Rogue Guard: Chapter Three

“What do you mean it’s not ours?!”
“Just as I said.  There is no way we could have created that city.  Do you know of any Chapters that would to this?”
Tiben hesitated for a moment as he thought over the question.  “No, I do not.  Then that means-“
John finished his sentence.  “Xenos created it.”
“Heretics.”
    The three of them had left the trenches in favor for a more convenient talking place.  They were seated at a long rectangular table inside a bunker, Tiben seated across from John and David.  David seemed eager to state his opinion while John looked fine at keeping his mouth shut for the most part.  Tiben glanced at David.  
“Something you want to say soldier?”
    Before he could voice his argument, a mighty war cry pierced the air.  “WAAAAAAGH!!!”  Guardsmen began to scramble and mass confusion reigned.  Most of the Guardsmen had been enjoying the long moments of peace and had slacked off.  Now however, they were scrambling over each other to mount their defensive positions.
    David, John, and Tiben scrambled out of the barracks and rushed into the trenches.  David took his position near the front, ready to prove his courage.  Tiben stood behind the main line of Guardsmen, John near the back, readying a blast of lightning to slow down the approaching Orks.  The greenish wave of Orks was making its way towards them with frightening speed.  The Guardsmen aimed and silently prayed to their Immortal Emperor to protect them all.
    When the order finally came, all hell broke lose.  Volleys of laser rounds and a large blast of lightning disrupted the charge, but the Orks continued towards them anyways.  Fear was slowly gripping the men as they saw some of their comrade’s die to lucky bullet shots from Ork Shoota Boyz.  Even though the Orks had terrible aim, if there were enough of them in one place, they could actually hit targets.
Tiben yelled over the mayhem, his voice cutting through the panic.  “I will have someone’s head for this!”
“You’re not going to have anyone’s head if this keeps up,” David barked back at him.
    The battle waged on.  The loyal Guardsmen, firing everything they had, were starting to fall apart.  Some of them were faltering when they reloaded their weapons, their new clips falling and clogging up with mud.  Others were faltering with their aim, shots starting to go off in obscure directions.  The Orks had amassed a “WAAAGH!” larger then ever before and it was starting to take its toll.
    Tiben drew the las pistol from his belt.  If these cowardice dogs would not serve in combat, then they would serve on the firing line!  He aimed his gun at a young looking man near the front of the trenches and was just about to fire when the Guardsmen he had pointed his gun at turned to face him.
    “Sir, we-“ David’s face froze in terror when he saw the gun pointed at him.  He had heard stories as a child and as a young adult that when a person was about to die, they would see a flashback of their life.  Nothing came to him.  The pistol suddenly turned away from him and blasted another Guardsmen who had just dropped his ammo clip.  The fellow soldiers, seeing what had just happened, began to fire at double speed.  David broke his look of fear and replaced it with a look of relief.  As he turned around to continue his attack on the approaching Orks, he heard Tiben yell over the ever-nearing Ork battle cry.
“Tell no one that I spared your life or both of our heads will be at steak.”
“I understand.”  He stopped for a moment before continuing.  “Thank you Commissar Tiben.”
“Do not mention this moment.  Ever.”  He shot a rare smile towards him before continuing his constant strain of barks and orders to the others.
“I won’t,” David whispered to himself as he too continued to fire.  He was not about to die on some Emperor forsaken planet in the middle of nowhere.

*****

The Guardsmen held, but the casualties were much higher then expected.  David walked over to Tiben, gripping a bleeding shoulder.  He was lucky to be alive.  They all were.  Tiben looked down at him.
“Will you live?”
“I will.  But…we don’t have any bandages left.  It will most likely get infected.”
“Let me take care of that.”  He tore off a section of his left sleeve to his shirt and wrapped it around his wounded friends’ shoulder.  “There. It was torn anyways.”
“Thank you sir.”
    “Think nothing of it.  Now…I need an opinion…from a companion.  Our men are badly wounded and we have heard nothing from the other squads for many days.  I must have your opinion David.  What should we do?  If we stay here, we have the chance of being over run.  If we try to move to a new location, we may run into an Ork patrol.  If that were to happen, we would be killed on the sight.  Any ideas?”
    David considered his options.  There weren’t very many to chose from.  He thought hard before finally coming up with a plan.  “What about the caves?  We have enough rope to shimmy down the cliff side inside the cavern and hide in the city.  If the Orks do come in there, they would have to fight underground and in a city at the same time.  We know for a fact Orks do not do well underground in combat.”
“But what if that city is Xeno infested!?”
“It’s either that or we all die.  If we take the chance, we might be able to hold out until the next shipment of reinforcements arrive.”
“This had better work David.  Other wise, we’re history.”
“No pressure huh?”