Topic: The Hunt for O'Rum, 89th Division

[Cpt. Pain]

Just after Straken had made his speech to the officers and NCOs of Battlegroup 'Straken', he was approached by Major Wuxiong's adjutant.

"Guardman Fei reporting with your orders from the Major Wuxiong, sir."

Captain straken looked over the document.

"Thankyou Fei. Take this reply back to the Major. Dismissed."

The guardsman took the file containing the message, saluted and departed back to his officer. Straken signalled over to his command section.

"We'll be supported the 16th Division. As I said in the briefing, once a beachhead has been set up, the 91st Armoured Assault Battlegroup will flank the south of the first hive, with mutual support from Captain Paraplegic and the 1st Vindication. We will then perform a breakthrough action to join up with and assist the 16th Division in the aftermath of their mission to bring down the shield generators protecting the three hives."

"Do we have any reports on the terrain? its all very well having these orders, but if its three hundred miles of soft peet, we're not going anywhere." Said Sergeant Schaefer.

"The area surrounding the hives is open rural agri land, interspersed with copses and minor woodland. Given the relatively mild climate of the area, the ground should be firm enough for the tanks to maneuvre without consiquence. The woodland however could cause an issue, I'm sure I don't have to remind you of the Gustav VIII campaign."

One of the crewmen chipped in "Those bastards hid in every sodding scrap of cover they could, We were lucky to have so few tanks lost."

"Indeed, but our infantry screen suffered horrendous casualities due to sniper fire. In this case, we have an all together better situation. And we'll have the xenos scum on the back foot. On aniother note, the divisions offciers and I have been able to pull a few strings with the army group staff, all command tanks are being assigned back to us.

The crew cheered heartedly, the prospect of following the advance in a tauros didn't seem to good.

"What about the section motorbike?" Said Williamson

"That wasn't on our books anyway, and I don't think semi-regulation non-combat vehicles are at the top of HQ's agenda at the moment. And less said about that, the better. Now, Schaefer, inform the battlegroup offciers of the orders. The rest of you, find something to do for next few hours, and for the god emperor's sake, stay out of trouble."

The Section departed, and Captain Straken started to pour over the maps and tactical information on his desk.

____________________________________________

Recieved orders from Wuxiong.
Sending reply to PM
Awaiting deployment order.

[Underhand]

Captain Underhand of the First Sejanean descended the metal grilled steps towards the simulator training centre where his officers and senior NCO's awaited him. Leaving the stairway and entering the the simulator room, he studied Colonel Talon's orders, the green light from the palm cogitator reflecting off his face.

The orders were simple: 

The First Sejanean has the van.
Terrain is expected to be flat agricultural with scattered forrest.
Blitz forward and destroy or disperse all enemy infantry or mechanised formations.
Do not engage with enemy armour.
If enemy armour is encountered, relay coordinates back to 89th Command and await support from heavy tanks.

Simple orders were not always easy to carry out.

Moving to the front of the room, he handed his cogitator to Sergeant Hido, who connected it to the main projector causing a three dimensional map of the terrain to the north of target Alpha to appear.  Stepping to the side of the projection, stood withhands on hips and addressed his officers and men.

"Gentlemen, the orders have come through.  The 89th is to enter from the north west and engage the enemy." Large red arrows appeared pushing from the left to the centre of the projection.

"The terrain is expected to be mostly flat agricultural with scattered forrests." Scattered green projections popped into place on the prjection, fading in and out to indicate thattheir exact location was still unknown.

"The First Sejanean has the van."  Light applause and chuckles of self congratulation greated the announcement.

"We are to blitz forward and engage any enemy infantry or mechanised forces, hitting them fast and hard before they can react." Heads nodded, as the red arrows darted forwards across the map.  That was how the First Sejanean always fought.

"Do not engage with enemy armour." projections of Tau and Imperial heavy tanks appeared above the battlefield.  "If enemy armour is spotted, relay the coordinates back to 89th command and let Colonel Talon's heavy tanks handle it.  Do not engage enemy armour.  Anyone who breaks that order gets rewarded with a private fencing lesson from me."  More nods.

