40K: The waiting (english/remake)

[Warwolf]

Ensimmäinen tarina jonka postasin tälle forumille, mutta hieman kehittyneempänä versiona. Ei se häävi ole vieläkään, mutta kunhan piruuttani teidän kiusakksenne sen pistän. Enjoy!

40K: The waiting (english)

It was a beautiful morning. The sun was just rising, the sky was clear and one could still see the stars that gave way to the new day. The air was wery cold, because it was winter and the PDF's lines were situated quite high in a mountain side. The line was on a strategigly important spot, near the only usable mountain passage for several thousand miles.
Private Lookija, was in his place in the long trentch that stretched across the narrow passage. It was positioned in the middle of the passge, that gently slopped down to a snow white valley infront of the line. The reason they had come up here was bacause the Orks had once again made one of their their raiding attacks on his home planet. This raiding force had decided to land here in the mountains where there was many small villages. The PDF in the area, all that could be mustered in so short notice, was desparetly trying to evacevate the villages, while a small detatchement forces was quicly rushed here to hold the greenskins off for as long as possible.
It had been nearly two weeks now when the 1st Sornian PDF Mountain Detatchement, about a hundered men, had been thrown to this place, and there had been no word about the Orks or the civilians or even reinforcement for that matter. Lookija was staring to guess that some fat general had simply forgotten that they even existed, fancy name or not. He looked around and saw that there was a couple of other solidiers too, tough they seemed to be sleeping. Well, atleast they wouldn't freeze to death in their warm, thick winter coats. Still, Lookija missed his mom's hot cholate served with a couple of cookies. Quietly he started to hum a song he and his family had always sang in the Winter Festivals in the main Village.
"Get your asses up and shut your bread holes!" a voice barked, shattering the idylic peace and scene. "Captain has something to say!". Sergeant Gried, the shouter, was a huge man, standing almost 6 feet tall and had shoulders like barn doors. His voice was the same calliber, it roamed like a thunder over any noise, even the thunder of tanks and altilery fire. Lookija and the other men in the trench quicly got up, while the rest of the men came out of the small bunkers that they had been sleeping in, and formed the sqauds and platoons under the watchful eyes of their officers. Soon all the men were in straight lines and in their own places as if they had still been in their old parade grounds.
An officer came out of the larger command-bunker. Captain "Frost" McSimon was more ordinary looking. He also had broad shoulders, but he was only about four and a half feet tall. But his voice was as cold as the winter night of a frost world. "Alright lads, listen up. We've got word that the Orks are comming, and they are going to come right here." McSimon looked at his men. "The HQ also said there was over five hundred of them." You could clearly seen that the men were a bit puzzeld. The men were used to be outnembered, but five aginst one was just too much for even them. Silent murmering erupted in the ranks, and when Gried was about to raise his voice again, McSimon stopped, desciding to let the men to let worst out of their stomaches.
Once the the whispering and arguing had finaly died out, the captain continued: "The HQ has promissed us reinforcements, but it will take almost two hours for them to get here. The Orks will be here in about half an hour. The HQ promissed to try and delay the Orks for as long as they can, if possible. Gentlemen, it is time to do your dutie. May the Emperor be whit us." McSimon looked at each man one more time, whit a even grimmer look on his face, and said: "We are the last line between the civilians. Remember that!" and than returned to his bunker.
Now the seragent kept his own speach. "You hear the captain lassies. What are you waiting for? Start prepearing for those grees-skinned basterds. Lets make sure they got a warm welcome!" Gried said whit a wide grin on his face. Lookija and all the other soldiers knew that look. They all had seen it too many times during the combat exercises; the sergeant was enjoying this. Now all they had to do ws just sit tight and wait.
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And they waited.
It felt more like days or years than mere hours. Or was it just minutes? Lookija couldn't tell. He and his comarades spent the time by talking about home and their familys. Some had a farm. Some had a little putique. And one guy even had his own bar. Some of them had kids, some a girlfriend or two. They also prepared their guns, checked the clips, made sure everyone had enough ammo, checked their banyonets and so on.
And so the time passed.
