Chapter XIX: The Portal
Becker leaned back, closing his eyes. Outside, he could hear the pounding of bombs dropping elsewhere in the city. It was like an ominous drum beat.
He heard someone walk up and say, "Sir?"
He opened his eyes and looked up to see Bob standing above him. "What do you need, Bob?"
"To talk a little."
Becker patted the floor beside him. "Well, come on, then, sit down."
Bob did so, then said, "Sir, I'm a bit concerned."
"Why?"
"Well, it just seems to me that being in this building leaves us a little exposed. Or vulnerable, really."
"I'm not too hot on the idea myself."
"So why are we doing it? Sitting here, waiting for something to happen.
"Orders."
Bob snorted. "Great."
"I think we may be able to play a bigger part, being separate from the rest of the fight."
"How so?"
"If one of the more important Eldar tries to get away, we give chase, be the first unit on the scene."
"Might
happen..."
"Come on, Bob, just ease up. I'm not too concerned about having a chance to fight." Becker shrugged. "Truth is, I wouldn't mind going a day without a big fight."
"You're right," Bob said.
"Good. Now enjoy this lull in the fighting."
As Becker finished, Rodney walked over. "Sir, we're getting a request to move to another building in the area. There's
been a sighting by a strike craft element of an Eldar force, small in size, in a building a little ways from the battle. We're closest, so they want us to go in."
Becker sighed
and looked at Bob. "So much for that idea."
Bob smirked. "I knew it was too good to be true."
Becker stood, then called out, "Okay, we're moving out again! Got some Eldar to take down."
The other soldiers got up, taking their packs and slinging them on their shoulders.
Becker shook his head. "Off to fight again," he mumbled.
* * *
Janet hurried forward with the platoon, trying to reach the Eldar in time to catch them cut off without close supporting units.
As they marched along, they ran into other Imperial elements, who were moving in the same direction.
"You going after the side Eldar force too?" Becker asked.
"Yeah. WE heard the call, and were in the area."
"Good"
"You're part of the Median IV, right?"
"Yeah," Becker replied. "So?"
"Would you mind taking point? I've heard great things about the abilities of your regiment."
"It'd be an honour." Then Becker turned and motioned for the platoon to follow him.
Janet continued marching, just ahead of some Imperial soldiers.
One came up beside her and asked, "So, you're part of the Median IV?"
"That's us. First Battalion, Charlie Company, One Platoon." She felt a little pride as she said it.
"The One Platoon?" the soldier asked, enthusiastic now. "The ones who fought in the jungles, at their own base, and now are leading the way in this area of the city?"
"Yeah, I guess so."
"Wow. Pleased to meet y'all. I'm Roger Whitman. Celeron VII." He held out his hand.
Janet took the hand and shook it. "When did you guys arrive?"
"Just last week."
"Any other combat?"
"Not yet. We just got out of training camp."
"You're fresh, and they're sending you all out on a fight like this?"
"Yeah. What's wrong with that?"
Janet decided to stop then. "Nothing. Just a little curious."
"Oh, okay."
The soldier went back to his unit as Janet moved quickly to make sure she kept pace with squad two."
This did not bode well.
*
* *
Jim ran through the streets at the head of squad three, eager to get to the Eldar. Everyone else in the platoon was.
In front of him, Becker leaned over and said something to Rodney, who in turned spoke something into the platoon's commlink. Jim wondering what was being said.
A few seconds later, the Celeron VII troops split around One Platoon, creating a large mass of soldiers running down the streets toward the Eldar.
They came around a corner onto a large street, and immediately found the Eldar. They surrounded a square building that took up almost the entire block. The soldiers stopped, throwing down heavy weapons and readying their personal rifles. The Eldar took notice of the new arrivals, and began to rush them.
They met the combined fire of dozens of heavy bolters and other rapid fire weapons. Frag missiles found their way into the Eldar force's midst. Eldar weapons fired back, causing some of the Guardsmen to drop.
