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Author Topic: Der Kreigen Crux - Marutainian 97th  (Read 1926 times)

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Offline CommissarBartolomeu

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Der Kreigen Crux - Marutainian 97th
« on: November 4, 2008, 01:29:51 AM »
After a long bout of writer's block (and school work  :P) I am starting to write fiction again... I should be posting another chapter of the commissar's story soon too...


The Captain awoke suddenly in the night, and he sat bolt upright knocking his head on the top bunk and cursing loudly.

"What in the name of the Emperor is wrong with you, I'm trying to sleep up here!" Commissar Marrio groaned as he wiped sleep from his eyes.

"I dunno, I just kinda woke up, it feels like somethings wrong... I just cant place it." Captain Barthol said as he lit the lamp in the C.O.'s chambers.

The concrete room around them was sparsely decorated with maps and briefing slates piled up on small tables on the far wall. In the corner a small vox-set gurgled to itself. The other men in the room roused and were also groaning stretching and complaining. There was Sargent Demag the squads heavy weapon specialist a barrel chested man with a long scar running across his chest and a heavy stubber, Lance Corporal Vulkan the big, bald, ex-ganger meltagunner immediately upon waking found his melta and began checking and cleaning it in his obsessive compulsive way, then in the next bunk was Wafel the whip thin, bleached blond, who was the vox specialist in the squad, and on top of his bunk was Twar the sheepish medic who was wiping the sleep from his eyes and yawning widely. They were in the dugout designated M097-AC along the Imperial lines in the stagnant trench-bound war for the Westain forest. Although you could never tell due to the amount of shelling, this region was once an endless sea of green leaves and woodland creatures of all types flourished, now it was an endless ocean of shell churned grey muck and the only creatures that were flourishing were the vermin that fed on the dead bodies and body parts. The Marutainian 97th were also bunked next to elements of the Death Korps of Krieg's 453rd Siege Regiment, 334th DKoK Infantry Regiment, and the Quentan 192nd Heavy Infantry Regiment.

"Whats the problem Cap'n?" The Commissar asked as he dusted his cap off and set it on his head.

"Listen... theres something... wrong..." The Captain mumbled as he shuffled over to the vox set and started turning the dials and listening intently.

"The shelling stopped." Wafel said.

"Grox amphetamine parrot..." The Captain said as he hurried to grab his equipment and weapons.

The Commissar suddenly realized what it meant as well and set about grabbing his weapons too and bellowed "Theres gonna be an attack... real soon if not already... get your gear and get to the firestep... right now damnit!" The Commissar bolted out of the room following the Captain along the concrete hall.

The raid klaxons began wailing. it was 5:30 am local time and the sickly colored mist still hung around the shell holes and low spots in no man's land. A few soldiers of Krieg went running past to get to their positions, and after a small while most of the Marutainians were up on the firestep looking for something to kill. It wasn't really that many men, only A,C and E platoons with B and D in reserve. Then the commanders of C and E platoons came rushing up to speak with the captain, One was tall and muscled with a bionic arm, his name was Major Larr he was the leader of C. The other man was short and balding, he was Master Sargent Jerrid. They both said the same thing in unison.

"Ready sir."

The Captain nodded and waved them off. Soon Demag came over and braced his prized stubber on the parapet of the trench, it wasn't one of the Krieg's models, however it could take their ammo, he just had to switch the feeding mechanism from belt to box. As the Captain mused over the heavy weapon he heard the crack-whine of hot-shot rounds being fired and snapped out of his reverie.

They came on in a horde, Chaos cultists, of Khorne and of Nurgle. You can tell them apart, not only from the colors of their clothing, but by their tactics, the Khorne cultists just run head first into you literally dying for the chance to soak themselves in the blood and mess of close combat. The Nurgle cultists will usually hang back and use their guns once in a while, the Khornates usually ignoring their guns all together.

The Krieg mortars and thudd guns began opening up and shredding the cultists still too far out for a regular lasgun to reach. The Captain wiped the sweat from his brow realizing that despite the cold morning, he was sweating like he was a Valhallan on planet Tallarn. He also realized that this is the first Trench war for most of his men, only the Platoon commanders, his Commissar, and some of the other troops in the platoons had been in this kind of action before. Most of the time Marutainian Regiments stay as far from trench fighting as they can. It isn't strange for a Marutainian Regiment to choose a loosing war on a death world over fighting in the trenches.

