Hey there , ive just been writing this over the holidays and id like you guys to critique it and see if its any good or not,please dont be too cruel
, im not exactly Dan abnett!
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Saphir,minor Imperial shrine world , located in a backwater tributary system of cadia it was inevitable that it would recieve small raids ,in fact it became a rather seasonal occasion for local inhabitants, in the Chaotic aftermath of the 13th black crusade however, Ork raids began to multiply ,up until the point where a precious relic from the Horus Heresy is at risk of being lost to the xenos,if that was how fate would unfold , it would devastate the morale of an already weakened Imperium and provide a weak link for which hordes of the oppurtunistic foes of the Imperium could wreak havoc upon mankind and destroy all that macharius fought for.
The twin suns of Saphir blazed at the zenith of their power their very gaze baking the already barren soil and near destroying the meagre crops in the ramshackle farmsteads that litter the landscape of saphir.
A small lander bearing the Imperial Aquila glided through the sky with as much grace as the birds of prey patrolling the air, the lander was flanked by a larger craft and a dozen or so thunderbolt fighters, this signified to even the most simple of people with even a passing knowledge of the Imperium, that whomever was in the lander was of great importance to the High lords of Terra.
The lander fell upon a large mountain that had obvious strategic value like a carrion bird on a fresh carcass.
A small personnel ramp extended from the underbelly of the craft and a small , robed figure clad in gleaming gold chased armour and a regal lavender cloak made of the finest materials strode in a stately manner onto the mountainside, his bejewelled cane in hand.
Grand General Wellern of the reclamation crusade stood at the base of the ramp and without turning made a small,curt gesture with his gloved hand.
With that, a veritable throng of personal aides, servitors,tacticians ,cartographers,journalists and the commanders of the regiments under his duristiction disgorged from the lander,as if he and only he could give them permission to join him .
Two aides scuttled over to his side ,carrying a wide, ancient looking table made out of pure heartwood .
A cartographer strode up to the table and placed a large ,yellowing map of the surrounding area over it.
"Grand General,I present to you a map of the valley of the Emperor, as you can see m'ilord the position of the relic lies upon the north of the valley, it is not a prime defensive position to say the least".The cartographer touched another area of the map with a cane," however lord there is a ridge that could be used to give heavy weapons a prime position over the battlefield " .
"By the Emperor! never before have I been as insulted ! , a cartographer trying to preach tactics to ME!, a Grand General of His Emperors fighting legions! ,YOU draw the maps and NOTHING else in this army!, is that understood sir?" Wellern snapped in an arrogant manner.
The cartographer, rather taken aback at this outburst quickly retreated back to his place in the crowd of onlooking aides-de -camps .
Wellern turned back to the table, and with his cane began to point at areas of the map ,Colonel pearse O'connel of the Erin first stared in dismay at the General ,for it was clear that Wellern was a 'political General ' a man that knew or cared nothing for war but wanted all the supposed 'glory' of it and to further his greed and ambition within the circles of the power hungry.
He was called by war journalists 'the young macharius ' ,mindless propaganda,O'connell thought , this man couldnt run a vegetable stall in the markets of Erin let alone a full blown crusade!.
The General gestured with his cane to a point on the map where the supposed Ork camp was meant to be ,
"Yes gentlemen , we will assualt the orks on open ground ,that way we can press our advantage of superior firepower and armour! we will use..."
Wellern was cut short by his adjudant, a plump man with a rather apprehensive look on his face,
the aide took Wellern aside and after a moment he looked up with a face of false enthusiasm "Gentlemen , a moment please, as it appears, our scouts have somewhat confirmed the numbers of our foe, the strength of the Ork warband is anywhere between six hundred thousand and a million". The colonels fell silent ,it was obvious that none of them expected the Orks to be at such strength.
Wellern tried to make his voice sound rallying ,but he lacked true enthusiasm
"We will engage the foe at close quarters and with fire and shell we will drive them back! , the Ork may be unpredictable but if we strike now they will be unprepared and will fall with ease!".
At this O'connell stepped forward.
"With all due respect sir ,have you ever fought Greenskins before?, because y'see sir, during my time Ive fought all variety of orks , green ones ,black ones ,small ones, stooped ones, tall ones,ones with mechanical ability ,hell even pyschic ones, but never in all my fighting days have I fought an Ork that is unpredictable .
Wherever the Ork is or whatever shape or form it takes it uses the same principle to fight, they will keep coming until we or they are all dead . I tell you now, we have let the Orks infest this world for too long , by now the orks will have spread spores near everywhere .