Sergeant Gried had sented a five men patrol to watch the other side of the canyon and to warn the defenders when the 'skins would apear. It had been almost one and a half hour of the HQ's mesage, but there was still no sign from the patrol. Gried wanted to sent in another patrol to check that the " lassies were awake", but McSimon denien this, as they needed every man in the trenches. Soon an hour had passed. "By the Emperor, what is taking them so long", a man next to Lookija mumbeleld. Another hour passed, anthe olny voice was the whisstle of the wind. It was very quiet. One by one the men stopped their stories, and slowly took their places in the line. Lookija squised his lasgun very hard. He felt a cold sweat. He looked the men on both sides of him, and they were atleast as uneased as he was. The white uniformed deffenders didin't know why they had gone to their places. Sixth sence, Lookija tought. Even the captain came out of his bunker, toughhe staid near the bunker. Still he was only about dozen feet from the place that Lookija was. It was unnaturally quiet. Even the always wind seemed to go silent as if it was holding it breath. Moments passed and tension reached it highest level.
All hell broke loose only an eye blink later.
Huge explosions ripped the deffenders line, killing dozens within the first few seconds. The rest dodged for any cover that they cold find in their shallow trenches and pillboxes. Lookija heard the captain shout over the altilery fire: "Hold the line boys! Theyr only softening as! We..."KATUUUM!
Lookija flew couple of feet back in the trentch. For a moment he couldn't see, hear of feel anything and tought that he had died. But than the feeling and his sight came back. He gotten a couple of pruises when he had landed but nothing serious. His ears still rang, but he could move again. Slowly, as if he was trying to get up from a deep lake or ocean he raised himself up and looked to the place haf been. How he wished he hadn't done that.
The place where the captain had stood, was few feet deep hole. There was no trace of the brave officer. Not even blood. Lookija looked at the hole in terror. That was now his captains grave. By the Emperor, how were they going to keep their positions with their officer in atoms! Officer, he corrected. He looked the command bunker, that had been close by. Now there was only a crater too. Nothing. Like it had never been there. The radio had been in there! Now there was no way to inform the HQ that they were under attack. Lookija got into panic. He had to get out of there, he had to...But his body didn't obey him, so he laid there where he had landed, shiwering, and crying...
The hellish altilery fire seemed to last forever. The noise was so loud, you cold hear it for miles. The shells ripped more and more of the deffender trenches, killing many brave men. Then it stopped. Lookija shiwered in the bottom of the trench for quite a long time. He had to get up and run away. He couldn't take it. All he wanted to do was to live at peace and get married and have a kid or two...
"Get up you cry-babys! The nap times over!" a fimiliar voice roared. Sergeant Gried moved along the trench- or what was left of it- and shruged the men up. He gathered the men to the mid-section of the trench as it was still quite intact. Lookija had slowly some-what recovered from his panic and came to regroup too.His arms were still shaking and he had an head-achce that felt like it could blow his head. When he go to the others he was once more shocked. There had been about a hundred men guarding the line, whit five heavy bolter and mortar teams. Now, there was just under 40 of them, and only two of the heavy bolters and one mortar team had survived.
"Allright lads, listen up!", the sergeant shouted. "There is only 36 of us, and no way to tell the HQ what has happened. In any case, the reinforcement should be here any moment now. So all we have to do is...." He never had a chance to finish, for all they could now hear was a voice almost as terrible as the altilery fire. A mighty WAAAAAAGH! from the troaths of, not hundreds, but thousand of Orks.
"BATTLE STATIONS! Take the other bolter to the right and the other to the left. Put the mortar here, and in the Emperors name strart shooting when their in range!" Everyone did as Gried said, and prepared to fight, but the Orks didn't seem to get to them just yet. The canyon was about three hundred feet long, and a hundred wide.The valley in the other side of the passage was a large one, about two to three mile in all directions. It had been hidden by dense fog, but now it was strting to lift and the already battered men once again felt the urge to just drop to their knees. All one could see done in the slowly revealing valley was a huge green mass, littered with some metallic or red or black dots. Gried used his binaculars that had endured the barrage and surveyed the scene. He muttered several curses and gave the binaculars to Lookija next to him, who could now see what the little dots had been. Looted vehicles and war buggys and all sorts of other viechles. The good news was that the Orks couldn't get them staight to action, because there was a huge ammount of tank traps, mines and other obsticales in their way and they had to be cleared first. The bad news was that obviously the Ork commanding this force was a cunning one, as it had sent the main bulk of its infantry pass the tank traps, and used only some small groups to make a path to the vehicles. The huge green sea was filling the valley and there was seemingly no end to it. They wouldn't need the machines to get this fight done.
