In my short time of being a commissar I have run into many kind of Guardsmen of all rank and file, yet never have I encountered one that stands in front of me. He was a sargent by the insignia that was place on the center of his light tanned carapace armor, and from the skills I just witnessed he was normal rank and file Guardsmen. His personalty match that of a soldier who has seen battle countless times and survived through force of will and skill alone, 'he must be a veteran of his regiment' I concluded looking over his regimental badge. I resembled an eagle head screeching and brought the golden aquila to mind, all his war gear was all so similar yet different what ever world he was from had vary rich resources to out fit this kind of advanced equipment.
"Cat got your tongue? or did jenkins not check that perfect head of your's?" He question while cocking his head to the side like bird, the question brought out of stupor and I looked to my left to see jenkins blink for a second. " I scanned her head sir I swear I did" jenkins defended him self at the accusation, "At least I think I did" the second part he muttered to himself ignorant that I could hear him.
I shook my head my crimson locks moving with my face, " I am quit fine sargent..?" I left the last part hanging for him to answer. " Sargent Stephan Alexander Allen Ma'am, one hundred first air born division, First battalion, second company, first platoon" His response was clear and load but at the same time formal, what ever home world he came from trained there guard beyond normal means.
" Right sargent Alexander I must thank you for you timely rescue, and I Believe that introductions are in order." I brought self to my full hight of a hundred and seventy centimeters, and put forward my best authoritative voice. "I am Commissar Scarlet De Madeline the First, attached to the Eladrin first regiment under the leadership of lord commissar Dracks." I formally announced trying to impress and inspire him to follow my example.
He righted his head and chuckled at my introduction, "Pleasure Is mine Ma'am, but you don't have to be so formal Ma'am seeing as you are technically the highest ranking official amongst the three of us at the moment." His response stunned me and made me deflate slightly at the casualness of his tone. I saw jenkins pale to my left at this sargent alexander's way of addressing me, at least he has not lost his common sense with working with this veteran.
" I am up holding the station I have been given by the Officio Prefectus as a ranking commissar, you will respect that Guardsmen, Regardless of rank or experience" I asserted with a hard tone, this sargent clearly did not respect authority of commissioned officers. " On the contrary Ma'am I do respect your position and the authority that it holds, your job is one of the most difficult to do given the situations that you commissars are placed in."
My mood shifted the moment he corrected me, I felt blood rush to my cheeks in embarrassment that I miss judged his character. I looked away and cleared my throat and tried to think of a way to approach undoing the mess I just created, " I felt Ma'am that you could use some form of casualness given that you just got brought back to consciousness after being dug out of a pile of five toasty bodies, and that there is no other commissioned officers here for you to have put up a good front for." This statement did not help to calm my embarrassment, only enflame my cheeks to match my hair.
Though one thing caught my attention when he said 'dug out of a pile of toasty bodies', With as much discretion as I could muster I sniffed my self and my eyes dilated. It took every ounce of will power to not gauge and keep my face stoic, my right eye twitched and I quietly thanked the God Emperor that no one of importance could be here to smell the foulness that was attached to my self.
Clearing my throat I re-centered my attention on this thoughtful Guardsmen, " Are all the Guardsmen from your Regiment like this?" my question did nothing to change his demeanor. Which was difficult to place give that his face was covered in some form of cloth only leaving his eyes, they were a very sharp Green with gold specks dotted all around.
" Yes Ma'am, causal keeps us loose and not tense but when the bullets start flying we serious up. Keeps the moral high and allows us to perform when we are needed." His answer allowed me some insight into how he would work in a make shift platoon, which raised another question.
"Were is the rest of your Squad Sargent? for that matter were is the rest of your platoon?" under normal battle field conditions loosing a full squad of Guardsmen is not abnormal, casualties are expected with any conflict. How ever his entire body gave off a simple signal, 'discomfort' was screaming from his body language as he shift from his wounded leg that I just noticed to his good one. This new observation made me realize he charged three traitor zealots while wounded and killed them in melee, Brave did not cover such actions 'I will recommend him for a commendation when we reunite with any higher Guard echelons' I noted to my self.
Filing the reminder for latter I re-focused on his form and his discomfort was almost Palpable, He could not look me in the eye as I saw his jaw clench under his mask. A dark thought hit my mind as the worst possible outcome, 'Is.. he the last one?' it was not unheard of that an entire Regiment would be cut down to a hand full of survivors.