The enemy was in range now and Demag's stubber began shredding them along with the rest of the line's lasguns. It looked like a thousand bright green lightning bugs were rushing towards the enemy. The Captain opened up with his bolt pistol and the Commissar began frying them with his plasma pistol. It wasn't going to be enough, they would make it in the trenches, for every one they killed two popped up in this place. Although most of the cultists abstained from the use of their crude autoguns, there were so many that the sporadic fire felled several Marutainians. The Captain signaled for all his men to affix thier bayonets, they weren't as nice as the ones those Tanith carried, they were a little longer and much heavier, more like short swords then bayonets, but they still killed things, and thats what matters. The Captain revved up his chainsword and the Commissar activated his power axe, the dark blue energies in it casting an eerie glow through the trench. Thats when the front rank of the attackers made it over the trench. The Captain cut one in half before he could even reach the duckboards. He Lashed back and forth his chainsword biting into flesh and rending it like a knife through butter, the Commissar was doing well for himself too, his power weapon cutting through men and their weapons with equal ease. Demag was still firing his weapon wholesale as Twar and Wafel skewered cultists with their long bayonets.

They were overrun,there were too many cultists to deal with. The Captain gathered his command squad as well as most of squad A1 and A2 with parts of A3, and made a firing escape to the parts of the trench not overrun. The men of Krieg still held firmly onto their trench sections to the left of the Marutainians, so thats where they were to go. First they had to fight themselves free of this quagmire of death they were locked into. The Captain soon saw his favorite man in the regiment, the leader of squad A1 Sargent Blakston, he was the oldest living member of the 97th, he had been with them since their first founding and was respected by all the fighting men of Marutainia. He was swinging his chainsword like a reaper in wheat. His technique was perfect, honed from decades of bloody battle. Seeing the Sargent seemed to rally the men and they fought back with twice the vigor they had before.

The Captain's bolt pistol barked out death at the coming horde of cultists, spattering their entrails along the trench wall. Bang, Bang, Bang, Clack. Clack, Clack. Out of shells the Capatin pistol whipped the nearest cultist and threw the bolt pistol at the next with enough force to floor him. Moving back along the trench lines the Captain realized they should have been in the Krieg trenches by now. They were, but the stalwart men of Krieg had been overrun as well and were fighting sword and bayonet as well.

A grenade went off near the captain and he was floored as the man next to him, Private Gevarre of squad A3 was peppered with shrapnel, his bayonet still stuck in a cultist's chest as he fell in a heap. The Captain found something as he came up, a shotgun. It was one of the Krieg engineer's shotguns and it still had rounds in it. He pulled the trigger and a wall of lead knocked the cultists back a few paces, he fired again and the cultists were thrown back again.

"Quickly, to the reserve trenches! We can meet up with more Krieg boys there!" The Captain bellowed loudly as he fired again to provide cover for himself going back for the bandoleer of shells around the dead engineer.

They met up with several small squad segments of the Krieg 334th, their usually dull colored clothing soaked in bright red gore.

"Who is in command of you lot?" The Captain asked one of the men of Krieg with a ripped shoulder and a missing helmet.

"I am, My name is Lieutenant Hinerich, of the 334th Krieg Infantry." The man responded from behind his anonymous, respirator hidden face.

"Ah, good to know you Lieutenant, I am Captain Barth of the Marutainian 97th Infantry Regiment." The Captain responded as he shook the Lieutenant's hand.

The Lieutenant seemed slightly distressed by the Captain's newly acquired weapon and said "The Quartermaster wont like that."

The Captain chuckled and said "Well, my need was greater then the engineer's, besides, I'll give it back when the fights done... maybe."

"Very well then Captain. What do you think we should do? we've been surrounded by cultists." The Lieutenant said.

"Well, I think you have more experience in these type of theaters so I am willing to take your advice on this."

"You are the ranking officer here Captain,"

"In the Marutainian Regiments, we salute the man, not the uniform."

The Lieutenant seemed pleased by the last comment, but it was nearly impossible to tell through the respirator. He then said, "We should try to fight our way further along this line, and reinforce the reserve trenches."

"Then we shall do just that Lieutenant."

The Captain and Lieutenant rallied their men and made a fighting withdrawal through the trenches, The captain lost his chainsword too when he stabbed through a cultist who was wearing random metal plates for armour and the teeth came spinning off. He did however recover a Krieg bayonet for his new shotgun and set to blasting and slashing away with it. Demag still had his stubber and was shooting it in short bursts down the trench bracing the bucking weapon against his bicep as he fired from his hip, this kind of action would have snapped a lesser man's arm, but Demag was a bear of a man and took it in stride. Wafel had lost his lasgun somehow and was slashing and stabbing with his sword-bayonet, his thin frame easily dodging most of the haphazard thrusts the enemy made towards him. Vulkan still had his melta, but couldn't use it, for fear of ruining the trench, he was instead using his laspistol and a strange serrated combat knife with the same ganger sigils on it as his shaven skull. Twar was dragging a screaming Krieg soldier into cover behind some crates so he could work on the leg wound the man had sustained.