The first mortar ammo was fired, but it was left short. "Hold your fire! Wait until their in range!" Gried shouthed. The mortar team waited for few moments, than fired again. This time the shell fell into the Orks first ranks that had now started to clib up the hill, and it killed atleast a dozen orks. Still, this had little affect, as the green mass slowly but surely kept climbing up. The next shells also landed to more of center of the mass, again killing numerous greenskins, but again the beasts simply ignored their casualties. "Keep your fire focused on those who come in the first line!" Gried commanded. Soon the Orks were starting to be close enough for heavy bolters to shoot. "Every one wait for my command to fire!" The men did as told, but Lookija saw that many of them were glancing at the passge behind them, either for the reinforcements or a way out. Lookija prepared to fire too, and again he felt the cold sweat. He had never seen such a force. He came from a small village, that had a few hundred inhabitants. When he answered the call to armes, he had only seen quite small unites, strongest almost five hundered soldiers. But this...
"Keep that gun tighter to your shoulder boy. That way your going to end up shooting at the damn stars and still won't hit anything." Lookija was suprised. He looked the man next to his, sergeant Gried, who had been his and the others worst nightmare, always shouting about something. Now he seemed like...a friendly person. Gried grinned, like he had read Lookijas toughts. Lookija did as Gried had told him and again looked at the green horde. Maybe this wasn't so bad day afterall...
"FIRE!"
The deffenders openned fire in a devestating volley of bolter amd las shots. The first 50 or so Orks fell to the ground. "FIRE AT WILL!" Lookija put his lasgun to full-auto, fireing into the green-skinned horde. No matter where you shot, you could be sure you always hit something. The Orks were still yards away, but they kept comming. Finaly they seemed to slow down, and then came to a halt. Walking over their comorades bodys wasn't so much fun, Lookija tought and grinned like a wolf. He fired his last clip, and started to change it, but he was out of ammo. Soon the whole line started to stop firinf, even the heavy bolters and the mortar team as they had all spent both their mortar and lasgun ammo.
Lookija tought he saw a new spark in the Orks eyes when they started to advance again. "Lads", Gried said whit a voice that told only of pride," it has been an honour to serve whit you." He rose up, not minding of the random shots fired from the mass, and inhaled. "Fix bayonets!" Lookija felt like he was lifted in to a dream, and everything felt some how slow. He fixed his bayonet, moving like he was under water. So did the others. Gried draw his powersword. The voice Lookija next heard was like it was comming from the mouth of the Emperor himself. "For the Emperor! For the Glory! For OUR PEOPLE! CHAAAARGE!!!" Whit a mighty battle cry the deffenders of their homes, familys, children, wives and friendes charged to the green mass whitout fear. They were like berzekers, killing Orks with almost every blow they gave. It seemed like they were invanurable, like if they had been some ancient gods of war.
The close combat became fierce, and after a while, one by one, the deffenders were hacked down, but not before they took dozens of greenskins whit them. Lookija dodged a choppa, and pushed his bayonet to the Orks trouth, but lost his weapon. Somewhere, he found two quite small axes, took them both, and again attacked against the beasts. He hacked to rigth and left, dodget, rushed, killed and dodged again. For a short moment, that wasn't longer than a blink of an eye, he saw sergeant Gried. He was like a whrlwind of death and destruction. His powersword cut of heads while the axe in his other hand cutted arms and legs. He also saw how his comrades felled the beasts, but that one of their number also fell, riddled with cuts and point blank gun shots. Lookija dodged another blow from the the greenskin, used his other axe to cut the arm and the other to repel another choppa.