"Ma'am.. I think I am the only one left.. We got engaged in a heated fire fight, my squad and I were all that's left from a full division. we were under ground and saving civilians when I got nailed in the leg, Before anyone could do anything a grenade went off and collapsed the tunnel with my squad in it." He stopped his explanation as he leaned against a burned out chimera, sighing he removed the empty magazine from his Rifle placing it into an empty pouch and taking a fresh one and reloading. It was the first time noticing the quality of his equipment, and It was defiantly not standard Astra Militarum issue.
That's when the weight of what he said struck me, like Thunder Hammer crushing my torso my breath caught in my throat. As a Commissar you trained and tutored in tactics and strategies from the very begining of your introduction to the Officio Prefectus, You are held to the same standard as commissioned officers are in terms of assets management and use. His Regiment would have the highest priority in terms of being used for there actual role of shock troops, for him to be trained to assault from the air with such equipment.
For there to be only him left after a full strength Regiment being deployed is a gross negligence in command, one she will bring to the Lord Commissar once she finds the Imperial Guard lines. There will be Blood for the loss of such a well trained and Equiped Regiment, and will be the Traitors and the planetary Governors blood that will pay that price. "Sir hows the leg?" Jenkins question took me out of my murderous brooding and brought me back to the situation that was placed in front of me.
"Well charging down three meat heads probably was not the best Idea with my patch job in mind he.." He joked whirly as he grimaced at his leg wound, The well dressed wound was seeping blood and what ever combat drugs that allowed him to ignore the pain must of worn after the small melee.
"Jenkins tend to that wound! And Sargent let me see that Las Gun It seems my weapons of choice were looted from me while I was unconscious" My order whipped Jenkins into action as he rushed over and with the Sargent's help removed his larg pack of supplies. I to moved towards the Sargent Named 'Stephan', I tasted the name in my mind as I stepped up to his left side. He presented me with the Las Gun that was around his left shoulder, From the scratched low gothic script labeling it as 'Jenkins'. It came with a full Power pack and many spare all in a ammo belt that wrapped around my crimson sash and clicked into place, Checking the Las Gun I noticed the intensity nob was set to low.
Switching it to a higher intensity, checking the quality of the barrel to make sure it would not melt after one trigger squeeze, satisfied I left it in a rest position. I peered over Jenkins shoulder to see how grieves the injury was, I would not allow the potential of this sargent be waisted on this frivolous uprising. Jenkins Removed the outer bandage and had Sargent Stephan hold the excess material to re-bandage, crimson blood soaked the Gauze and pants leg of his uniform. Nimbly removing the soaked Gauze he examined the wound, clicking his tongue in annoyance he cleaned up the wound to get a better look.
" The stubber round is still in your leg sir, stuck in you femur to be exact and you are lucky it did not shatter it to pieces." he report struck a cord of worry through me, Jenkins removed a small medical kit from his first stage medical kit. Opening the clasps he removed a surgical pincer and placed it in Stephan's hand to hold while he took out a nerve suppressor, quickly injecting it above the wound. Stephan sucked on his teeth before relaxing, " You have been holding out on me Jenkins that is really good stuff.".
Jenkins chuckled in response before taking the pincers and not so gently began to dig into the wound feeling for the round crammed into Stephan's femur, his eye twitched and I had a horrible feeling that this was not going to be so smooth. "Jenkins?" Stephan asked, "Yes sir?" Jenkins respond while his face scrunched up in concentration. "How long is that drug supposed to work? Better yet what's the percentage of people immune to its affects?" Stephan's question forced Jenkins to pause blink in thought.
" Four hours sir, and only one percent of human subjects are immune to it, why?" Jenkins answer cemented my concern when I moved to help hold up our valiant Sargent, " Oh you know.. BECAUSE I CAN FEEL YOU DIGGING THAT PINCER IN MY FUCKING LEG!" He Screamed out half in pain half in rage. "Oh." was all Jenkins replied with as he continued with more effort then before.
I felt sympathy for Stephan but I would have preferred if he did not give away our position, Still hold up our now muttering sargent I scanned to the North were the last petrol had come from. I saw no movement How ever the smoke rising from the North was getting worse, thicker and black now from something burning. The smell of death and burnt flesh wafted from the the wind blowing from the south, I strained my ears to remove the sound of Sargent Stephan's muttering. It was faint but I could hear bolter fire emanating from the North, there were still loyalists fighting against the traitors.