"Now . . . in it's wisdom, command has seen fit to lend our aircraft to the 16th, so we won't have the luxury of air support or deployment." Projections of valkyries and Vendettas appeared before disappearing to the south off the map. Light grumbling ripled thrugh the gathering at the news.  Underhand ignored it, inflecting an extra note of authority into his voice to direct attention back to the matter at hand.

"That means if you stray to far from your assigned formation and get into trouble, there isn't going to be any rapid redeployment of airsupport to dig you out of trouble."  A projection appeared of a couple of Chimeras surrounded by Tau and traitor forces.  "You'll be on your own until we can turn back and collect you, which might not be for a long time." The Chimeras turned to skulls, and then gravestones.  "We can't afford to lose the momentum of the blitz to help out some idiot who can't stick to a plan." More nods.

"Also, without our Vendettas, we'll obviously be bit light on ranged anti armour.  Let me repeat that our orders are to not engage enemy armour.  Having said that, if enemy armour engages us, I want to at least be able to fire something back at them while we manouver around them.  To that end, I want all our HKM systems online and operational as soon as possible.  I also want as many of our Sentinels to be reequipped with anti tank weaponry as possible."

"Order of deployment will be as follows . . ." Projections of the various units appeared as he listed them off " . . . Scout Sentinels are to deploy first and race ahead, noting terrain and enemy locations.  They are not to engage.  Armoured Sentinels are to be deployed on the flanks.  Chimeras in the centre.  Hellhounds and Banewolves to the rear until contact is imminent . . . " He paused, barely able to force out the next few words, which he had long ago sworn would never leave of his mouth.

" . . . Devildogs to the front."

[Cpt. Pain]

After the order to embark had been announced across the troop ship, Captain Straken had migrated back to the command deck of the heavy lander 'Hermes'. A group of aircrew had clustered around the vox officers station. The officer had managed to receive stray vox signals from the fighting on the planet below.

"..... down! We've ..... a man down! Get ...... beslubbering medic ..... here!"
"They've ....... out a whole squad!"

Small arms fire continued to fill the transmissions, interspersed with explosions and the cries of dying men.

"the platoon's down to 50% strength, we can't take much more of this! amphetamine parrot, incom....[static]"

Straken interrupted the group, pushing one of the men aside roughly, and cut the transmission dead.

"I think we've all had enough of that, don't you. If you want to listen to that amphetamine parrot, I'm sure I could allow you to join my battlegroup when we try and recue them! Not do your beslubbering jobs!"

"your not our CO, you just a Guard grunt. said one of the men, everyone else recoiling in horror.

"you want to say that again with your CO present?! I'll happily march you over to him now.

The petty officer bowed his head and didn't say anything.

"Good, now go back to your station and do something important."

Straken walked off, back to the frontal vision ports. The senior flight officer was standing next to him, both looking out into the landing bay, and through that into space.

"what was that about, I hope they weren't doing anything illegal."

"Not at all, eavesdropping the poor sods already making landfall." replied Straken

"How are your's holding up?"

"There good, a tough lot, done this countless times. It was fortunate that we haven't had weeks or months in transit, that does the moral damage."

Both men waited for the permission from flight space control to come through.

___________

onboard heavy landing craft, awaiting green light.

[Henimann]

Henimann looked over at his division as the embarked on the assault shuttles for their descent onto Distilleri.   

He could tell they were itching for battle - waiting, a soldier's most common enemy, had taken its toll on the men of the 89th Division.   They wanted nothing more than to meet the enemy in battle.   

He had just finished briefing the officers of his own regiment, and having dismissed them watched as his troopers made ready for the assault, checking over weapons and tank shells one last time, and making sure the engineseers had kept their vehicles in top shape during transit. 

The'yre ready.   They're all ready.

But, what are we about to get ourselves into?

[Paraplegic]

Things could be worse. His techpriests had managed to scrounge up some extra plating to reinforce the chimeras in preparation for what he was assuming to be a hot drop given what the 16th was being put through. From what Ripley had managed to piece together from the battle comm traffic, there was no mention of tau armor at all. And on top of that, him and Straken would be the ones that had to pull the 16th out of the fire should their assault on the shield generator continue to falter. Those chimeras would be awfully cramped and the lack of Vendettas and Valks meant that he would be wholly dependent on Straken's armored core should his troops encounter any of those hellish Hammerheads or Skyrays.

