The Death of You and Me

[Viozaer]

New, guild contributed story. Feel free to add:

[Viozaer]

Permacrete, dirt and shell fragments rained down on Viozaer making the sound of heavy raindrops. It was accompanied by the sound of his COMMs system desperately trying to filter the sounds, and failing. Using the LUDCS (Look Up, Down Computer System) he turned off the filter. That was a mistake. The sound of ripping ShimmerSilk came at Viozaer followed by the shockwave, then a millisecond after, the concussive sound of the shells exploding and opening the earth. Viozaer started.Without the filter he was getting the raw sounds of the Imperials trying very hard to kill him and his men.

Viozaer turns towards the First Sergeant in the crater with him and says:

“"First Sergeant Rakehell! Are you spotting the pattern in the shelling?”"

First Sergeant Rakehell who is perched at the lip of the crater using a pair of Electro Binoculars to survey the distance between himself and the objective. He had enabled pattern recognition when he had lifted the device to his visored face, and sure enough the small, but powerful tactical computer in the binoculars had registered a pattern of the falling shells. Lower the binoculars, and sliding down the crater back to his Executive Officer (XO), he says:

“"Sir, there is no need to shout at me and yes, there is a definitive pattern to the barrage. Looks like they’re using a progressive, walking bombardment with a four up, two back pattern.”"

Reaching behind him, he disconnects the map device from the underneath of his COMMs pack and switches it on. After a few seconds the device boots up, and localizes on his position in the crater. Using his gloved fingers he manipulates the image so that the crater is in the lower portion of the screen, and the objective is at the top. Between the two is a three dimensional image showing a scared landscape of shell craters, remnants of buildings and what looks to be a road. Pressing the button at the top of the unit, it connects to a OBSDRONE (Observation Drone) flying circles above them pointing it’s high powered optics at their location. The three dimensional image now fills details from the drone’s imaging systems. He turns to his XO and relays:

“"If we follow this path…” He indicates a direction with his finger and the system happily provides a red line tracing his fingers movements, “…we should be able to get to the entrance without taking fire from those guns. As you can see, they are stopping 50 metres short of the objective. It appears the Imperials want it intact as much as we do.”"

Viozaer states, “"Sorry First Sergeant, I am cycling the audio processors in my bucket.”"

Viozaer glances at the map, then crawling to the lip of the crater he peers over in the direction of the objective. He suddenly feels a hand on his thigh and Viozaer is pulled down. Turning to find the owner of the hand, he sees a Specialist who yells:

"“INCOMING!”"

The bombardment starts again and the crater shakes and rolls with each shell impact sending dust and assorted material in the air. The concussion of the rounds quickly removes the air from the lungs of those in the crater. The armour life support systems the the armour sense the users distress and tries to compensate. They fail. Each of the occupants of the crater struggle for breath, which is bad enough with the soft “ding” of the life support system ringing in their ears.

In a crater 10 metres closer to the entrance, and conversely closer to the shelling, the heat from the expanding chemical reaction singes the assorted debris forming the lip of the crater. Hunkered down, the occupants fling their arms over their heads. As the last shell lands, Corporal Kateri stands up and looking back in the direction where the Imperial guns are setup and shouts:

“"Is that the best you’'ve got you motherless whores!” "

Quickly Sergeant Zidd grabs her by the belt and pulls her back down into the crater. She lands unceremoniously on her ass with a grunt. There is a brief silence, then the crater erupts into laughter.

Viozaer hears the curse, then the laughter. Queuing up the COMM frequency for Sergeant Zidd he says, “"Tell the Corporal if she does that again I’ll come over there and I’ll kick her in the ass!”" Viozaer hears the Sergeant pass on his statement, then hears laughter from the crater again. Viozaer changes the COMM frequency to the Platoon net and says:

“"OK Ladies, play time is over. Squad leaders check you map systems now for a route First Sergeant Rakehell as come up with. That is the route to the objective. We wait for the next round of shelling to finish, then hustle ass. Copy?”"

To a man, or woman, Viozaer hears the reply:

"Sir, YES SIR!”"

[Neves Eanur]

Neves sits in the opposite hole with Kat and the others. He's propped up against a rock steadily picking at patches of orange paint leftover from his officer days. The specialist that yanks Cpl. Kateri back into the hole then looks at Neves. "What the hell are you doing just sitting there!?" He exclaims.

Neves looks up and says, "Look shiny, stick your head over the crest of this damned crater. You see all that artillery fire? Yeah it's not stopping, and we have no targets. Take an old dog's advice here... sit tight and relax while you can. Shit will roll downhill soon enough." Neves finishes with a satisfied nod, and leans back folding his hands behind his head. Just then 1st. Sgt. Ricky gets off the comms with the XO. Neves looks up at the red armored trooper nods, then to the specialist he was talking to earlier. "See? Here it comes, you can literally see it rolling downhill." He laughs and stands up as his squad prepares to burst out into the predesignated firing pattern of the artillery.