This World is doomed, but we can still win the day if we evacuate the relic ,all we need is to hold off the Orks until the relic can be safely moved to another planet, preferably one with less raid occurance, that way the morale of the Imperial forces will not falter in this region and will remain staunch and true, However If we go on the offensive, the only thing we will achieve is our deaths."
The Grand General began to blush , damn O'connell, Erish bastard!and what gives him the right to speak to me , his superior officer in such a fashion? by God ill have him stripped down to private! he'll pay dearly for humiliating me.
However he may have a point , we will all die here if there truely are that many Orks,of course!,ill say a tactical withdrawal is the best policy and leave behind a rear guard,consisting of the Erin first.
Ill also need to appoint another regiment as rearguard or it will look rather blatant, the Britaenien 116th have been a thorn in my side as well...
Wellern gave smiled inwardly at the broad shouldered,red haired,bearded colonel, then gave a very curt applause to O'connell's speech and put on a beaming smile .
"My dear colonel,O'Connell, I should have known that your extensive field expertise would come in great use to this crusade, I concur with your plan,but I beleive that it is futile for the whole crusade to fight to the death over this world so I propose that your regiment and say... the Britaenien grenadiers , put your plan into action and secure the relic for the Emperor, rest assured the two regiments will have landed by midnight and of course I will have the munitorum deliver plentiful ammuntion and supplies."
O'connell ,dumbstruck by the Colonel's horrendous judgement on the situation, merely offered a brief sarcastic smile, The Bastard! what is he trying to do? dear Emperor but there is no way in the warp, two regiments could hold off a million Orks in a valley of this size! .
The other colonels , relieved that their regiments had not been chosen to fight applauded raucously to the plan, now the sitiuation was irreversible for O'connell the Erin first would fight incredibly steep odds.
"As you wish m'ilord, but of course you will be missing out entirely on the opportunity to further your military experience beyond the dining halls of your flagship! , you beslubber-arsed bastard! you'll be sending over 12,000 men to their deaths!."
O'connel made a V-shape with his forefingers and swung round ,O'connel stormed off leaving the bemused General and his staff to themselves.
Day two on saphir, Colonel O'colonel and the two regiments had set up camp on the hillside near the mountain where the General and his staff had surveyed the valley of the Emperor the day before.
The morning was clouded over which offered some relief from the nauseating heat of the day before ,O'connell looked up at the grim sky, there was a strange lack of birds of prey, no soaring Eagles, this was a bad omen for the battle to come, he sighed softly .
"Morning sor! , do'ya want a drink? sure its only ground k-ration caffeine but itll cheer ye's up!." Major patrik murphy said in a jovial ,thick Erish accent, he held out a cup of steaming ,boiling caffeine, the colonel gladly took the proffered mug and nooded his thanks bfore downing it whole.
"GEEZ! what the HELL did ye's make this with?" he winced , "sure ,it tastes like Ork piss! "O'connel growled trying to get rid of the searing taste in the back of his throat.
"Sure, won't we all know the taste of that before we get off this world if we get off this world, alive anyways...oh and it was made with a little drop of home - poiton!(a strong Erish brew)"
the Major replied .
"Well, we'd best get off our arses and get over to that bloody relic, then maybe we can get the damned off this planet"O'connell suggested .
" We'll need transport , see if you can get us a scout pattern salamander ,meet me here"
Major murphy snatched up his bolter and slung it over his shoulder , then ramming his crimson beret on his bearded head ran on to the Erin first's motor pool.
O'connell turned round and opened up his canvas tent, he pulled on his bright green segmented carapace armour and then shook his weathered storm-coat over his shoulder like a cape, securing it with a crimson braid.
Over that he slung the Tarten sash of the Erish military the Green and the Grey.
He stooped down to his locker and retrieved his twin heavy -calibered Erin - pattern hellpistols,fitted in a dark leather speed-draw holster.
Where would I be today without these little bastards? O'connell mused to himself, he knew the answer , hell...
Finally O'connel lifted up his most precious possession , his ancient power sabre.
Basket handled and the blade with green emerad chasing in the form of intricate celtic patterns forming the words ' In honour of 'Mikael O'connell, saviour of Erin' .The General smiled upon reading his fathers name ,it had been a long time since he died ,O'connell cuffed away a tear and chided himself for being so foolish as to cry.
Within minutes , the salamander had bounded across the arid terrain of the valley of the Emperor , which was sparsely populated by small copses of trees and trickling streams and the odd bush or two.
As the vehicle sped past O'connell and Murphy both knew that this was a horrible place to die in, it was so alien compared to Erin,with its lush green hillsides and dense forests.
A crew member from below voxed up on the intercom
"Relic within sight sir, we should be arriving within a few clicks".
