Assault on Lorn V

Five Imperial transporters were moving through the dense snowstorm on the frozen fields of Lorn V. Every vehicle was filled up with twelve Imperial Guardsmen, one driver and one gunner. Sound of a raging wind echoed inside every cabin. Small viewing gaps on the sides were showing nothing more than a solid white. Guards were not talking to each other, just sitting and waiting til the end of the ride.

Inside one of the transporters there was a one guardsman, that is important in our story. He was a little smaller than the rest of his brothers in arms. His shoulder pads were nearly covering his whole forearm, making him look quite funny. He was tapping the floor with his boots in a rhythm of a song that he got stuck in his head. His face was covered with an old gasmask model mp4. It was a real relic that he stole from one of the devastated reliquaries, but no one ever noticed it.  His flak armor and uniform were green, just like the rest of the Guards. He had a green helmet strapped to his head, green cloth gloves and black boots. Symbol of the Imperium was on the front of his helmet. His left shoulder pad had an proud white inscription “412 Cadian Shock Trooper”, and right one had a white symbol of Cadia. His name was Matt.

After a few hours Guardsmen noticed that vehicle stopped, turned around and moved backwards for a moment. Then access ramp hit the ground with a thud and someone yelled from outside

"Crawl out, you dogs!"

All Guards quickly rose from their seats and runned out. Matt did the same, but even through dense snow was covering most of the sunlight, he was blinded by a brightness of the outside. After a few seconds his eyes adjusted to that, and the guardsman looked at the giant line of trenches. It looked like they prepared to an enormous battle. He was stunned with that sight.

"Hey, soldier! Come here now!"

Matt noticed that an officer waved at him, demanding to come closer, so he hurried there. He quickly ducked, propped up on the earth and jumped inside the trench. Imperial Officer who demanded the guardsman to run to him had the green coat and a hat. His face was covered in scars. A few medals were pinned to his uniform. He was standing next to a small steel table. On the table there was a big radiostation, a pair of binoculars, a laspistol and an actual paper map. The powered sword was leaning against the edge of the trench.

Matt saluted

"Guardsman Matt on duty!"

"So that is your name, young veteran? I can always recognise that mask, it's quite original. Where did you dug out that shit? By the way, I never really seen you without it on your head."

The guardsman stood at attention quietly.

"Matt, you are quite strange, but I like you. Glad you survived the last Necron assault. For a while I was afraid that our chaplain wouldn't be able to sew you into one part. He was quite moved with your battle cries. He said you really trust the Emperor. I think you just went crazy back then..."

The officer looked into the distance, and after a while he asked

"Do you even know with who are we going to fight?"

The soldier shook his head left and right.

"Do you have any idea how many races are living in the whole space?"

Matt slowly started to count on his fingers and said

"Well... Tyranids, Orks, Eld..."

"NO, NO, NO! They are just known to us. If you want to know, in the whole space we can have unimaginable amount of different species. You will never be able to fuckin imagine the whole space. For some reason this giant snowball, called by some “Lorn V” is attracting many new representatives of alien scum! First Necrons and now..."

The officer looked on the horizon through a binoculars and pointed it out. He smiled and said

"Well, there they are. Shall we send them greeting salvo?"

Matt raised his hand over eyes and looked at the pointed direction, but it was impossible for him to see through the blizzard what was five meters away, not to mention longer distances.

The officer chuckled with his heavy voice and passed his binoculars to a guardsman.

"There. Now look over there."

Matt slowly raised them and drew them to his eyes. A strange shapes standing on the horizon were highlighted. He gasped

"Wow, that binoculars are some high tech equipment!"

The officer chuckled again and hit Matt's helmet with his fingers.

"Damn you, kid! You are the only person that can cheer me up without even trying. You were trained to use this shit when you were eight!"

The soldier lowered his head

"Ehm... Sir... I actually am not Cadian. It's just a documentation error. I never really even seen Cadia."

"Ya joking, right?"

"No Sir, I tried to explain this many times, to many people, but they didn't even care that a conscript is in elite forces. One of the commissars said that before they will change anything, I'll be already dead, so it would be a waste of time. Heh, I even laugh when I remind myself that one."

The officer scratched his head and joked

"Damn, you are definitely living longer than they expected. Shouldn't I execute you right now for not complying administration directives?"

A stupid smile on his scarred face looked plain wrong, but after a while he forced himself to be serious again

"Anyway, could you just look through this high tech piece of shit and tell me coords at the upper right corner? It would make my job way easier."

The guardsman saluted and yelled

"SIR, YES SIR!"

The officer smiled and said

"Just be sure that you hold the enemy between the edges of that triangle in the middle, or results might be bad."

Matt looked through the binoculars again, holding them in both arms. After a while he said

"I believe that they'll be... Plus fifty two degrees... twenty six minutes... eleven dot twenty seven seconds! Plus twenty degrees... three minutes... five dot ninety three seconds!"