" And got It!" Declared Jenkins as I also heard the sound of metal being forcefully removed from flesh with an audible 'pop', Stephan also coordinated that notion with an audible 'huff' and silent muttering of killing jenkins in his sleep. I glanced over and saw jenkins re-dressing the wound to staunch the bleeding, while Stephan closed his eyes and breathed through the pain. Rolling my eyes at the display the two put on I kept my attention on the street ahead listening to the sounds of far of combat, I gripped the handle of the Las Gun tight and Resolved my self to keeping These two men alive.
"Now I know you are Angry right now.." Jenkins was trying to sooth the seething Sargent, "Jenkins" Stephan started dead panned. "Yes Sir" Jenkins answer, " Unless you want to be the first imperial armless medic, Shut. Up." Stephan asserted with venom. "Yes Sir." Jenkins answered with a hint of fear.
I chuckled internally at the banter of these two Guardsmen, even from different Regiments and worlds there is a bond of service that they both have. I rescanned the street for the tenth time before my eyes caught movement, it was faint but I knew it was there. Instinctively I dragged Stephan into cover behind the destroyed civilian transport that was being used as a shield to treat leg behind, he did not protest and Jenkins went with the movement still bandaging the leg.
"Movement?" was uttered from his lips in a hushed whisper that carried a trace of pain, "Yes it small and a full three blocks down" I answered in the same hushed murmur. Nodding his head with the support of Jenkins he got into a kneeling position and peered over cover, using the optic that was attached to his well crafted Rifle he focused his attention. A frown covered his face as he scanned slowly from left to right, not removing his head from the stock of his weapon he look my direction with a questioning look.
"what ever you saw is not there now, my guess they saw the short fight and decided to take big steps to the north." his report did no good for my current mood, if it was surviving guardsmen they would be surrounded and exterminated, if it was more traitors then the Imperial hold out at the Arbite station would not be alive to receive this small group.
"We can not dally we must advance quickly to the Arbite station and assume command, before it falls for if it does we will be the only imperial presence in this hive sectors." I explained the urgency to Sargent Stephan, he nodded his head in understanding of the weight of that problem. Food riots and the like were common across the imperial, a sad truth at the state of the imperium. How ever this was a full scale military uprising on the prime world of a subsector, with it spawning no less in the capital Hive. If the Hive falls and the ruling body is executed then the every hive city will fall shortly there after to in fighting, causing the entire subsector to stop functioning as a proper piece of the Imperial tithe.
Sargent Stephan seemed to understand this more which only gave him more credit off needing to kept alive, "And if this enemy gets a strong hold like that it will be a short time before the entire hive is taken, If that happens they will have full access to the Hives defences." His tactical break down was exactly what I would expect from a well seasoned commissioned officer. What ever training they gave the recruited Guardsmen of his world need a better way of screening for talent like his to be groomed, if he was in command of a full company no even a Regiment the outcome of many battles would have ended in his favor. This cemented his value permanently in my mind, and as a fully trained commissar it was my duty to start his grooming now.
" Then lets make heist, for the Forces at the Arbite station are mostly likely leaderless give the strategy of these traitors." I left the bait for him to catch seeing if his interest was there, one can not groom talent if there is no drive to fuel it. He stood with little effort and quickly helped Jenkins with his pack, "leadless how is that possible give the level of combat so far?". His question was my cue to pull him in, It seems that he would some extra help in terms of not falling for ambushes but that can be easily done.
" When this started the traitors cut the head off the PDF'S Leadership all except the Planetary Governor, leaving only the rank and file to start the defence of the planet." I stated as we began moving to the north using the support struts of the habitation blocks as cover, this kind of movement reassured my choice in grooming him. "Once the Governor realized the situation he sent for aid, in response the Ministorum had eight full regiments from the training world Elidren sent with the aid of a Mechanicas expedition fleet." I continued my brief on events that lead to this situation, pausing for breath or to help scope out the abandoned cross road position that we advanced through. I help scavenge equipment, An intact Carapace chest and a belt of grenades was my reward as well as a las pistol.
