Originally Posted by
Encrypted Records
Sealed files by order of the Inquisition, Defence of Olympus Porta, extract piece together from debriefings, helmet cameras and salvaged security camera data
Olympus Porta - Planetside
Outer Hive
16th Avon Bravo Company - 1st platoon
Nikolaus Slater advanced quickly, keeping low, silently, he moved like a shadow, the heavy drip-drop of acidic rain covering any noise he would make. He slid into cover behind a parked car, its hood had been blasted open and was scorched from where a brief fire had raged from the destroyed engine but had since been put out by the rain. His fatigues clung to his skin awkwardly but he ignored it, peering through the vehicles shot-out windows down the dark street. Night had fallen only an hour before and visibility was down to almost zero from the torrential downpour, caused by the massive heretic dropships breaching the atmosphere to drop their heavy vehicles. Nik had seen them coming down and had to admit he was a little worried about what they might contain, they were nearly the size of the Mechanicus' Titan landers. And there had been a lot more. Several of the mighty engines were already operating throughout the outer Hive, defending and counterattacking. So far no enemy engines had been sighted, but that didn't mean they weren't out there.
Without looking back he raised a hand slightly and waved over the rest of his squad. His sensitive hearing could just make out the sound of their rustling boots as they hurriedly advanced along the street behind him, regrouping, they were experts though, spreading out, moving in fire-teams and pairs, covering one another. He didn't feel the need to look behind him to supervise their actions. Nik flexed his firing hand, re-positioning his bullpup lasgun in his grip, reaching up to wipe some of the moisture from his helmet visors faceplate. The unit were wearing hazardous environment drop helmets, containing their own independent air supply they were designed to protect against the worst conditions, to survive and allow the wearer to breath during very high atmosphere grav insertions and for combat in airless environments, they also contained a number of useful electronic additions including night-vision, rudimentary short-range auspex, covert line-of-sight vox units and zoom capabilities. They were a very high-tech piece of equipment, and Nik found them uncomfortable and unwieldy. He glanced over at the FNG who came hurtling across towards him, slamming into the car with a bang and grit his teeth at the man. The boy couldn't have been older than 18 but somehow he'd made it into the regiment, he gave Nik a thumbs up who shook his head despairingly before shifting further along the car.
He motioned to his fire-team to cover and then, glancing once more down the abandoned street, broke cover to trot across to the next piece of cover a few yards ahead, this one a pile of debris of ferrocrete bricks and mortar from the collapsed building to his right. It had taken some kind of orbital strike during one of the preliminary bombardments and there was little of it still standing, just a shell no taller than Nik at its highest. Crawling on his belly Nik advanced through the rubble to the corner that the building had once stood on. He shifted his weight into a more ready stance, still keeping as low as possible and edged his head around it cautiously. No one shot his head off straight away and the road appeared clear, he waited a few moments and just when he was about to edge back and call up his squad a bolt of lightning shot from the sky illuminating the road momentarily, and Nik caught the sight of a shape. It was only for a moment but he recognized the outline of a Rhino armoured vehicle. Deep purple and a glimmer of gold iconography. In the dark and rain is was almost invisible even when he knew what he was looking at, parked about 200 metres ahead, in a small clearing that what might have once been a car park before an Adeptus Arbites station.
Catching his breath he drew back silently and slowly, crawling back through the rubble until he could make out the position he had occupied just before moving up. He couldn't see his squad, they were doing a good job of concealing themselves, but he knew where they were in cover. "We've got company." He whispered into the line-of-sight covert vox unit.
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