# First In



## Bayonet (Aug 13, 2010)

Just for a quick FYI about the unit I'm writing about here any readers may want to skim through this thread: http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=81126 to understand what the 12th Company is.

This is my first attempt at fan fiction so any feedback would be great!

Thanks for reading!
*
First In*

"Fix Bayonets!" - the order came down the line and despite the bark of autogun fire and atleast one Heavy stubber, I could clearly hear Corporal Grimes booming voice. Laying on my front I reached to my back fumbling around in the darkness that was only illuminated by the odd bit of tracer fire or grenade going off in our direction, eventually feeling the reasuring grip of my standard issue Bayonet I tugged it out from it's sheath and with a comforting click slotted it into place under the barrel of my Lasgun.

Any moment now First Squad would be in posistion overlooking the agri-complex along with their Heavy Bolter and begin suppressing the traitorous heretics holed up there, then it would fall to Second Squad to get in amongst them. The complex was surrounded by open fields and unluckily for us whatever crops they once held had been put to flame some weeks ago to give the heretics defending this location better fields of fire, not bad for a rag-tag bunch of former PDF, cultists and gangers. We were pinned down in a shallow mud-filled ditch about a hundred meters or so away from the first of three small buildings that made the agri-complex, our ten man squad reduced to nine when our Vox Operator Private Tave took an autogun round to his thigh - it didn't look like much at first but it must have hit an artery because he bled out before we could get him extracted (not that we could get a Medic to us or Tave to a Medic whilst we were pinned in the ditch anyway).

My comm-bead crackled to life and Corporal Grimes voice came through, we weren't particularly spread out so I can only guess he was tired of trying to be heard over the crack of the heretics weapon fire, "First Squads in posistion, they'll start suppressing the enemy in sixty seconds. As soon as that fire starts hitting the compound we'll break cover and get onto that first building whilst they have their head down. Fireteam Alpha will set our shaped charge on the side of the building facing us whilst Bravo* covers you, as soon as it goes off Alpha will push into the house and clear the house room by room in pairs. Once the first buildings secure we'll begin suppressing the other buildings whilst third Squad moves up from our rear, pushes through us and into the next building along - is everyone clear?" a barrage of acknowledgements filled my ear for a moment before I added my own. As 'luck' would have it Alpha Team was down a man after Tave got smashed so I'd be going in with Corporal Grimes rather than sat outside covering them with Bravo, but atleast it beat sitting in the open with a small bit of earth for protection.

As each man in the Squad began making sure their pouches were secure and they had fresh power packs on their Lasguns, the silohette closest shuffled next to me "Hey, Howe, you better take my grenades. Sounds like you'll need them before I do" - I couldn't tell if Lance Corporal Taylor was being sincere or having a subtle dig at my sudden apparent drop in luck. "Thanks... I think" I replied, "You'll be fine, just put atleast two shots into each of the bastards to make sure they stay down". "Last time I checked we're still Cadians, advice on killing some Heretic scum up is the last thing I need right now" kicking myself as I said it - realising I sounded like some Whiteshield rather than a fully fledged Guardsman with the Cadian 8th, Taylors hard glare told me as much. I sighed "Sorry mate, I'll make sure they stay down", Taylor nodded and passed me a bandolere of Grenades before crawling back to his spot doing a quick final check of his kit.

Moments later the unmistakeable roar of First Squads heavy bolter opened up from the small hill to our left along with their lasguns, the explosive tipped projectiles tearing into the three buildings. From my posistion I couldn't see what effect their fire was having on the Heretics but the fire that had us pinned down for atleast half an hour stopped almost at once as they switched fire to try and engage this new threat. "Second Squad, move move!!" Corporal Grimes screamed as he scrambled over the lip of the ditch. My body kicked into motion, finely drilled to accept the command before my minds even processed it I leapt up and over the ditch following the rest of my squad across the open ground to our target. Weighed down with my flak armour and my backpack full of water, ammunition and Vox batteries the hundred or so meters sprint felt more like a mile. The odd crack of fire going over and around me told me atleast one or two of the Heretics had realised what was happening but thanks to the withering fire of First Squad it was poorely aimed and ineffective at best. 

With a pang of relief I threw myself against the flat wall of the first building, gasping for air I got my rifle up in my shoulder to cover the edge of the building incase any enemy felt like bringing the fight to us whilst Private Yurni fumbled in the dark with his shaped charge ready to blow a hole in the wall. Bravo Team began spreading out to cover our rear as we prepared to make entry to the building. I had no idea how many rooms were inside but there was deffinately two floors and probably a basement to worry about aswell, normally we'd take the building from the second floor and clear downwards - the enemy tend to fight harder when you start from the bottom up and tie them into a corner whereas going in from the second floor means they can try and escape through the doors and windows at the bottom - usually into whoever you've got covering the building from the outside. But as this was meant to be a Recon mission and with all the extra kit we had brought with us, the Platoon hadn't brought any ladders or grapples. Still, atleast we were going in through the wall - from experience when the enemys had time to dig in and defend themselves the doors and windows are usualy booby trapped.

A thumbs up from Corporal Grimes and Private Yurni scuttling away from where his small charge was set told me it'd be going off any second now, Yurni thumbed the activation rune on his detonator. With a loud crack that briefly illuminated the night and a shockwave that drove the air from my lungs the charge punched a man size hole into the side of the building. Private Neeve and Private Hunter were the first two through, a couple of cracks from their lasguns rang out a second later and then they screamed "Room Clear! two enemy dead!". Grimes grabbed my flak Armour "Howe, Yurni, Push through the first room and into the next one GO!". I followed Yurni through the hole and was in the first room of the house, Neeve and Hunter were in opposite corners covering the only doorway leading into the room with their Lasguns, sure enough two Heretics lay in pieces on the floor (the explosive charge took them out, Neeve and Hunter had put a few shots in for good measure). 

I crouched against the wall next to the doorway and Yurni came in behind me, tapping the back of my flak armour to let me know he was there. My lasgun was tight in my shoulder, finger hovering next to the trigger. Yurni leaned over me and rolled a Grenade into the next room, a few seconds later a ear-splitting thud rang out and debris and smoke kicked through the doorway, instantly I was up and into the room. There was a body at my feet and one middle aged man clutching a Laspistol struggling to his feet, bleeding heavily from one side of his body. My lasgun cracked to life as I put two las-bolts rapidly through his chest, then aimed and put a third through his face, I was rewarded with the back of his head exploding on the tiled walls. Yurni was right behind me, he put two shots into the body I passed near the door and we spread out and tucked ourselves into the corners of the room. "Room clear! Another two dead, we've got the front door leading outside and a door leading to a stairwell" I screamed. Neeve and Hunter pushed into our room and immediately began clearing the stairwell to the second floor as Corporal Grimes made his way into the house behind us.

I had a moment to take a look at the room I was in fully for the first time whilst Neeve and Hunter secured the top of the stairwell, illuminated by a single light the floors and walls were tiled except for a small channel and drain in the middle of the floor. It looked like it was a kitchen originally but all the usual fittings had been removed, painted on the walls in what we realised later was blood were the same foul symbols that physically repulsed me to look at that were on the cultists laying dead at our feet. What they meant didn't really matter, but it confirmed that we were dealing with a Heretical uprising on Trendor IV rather than just your usual run of the mill disgruntled Imperial citizenry.

A few cracks of lasgun fire upstairs brought me back to the moment, I heard Neeve shout that the stairwell was clear but they were being engaged by some last enemy held up in one of the rooms but they had them pinned in there for now. "Howe, your with me - we'll go give them a hand. Yurni you wait here and cover the front door to make sure no more take these rooms we've just cleared". I nodded and Yuri grinned, "smash the little bastards for me". I followed Grimes to the top of the stairwell where we found Neeve and Hunter tucked behind some sort of metal storage cabinet they'd tipped over and firing into a single doorway at the end of the hall. 

"Corporal, thats the only room up here now but theres a couple of them in there. We've got them pinned" Neeve said inbetween snapping off shots into the doorway. "Roger that, why didn't you just Grenade them?" Grimes replied, already I knew what the answer was before Neeve said it "That rooms over the Kitchen boss, and I've no idea how thick these floorboards are - I figured you wouldn't be too happy picking shrapnel out your arse from one of our own Grenades". Grimes muttered something under his breath then activated his comm-bead "Yuri clear out from the kitchen back into the first room", Yuri acknowledged and did so. "There, problem frakking solved Private". As if to emphasise the point Grimes grabbed a grenade from one of his pouches and tugged the pin out before lobbing it into the room at the end of the corridor, a head jarring thud later and we were rewarded with some screams, "Howe get in there and shut them up, Neeve, Hunter - get downstairs and find a window or something and get some fire going down on the next building". I nodded and hopped over the makeshift barricade, carefully making my way down the corridor with my lasgun aimed at the room.