The officer slowly moved his finger on the map that was lying on a small table and mumbled

"Might be, Matt. Might be..."

Then he straighten up, took up radio microphone and yelled to it

"Basilisks, listen up! Send an earthshaker at location Plus fifty two [...]"

It took a while to tell the location, but after a while the officer told his orders and said to Matt

"Well kid, now look there again for a while."

Matt looked back at the horizon through the binoculars. The loud, characteristic shot sounded behind him. Then a big earthshaker shell fell right into the distant enemies throwing them into air. Matt saw a big amount of them tossed up by the power of the explosion. He looked steadily and saw that they are shaped like... horses? Maybe they came here with their mounts or...

"What happened!? It missed?"

The officer intently asked

"No, Sir! That was a bullseye! They were flying like birds! Maybe except the fact that birds are not falling down with such a velocity and crash on the ground into bloody marmalade."

"That's the spirit, Matt! If other officers have such a skillful assistants as you, those horses will flee faster than they came here!"

Matt looked on the officer with confusion

"Sir, horses?"

The officer scratched the back of his neck.

"Ah, damn it! I was not supposed to tell you that! Pretend that I didn't said anything, ok?"

"Sir, but why!?"

"Don't ask me that, kid! Orders from above! Now gimme back my bino's!"

The officer snatched the binoculars from the hands of the guardsman. Then he looked through them and turned pale.

"Oh shit! To arms, soldiers! Enemy is getting close to our lines! What are you staring at, Matt!? Check your rifle and get on position, you idiot! Marines, come closer to the trenches! What are you afraid of!? You have heavy armors on your asses, and we are standing on the first line!? Ya cowards! Machine gunners, get ready! Leave no xeno alive!"

Matt quickly ran along the trench leaving the officer's yells behind, filled an empty position and put his elbows on the ground, aiming his lasgun into white snowstorm.

Guards were silent. They felt hoofbeats trembling the whole ground that got louder and stronger with every second. After a while a big army of ponies ran out of the dense snowfall. They were wearing yellow armors that were covering their heads, sides of their necks and their backs. They had halberds tied to their shoulders, Matt concluded that they were similar to Grey Knights weaponry, but Pony ones were partly wooden and they were not powered. Few enemies had a horns on their heads that were shooting some kind of energy bolts, and some of them had wings which were used to hover right above their companions.

Yells of the officer suddenly got clear

"Open fire! Open fire!!"

Immense wall made of bullets, lasers, grenades and flames hit the enemy squad, but not as effective as expected. A few ponies fell down riddled like a Swiss cheese, but others didn't even look at them, still galloping forward. Every human was constantly shooting, and every second one pony was collapsing , and then getting trampled by their mates. But after a moment many of them managed to jump into trenches and kill humans with halberds. Guardsmen and Space Marines had no chances in melee combat, because pony weapons were easily piercing even the thickest armors.

The officer panicky crawled out of the trench and yelled

"Get out of this trench right now! Relocate to open field!"

Matt just discharged his second lasgun clip, but he immediately jumped out and continued to change mag on higher grounds. He saw that not too many soldiers managed to get out of trench alive, but he believed that they can still win this battle. He finished reloading and started shooting at one of the ponies on his left, that was charging at the Space Marine. Unfortunately our hero didn't noticed another pony that was running in his direction, so he was knocked into bomb crater with an enemy pinning him down and punching him with hooves.

"Agh, you son of a bitch!"

Matt yelled. Response was quite fast

"What do you know about fighting, human? Weak, stupid, fragile and non-magical. Worthless!"

Adrenaline did it's job, so the guardsman didn't even feel pain after every hoof-to-face. But every hit was making him feel weaker, and his vision was getting darker. He knew, that if he won't do something quick, he will faint and most probably get a taste of some halberd.

Matt felt his lasgun under his hand. He grabbed it and tried to hit his opponent with it, but pony pushed the rifle down.

"Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing back there?"

Pony asked. The guardsman yanked the rifle and hoof slipped off from it. The lasgun rapidly went along the arc. Bayonet attached to the end of it slipped between the plates of pony armor and impaled in the neck. Pony fell on it's back and choked. Human slowly stood up and looked at his dying enemy.

"Gah, who is worthless now, you fucking bitch!?"

The guardsman took a few deeper breaths and started thinking what should he do now. What would the officer do? Maybe boost morale, cause yells above are clear that soldiers are fleeing in terror. But how he is supposed to do that? He is no commander type!

Matt suddenly spotted a nice imperial banner, lying inside the crater. It probably felt there, when some explosion pushed it out from the ground.

"Well, my new little friend." - Matt said to pony soldier that was drowning in his own blood - "Looks like you might help me after all..."

Human snapped his rifle out of pony's neck, took a swing and cut the head off. Then he hung his rifle on shoulder, grabbed imperial banner, sticked the pony head on top of it and walked out of the hole holding the modified banner up in the air. Then he nicely sticked it in the ground.