"Yet when the first Elidren Regiment landed to reinforce the remaining PDF hold outs here the upper echelons were targeted and silenced before even lord Commissar Dracks could inform us, after that the only actual leadership has been Commissars and sargent." I finished my brief and to my credit we had not lost any time while we advanced. The sound of combat could be heard more clearly and we had past the make shift Head Quarters in the commerce sector, it was in runes and there was nothing to be saved.
"Sir the number of dead has increased." Jenkins report brought my attention to what he meant, More Guardsmen littered the defences of each location we advanced through. And the lack of Traitor corpses indicated the battle had turned south for the loyalists, Righteous anger burned in me and I prayed we sould run into any enemy along our route. "Keep your head on a swivel Jenkins and follow my lead, you to Lady commissar." his tone was not like an order, if anything it simply a reminder. As expected of a veteran and good leader, he lead from the front yet he expected everyone to know what they were doing.
We kept a steady forced march down the ruined streets, there were so many destroyed buildings that the avenues of attack were becoming almost streamed lined. This advantage allowed for less screening of corners and watching windows, yet the destruction also hid twice as many dangers. This level of destruction was unfortunately all to familiar to me, burnt out Chimera transports littered the street with wrecked sentinel scout walkers. Craters from explosives pot marked the street with all kinds of scattered pieces of metal and concrete, sandbags were stacked and strewn about. But what really hardened the heart was the ever growing carpet of fallen Guardsmen, there still forms frozen in the position were there souls left them for the Emperors light.
The closer we came to the Arbite station the harder it was to walk, the amount of dead had reach a critical mass. And It was no long just Guardsmen either, traitor corpses dotted amongst them mostly impaled with bayonets or felled by Las gun fire. The sight both brought pride to me and saddened me, I trained with these men and women to see there lives thrown away to such rabble both detested me and brought fresh anger to my blood. My brooding was halted when Sargent Stephan held up his fist and halted his advance, I refocused my attention on my surroundings.
In my brooding I neglected to recognize that we had approached the end of the street, open in front of us was a massive court yard that was now in ruins. All forms of defences were set up here as a first line of defence, now how ever most were now just shattered and scattered. The grand walls of the Arbite station stood defiant ahead of us by a full kilometer, there imposing walls pot marked by rocket fire and heavy weapons. Yet the gate had still been left standing, this brought joy to me that even with all there efforts the traitors could not over come the loyalist will to fight. My joy was cut short when the sound auto gun fire snapped against my ears, my body moved with out me thinking into cover my fellow soldiers doing the same.
Sargent Stephan was next to a sand bag emplacement already looking down his optic, Jenkins was next to him las pistol at the ready. I was next to a fallen leman russ battle tank that was missing it turret, I leaned out of cover to see into the creator filled court yard to see if we were about to issue the Emperor's wraith on these filthy mongrels. Smoke and the fog of war blinded the majority of my sight, how ever one thing caught my sight it was movement of a banner in the wind. It was not a Guard banner or an Adaptus Astarties, no It was a Sisters of battle banner of the Ardent Rose. In all the Chaos of this war I had nearly forgotten that a sect of there order was sent to this system to aid in spreading the Emperor's light, there Monastery was held in the Religious sector of the hive.
A heavy gust of wind came from the west sweeping the smoke to the east, only to reveal. The banner only being held up by the small pile of dead sisters, how ever there was a group of Traitors around the mound of dead en-circled around in front of it. Ten in total and I could hear there laughter from hear, one shifted to the right to reveal a sight that made my blood boil. There was a wounded alive sister being held down by six men, she was struggling to fight them off to keep her honor in tact. As a women I felt the same dear and rage she was at what was about to happen, it was clear exactly what they were about to do.
I gritted my teeth and looked over to the two men under my protection, only to find Jenkins looking shocked and also frightened. I blinked and scanned for Sargent Stephan only to find him rushing twords the group Rifle raised, then a war cry was unleashed from him that sent a cold chill up my spine. The Emperors wrath was unleashed and its calling only had one meaning, Death to the traitor, death to the mutant, death to the xeno. And Sargent Stephan was that wrath.
"Jenkins what caused Sargent Stephan to unleash his zeal?" I yelled to the medic across to the man who was watching the back of his new NCO with a sense of dread. He looked to me with eyes wide with worry.
"Ma'am its not Zeal, its Catachan combat drugs." his response left a cold feeling in my stomach that went straight to my mind. Those drugs were only one step down from penal legion stimulates..
"Oh.. Emperors throne they are so fucked"