"Damn Tau. Why are you holding off your armor? What are you waiting for?" Paraplegic strode into the lander, lost in thought.


-----------
First Vindication is loaded and ready to deploy.

[DeadDuck1015]

After a quick trip to see if he could requisition a melta-bomb or two (gonna leave the success of that trip up to...whoever's in charge), Cpl. Jones headed towards the drop-ships with Bire and Jago, the three rejoined Captain Underhand and the rest of his command squad (if indeed they're at the drop-ships at all, that is). As he boarded the ship, he checked and re-checked his gear, more out of anticipation than nerves. Tau and traitor guardsmen were his specialty, and he couldn't wait to get planet-side.

--------------------------------------------------
-Attempted to get a hold of some melta-bombs (or any kind of anti-tank kit, really).
-Checked in with Underhand.
-Boarded the drop-ship, currently awaiting deployment.

[ranger_scout]

Now sobered up and kitted up Shceer Schwatze reports into Haupstmann Straken at the veiw port repoting he is ready for battle and other required duties.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reports in to Straken and states his operational readiness

[Wuxiong]

Major Wuxiong was feeling worried about what the Tau might throw at him. For he had been an experienced veteran of fighting the Tau Fire Caste. His main worries of the Tau were their Battlesuits, which he had a problem with ever since he was first fighting them. Even remembering that those Tau Battlesuits was how half of his regiment was destroyed and forced to merge with another. He feared that the Tau could be preparing a hit-and-run tactic when the armour crawls through. He had to rely on a mobile force to keep his forces on the advantage against the Tau but at the same time not fall into Tau traps of their so-called "Kauyon" strategy.

"I'm just glad I've got some Valks with me.... But I should be careful..." He thought to himself. Then he heard the Vox Comm traffic mention things about men of the 16th Division being slaughtered, reduced to 50%. Wuxiong then feared the worst, but tried to keep his hopes up.

After he was commanded to get to the dropships and prepare for landing. He wasted no time to equip himself with his weapons. His master-crafted power saber, his hellpistol, camo cloak and all the necessary equipment before boarding. He muttered these words to himself out loud to his troopers and officers, "Emperor be with us..."

[Henimann]

Henimann clambered down the ladder from the cockpit of the giant lander and made his way past rows of idling Solean tanks to his own.

"Pookie"'s engine was humming - the enginseers had made sure the General's personal command chimera was in top shape.   The back ramp was down, and Henimann noticed Regimental Sergeant-Major Stadnicki preparing the tank's command hologram projector with the aid of a techpriest. 

Grabbing a handhold, he lifted himself over the tread assembly and onto the turret.   He stood and raised his arm, silencing the troopers around him.  Now that he had his troopers' attention, he spoke.

"Soldiers of the 57th Solean Cavalry, and of the 89th Armored Division!   Today, we land on a hostile planet to bring the Emperor's justice to those that have betrayed him, and to exterminate the traitor forces and their xenos allies!   

We are the the Treads of Fury Division!   Suffer not our enemies to live!"

The assembled troops of the 89th Division roared their assent.  Satisfied, he lowered himself into  the commander's seat of the tank and plugged his headphones in, making himself comfortable for the combat to come.   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

89th Armored Division, "Treads of Fury" is ready.   Get us on the ground, and we'll take it from there. 

[Major Arah]

Major Arah was already strapped into his commander's seat in his Chimera, the Honey Badger. His crew were making final checks before the drop ship took them to the planet's surface. The weariness of the preparations were starting to set in and in the peaceful almost womb like comfort of his chair Arah began to nod off.

------------------------------------------------------------------

All's set
Waiting for orders
Falls asleep

NOTICE: I might not be very active in the next few days... sorry traveling outstation again and god knows how the internet will be like....

[Cpt. Pain]

'Heavy lander Hermes, this is Naval flight space control, you are cleared to drop, repeat, you are cleared to drop. Proceed to holding zone three-two. The LZ is too busy at this time. From there, away the order to make landfall, over.'

'Roger, NFSC, proceeding to holding zone three-two.'

The lander left the hanger bay, and dived straight into the holding pattern.