Matt laughed to himself

"That's a beautiful example of modern art."

In the same moment Matt got interested with the familiar harsh voice. When he looked at the direction, he saw an officer hovering nearly 2 meters above the ground surrounded by a purple glow. A purple mare was standing in front of him with a nasty smile. She had a more protective armor than the others and her halberd looked more dangerous, as it was double-edged. She also had a horn on her head that was glowing purple. Just like a trapped officer.

She asked:

"Well, human. Why don't you just give up? I don't want to kill such a cute creature, you know?"

"I'd rather die!"

The officer replied and tried to split in mare's face. Unfortunately she made a step back avoiding that ranged attack.

"Oh, looks like you are quite bullish. Believe me, this will hurt me more than you."

She aimed her horn towards the officer. The glowing got way more intense, and the officer started yelling in pain. In a moment, his arms and legs were ripped off. The limbless body was thrown in Matt's direction and purple pony went back to killing other humans.

Petrified Matt runned to the officer's body. His legs couldn't keep the tempo, so he tripped a few times falling on the bloody soil. His knees and gloves soaked with blood. After running few meters, that seemed to last like a half of hour, Matt kneeled next to the officer. He was  barely alive, coughing blood.

"Sir? A... are you ok?"

The officer responded with pain:

"Do... I look like I'm fucking ok?"

"S... Sir! Maybe I should bring a medic or find some bandages or..."

"Kid, you got so involved in this fight that you still don't know that we already lost? Look around."

Matt slowly looked around the battlefield. Huge amounts of steaming bodies were lying on the ground. There was no whit of snow that was not soaked with blood. It looked like a real hell.

"Take my things... Whatever you want..."

The officer was mumbling, while blood was dripping through his mouth.

"Binoculars, documents, laspistol... my hat. There is my sword lying somewhere... Take what you want and run away... Hide somewhere."

"But my only dream is to die for the Emperor!"

Matt yelled with regret in his voice

"I... never thought I will hear that... from the... IG's mouth. I... propa..."

The officer couldn't end the sentence. He coughed and relaxed his muscles. His eyes were still open, but never as empty before. Matt felt so sorry for him. Now the only thing that was in his mind was a hate towards that fucking horses. He looked at purple pony that was shooting energy bolts at imperial survivors. Matt closed the officer's eyes with his open palm. His voice was full of sorrow. It whispered

"See you soon, Sir. Sooner than you could expect."

The guardsman took the rifle off his back, checked if it's reloaded and if bayonett is holding steadily. Then his hands clenched on the cob and he dashed in mare's direction with full speed.

The soldier bounced from a big stone lying next to his enemy. He swung his rifle down, but bayonett only made a long cut on purple pony's side. She screamed and jumped back. When she looked on the wound, it was already dripping with blood. Pony stared very angrily at Matt and asked

"You didn't want to do that, am I right?"

The soldier was currently not in the mood for chit-chats, so he ignored the question and charged on her with rifle near his hip, getting ready to impale the bayonet deep in horse skull. Before it got close, the bayonet glowed purple and stopped mid-air. Pony laughed

"You really thought it will be THAT easy?"

Matt tried to move the rifle forward or back, but it was impossible. Then he grabbed the cob from the side and pushed it with the whole strength. The gun rotated around the bayonet, made a 180 and hit the pony right in the head. She was quite stunned, and unable to still hold the gun, so it started to fell down. Matt quickly grabbed it by the barrel and swinged it with his whole arm. Before back of the rifle managed to break purple pony's skull, it bounced back from the energy shield quickly casted by her. Matt looked at the purple bubble for a moment, he quietly laughed while raising the rifle over his head, still holding it by the a barrel, and made it fall down. Cob of the rifle hit the shield with quite a power. Slam echoed inside the bubble, and powerless pony twitched a little, slowly lying down. Matt raised the rifle again.

Another hit was even stronger. Pony put her head down, sweat was dripping from her body. Matt already felt the taste of win. A regular guardsman is a step away from killing enemy commander, all by himself. That must be a miracle. Other ponies around were still chasing fleeing soldiers, and didn't even thought about helping the purple pony with one human. No one could notice, that she actually was in serious danger.

Matt touched the ground with his rifle, giving himself a little rest. Lasgun scraped the ground and raised higher than before. Cob started falling with a great velocity.

Milliseconds before impact the shield disappeared. The guardsman couldn't predict that. Unable to stop the rushing rifle, he hit the ground and lost his balance. Before Matt stabilised, purple pony raised her head and using the remaining energy, she pushed human back with magic.

Matt flied in the air horizontally, with his front directed towards the sky, waving his arms and legs. The guardsman felt like he was falling for a few minutes, and for the whole flight he couldn't believe that he just fucked the whole situation up. So close... so fucking close...

Suddenly Matt hit the lying rock with his helmet and passed out.