The fighting never seemed to end, or even to lull. They just kept stabbing and slashing, all their ammo long since used up, their arms screaming in protest as they were forced to continue with their gore soaked work. They were down to 50 men, 35 Marutainians and 15 men of Krieg. They had since picked up a few Krieg Grenadiers. The Grenadiers had seemed to put renewed hope into the men of Krieg, seeing their grisly skull face masks reminding them of their pact with the death cult or whatever mumbo jumbo the men of Krieg believed in. Sargent Blakston was still the rallying point for the men of Marutainia, his laspistol was spent so he had to wield his sword-bayonet and chainsword at once. He was soaked from head to foot in so much blood that he was almost indistinguishable from the Khornate cultists that surrounded them. The Captain tripped as a half dead cultist tried to drag himself up, the captain smashed his skull in with the stock of the shotgun and in return for the moment he was bent over he was stabbed in the shoulder with a rusty spike one of the cultists had been wielding, the Captain bellowed in pain and anger and as he came up, hit the cultist with an uppercut so brutal it broke the cultist's jaw up into his upper teeth. As the cultist lay there wailing the Captain curb stomped the cultist's chest with a grisly crunch of breaking bones and rending organs. Demag's ammo all used up he was using his hefty weapon as a club, pulping any cultists that got too close.

The Kreig Lieutenant and his ad-hoc entourage of Grenadiers was cutting a bloody swathe through the cultists when a horrible smell came upon them. It smelled something like fried blood mixed with body odor and spice. Suddenly one of the Grenadier's heads exploded suddenly. His body burned to cinders before it even reached the ground.

One of the Marutainians in squad A3 suddenly broke and ran gibbering "Warp madness! We're all doomed! Doomed I say! Its all over! All over!"

Commisar Marrio turned quickly and lashed out with his power axe, cutting through the fleeing man diagonally. "Even with such circumstances cowardice will not be tolerated in the least bit. Anyone else wanting to flee will have to contend with me."

Thats when they saw the rogue Psycher, he was short and hairless, covered with filthy rags that hung loosely off its skin and bone frame. It moved more like an animal then a human, down on all fours creeping low to the ground like some kind of reptilian beast. Its eyes burned out of its skull, warp energies seething around them and making them look as though they were ablaze. The cultists seemed to be keeping their space from him, staying at least 10 feet from it in any direction. The captain rushed it, attempting to skewer it with his shotgun's bayonet. He was thrown against the far trench wall was a crunch and a loud groan before he passed out. The Commissar charged forward next with Wafel next to him, both were thrown 10 feet into the air and had their skulls cracked together before landing in a heap, bleeding from the skull and groaning. Then Sargent Blakston, seemed to leap the full 10 feet all the way to the warp-freak, he stabbed through the beast's chest with his chainsword while simultaneously slashing its neck with his bayonet. He had mere seconds to leap free of the thing before it erupted into a ball of flame that stretched a meter in every direction. Unfortunately since he was so old he didn't make it the whole way and one of his legs was vaporized as he was tossed into the parapet of the trench. Upon seeing the fireball, all the cultists along the line began to flee. The warp tremors from the explosion affecting the cultists in a way no sane mind could comprehend.

It was afternoon now, and the captain was stirring moaning as his newly mended back screamed with pain. He suddenly realized he had a visitor, dressed in the plain dark gray battledress of the Krieg 334th. The man took off his respirator and smiled. It took a few more seconds for the captain to realize it was Lieutenant Hinerich.

"Hinerich? What are you doing here?"

Hinerich smiled, his completely shaved head split by the toothy grin, and he handed a shotgun to the captain and said

"Sorry, yours was incinerated by the warp-freak. I requisitioned this one from the Quartermaster, and after hearing about your performance, he agreed to allow you to have this refurbished one. Oh, and by the way, Blakston is going to be receiving Der Kreigen Crux. It is one of the highest honors a non-Krieg worlder can receive."

The Krieg General, with his ornamental high-crested helm and skullmask paced down the line of men, and stopped in front of Blakston, who was leaning crutches still, his new leg not yet being fully mended. His off-white dress uniform starkly contrasting against the dark grey of the General's.

"Hier ist unt hero, unt true hero der de Imperial vays of life. Unt for his actions ont dis day, he vill be avarded vith Der Kreigen Crux. Ve hope he will vear it vith der same honor dat he has shown himself capable of."

The general gently pinned the black Iron double cross on Blakston's chest, next to other medals he had earned in his time. He smiled and shook the General's hand as he surveyed the enemies trenches while the dead cultists were being gathered and burned. Every last cultist on the planet was burned that day.


"I am an Imperial Commissar and as such am charged with the ensuring the absolute loyalty, discipline, and courage of the troops in my charge. If I should find any lacking of these qualities I shall judge them as I see fit, interpret the situation and deal with it accordingly."