"Thank you driver " O'connel responded and pulled out his binoculars through them he could see the relic , standing alone with a ramshackle hut on a remote hill, the temple safeguarding the relic ,consisted of four symmetrical pillars with the sign of the Aquila stamped on each.
,surrounding what looked to be steps leading down to what O'connel presumed to be a vault or crypt.
As the salamander pulled up at the foot of the hill, the major and O'connel lept off the foot ramp .After ordering the driver to wait until they returned.
As they trudged up the dry ,brittle earth of the hill an eerie female wail could be heard, Murphy raised his bolter and signalled silently that it was coming from the wooden hut beside the relic.
Murphy tried the door but it was obvious that a crude locking mecanism had been used.
O'connell indicated that Murphy should stand aside , he tore his fine power sword out of its scabbars and with one blow hacked the front of the small building into splinters.
A young women screamed on the floor of the building and an old man that stood over her, froze on the spot, his body covered with little else than some sacking over his torso.
He stuttered in his speech " I...I.... this ...isn't what it looks like...."
The two guardsmen stood there in disgust at what they had stumbled open.
O'connell broke the painful silence "I assume that you are one of the 'hermits' " O'connell put venomous emphasis on the word 'hermits',
"I see you are not above the earthly sins that you men of the cloth preach against with such zest"
"To fight against sin one must experience it!"
the priest retorted.
At this O'connell snapped and put paid to any defiance the priest might have offered with his 'drill sergeant' voice.
"Shut it !,you hypocritical amphetamine parrote!, this is what the Imperial cause has come to has it? ,Ive a good mind to shoot you where you stand! as an officer of the Imperial guard charged with the defence of this planet im authorised to do just that!, now either ye let that lass go , and never touch her again, and get that beslubberING relic out of the vault or ill blow your head off !."
Outside the driver of the salamander raced up the sloping path with a vox intercom in his hand ,up to the relic where the old ,diseased priest who between his outburst of hacking coughs, was showing O'connel and Murphy the layout of the relic chamber .
"COLONEL SIR!, Major munroe wishes to speak to you sir,he said its urgent."
O'connell nodded his thanks sharply to the trooper, then took the vox "Major?,you wanted to speak to me?".
"Aye! , our scouts have just sighted one big Ork tribe headed straight towards the mouth of the valley,they insist that our earlier 'intelligence' was smack on, theres loads of the bastards out there, permission to form up a defence sir? its a wee bit tense around camp at the moment, might as well give the boys something tae do."
"Permission granted , Major..." O'connell paused in thought as he looked up at the four monoithic pillars that surrounded the relic.
Our problem is that we cannot defend the valley because it is too wide, then why not make the valley smaller?,YES!,if we lay those pillars across the valley in a row diagonally , we could channel the bastards into our rifle pits and defences,and that ridge! O'connel looked to his right to see a ridge run right across the other half of the valley where the pillars could not cover, that ridge could be used to great effect as a firebase for our heavy weapons.
O'connell spoke into his intercom mouthpiece "Major, Ive just worked out a defence,oh and send over the regimental Demolisher, it has some work to do ."
The priests emerged from the relic brandishing their clenched fists in anger as the Demolisher methodically used its engine's brute strength to topple each of the columns onto the valley floor,Guards then came to tow away the fallen monoliths to the mouth of the valley "You cannot do this to a sanctified relic colonel!those columns are sacred!, this is madness!"the priests shouted at O'connel who was surveying the construction of the defence line with his magnoculars and simultaniously shouting at a group of fresh guardsmen to dig in their nine-seventies at a slant so they could actually pull them out again.He swung round violently to face the priests.
"No,fathers, no to me they are NOT sacred, nothing on this amphetamine parrot-hole world is sacred to me!, there are only two things sacred in my eyes in the whole ,beslubbering, Galaxy.
Erin, my home and the Emperor on holy Terra.
Now those pillars are being used to further the Emperors will, now there's a very big Orks headed to kill us all and they wont take a flying beslubber of notice about your precious relic,and them there 'Sacred' pillars are going to help us kill the Orks. We have an Imperial navy force en route , to 'evacuate ' the vault and relic and reinstallation on Cadia.
Now if ye's will exuse me I have to deploy my marksmen..."
O'connell put forceful deliberation into each of his words as if the priests were hard of understanding , to humiliate the holy brethren further he turned around before they could muster a retort.
Humiliated and shamed, the priests shambled off back to their living quarters.
As the basilisk and heavy weapon squads triangulated the valley floor, for better firing positions and to work up a network of potential crossfires, O'connell smiled to himself , he had made quite a killing field.
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