'I bloody hate it when they do that!' said Straken, trying to pick himself of the deck

The craft circled high above the landing zone. The 88th had just landed and was securing the perimeter. Straken observed their progress from the tactical hololith projector on the bridge of Hermes, and listened to the comma chatter. Because of the environment aboard the ship and the threat of Tau photon weapons, all of the personnel were wearing anti-flash gear, including the captain, no excuses for IG officers. He could see the fighter screen swarming over the LZ like bees over a hive.

All of a sudden the bees reacted to something, all moving as fast as possible to the eastern flank. Something was badly wrong. The comms were in chaos, everyone was trying to find out what the beslubber was going on all at the same time. But from the holding pattern, it was obvious, an ambush.

'Close the blast shields! Protect the sensor arrays, only visual WL! Prepare to disengage!' screamed the senior flight officer.

Immediately the hololith went blank and the blast shields that protect the bridge ports closed. Almost as soon as that happened, many of the visual displays failed due to emission spikes. The light from the jamming burst was so bright even a this altitude that it bled through the edges of the shields. After several seconds, possibly even a minute had passed, the FO said;

'Raise the blast shields, we're blind!'

The air below the holding zone was a blaze with combat, and clouds of phosphorescent gas from the burst huge around in the air. Proximity alarms screamed into life. One of the landers caught in the ambush had pulled up and cut right through the holding pattern vectors.

'Evasive manoeuvres! Hard a port! Brace, brace, brace!'

The pilot inputted 40 degrees of roll and pulled back hard in the control yoke, but it was too much in one move.

'We've going over!'

The land fell off the thrust column and inverted into nose dive. Thankfully it had more than enough room to pull up before it plowed into the LZ, which would have devastated the 88th. The only problem was that during the  attempt to regain altitude, it had been hit by ion-cannon fire and has suffered extensive (but minor) damage to its starboard rear engine housings, and was now streaming a huge contrail of black smoke.

'Cpt. Straken, we will need to put your guys down, I cannot keep this high with only 3/4 power, we're having compensate by diverting power reserves from the hull shielding as it is. CPO Davidson, I need to know if the cargo is safe after a manoeuvre like that.'

'The cargo should be fine, the vehicles are boxed into braced transit containers, but the crews will be reeling, given us some time to settle, I'm more worried about the lander's airframe after that.' Said Straken.

'Well, we won't know if we've got any major damage until we get back to the troop ship, or we break up on landing, so i'd try and ignore it.'

'Don't you have a way of measuring hull strength?!'

'How, and what would it say, "hull integrity at 30%?!", yea, we can tell, the engines engines are about to fall off and the spinal corridors now have a nice arc that they did use to. Seriously.'

The two officers glared at one another. The stress of the situation was showing in everyone's faces, if anyone could see them, due to the anti-flash vales. The vox officer who had been trying for several minutes, finally made it through to Naval Flight Space Control.

'NFSC, this is Heavy lander Hermes, we have sustained damage during the ambush. when can we expect to begin the landings.'

'Err, Hermes, we unable to offer assistance on the drop at this time, over.'

Private Schwatze, who was 'standing' next to Straken on the bridge commented:

'Sir, did command just tell us to go beslubber ourselves?'

'Pretty much.'[/b]

___________________________

Decided to RP a self enclosed insident involving the the drop site stuff, hope thats ok
Still waiting for orders to touch down.

[ranger_scout]

'Sir, did command just tell us to go beslubber ourselves?' said Shcwatze.  In his head he is thinking this is a very rough start to the invasion.  "sir is that motorcycle or tours been stored on the ship i could go get help from the ground pounders or others amour units" once we land and act as direct contact between our tanks?"
-----------------------------------------------------------
Is mad because of pre stalled invasion
Request permission for a vehicle to do recon and message runs

[Henimann]

Henimann grimaced.  He had just switched his handheld holo-plate from a game of Angry Aquilas to the command map, and was getting his bearings on the status of the landings.

From what he heard over the vox-net, and from what he could see on the holo, the landings were messy.  Not the worst he'd seen, but still bad. 

Gravis' 88th was coming down into a hot LZ, but so far they'd had it easy compared to the 16th Division.   Henimann shook his head in disappointment at the heavy losses being taken by Khemri's division in the Orbital and around the Shield Generator. 