Offline Khodexus

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Re: Der Kreigen Crux - Marutainian 97th
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2008, 07:44:55 AM »
You have a well written story here.  I'm guessing that's all of it?

There were a few places where things got confusing, it's a little bit hard to keep track of who all the characters are.  Also, the Kreig general's thick accent seems out of place considering the other Kreig soldiers who apparently have none.

I'd also try to describe their enemies a little more, and perhaps avoid using the words "Khornate" or "Nurgle".  As Imperial Guardsman they probably don't know a whole lot about the Ruinous Powers.  Personally I'd give them more interesting "guard given" nicknames based on their observable differences, I think that'd add some interesting flavor to your story and descriptions.

Overall, good work, an enjoyable read, which wasn't too long, or too short.

-That is all.
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Offline CommissarBartolomeu

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Re: Der Kreigen Crux - Marutainian 97th
« Reply #2 on: November 21, 2008, 10:49:45 AM »
OLOL! The accent! I was like... well hes a senior officer so he's provably an aristocrat nobleman or some junk... you know... and then I got to thinking about it and the only soldiers of Kreig who have names are the officers... all the others are numbered... which leads me to the conclusion that there are no aristocrats on Kreig... I mean... there is a possibility that there are but... I like accents, so step off! Even though I admit it was a little inconsistent...

And the Marutainians are unlike other guard regiments... they are based off off myself and on a whole after Vietnam Era Americans... they have a job, they do said job and hate it the whole damn time. They don't salute more then half the time and hate having to be formal (for the most part)... They are also briefed far better then other regiments... their commanders believing in the imperial saying "Knowledge is power, guard it well" so they teach their men just about everything they need to know about the enemy before they go into battle so that they are better prepared for the coming fight. They only know the bare minimum about chaos, they know the four main gods and their names and what they do... but other then that they don't really know anything about them... They also know the color patterns and basic tactics employed by various cults... Marutainians are not like the rest of the Imperium is the long and short of this...


"I am an Imperial Commissar and as such am charged with the ensuring the absolute loyalty, discipline, and courage of the troops in my charge. If I should find any lacking of these qualities I shall judge them as I see fit, interpret the situation and deal with it accordingly."

Offline Coldhatred

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Re: Der Kreigen Crux - Marutainian 97th
« Reply #3 on: November 21, 2008, 03:03:32 PM »
I liked it, I'd have to agree though and would avoid the words, "khornate" and "Nurgle" as much as possible and just describe the cultists more, the readers will be able to figure it out for themselves without having to label them. 

Also the part where Sergeant Blakston jumps away?  I wouldn't say, "unfortunately because Blakston was so old. . ."  I think describing that he felt a burning pain in his leg and looked down to discover his leg missing would've been better.  We (the readers) already know he's old due to his introduction into the story earlier. 

I agree with Khodexus about the accent.  I think it was OK, but maybe you shouldn't have made it so thick, since the officer is, well, an officer and would be well-versed in Imperial Gothic accent and dialect. 

I really, really like you're story!  good job!

Coldhatred AKA Father Antiqeus

"... all that stands in their way are the mighty space marines, they are more than mortal, they are steel, and they are doom."

Offline Iron-Guardsman 2413

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Re: Der Kreigen Crux - Marutainian 97th
« Reply #4 on: December 2, 2008, 05:49:34 PM »
I enjoyed it. I agree with the above comments. I liked that they were different from other Guard units, "We salute the Man, not the Uniform"! Can't imagine that going down well with the Commissar!

Good work! Will we hear more of the exploits of the Marutainian 97th?

Oh, one thing. Are they in the Sabbat World's Crusade? I saw Tanith mentioned and I just wondered.

Offline CommissarBartolomeu

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Re: Der Kreigen Crux - Marutainian 97th
« Reply #5 on: December 4, 2008, 03:07:48 PM »
They fight where they are told to fight. I would like to say that they have fought in a few battles of the cusade then were pulled off because they needed to go back to their homeworld and get more troops... then were pulled into actions elsewhere... The planet Mauritainia is in North Eastern space, somewhere between the Ghoul Stars and the Damocles Gulf... To make the long short I will say again, they are the Gaurd, they fight where they are told to fight, and pretend to like it. and Like I said, they are very unorthodox... Think Vietnam... watch Apocolypse Now, or Full Metal Jacket... Oh and If you havent already read my on-going story about Commissar Marrio then its right here


http://www.40konline.com/index.php?topic=165395.0

I apologise ahead of time for my lack of grammar skillz in the first chapter...

 


"I am an Imperial Commissar and as such am charged with the ensuring the absolute loyalty, discipline, and courage of the troops in my charge. If I should find any lacking of these qualities I shall judge them as I see fit, interpret the situation and deal with it accordingly."

 


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