With the Eldar tied up fighting the Celeron soldiers, the One Platoon soldiers were left with an open path to the objective building. Becker motioned for the troops to follow him, and they did, in a breakout run for the building.
Covering fire came from all around, keeping the Eldar's attention focused away from the Medians. Snap shots were fired by the platoon's members, taking down the few Eldar that dared to turn their backs on the much greater force facing them.
Within minutes, the way to the building was clear. Jim was at the fore of the group, and ran up with three other soldiers to kick in the doors and toss in grenades, aiming for walls that would ricochet the grenades. Any Eldar inside would have no time to get rid of the grenades; they'd be too busy chasing them.
Jim yelled, "Fire in the hole!" and jumped away from the door, trying to flatten himself. Others turned from the building. The grenades detonated, four frags in all, filling the building's lobby with small pellets that ricocheted off walls and becae even more deadly as they did so. Some pellets flew out the windows, windows that had shattered when the grenades went off.
When the smoke and dust cleared, Becker shouted, "Clear! Let's get inside, folks!"
Jim followed, keeping his rifle at the ready. The lobby was
a grisly sight. Eldar lay strewn across the floor, their bodies pocked with holes and burns as if a small caliber machine gun had opened up on them. The walls of the room, covered in blood, were pocked with the craters left from hundreds of metal pellets. Shattered weapons lay amongst shrapnel.
Wilbur slipped on some blood, cursed, and stood up. Jim suppressed a shudder and kept an eye on the floor. It was very slick.
Without hesitation, the forward troopers threw open the doors of the next room, prepared to face whatever was in it.
* * *
Bill kicked down the door, then tossed in a grenade and let out a "Fire in the hole!"
After the grenade detonated, two squad led the way in. Bill saw a wounded Eldar near a wall reaching for his weapon. He let off a quick burst with his rifle, putting three rounds in the alien's chest before it could do anything.
The next door was kicked down by Mel. A grenade detonation later, the troops were rushing into the room, the command squad first.
A spray of shuriken hit Becker, Walter, and Paul. Paul was saved by his gun, which took the force of the shots, mangling the rifle. Walter was grazed as he turned quickly and sprayed the area of the room the shots came from with plasma. Becker, however, had been hit in the leg, a shuriken hitting his knee and then rotating around so that one of its three outer blades cut deeply into the back of his knee, causing him to drop.
Bill was with him in an instant, helping him gingerly to the ground. Becker groaned, then looked down at his leg.
"It's bad, isn't it?"
Bill nodded. "But I can patch you up until we get to base. I'm sure they'll be able to do a more permanent fix."
Becker nodded. "Get Rodney to help me."
"Will do, sir," Bill said. He motioned to Rodney, who came over to help him apply a field bandage. Rodney helped Becker to his feet, then began to help him to walk along behind the platoon as they kept going forward.
The next door they reached came open even before they could get to it. A spray of shuriken came out. Bill watched as three soldiers were hit. Chris and Joe were down. The third made Bill's heart sink.
He ran forward, catching Lisa as she slowly slid to the ground. As weapons opened up around him in answer to the Eldar's ambush, he looked down at Lisa, trying to assure himself she was okay.
Three shuriken were lodged in her chest, another in her thigh, and her throat and sides were slashed by passing shuriken. She was bleeding profusely. She looked up at Bill, her eyes sad, and she made a movement with her mouth as if to say something. But no sound came, except a gasp. Bill felt her shake for a moment in his arms, then she fell silent, her eyes still open.
He slowly slid her down to the floor, then closed her eyes with his thumb and forefinger. He closed his eyes for a moment, feeling tears start to well up. He gave up fighting to hold back his emotion, and he just lowered his head, silently sobbing over Lisa's body.
* * *
Bob turned to Paul and quietly said, "Watch over him. I'm not going to keep him fighting, not like he is right now." Paul nodded. He knew that Bill was likely not in a condition that would be good for combat.
