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Most of the Telum warriors around their leader, holdingenemy soldiers at bay.
He points a finger at you Kelliber and utters some words in telumen, that need no translation as you can understand an insult just by looking.
Feint
Attack
Damage Pen 2 Shocking
You notice this attack is a last ditch effort by the telum, as there is no more left than the leader and those that have joined your fight.
"Finish them off men! screams the Major over the fray.
Camael empties his shotgun finishing the fight with the Telum, but runs out just before the and and puts the last one down with a rain of blows with the shotgun, beating the enemy to the floor a bloodied mess.
Athenee feints again with her knife, lashing out in a wide shallow slash that her opponent evades with contemptuous ease; only to find himself staring over the barrel of a leveled laspistol at two lethally focused hazel eyes.
With a single flash of light the fight is over, and she looks around to check on Zora.
As Liam makes ready to shot another volley at the nearest enemy, he is taken by surprise as said foe bulrush him, forcing him up against the wall and knocking the air from his lungs.
Luckily, Liam manages to keep a grip on the pistol, and as the Telum trooper steps away, he finds the stubborn Liam hanging around his neck.
Of more concern however is the hard tip of the pistol, now pressed firmly against his Adam's apple.
With an angry growl, Liam pulls the trigger, emptying the charge pack as well as the Telum's skull of content.
Gregori acquits himself well as two telum soldiers rush him his mechanical arm darts out and swiftly snatchesone up by the head a gurgling groan the mans last words before being cut off by a wet pop. The other is merely slapped aside by augmented muscle before Gregori's blade finds his heart.
Marko staves off his attackers blows, sparks flying from the adamantine teeth of his chainsword. Dodging and weaving to avoid the electric maul, he spares a glance to see Dirty D step into the Telum's blind side, driving a dagger into his side. Taking advantage of the distraction, he drags the whirring chainsword blade across his chest, nearly eviscerating the bastard.
"Took ya long enough, D. Thanks for the assist."
Wiping gore and sweat from his face, Marko looks over his squad.
"Any casualties? Injuries?"
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The face of surprise of the Telum leader would be evident if you could actually see it, like he never thought possible for someone to interfere with a duel, alas this has cost him dearly.
"Ok men, I want a full report to your chain of command about casualties and general assessment of your encounter, we are having an R&R in the Hall were our barracks are while we make sense of this madness... bold bastards" he spits to the corpse of one of them and grabs his knife for himself.
The ministorum priest wast no time to make their presence known, reinforcing the strength of those still living and giving parting prayers to the dead, which always leads to the inevitable speech of the Emperor's glory and to strengthen your hearts and souls against the heretic and traitor.
Vox comm comes in for Sgt. Kelliber
Grigori
You notice the desolum take any measures possible to secure the bodies and are desperately searching for something on the bodies.
Camael will grab a combat knife and a frag grenade.
Marko grabs the shock maul and a laser sight, tossing the smaller device to D.
"Square yourselves away. When we hit the regimental briefing, I want you all with full kit. No sense being caught with our hoops in the wind a second time."
Via vox: <Sgt. Kelliber acknowledged. Negative casualties. All hostile pacified.>
Liam thinks nothing about quickly squirreling away one of the combat knives, it was a trophy, and it looked useful.
He then grabs one of the Autoguns.
The gun itself was too big and conspicuous to keep for long, but given just a little time, he would be able to dissemble it and keep the melee attachment and laser sight.
And later I can just "find" the Autogun and hand it in...but by that time, I'll have these nice pieces of gear put on my own rifle.
Suddenly, the combat rush faded, the normal lethargy reassessed itself, along with a blistering headache.
Liam produced a well worn box from inside his shirt and quickly dry swallowed a pair of extra strength headache pills, the kind he was regularly issued from the company's head medic.
Gregori takes a frag grenade and a knife. Small and portable.
While doing this though he tries yo find the smoke dispensary through which they suppressed las fire.
against 24 awareness.
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Grigori
Yuo are able to find a blue grenade amongst the dead, as you notice the Desolum are being whipped into searching the bodies for probably the same thing as they eye you suspiciously, even their techpriest wear a Desolum grey with the red of Mars. Yet you also notice a techpriest admiring the bodies of the Telum Yes, fine specimens that we must bring back to the fold" makes you think that there is more to it than just a compliance and archeotech to this world, apparently even the Telum are somehow special.
This might prompt you to investigate the matter at your leisure, but there just might be something looking into =3.
With Zora covering her back, Athenee bends over the bodies of the fallen and slips one of the local combat knives away into her uniform. She can tell she's hardly alone in this, but instead of picking up a grenade or an autogun she takes the time to search about their persons for anything concealed, valuable or possibly tradeable.