As I got to the doorway the screaming had turned into the incoherent moaning of someone in their death throes. Still, I took no chances and entered the room fast and aggressive, there was a body riddled with shrapnel laid out over a double bed, another on the floor by the window convulsing her eyes rolled up into her head and blood flowing from several wounds, then a third - the source of the moaning propped against a heavy metal locker with his intestines spilled over his legs. He was babbling and staring at his blood covered hands, I covered him with my Lasgun and moved closer. I could just make out what he was saying "Blood for the Blood God" over and over, to my disgust he was actually smiling despite the horrific trauma to his body. I was about to put him out of his misery when he suddenly locked eyes with me "He will be pleased" he said and began laughing weakly whilst glaring at me.

That all but creeped me out so I shut him up with a lasbolt to the head, then put one in his dead and dieing friends to make sure. Satisfied that we wasn't going to get any more trouble from those cultists I tapped the comm-bead in my ear. "Corporal Grimes, the rooms clear, three enemy d-" before I could finish the sentence the locker burst open, flinging the corpse that was against it out of the way and out of it came a tall stocky man in a vest, his arms and bald head were festooned with tattoos and scars all of the strange shapes and sigils I'd seen allover the house and clothes of it's occupants. He came at me with a woodsmans axe and a manic look in his eyes screaming incoherently, I barely managed to get my lasgun up in time to block his first swing at me with the body of the rifle, I kicked out catching him in the gut which gave me enough time to bring the front of my rifle with it's bayonet round to bear onto him. A split second later he was on to me again, this time I confidently parried it to the side with my bayonet, just like on the practice fields of Kasr Holn, which I then followed through with the butt of the lasgun to the cultists face. If it did anything to hurt him he didn't show it as he was back onto me again swinging wildly but every blow a lethal one that I was barely managing to parry with my lasgun each blow was also forcing me back one step at a time towards the wall. Seeing that he had me on the defensive and still screaming like a lunatic he took a huge decapatating swing towards my head, the clumsy move gave me the opportunity I needed, I managed to duck it and was rewarded with his axe biting into the wall, not wanting to waste his mistake I thrust my Bayonet up into his gut, twisted it violently and pulled it out in one fluid motion, he staggered back a little, letting go of the axe before coming at me again with his bare hands whilst his entrails were falling out of the bloody hole in his gut. I manged to raise my rifle before he was on me and snapped off a shot to his head which put him down for good.

The whole fight must have lasted seconds but I felt like I'd just ran ten laps of the Parade Square. I leant back against the wall and undid the chin strap of my helment, my comm-bead crackled to life again "Howe this is Grimes, was that three enemy dead?", "Make that four, Corporal".

The rest of the battle for the Agri-Compound went relatively smooth, Third Squad took a couple of light injuries but managed to secure the second building, when we moved into the third it was empty save for a few pieces of farming equipment and vehicles. By securing the compound we now had a secure, defensible location for the rest of the Imperial Guard Task-Force to make planet-fall so that we could begin the clensing of Trendor IV. 

The Cadian 33rd was the first Regiment to make planet fall after we'd Vox'd task-force HQ to let them know their staging area was now secure, after that the Havarian 6th Armoured Regiment touched down and began unloading all their heavy support. As the unavoidable logistical nightmare of deploying two full Guard Regiments and their equipment into a relatively small staging area from Orbit went underway, the 12th Company regrouped, re-armed and got some rest before our next tasking inevitably came through from Command. 




*Guard Squads are frequently broke down to two squads or Fire Teams of 5 men to allow greater flexibility, one will be led by either a Lance Corporal or senior Private and the other will be lead by the Squads Corporal.


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## dragonkingofthestars (May 3, 2010)

First in, First comment.

good stroy, hope to see chapter two at some point gonna be good.


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## Bayonet (Aug 13, 2010)

dragonkingofthestars said:


> First in, First comment.
> 
> good stroy, hope to see chapter two at some point gonna be good.



Hey thanks alot!

I will certainly be continuing this with several chapters in the near future. Thanks alot for reading!


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## Ambush Beast (Oct 31, 2010)

I really enjoyed the read. it was detailed, engaging and well written. I can not wait for more.

But it could use some breaking up...shorter paragraghs and spacing. it will make it easier to read and help with the fluidity of the story. 

Adrian


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## Bayonet (Aug 13, 2010)

Hey Adrian, thanks alot. I'll certainly revisit my structuring for ease of reading for Chapter 2, I think I was so focused on the content I paid little attention to it's presentation!

Thanks again!


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