Lieutenant Cassius. Diary of a soldier.

Some of you may remember Cassius – see his back story here –

https://imperialrebelork.wordpress.com/2016/05/03/private-cassius/

and here –

https://imperialrebelork.wordpress.com/2016/05/10/lieutenant-cassius/

Tour 5 – Day 377 –

I woke early, I rarely sleep anyway.

I could hear hushed voices in the sleep cell next door and decided to go see if they had any fresh coffee on the go. Mueller and Osmond sat hunched over a small pile of heat sticks trying to keep out the soul piercing cold of the confines of the warship. They looked up at my approach. “Coffee?” Mueller asked with a wink. He was a good man. One of the oldest in Yellow squad but also one of the toughest. Osmond, on the other hand, was the Polar opposite. Young, dumb and full of… Well who knows what but it certainly wasn’t courage. We sat and drank burnt coffee that was 10% coffee and 90% Mars-shine. It tasted like battery acid but, hell, it warmed me up.

“You fellas worried about the drop?” Osmond asked, staring into his half empty coffee cup. Mueller nodded with his grey eyebrows raised and I replied, “Shit kid we’d be mad or dead not to be worried. We are landing on molten rock and Emperor knows what else. Plus we are hunting Nids so for all we know they could be right there waiting for us as soon as we disperse.”

Just then a side door slid open and Major Keller walked in taking all of us by surprise. We stood to attention and he smiled, a rare thing, at us and said, “Sit men.” We did as we were told and he joined us but declined Muellers offer of coffee. “How are we all on this fine morning?” Keller asked. He was a man who didn’t joke and was not at all sarcastic so we all replied with a lie, we are good sir. “Good, that’s good. Not long now until we jump. I hope all your gear is tip top and ready to rock?” “Sir yes sir.” We all replied in unison. “There is just one thing I want you to be.” He said staring, in turn, at each of us with his, almost, black eyes. We didn’t say a word, we just waited. “SOBER!” Keller shouted and slapped Osmonds coffee mug out of his hand. “I see all and know all gentlemen, don’t ever forget that.” With that he marched off. We all wanted to laugh but didn’t out of fear of what the major had just told us. Instead we poured out our cups and went off to the wash room to clean ourselves up as best we could for the day ahead. A funny thing, having a shave before certain death. Who says we have to look our best for the Reaper?

Now it’s an hour before we drop and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit nervous about this one. Don’t get me wrong, I get nervous before every major battle but I’ve never faced Nids before and neither had my squad. From everything I’ve read and have been told they aren’t like any other xeno. They’re animals, smart ones, very smart ones. They’re big, savage, cunning and fast. Not to mention their plate like skin can deflect lasfire from a distance. That means, apart from the big guns, we will need to get up close and personal with these bad boys. I’m not scared of dying but I am scared of being chopped up so bad I become an invalid or worse, made into a Emperor Damn servitor. Those zombie-like, bio-mechanical slaves scare the shit outta me.

Emperor be with us.

Tour 5 – Day 379 –

I don’t know what is worse, the thought of fighting Nids or not finding any? We know they’re out there somewhere, intelligence is never wrong, well, hardly at least. This planet was supposed to be riddled with them but two days in and we haven’t seen a single sign of them. All there is is fire, ash, molten rock, black smoke and more fire. Iv’e been in many storms on many different planets before but none quite like this. I’ve lost two men from my squad already from just the fire storms that rip across the land here. There’s one burning tonight right now as i write this. Luckily we are hunkered down in a hastily dug foxhole with a heat retardant shield over the top of us. It’s hot, really hot. I am soaked with sweat. Even my earlobes are dripping.

Tomorrow Keller wants us, yellow squad, to scout out to the East. He has allowed us to take a Chimera which will, at least, protect us against the heat. I know the driver, Lexi, quite well. She’s a little weird and very wild. We spent some drunken nights together a few months back and ended up getting matching tattoos. Two bayonets crossed on our hearts. Crazy.

I know my men are nervous but I also know they can kick two kinds of shit out of Orks so I’m cofident they’ll do well when we get down and dirty with the Aliens.

I’m exhausted so I’ll get some shut eye. Hopefully I’ll see you tomorrow diary.

Tour 5 – Day 387 –

FUCK!

Everything I heard and read about Tyranids is true!!!

Mueller and Osmond are dead. I’m hold up in the Chimera with Lexi and my last two troopers Dolly and Coleman. The Chimera has been immobilized by Nids but luckily the central hull managed to hold firm. We have no power. The only light we have is three glo-sticks. We have a good supply of ammo, enough food and water for a day or so but no comms. The Nids hit our squad hard when we headed over to the east a week ago but we held out and fought back and managed to push them back. Lexi said it was just a scout group that hit us though. That kind of shook me up because if a small scout party of Nids fought that hard how hard would a whole swarm fight? I would soon find out. We pressed on, staying in constant comms with Keller. A few days later we rolled onto a large expanse of soft gravel land. Our tracks couldn’t handle it and we started to sink a little. Everyone apart from Lexi climbed out to help dig us out and that’s when the Nids hit us again. Grant was the first to go. Something swooped out of the black sky and sliced him clean in half just as he un-slung a shovel from his pack. We all opened fire into the night sky but couldn’t see anything. Then another flying beast swooped down at us. Myself and Mueller got a few shots at it and this time I saw it properly. A huge, dark, shiny purple winged monster. It’s giant jaws filled with long thin razor teeth. It screeched as our shots hit it and looked like it was going to fly away but at the last moment it jolted back and took Mueller in it’s jaw and flew off. We could all hear Mueller’s screams but moments later a swarm of monster nids came charging at us. Lexi must have picked them up on her scanners because she opened fire first with her mounted lascanon and tore a hole in the first line of nids. This gave the rest of us just enough time to clamber back into the Chimera. The Chimera shook and rattled as the Tyranids climbed all over it hacking and biting at the thick armour with their claws and mandibles. It was unnerving to say the least. The attack lasted for nearly thirty minutes before the enemy gave up on us. We tried to contact Keller but the comms were dead. We were stranded…

Not my model or photo

To be continued…