Seizing the moment, Athenee picks up a pair of each - stowing one set of goggles and respirator inside her tunic and carrying the others casually by her side as she and her friend stroll back to their barracks. By the time they are called to the regimental briefing, they will both make sure they have all their kit - and their mounts are ready for battle.
At this rate they'll just drop the entire regimental briefing room, she reflects wryly.
Holding his head and wincing in pain, Liam moves over to the sarge.
He then begins to speak in low tones.
"Sarge, I don't mean to sound paranoid here, but these guys...they had gear much too good for this.
There just wasn't enough of them, whomever sent them here can't have expected them to actually DO anything.
This was just...pissing away good gear and...decent troops.
Are we fighting madmen? Because madman I can do, the other alternative...more difficult."
"Liam, you know just the thing to say after a hard earned victory. Not to be a dick about it, but did you get morale trained by the Krieg?", says Alex, grinning wildly at Liam as he's making a friendly jab. His against-regiment-regulation pony tail has completely left the knot, and he's trying to fix it.
"Well, that's everyone alive. My leg hurts, though. That traitor got me good, but I got his grenades now.", says Alex, holding up a couple of frag grenades from the guy who died in the psykic friendly fire.
"So, anyone got a lho-stick? These guys had none, the affront to the Emperor as they are...", he keeps ranting on, until he gets a shove by Gillian.
Holding his head and wincing in pain, Liam moves over to the sarge.
He then begins to speak in low tones.
"Sarge, I don't mean to sound paranoid here, but these guys...they had gear much too good for this.
There just wasn't enough of them, whomever sent them here can't have expected them to actually DO anything.
This was just...pissing away good gear and...decent troops.
Are we fighting madmen? Because madman I can do, the other alternative...more difficult."
"Or more concerningly, do they not consider these troops high quality or well equipped?"
Looking at the gear, Alex smiles at Camael and says, "Well, instead of looking at these two negative options, let's look at the fact that tonight's meal may not taste like chicken for once and we probably got rebreathers that don't smell like dead men's breath. Or, more like many dead men's breath. At least they aren't touched by the warp, their minds are as vulnerable as any."
He then reaches and pockets some of the rations, looking around for a commissar.
A ratling is sure to enjoy some of these... maybe even enough to get a favour later on...
Standing up, he then turns to the rest, "Well, I'd personally like to go to the medbay. With a pistol or two under the pillow. Sarge, where we going?", he says, leaning on his staff.
"Let's patch ourselves up, grab the rest of your kit, and chow. Once we've got the essentials taken care of, we've got a Regimental briefing at the hold. But I wanna make sure we're loaded for bear before we step off...who knows when these fraggers are gonna show up again."
Carno manages to mutter, "Yes, because I'm sure everyone expected them THIS time", before being shushed by Liam.
Falling into line behind the Sergeant, Liam follows while rubbing his head and wincing, Carno while scowling sourly.
Back in the barracks Zora is idly sharpening her combat knife, legs hanging over the end of her bunk as she watches the galaxy go by. In this particular case, that means she sees the rest of the platoon come drifting back into the barracks at their own pace. For months now - years for some of them - this big echoing room has been the closest thing any of them have had to a home, but tomorrow they would leave it for more exotic sights. Would many of them ever make it back? She eyes the wall over the bunk thoughtfully, casts a surreptitious look around the room and leans across the thin mattress to make her mark on the world.
Alex walks in the barracks, limping a bit. Seeing Moran, he waves and go over to her. "Hey, Moran! That was fun now, wasn't it? Excited to get to the planet? No offence, but I'm getting rather tired of this ship." As he finishes his last sentence, he looks over to a crewwoman performing services nearby, and gives her a wide grin.
Leaning over to Moran, he drops her a ration pack, and winks at her. "I'm going to Grigori's, I want to check if some... things I found are not something I shouldn't have found. You coming?"
The lower bunk has part of a sheet and some spare uniform items hanging down from above, giving some small semblance of privacy to its occupant when she sleeps. Athenee isn't asleep, though she sits wrapped in a blanket, her back to the wall. She is slow to respond to Kaminsky's greeting, and by the time she does look up Zora has turned back to give him a reproving glare. That doesn't stop Athenee though, and with a dreamy smile she sheds the blanket and comes to her feet.
"I shouldn't - but sure, why not?" Glancing back at her friend she gave her the same smile and a little shake of her head. "Don't worry Zora, I'll be fine. If I'm not back by the briefing, bring our packs there?" Then back to Kaminsky, ration pack in hand. "Well, shall we? Actually I'm scared half to death. I've never been off world before now, and from what I hear it's going to be very different down there to Mordion."
Grigori makes a mental note of his observations and pockets the device for later analysis.
Grigori had much to ponder and did so over the whoosh of a chem bath as he removed the lingering organic matter stuck to his augmentations.
