Runing across the crater-saturated no-man`s land,Felix was filled with a mix of frenzied adrenaline and fear,that he could be gunned down any second.His multi-decade life ending in a heartbeat.The fact almost made him more pissed off at the Eldar! Leaving the screams of the dead behind him,he ran toward the tree-line like a Commissar was behind him,whipping him to run faster.Keeping his head low and using craters for cover,only his experience saved him from getting his limbs cut off.As they approach the tree-line,his comrades sprayed the aliens with las-fire,while the rest continued the charge.Felix charged in,his bayonet ready to draw some alien blood! "For the Emperor!"
Pfiffer couldn't believe that he had survived this far, that in this madness his limbs and head are still attached to his body. Many of the veterans were nothing but silent dismembered corpses, twisted faces of agony and horror still stuck there where they died. One of the veterans that ran on the right side of Pfiffer had a whistling disc go clean through his throat, the head flopping away by the rocking of the running body and the body still ran on alongside Pfiffer for a dozen metres before stumbling down, with no more nerve impulses to control the body. Adrenaline running sky-high, Pfiffer had to step over several screaming and silent bodies that were in the way. Closing in one of the heavy Shuriken that blasted relentless, Pfiffer shouted 'For the Emperor' with the remains of the vets and pressed the trigger 'Whhhomp, whhomp, whhomp, whhomp' The Hellgun roared, the gyro stabilization built in power backpack compensated for every shot With every shot, Pfiffers dirty face were visible in the darkness by the trails of high energy beams..
Sgt Alton didn't bother with yelling during his charge for there was enough action going on for him not to need to use more energy. As they rushed into the teeth of Eldar fire running from crater to crater, he was making measured shots at the Guardian squads hoping to thin their ranks. Using his skitarii enhancements and training, he found a good place to lay fire from and placed precise shots into the Guardian ranks.
Simon nodded. "Your turn with the rifle." as he fixed the sword bayonet to his autogun and went over the top a few seconds after the whistle was blown. Bayonet charges were nothing new but they were always pretty frightening. You couldn't stop of look around, only focusing on what was going on straight to the front would -possibly- possibly save your life. As they went up, he signaled to Andy to stay three steps behind him. The world was muted as he ran, everything seemed to be drained of most of it's color and almost no noise registered. The gore meant nothing, just another gray blotch on the landscape. He focused on firing suppressing bursts at the guardian squads as they charged, using hand signals to indicate so Andy which squads to direct fire at first. When they had closed the distance to the Eldar forces, his trigger control thankfully left him with several magazines remaining, as the more forward guardsman stopped to lay down a barrage with their lasguns, it was here that Simon stopped, his attention focused on the heavy weapon teams.
Vermont was not a talkative guy like the others once combat started, he remained close by the Sergeant so he could hear the orders properly, given that usually after five minutes of combat all sort of comms break apart or fall out of the ear or something unless someone has those way too bulky Vox-Boxes or casters. He was glad to not be the platoons communication-fella. Like ordered he had made sure his bayonet was adjusted properly, but they were just not yet in melee. So he had risen his rifle and shot into the distant enemy with his lasgun, attempting to shoot them apart the best to his capabilities. The feats of their weapons was impressive. Flak armor being ripped apart and limbs lost just from those streams of ... Whatever they were. He promised himself to evade them to his best capabilities. A glance to the sky revealed no reinforcements. 'I am not on Elysia anymore...' Rifleman Rice remembered himself.
Saven was mildly surprised at her survival of the charge towards the Eldar given the sheer volume of fire the Xenos had unleashed upon the Guardsmen, but then again she had survived situations that most other Guardsmen would have died in..... Not that her pride in being very hard to kill blinded her to the wasted lives of those that the vile Xenos had slain, with vengeance for those that had fallen being the main thing on her mind. While some of those in the platoon that had survived the charge poured fire onto the Eldar, Saven carried on past them and charged into melee range, swapping her lasgun for her chainsword and autopistol as she drew closer to the Xenos. As the Heavy Trooper's autopistol spat bullets at the closest Eldar, she was ready to use her chainsword to defend herself from any blows that the Xeno try to inflict upon her with any melee weapons they might have among their number.
Andreas followed close behind his older brother, sniper slung over his shoulder while he clutched his autogun in hand. The bayonet was in place, and his fingers clenched around the rifle while he silently wondered who put a sniper in the trenches. Then came the whistle, and Andreas followed Simon in a mad dash for the Eldar lines, three steps behind as signaled. Anything to either side of him was just a blind mass of men and uniform and weapons. The only thing that really mattered was covering his brother in his charge, picking off the occasional hostile who'd passed through his suppressive fire. His job was making sure nothing survived his brother's fire for long. All his senses were very dull. He felt cold, but nothing else, really. Except for when one of the crystaline projectiles nearly missed his head and cut his earlobe. He felt that. Warm blood dripping down into his neck and staining his shirt. "So much for prayers," he thought dully, while his autogun's bullet splattered the offending Eldar's head.