He keyed his vox to speak with the commander of the tank lander.

"Lieutenant, what is our status?"

"Holding sir, waiting our turn to hit the dirt.  The Hermes took a hit, but seems to be keeping it together."

"Dammit, get my tanks on the ground, so they can start blowing things up!"

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Sitting in my tank, waiting.   Dont  mind, though.   Figured out how to use the little blue aquilas to knock down the houses of the hungry green groxes.   

[Wuxiong]

Wuxiong's lander was steady on hold. His troopers were getting bored and held onto their lasguns, some fell asleep. The Commissars had to pull them up and discipline them to reach for their Chimeras. Many of them reached their tanks and chimeras and strapped themselves tight... Then many fell asleep, some picking their noses while many more were eagerly strapping themselves tight into the seats and buckled for a heavy landing. Wuxiong wasn't in a very good mood about it as well, being in one of those Chimeras as well he was picking his nose like his guardsmen. He couldn't wait to hit his treads into the ground and start the assault to crush the Tau, but all seems very boring at best for him. He wished he was out there into the thrill of being in danger while landing and assaulting the Tau.

"Adjutant, you reading all of the reports on the landings?"

Guardsman Fei was holding his Vox up high and listening through "It's very sketchy and a lot of interruption due to breaking the atmosphere, but we're still being hit hard down there."

"I hope we don't die of boredom before we even touch the ground!" Wuxiong hoped.

Guardsman Tao was itching for a battle "Grr.... Rrrrrr... How long will the landing last?! I want to taste battle! I CAN'T WAIT!"

___


Ready for orders when you're ready sir.

[Chosen Man]

A staffer walked over to the CAG "Uh sir we have a problem....it seems 1 possibly 2 drop ships of the 89th have left the hangar without authorization sir..."

"Right ok....get me that Major in the 88th on the line..." The CAG turned as he heard the last of the staffers report. "The 89th did what!?" A very angry CAG asked.

"I can confirm one drop ship....the Hermes has left the bay of the Eye N' and is burning towards the ground." The officer said "How was this possible! Get me that Gung Ho General on the link now! The boss is not going to be happy about this Jenkins!"

The CAG went on to inform the general of the 89th that no ships were allowed to leave the bay and that the drop was still on hold.

"Sir what do we do about that Drop Ship? It's in the no communication zone of the drop now, without any escorts or support for it." Jenkins asked. "Well now, since we have to pull the fat of the 88th out of the fire we have no escorts for that drop ship, they took their chances and want to be heroes, we have no fighters to escort them down, they are on their own." The CAG explained. "What else can go wrong today?" He said to himself.

"Sir that muck stomper Major is on the link...." A comm officer said.

"Right! Let get to this, tell him I have 2 flights of Strike Lightnings heading his way to clear the road." The CAG got back to the business of running a proper war.....

[The GrimSqueaker]

Not punishment but an opportunity. 

'Sir, did command just tell us to go beslubber ourselves?'

Heavy Lander Hermes was between a rock and a hard place while being in mid-air – quite the achievement basically and one their flight crew was currently not enjoying. Their briefed air cover was currently in the air covering other people or were diverting back to their hanger decks with most of their electronics dribbling down the sides. The remaining fighter cover was under steady, while not heavy, assault and was tasked with maintaining the landing zone corridor and reinforcing the strike packages for the 88th and 16th operations. Even worse, the sanitary facilities were backing up and now air movement devices were being coated. The metaphor was apt.

The Hermes was slowly losing structural integrity due to having the aerodynamics of O’Rum in a short kilt and so was being forced to chose between a higher altitude and lower air density or a lower altitude and greater opportunity to try for landing rather that what’s generally known as “stall spin, crash, burn, die.” The former sounded better but the latter was selected as the contents of this lander were too precious to risk if the lander were to tear itself to pieces.

Due to being Straken as it was (sorry), the Hermes was mostly ignored by the slowly swarming Tau air assets. The lander was obviously badly damaged and was going to make its landing far away from the identified Imperial concentration areas. All the same, the racing Baracudas and other aircraft strafed the vessel with their drone weapons while passing through the same airspace. The Hermes was going down and all that mattered was how controlled the landing would be and at what velocity.