Marko takes a bit of time to organize his gear and ensure everything is in order for the upcoming drop. He then notes everything he and his team observed and experienced in the previous skirmish, making sure to note how the enemy seemed extra prepared with ammo, rations, and the like. He saves three copies, one for himself, one for the command, and one to keep with Diana, as a redundant backup.
Once he's sure everyone in the squad is set to proceed, he gathers them via vox or word-of-mouth and leads them to the muster briefing.
Liam makes sure to find a corner out of the way in the quarters, so he can quickly remove the additions on the captured gun and store them amongst his own gear, before heading to the armoury to hand in the "found" gun.
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As the remainder of the day goes by and all the hiatus of the small boarding party and the extensive damage they have caused with such simple weaponry is of some concern, but the new weaponry they have used is terrifying indeed.
Soldiers are still shocked, calling the enemy the "Red Eye Devils" or "R.E.D."
Most of the salvaged things are of good quality, something you would not find in a common guardsman, even the uniforms.
Statics breaks in through the vox comm in your barracks "Sgt. Kelliber, bring your men for some 'R&R' to our assigned briefing room H012-099 were right down the barracks, just before the intersection."
"Acknowledged. Be there momentarily."
Gathering up the team, Marko can't help but smile.
"We've got some R&R in the briefing room. Keep sharp, and keep your wits, but enjoy. I for one will be bringing my kit, but suit yourself."
Having managed a little rest, Liam has managed to overcome his blistering headache by now, and is back to his normal lethargic behaviour.
As such, he grabs his kit and shuffles along after the Sarge.
Alex wakes up in his cabin, and notices his staff, string of grenade pins and Imperial Guardsman's Uplifting Primer laying on his footlocker. He stands up, armours up and heads to the briefing room, trying to look as mysterious and busy as possible.
"Sarge! Reporting for duty! I have to report, sir, I couldn't find the Raenka for the R&R!" says Alex, smiling and breaking his rather bad illusion at being busy, passing the Sergeant a packet of Good Quality Ration Packs, with a salute.
Gregori sits down and takes his time carefully taking apart the spent gas grenade attempting to collect some residue from the inside.
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Grigori you notice inside a small stone and some dust probably of the same one, were there once some sort of mineral vein there are only now scars. The smell of ozone, but other than that it seems like a smoke grenade. Once you touch the stone, you notice it is highly conductive even after it looks inert.
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After walking for a mile of so worth of corridor and several other 'barracks' like your own you finally arrive to your destination.
Upon entry everyone exchange their salute to the Company CO. and the 1SG.
"Take a seat, this is an informal thing, so there is no need to pretend much respect and formalities, we just want to hear your opinions and questions about our friendly meeting with the Telum soldiers."
While informal sounded good to Liam, he still made sure to turn his body away from the officers as he pulls out his chair, so they cannot see the massive yawn coming over him for a moment.
Then, perhaps just a touch sleep addled, he speaks, almost to himself.
"Well, they were strange, individually well trained, but no tactics...
Each soldier could fight an' shoot, but they just came charging like a grox in a glassware store.
It's like...they counted on their weapons to turn the tide, them strange grenades that sapped las weapons an' all...
Strong, well equipped, but no discipline...
...
...
Sir."
"They also seemed to expect a more "formal" means of engagement. One of their officers actually challenged me to single combat, and seemed rather surprised when I chose a more "efficient" path. They also carried much too much equipment for a simple raid, and too high quality at that." Marko grins at D, standing near the door for ventilation's sake, as he recounts the duel. He then slides over the datapad with his collected notes and observations on the combat.
"This is what we noticed just after, it may contain some insights I've blanked on in the interim."
Alex sits and watches, knowing that people are somewhat wary of psykers. "Don't seem to be corrupted by the warp, sir. All I managed to see is that they're mutants, but not daemons. Somewhat weak-minded, as well, as Sgt. Kelliber already said. Though it was funny to see them beating each other to death." Alex seems quite happy and relaxed, unlike the guardsman sitting next to him, listening about Warp powers forcing friends to turn into foes.
Gillian just sighs quietly as he whispers to the guy in detail how minds are easily twisted and manipulated.
"Sorry, Rory. Have a lho-stick." he says as the guardsman's cold sweat approaches the point where it can't be ignored anymore. A packet of rather crushed lho-sticks appears from Alex's pocket, as he takes one out and gives it to the man.
"Can we get any advice from you, sir?" asks Alex, looking around to see if someone is smoking, and if so, lights up a lho-stick.
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"Glad to know we all have same views, they call them Red Eyes now" rubbing his shoulder, from probably some of the fighting, when 1SG cuts in
"Well, so far what our friends from the Mechanicus have told us is that their entire gear is high quality, and they are not mutants. They are humans, which they are yet to further explain and the tensions between the ministorum and the mechanicus are getting interesting." Commander cuts back in.
