Das Boot Imperialis - 14

Das Boot Imperialis - Mining Colony, Moon of Kylis.
Imperial Timeline: 5.012.503M41

"Hold on for turbulence!!"

The transport shuttle rocked violently again, causing a few irritated mutters to rise from the murky light. Commissar Atra sighed, she hated transport shuttles. But how else could you land on a planet with a regiment of sociopaths?

The shuttle she was in had been divided into three sections, first was the pilot's cabin, where Signaller Markus Jones along with a pair of pilots were doing obscure things to a series of bizarre flashing consoles. Technology never made any sense to her. The second section held the passengers, in this case, herself, Commissar Alcan, Lieutenant Mason, the Stormtroopers and the Germanians. The final section housed the 'benign engines'. Strange things, energy had crackled over them in a truly unsafe looking way when she had gone to inspect them before they had left the Damagog. The Techpriest had calmly began working on them even as arcs of electricity seemed to smash into him, only to then discharge into the floor.

She shuddered, today had not gone well.

At least that Bolt Magnet hadn't been stashed onto this shuttle, she thought to herself. For some reason Alcan seemed to, well, 'like' it - but Atra was having none of it. It had looked at her, the feeling had made her sick to her stomach - she had drawn her bolt pistol and only a timely intervention from Alcan had saved her from wasting good shells on it.

Mason was sitting on the aisle opposite her, strapped into his chair like everyone else. He seemed very calm though, completely at ease with the turbulence. Unlike the Germanians, who kept groaning about this being a "Drakking ship". And then the Mechanic had thrown up. That had been kinda funny.

Lieutenant Samuel Mason looked up briefly, had she just smiled at him again?

"What are we supposed to do when we arrive on the planet?" Alcan began suddenly.
Atra rolled her eyes. "Don't you ever pay attention?" Then turning to Mason, "Lieutenant? Would you be so kind as to inform Alcan just why we are heading to this planet?"

Mason flipped through his clipboard for a moment, then settling a page he then began to explain in his clipped, crisp, bureaucratic tones.

"At approximately 0800 hours, Imperial Timeline 5.361.502M41, thats 15 days ago -" He added after seeing the strained look on Alcan's face as he tried to work that out. "An Imperial Mining Colony Facility on the moon of Kylis, Charadon System, went silent. Initial reports indicate Sabotage of the Facilities Communication systems. A small security team was sent to investigate. At exactly 0832 hours, approximately two hours into their mission - they sent back a single garbled transmission."

He flipped through the file, until he pulled out a heavily censored document.

"The message reads: "Colonists... killed everyone. STOP. Something in the air. STOP. Burn the facility. STOP. Do not send a rescue team. STOP. Leave us. STOP."

Mason then flipped back to a page reading, INQUISITORIALY SANCTIONED in black bold writing. "Our orders are to secure the facility, retrieve the Techpriest Enginseer stationed there, and bring order to chaos."

Both Atra and Alcan looked more alert at this point, "Chaos!?" They said in unison, then Alcan looked sheepishly at Atra, who ignored him.

"Uh, I think that is just the way the Inquisitor chose to word the orders. Not that its any indication of just what is responsible." Mason said without looking up.

Alcan felt uneasy though. "The transmission though, it said don't send a rescue team. So why are we going there?"

"Becuase the Inquisitor told us to."
"Meh, good enough for me."

"Landing Zone reached, hold on for landing."

-

Commissar Atra held the Binoculars up to her eyes, the facility was clearly in sight even without them. But it felt wrong. The facility didn't look as if it had gone quiet a few days ago, it looked as if it had been abandoned for decades.

"Commissar Atra, The Regiment is awaiting your orders. Do we go in?"
It was Staff Sergeant Reeves, his voice oddly muffled by the air filters of his gasmask.

Atra waved him into silence, continuing to look at the facility through the Binoculars. They had landed the Transport shuttles at the Facilties docking area. A wide mostly clear space with several half opened crates littered about. The Guardsmen had checked them, finding supplies of rations, water, Mining tools, industrial explosives, all the kind of things you would expect to find. But they were half open, some of the supplies taken, some not. As if the loaders had been interrupted while unloading the crates. While Atra and the Stormtroopers had taken the Docking Bay office has their command post, where she was currently standing by a window. Roughly one thousand metres away was the main facility itself, which was large enough to house the three hundred plus personell stationed here.

There were no bodies. If some strange killer gas had been released into the air, wouldn't there be bodies? Atra looked up at the planet visible in the sky. Unlike the moon, the planet was an unhospitable volcanic hell hole, the moon itself was quite barren - that is apart from a thick coating of some viscous fungal growths that covered most of the moon. They had created a weak, thin atmosphere that you could breathe - provided you didn't mind almost gagging on spores every few minutes. A wide area around the facility itself had been cleared, leaving barren rock. But already the fungal growths were evident in the cleared areas, eventually the entire facility would just be a particularly large Mushroom Mountain.

Mason had been positive that no strange mushroom predators had arrived and carried off everyone in the night. Apparently the shrooms were harmless, and you could even eat them. Atra didn't like the idea of that though, they had an almost smug look to them, as if they were plotting something.

She felt uneasy, something was clearly wrong here.

Lieutenant Samuel Mason stood with his arms crossed behind his back, looking over the 265th. He had divided them into four teams of five snipers, each armed with the Tartarus Rifle, an ancient bolt action rifle still powerful enough to rip through basic body armour, or with some fine aiming, the weak points in thicker armours. Still without the factories on Tartarus where the Shells had been made, it was likely this could be last time they ever see service. The other forty Guardsmen were armed with Standard Lasguns. There was some good cover here, all these crates could come in useful. They had been here for a full eight minutes now, and still Commissar Atra hadn't given them any orders other than some light scouting.

Commissar Atra found her eyes resting on Mason again, he seemed quite sure of himself, standing there with his arms crossed behind his back, his cap resting on his head. His uniform so neat. Just looking so... so, irritating. But, then again - despite just being an Intelligence officer, he had managed to assemble four teams and send them out to reconoiter the facility, along with the entrances to the mines themselves, which lined the flanks of the facility. He had even managed to line up the rest of the Guardsmen into a defensive line, divided into co-ordinated firing lines using the crates for cover. It was quite impressive. For an Intelligence officer that is. She could do better. Even though she was choosing to not do so just yet.

"Sergeant?"

The suddenness of her voice caused Reeves to jump from his nostalgic reverie, images of recruits half dead from exhaustion, but still training from fear of him - faded away from his sight.

He saluted.
"Yes Maam?"
"Lieutenant Mason mentioned that the 265th were formed by some legendary Sergeant. Was that you?"
"Eh? No! Er, I mean, that is no, