"He will be fine," Gideon said aloud. Michael sat against the wall and looked at his friend. They remained in silence for some time. "I'm sorry. I should remembered you have always been wiser," Michael said, finally. Gideon took a deep breath and let it out quietly. "No, I am the one who should apologize," replied Gideon. "You were defending our chapter's honor, and your own." The grandmaster walked over to Michael and held out his hand. Michael accepted it, and Gideon pulled the sergeant to his feet. "We begin a long campaign tomorrow Mike. I need all my men ready for combat," said Gideon. "My squad will be ready," answered Michael. "The game is afoot. So many ready, waiting. So much death and destruction lies ahead. Are we really ready for it?" "Do we have a choice?" "No." "Then we fight." "Grandmaster!" a voice shouted from behind. Gideon snapped from his trance. The thunderhawk's cargo door was lowering, revealing the broken cityscape before them. Buildings were crumbling and hollow. Debris littered the streets and blocked off entire avenues. Dust and smoke created a light haze that floated about the desolate metropolis. "Lets move!" shouted Gideon, running through the bay doors of the gunship. Enemy fire was already digging up small puffs of dirt around the Grandmaster's feet. Tracer rounds whizzed by Gideon's head and rang off their transport. The deafening roar of a land raider's engine told him that his forces had cleared the thunderhawk and were moving into position. Gideon turned and waved off the gunship, which was already lifting off the ground. To his left, space wolves cleared their landing craft as well. Through the haze, Gideon could see blood claws and rhinos speeding down the boarding ramp. All around him, Gideon's marines were firing into buildings, trying to weed out the snipers. "Hold your fire! Hold your fire!" Gideon shouted at the top of his lungs. "Does anyone see the sniper?" The group lowered their weapons and scanned the buildings. A figure appeared in the window of the building directly adjacent to them and fired a heavy stubber. Sparks erupted from a terminator's armor, but the marine didn't budge. "Michael, take care of it!" Gideon ordered. Michael's squad accelerated towards the building, kicking up debris and leaving a trail of dust. "This is where I want my command center. Malachai, get my long-range radio up. Black squad, set up a perimeter down that street," Gideon said. The techmarine hobbled inside the Angel of Wrath to set up the radio. Black made their way across from the main group, onto what seemed to be a large highway. Squelching filled Gideon's helmet, then became broken speech. "Ne- up- urounded- by- Cha-. Repe- uroun- Chaos- back up." Gideon ran into the Angel of Wrath and saw Malachai fiddling with the communications equipment. "What's going on?" Gideon asked. "The wolves were surrounded and cut off," Malachai said, pointing to a flashing display on the land raider's side. Two-dozen gray dots were moving around the streets. At least a hundred red dots were moving towards the vastly outnumbered grays. "They can't wait until we secure this area" Gideon began to say. A large explosion caused the Angel of Wrath to rock on her suspension. The Grandmaster glanced outside and saw a red spot on the ground. Bits of green armor were still bouncing along the ground. A Dark Angel holding a plasma cannon squeezed off two shots. Both struck a chaos cultist who was running away with a missile launcher. The man was thrown into the air, and left a smoking trail to where he landed. Even through the background noise, Gideon could hear a sound like sizzling meat. "Asmond, get in here!" Gideon yelled over his short-ranged radio. "Yes, sir!" a voice said, partially broken in Gideon's headset. "Malachai, we need to get those wolves and bring them back here. None of us are going to complete this mission if we can't work together." "Sir?" Asmond asked, standing next to Gideon. "The wolves need help. They dug themselves a hole and look content to jump in," answered Gideon. Michael walked in behind Asmond. Gideon noticed that blood was dripping from Michael's fists and nodded with approval. "Michael, take your squad and go to grid two-niner," ordered Gideon. "Nethaniel, Mesari, front and center!" Gideon shouted. "Black squad, get back here. Stay together, we will be back soon." Once Gideon's command squad was inside the Angel of Wrath, he sat down in the commander's seat and lowered the periscope. Gears ground loudly as he released the clutch. The land raider bounced and shuddered as it powered through piles of debris and wreckage. Rounds bounced from it with high-pitched rattling sounds. Within moments Gideon could see the space wolves trying to make a valiant last stand. Their leader was visibly wounded and clutching his side while he cut through cultists with his massive axe. To squads of blood claws were struggling against a seething mass of the human rebels. Gideon brought the Angel of Wrath to a grinding stop near the wolves and opened the main doors. The vehicles machine spirit began cutting through the cultists with its twin-linked heavy bolters. "Let's move!" Gideon shouted, throwing up the periscope and leading his squad from the massive vehicle. He aimed his plasma pistol and squeezed the trigger, watching two cultists fall to the ground charred. Gideon looked at the space wolves. Six remained of the strike force. Bodies of their fallen lay in heaps, being covered in ash. "Order your men to fall back!" shouted Gideon as he approached the massive space wolf. "We will die before we retreat!" bellowed the massive wolf, taking another swing with his axe. The two rebels were cleaved in half, and the others retreated. "You and your men can serve the emperor better alive than dead!" argued the Grandmaster. "Don't let their deaths be in vain!" The wolf turned to look Gideon in the eyes. Scars covered the warriors face, and his armor bore the scars of countless battles. A tired look was etched into his face and his eyes showed defeat. |
OUTSIDE INFLUENCE VOLUME II - OF ANGELS & WOLVES By Brother Gideon |
TOMES OF VALOUR |
This story has been reproduced with permission from the author. Many terms used in this story (such as Space Marine, Eldar, and others) are Trademarks of Games Workshop, Inc. Their use here is not intended as a challenge to said trademarks. |