The advance of the guardsmen stalled as they impacted the entrenched guardian squads, the aliens were nimble and were quick to react to any attempts by the platoon to cut them down with their bayonets quickly darting away from the guardsmen strikes. A number of unfortunate Xenos did manage to get caught however and they died beneath the repeated stabbing of the numerous blades at the end of the Imperial guard lasguns, the rest of the Eldar forces pulled away from the scrum preferring to keep the enemy at a distance. As the fighting continued the Shuriken cannons were made useless by the close proximity of the platoon to their position, their crews however held their ground and defended their heavy weapons stabbing at any guardsman that came to close and striking with lethal skill. One of the heavy weapon positions was destroyed as a frag grenade thrown by one of the guardsmen landed close to a weapons platform detonating in a explosion of shrapnel disabling the Shuriken cannon where it hovered. The Eldar line was buckling but not broken the Xenos defending the craters were skilled enough to relocate their position and maintain fire upon the guardsmen even as they charged onward. Behind the charge the few guardsman that had stopped and started shooting were enjoying some success as they shot at the backs of the retreating Eldar guardian squads. Although they too were suffering from the relentless overwatch that continued to fire back on their position they nevertheless were managing to hinder the Eldar movements prohibiting them from staying out in the open as they pulled away from the bayonet charge, the craters were also providing significant cover against return fire although even this was little proof against the aiming ability of the Xenos. Further into the Xenos lines reinforcements from closer to the heart of the Eldar Warhost were bearing down on the platoons advance, two squads of dire avengers equipped with avenger shuriken catapults emerged out of the darkness of the night behind the Shuriken cannons. Behind them the shrill cry of howling banshees could be heard still in the haze of battle the indication of more yet more Eldar coming to assist the guardian squads. The Dire avengers almost immediately opened fire inflicting fresh casualties upon the advancing platoon with pinpoint shots the intricately sharp blades of which decapitating several guardsmen even as they charged forward. From behind the platoon one of the Chimeras following the advance had managed to to catch up with the bayonet charge, up close the insignia of the 233rd New Byzantine was emblazoned on the side armor of the tank and the distinctive red color scheme of the regiment was apparent. It draw to a stop as it reached the heart of the combat the multilaser turret swiveling round to target the first dire avengers squad and suppress their position with a storm of laser fire. From behind the transport two squads of special weapons specialists emerged from the interior of the of the Chimera, a total of twelve guardsmen of which six of had flamers started advancing on the remaining Xenos the squads moving out from both sides of the vehicle. One of the flamer specialists was slain immediately his torso peppered with razor disks before he collapsed into the mud his flamer not even fired or even damaged, the remaining flamers opened fire on the reinforcements creating a torrent of promethium fire that created a wall between them and the dire avengers. It was an effective tactic as now the guardian squads had no where left to run and the dire avengers were prevented from aiding the striken Eldar. The aspect warriors continued to fire through the wall of flames though and although their accuracy was inhibited it was still a deadly force to be reckoned with.
Alton smiled at the literal fire support. He used the distraction to laued well thought out and well aimed shots at more Eldar. Targeting the deadliest first. " Squad advance in cover. Leave no quarter" Alton pitched his voice to be heard over the din of battle. "One of you secure that flamer and put it to good use."
'Colonel' Pfiffer and the remains of the vets pushed on as fast as they could with the heavy power backpack, at the same moment, blind firing from hip into the torrent of promethium flames. As the vets approached to the flamers, Sergeant-vet Athakin barked order to the intervox of the vet squad, so all the vets clasped their heavy laser guns and took one frag grenade each, and all groaned in unison as they all hurled the frag grenades as far as they could.. hoping to disperse some of the dire avengers on the other side of the flame torrent. One of the Vets named Jan got hit in his abdomen, decapitating his spine and continuing out from his back, by the fires from Dire Avengers when pulling the pin from the 'nade, Jan fell with all the powered equipment and the frag detonated. Luckily Jan fell partially over the frag, unluckily the 2-3 closest vets to Jan including Sergeant Athakin got obliterated in the explosive hail and by ruptured high energy power backpacks. That left the heavily decimated vet squad without higher ranking officers... Spoiler: OOC OOC: Will join sgt.Alton provided how the plot advances next time.