The flight crew had previously showed their initiative and the current situation was no different. Impact alarms raged through the vessel as crew attempted to put the airframe down in a place and time of their choosing. The equipment was already strapped down and prepared for rough fields so the concern was the personnel. Deck crew and what few navy ratings that could be spared raced through the hull spaces trying to crash prepare the Guard personnel as quickly as possible. Crash webbing was arranged correctly and equipment that could prove dangerous was torn from the Guardsmen’s grasp and tossed into empty corridors so that their dangerous tumbling would only wound steel and not flesh. The ratings knew that they were unlikely to find safety so their only concern was to make sure that the Guard cargo survived to seek revenge against their adversaries. The interior alarms became shriller as the Hermes’ passage began to settle into a terminal course.

“Brace for impact!” Came the final command from the flight deck as the heavy lander wrenched sideways and into a tight spiral. The accumulated damage had become too great and now was the time to force a landing if only to be in fewer pieces than the alternative. The Hermes plowed into the ground on to much of an angle for the landing struts and began to rotate shedding hull components and equipment in her wake. The path of devastation was not too great as the flight crew still had some control and had used the spiral descent to lose as much velocity as possible without losing their flight surfaces. The impact overwhelmed the senses of those onboard whom were thrown against the crash webbing with bruising and bone breaking force. Even as secured as it was, equipment broke free of their restraints and tore a bloody path.

The Hermes eventually settles to a halt with the sound hull fragments falling and debris coming to rest.

You’re down and down hard. From the angle you find yourself viewing your new environment, the Hermes is partially upside down and at a steep angle. There’s no sign of the navy ratings (they're messily dead) or any messages from the flight crew (see what happened to the ratings). Heavy equipment is currently non-viable as the landing craft is hardly at a proper unloading arrangement. Time is of the essence.

[Cpt. Pain]

[OOC] I live for this amphetamine parrot! [/OOC]

Straken viewed his new surroundings after blacking out for ten minutes. He clutched his head, the Stygian light-hardened helmet (OOC, Stalh helm ) had took a pretty nasty blow from a torque socket set that had came free.

'I need a sit rep now!' he said rather too loudly. removing the five point harness and hitting the floor all too hard.

'Sir, we've gone in hard, it appears that all of the crew is dead judging by the bloody pulp on the hull plating. Thankfully, the battalion personnel seem to have survived, we have some warming wounded, but 70% are ready to go. Much of the heavy equipment is inoperable, the ordnance hold ruptured, but we can still arm ourselves. The vehicles are for the most part fine, but we cannot retrieve them from their transit containers in the heavy hold without heavy lifting gear, all of which has been junked in the crash.' reported Schaefer who, like any good NCO, had already done everything before being asked.

'Where did we go down?'

'Not sure sir, the tactical hololiths are out.'

'then assume we are behind enemy lines. I want a security detachment to scout outside the lander. If it is safe, we will form a perimeter around the craft until assistance is visually confirmed.'

'Very good sir.'

'We'll need to report in, see if any of the long range comms are still operational in the bridge bunker. If so, send a distress message, requesting immediate air support and a ground recovery team. We have a broken arrow situation. if not, scavenge around for a vox kit.

What if we can't fine one sir?'

'then get some of those promethium drums from the transit containers and get a smoke signal up. Emperor knows if we need one though, the crash should have been noticable enough.'

Straken swore blind to himself, he knew the SFO had gone too soon, but had said nothing. 

'I hate the Imperial Navy!'

'Not much I can do about that sir.' said Schaefer as he walked off, ever the wit.

Minutes later.....

Captain Straken walked along the bulkheads of the corridor that ajoined the bridge. Webbing was now climbing nets between the what were now floors. 

'Any luck?'

[/b]'no idea sir, the comms appear to have power, but the speaker is shot, if it's getting through, we can't hear them either way. oh yea, I found your rifle sir, and it's not bent![/b]

Straken caught the auto-rifle and checked it over for damage, repeatedly cycling the action. 

I've had this baby since I enlisted, a Stygian pattern Heavy  Autorifle, kantrael pattern furniture, lovely ergonomic grips (OOC, nod to the vets there ), and monogrammed with my old nickname. Anyway, keep trying sergeant.'

Straken walked off, trying to find a way up onto the new roof.

