you. You were more of a son to me than was my biological one. He left our homeworld to fight against the Greenskin threat and everyone knows how much one lives against those wrenched Xenos. I taught you everything I knew and everything that I would like to know in these past two years so as an early present to your seventeen birthdays, I would give you the control of our entire regiment and our ship."
Before I could say something to him, André patted me on my shoulder and left his office with his sword and pistol ready for combat.
Going after him, I saw him asking for any volunteers, and soon more than one hundred men and women volunteered to remain behind and buy some time so that we could leave this soon-to-be-dead world.
From today the Black's Devils will have a new leader and at the same the first every psyker to be part of this regiment.
Five thousand, two hundred and ten men and women will have to put their fate in my hands and they would need to trust me with their lives as I would have to trust them with my life.
While it was just a tiny part of the true might of the Astra Militarum, Andre's soldiers were blooded and trained to fight against the worst kind of enemies known to the Imperium. From gangers to daemons and even corruption, they saw it all and they were ready to fight against it to the last men standing. Our regiment wasn't big by any means and that can be seen by the fact that most of our troops are residents of this city, not to mention that the ship that Andre left to me, was a pirate one that he managed to capture when the pirates docked to resupply.
We only had five Chimeras and Tauros, one Leman Russ Battle Tank, ten Sentinels, and fifty bikes, and while we didn't have any kind of artillery, as we were fighting underground, we had some support vehicles. Seven Atlases our main way of recovering vehicles or heavy things and our pride and glory Two Hades Breaching Drills that we used to expand our base and create more tunnels for us to strike our enemy.
Thankfully for us, our small ship was Viper-class Sloop, one of the smallest and fastest Warp-cable ships used by the Astra Militarum and while it wasn't a big ship, it could sustain a crew of 7500. Maybe we could push the number up to 10.000, but anything more than that would surely put us at risk, Emperor knows how much time we will have to spend in the Warp traveling from one system to another. Lucky for us, André earned quite a lot of money in his life so, like any well-respected commander, he bought three Valkyries for our ship, not to mention the amount of money spent on keeping the ship under his command.
By the time I was done reading how many things we had at our disposal, I start giving orders left and right, but that wasn't enough. No matter how much we hurried to get everything away from this place, we won't be able to take everything away before the Gene stealers and their minions would reach us, after all, one hundred men and women could buy so much time before they die under the swarm attack.
Just as I was about to shout for someone to help me carry one of the crates of ammunition, we start hearing strange noises from the tunnel that leads to the north cave where Andre and the volunteers went.
"Abandon everything that we can get elsewhere and get the fuck out of here! That's an Order!"
Thankfully, no one was left behind and thanks to my little gift, those Gene stealers won't reach until tomorrow, giving us plenty of time to get our asses on the ship and leave this Emperor Forgotten Underhive.
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