"So far we know, what we encountered was their equivalent of a regular guardsmen, some sergeants, and the ones that did the real damage had various different weapons like that mini heavy stubber. What is worrisome are these grenades and 1 more thing..." turns to look at the 1SG that only gives him a shrug of the shoulder and a nod.
"I believe we are not the first to get here, so expect the Tau to be in the vicinity which once we make planetfall may also mean dealing with the Kroot."
1SG "I think they did a similar tactic we use against the TAU in close fire fights were we close in and just beat them in close combat were we hold some edge, I also think their "honorable" was also a last ditch effort to demoralize your men, guess they did not expected your efficiency" showing a very rare grin "Don't believe you will be so lucky to get away with it again."
Commander waits a moment "Remember this well equipped men used a blitzkrieg tactic, but on a pitched battle we hold the advantage, and today it was the sheer number that won, if this would have been a equal number, we would be dead now, the loses they inflicted and the zeal is not to be taken lightly, your unit will get a unit commendation for their skill and bravery once we reach our destination, the other companies were not so lucky, they took most of the loses, not to mention the hangars are a wreck and will take time to repair 1 to allow for a slow deployment." signals everyone to close in like a huddle
"Personally I don't give a damn about the ok or not of using their weapons, but once down there, if you acquire their autoguns you are more than welcome to use them, for our lasgun recharge packs will come once or twice a month, while their weapons and ammo will be more available to us from the battlefield." he pulls out a mono knife and a small auto gun and smiles.
Any more questions, or comments?"
Hearing about the other companies' failure compared to the rather successful endavour, Alex loses his smile for a bit, before a unit commendation is mentioned. "Go on, Kelliber's!"
Upon hearing about the Tau, Alex sighs. No brain-probing for me, then... Well, a rebar to the face hurts them as much as it hurts me. And I hear they got quite the guns... As Kroot as mentioned, he says, under his nose, but loud enough for Gillian to hear and roll her eyes, "Just when I hoped these ration pack would give some meat on my bones, the Kroot are after it."
"The "honorable" thing to do would be killing as many of these heretics as quickly and efficiently as possible, am I right, or am I right?", says Alex, looking for some support from the crew.
As Alex sees the Commander waiting for questions to be asked, he waits until all the reasonable ones have been asked, before chipping in with a joke. "Sir, are the Tau and Kroot digestible? Ol' Mindflayer's been having tummy-aches recently, and I don't want these traitors and scum to disrupt his digestion. He's a big baby sometimes." As the image of the old, scarred stalker appears in people's heads, 'baby' isn't a word any of them would use.
"So, sirs, anything we might expect beyond the standard briefing intel? My team is ready and eager to get involved."
Liam chews on his lip for a moment, wondering if he should speak again.
In the end he decides that sounding foolish is less of a problem than keeping silent and risk getting killed later.
"So...knowing all this, which I guess is fresh intel, does it change anything?
Will our objective change at all?
Does this, in the end, alter anything significantly for us?"
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The Mechanicus wants minimal structural damages and convert this world to the Imperial Creed, but I would think there is other matters for them to want this planet this badly. So be careful, something is going on also with our Desolum friends."
1SG completely ignores Alex like he is not there, and whispers something to the Copmmander's ear
Commander looks at Kaminsky Kaminsky, Mephram wanted you to pass by the sanctum ministorum, to receive proper blessings or whatever the f~~*s he needs to do to you and Iginon"
1SG has a wide smile in his face "Better not miss your appointment, psyker" with palpable venom in his tongue as he says the words psyker.
1SG turns to Keliber "Sgt Kelliber, LT Khyber inquired about your health, will let him know you are fine, he was looking for you at the medical bay, or some of the men said so. I didn't know you were good friends"
While the commander and 1SG just look at Liam with strange face of who is this guy anyway?, is he even in our regiment? Well other than those notes, I believe that would be all. We are holding the same deployment schedule so be ready to launch tomorrow"
"Roger that, sirs. By your leave."
Marko escorts the squad out of the room, grabbing some refreshments (if available) on the way out.
"Good showing, team," He addresses the squad once back in the halls leading to their barracks. "Let me pay the LT a visit and I'll meet you all back at the racks. Check your gear, and your buddy's, let's be ready for our combat drop first thing tomorrow. "
Marko sets off to find the LT, starting at the med bay.
Before Kelliber walks away, Liam walks over and looks at him with an unusually earnest look in his eyes, almost...eager.
"Sarge...did they say we'd get commendations for this? Think...think we might even get...medals?"
"Who knows, trooper? Stranger things have happened." He claps McGregor on his shoulder in camaraderie.
"Best to stay focused on the task at hand first. Let's worry about commendations and medals after we survive the mission."