[centre]__________[/centre]

Attempting to re-establish contact with any imperial forces.

Wondering what the beslubber I've got myself in for

Setting up perimeter around the lander To guard against Tau incursions.

Captain Paraplegic, the rest of my battlegroup (a lone understrength battalion of raw recuit leman Russ vanquishers, MBTs and punishers, and two companies of crack Mechanised infantry) is nominally under your command until such time as I am able to command them.

Schwatze, my bad

[ranger_scout]

Schawtze already hated space travel but this was ridiculous. "Good thing I was wearing a helmet" (same Stalh helm type) he thought to him self "because that would have hurt a lot more without it".  He get out of the now upside down chimera he was to ride in and checked his own kit and body over.  "leg sore check, arm cant feel but seems good moves fine,  head really sore between hang over and landing, las rifle fine...
   
   After this check he goes around what was once the roof of the ship trying to find a vox or some for he can reach others in amongst the wreckage.  With no success he begins looking for a small land vehicle he can so he can go find some one in the 40th who does have a vox. 

    Finding 2 small dirt bikes he reports to Haupstmann Straken who said he could take them and one of his CCS members to go find help (was approved in PM).

"Sir me and your troop are going to go find some one to get use some heavy lifting equipment and some one to help cover our position."   Schwatze states to his officer.  "We will be back as soon as possible if one of is hit the other will come back to report and get help." Gefreiter Schwatze states. He was told that he was field promoted to Gefreiter (Cpl.) so he can order around the trooper if necessary and when he finally gets in contact with another unit it does not appear as that "what all they sent is a private?"

The two german Panzer men get on the bikes and start them up outside in the secured parameter.  Schwatze pops a quick salute to the Haupstmann Straken and with this he and (insert troops name here) goes off toward the distant sound of energy discharge.

___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________
hurting but alive, checks kit
Finds no vox
Gets promoted to Gefreiter (Corporal)
Drives to nearest gun fight to find a unit with comms and support to secure landing site crash site

[Wuxiong]

Everyone was waiting patiently calmly eagerly in the lander. They were apparently still on hold. All of them boarded and were ready to take off. But they weren't given the order to take off. Many now fell asleep, even the Commissars were getting all sleepy eyed resting themselves nicely into their seats. Wuxiong was now sleeping until he was woken up by his Adjutant's Vox Kit.

Guardsman Fei was trying to connect with Captain Straken. "Errr... Sir. I think Captain Staken's lander already taken off."

Wuxiong opened his eyes wide and said "What?! How? He wasn't given the command!"

The Adjutant wasn't making any nice emotion and bitterly predicted "Maybe it was an Imperial Navy error..."

There was a silence for a moment, Wuxiong's expression on his face was very uncomfortable and familiar to his guardsmen.

"Ooohhhhhhh! No!" Thought all of his guardsmen.

"I hate the Imperial Navy! Why?!! Why did you send his lander down and NOT MINE??!!! DAAAAAAARRRRRRGH!!" Wuxiong screamed.

"When do we get the order to take off...?" Wuxiong anxiously muttered to himself.
___

Bored and waiting for order to strike. Currently my men AND my Commissars are sleeping until they hear that the landers are taking off. Also need to think of a new battle plan until we pinpoint Captain Staken's location and establish contact with him...

[Henimann]

"a%&^%&(q@#%#@%^%&*%x^!!!!!!" 

Henimann was furious - Straken had had broken out of the holding pattern and made his own way down, only to have his lander shot out of the sky and crash land.

I should shoot Straken for defying orders, he thought. Then again, I should shoot him out of jealousy for being on the ground before me..

He keyed his comm to speak with the commander of the lander.

"Lieutenant, what news on the Hermes?"
"They went down hard, sir, but it seems were getting one-way vox traffic from there so Im assuming they're still alive."
"Do we know where that bucket went down?"
"Not yet, sir.  Working on it."

Without waiting for further conversation, Henimann switched his comm to the CAG. 

"This is General Henimann!  I'm ready to drop the hammer, and dispense some indiscriminate justice!  GET ME ON THE GROUND!"

[OOC: Thought Id work up the whole "Gung-Ho Armored General" persona CM had given me  .  Perhaps could I get a custom title out of it?]