Still, the battle raged on for hours, showing the extreme determination of the humans to kill as many ot these beasts as possible and to hold the passage at all cost. Lookija himself fought like a Space Marine, or a Champion, killing Orks in such pace that slowly he was standing on a small mountain of bodys. Eventually a huge Nob was infront of him and they traded fierce blows. Lookija was panting heavily as he now had several cut wounds, and the Nob was grinnig cerntain that it would get lots of glory by killing this 'umie. The Nob swinged its huge choppa towards Lookija who only barely managed to dodge it. The blow left the Nobs legs open, and Lookija took advantage of this, cutting the Nobs left leg clear off. The Nob fell to its knees, but at it fell the choppa swang upwards and took Lookija by suprise, and cut a deep wound to his chest. He cried in anger and pain, but still beheaded the Nob and all the Orks near him.
The time seemed to slow once more. The battlefield was seemed to widen and stretch, becomming a surrealistic scene of green, white, red, blue and grey. Than slowly the black started to push all the other colors away. Lookija felt tiered, his hands and legs seemed to weight a ton. There he stood for a moment that felt like forever, bloody axes in his hands and untold number of Orks under and all around him. One of the axes fell, than the other followed it. He didin't feel it. Than he noticed that he was on his knees. He looked the battlefield. There was still thousands of Orks left, still climbing up the hill. His comrades were still fighting but there was only a handfull of them left. One by one more of them were killed, by either Orks shootas cross-fires or by choppas. He looked all that, those who still stood and fought, the corpses, friend and foes. A big Ork came towards him, seeing that this pitiful human had killed more of his kin than any other.
Lookija saw the axe rising. It went higher, higher. He didin't feel anything, no pain, no fear, nothing. Axe was still going higher. He saw his girlfriend dancing in the dancefloor of his old school. That was the first time he had seen her. The axe rose. He remember a lot of thing from his life. His training, going to his school, his family...
The altilery started again. Lookija tought it was just a memory, but felt the explotions thundering and shakeing the earth under him. Then he heared a horn, that sounded like an angels trumpet. He looked behind him, to high point of the valley. He saw a flag. Their flag. Then he saw how hundreds of Rough Riders of his unit charged over the top, slamming and cutting trough orks like hot knife trough butter. The Orks tried to halt the attack, but right behind the calvary came Chimerras and behind them untold number of infantry and Leman Russes and other tanks. Lookija looked to the valley and saw explosion rip the Orks infantry and vehicles to pieces of meat, metal and junk. He looked back to the hill and saw the flag. It seemed to shine like a new sun. Then he remember the words. "For the Emperor, Glory and Family", he whisperd. He never saw the blow that cut his head.
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The commander of this counter-attack force, general Kou, walked trough the battlefield. His forces had driven the remaining Orks back to across the valley and to the upper mountains. The deffenders were preparing for a camaping to finish off the remaining Orks. He again turned his attention on the field itself. He had wanted to come to this place alone, altough the Chimerra that had brought him was quite close. Huge holes ruined the landscape, and the bodys, body parts and the blood stained the once beautiful landscape. He walked along the trenchs ruins, passing the crater that was the last resting place of Captain McSimon, the hastely made emplacement for the heavy bolter, witch actually still pointed at the valley. He walked down the slope, to the place where the men of the 1st Mountain Detatchement had made their last stand.
One soldier of the detatchement had been founded alive, tough it had been near a miracle, and he had told what had happened. Kou stopped next to a body of a sergeant. He had been wery tall, and had taken many enemies whit him. The general was proud that this sort of men had part of his unit. He walked pass many bodieds of the unit, and finaly walked to a body that had no head. He had two axes next to him, both totaly in blood, and more Ork bodys around him than any other soldier had had, incliding the sergeant. Kou sighed. Yes, he was proud that such men had been under his command, but what would he give that he still had those men under him. He sighed again.
He returned to his Chierra, whispering that the wounded soldier had told him: "For the Emperor, Glory and Family!" He smiled. Yes, that would become their war cry. Kou had waited for long something to help him whit the moral, as the poorly trained PDF forces had been smoe what unwilling to leave to this war. Now, he had a mighty war cry that he could spread to his troops and a mighty hero story to go with it. Just before he entered his vehicle, he once more gazed upon the passage. He saw as if a hundred ghost had risen up from the field, greeted him and disapeared.
The waiting had ended.

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