Bob motioned for the platoon to follow, and he led them to another door. This time, however, he directed third and fourth squad's heavy bolter teams to fire at the door.
The door shattered under the barrage, spilling forth surprised and now deceased Eldar. More rushed forward, and Bob quickly brought up his rifle and began firing burst into the flood of Eldar. The heavy bolters never stopped firing, and as the platoon's combined fire came down upon the mass of Eldar trying to squeeze into the room, bodies began piling up. No one let off their triggers except to slip a new cartridge home.
In under two minutes, the charge was over. There was now a sizeable portion of wall missing where the doors had once hung. Dozens of Eldar laid dead upon each other.
Bob turned and shouted, "Grenades, in that room, now!"
Five soldiers stepped up and lobbed frag grenades into the room, then shied away before they exploded. More shouts and cries of pain were heard from that room. Bob quickly charged forward, directing others to keep an eye out for enemy soldiers that were still alive.
There were a few, but in seconds they joined their kin in death. As the chatter of rifle fire died down, Bob looked around.
The room was much like the main lobby, very large and with windows stretching from one end to the other. Those windows were now gone. The room's carpet had begun to turn a sickly red, the result of wet blood from many bodies soaking into it. Only in small patches could glimpses of its original colour, dark green, be seen.
Bob took a moment to calm himself and steady his breathing. The platoon had fought through hundreds of Eldar this day, and they certainly deserved a moment of rest.
But then he looked up, and saw their goal, just outside the room.
* * *
Mel was amazed. He could see, in the courtyard that the building surrounded, a large curved monolith. It was covered in jewels
that shone upon its obsidian surface like some black spider's eyes. The monolith, decidedly alien in structure and appearance, seemed almost to fit well with the floral arrangements that surrounded it.
But standing around that monolith were five Eldar in dark robes that held bright gold runes. They were chanting something and making gestures at the monolith.
"This doesn't look so good," he muttered.
Bob nodded. "I'm not sure what that thing is, but it's obviously important. Must be why the Eldar are on this rock."
"What do we do about it? Try to take down the Eldar around it?"
"No." Bob pointed to one of the Eldar, who held a large staff and had more fanciful designs on his robes. "If I'm not missing my guess, I believe that one's a Farseer and the others are Warlocks. That means that thing holds some kind of psychic potential for them."
Becker's voice broke in. He'd been helped forward to the two by Rodney. "Could be a psychic amplification device."
"Could be," Bob replied. "Which would mean that those Eldar could be more powerful than they normally would be. Logical step to do in that case would be to bring up a psychic barrier around each of them to protect them from harm. No, I suggest we blow the monolith, if possible, and then try to gun down the psykers."
"Sounds like a plan," Becker said. "I'll give you the honours."
"Thank you, sir." Bob turned and called out, "Missile launchers, heavy bolters, plasmas and
meltas! We have ahead of us a big target. I'm going to need all of you to target that baby and open up on it all at once. Don't stop firing until I say so. Fire!"
Mel watched as heavy shells, a krak missile, microwaves, and plasma all rolled in on the monolith. They hit the alien structure like a sledgehammer. It offered some resistance, but not enough. The monolith split near the middle, then began to crack and shatter, spraying chunks of it across the courtyard.
As the top of the monolith fell forward, collapsing to the ground, the Farseer turned to the soldiers and shouted something at them. His voice, insofar as Mel could tell, was panicked.
The Farseer turned back to the monolith and began trying to cast some spell, use some power.
All of a sudden, a bright flash blinded Mel. Energy rolled out from the courtyard. He could feel it pass over him, and he got a strange sensation, almost nauseating but at the same time soothing. A sound like an ocean crashing on a beach passed him by.
And then he was thrown to the ground, leveled by a blast of energy.
End of Chapter XIX
Continued in Chapter
XX: On the Other Side
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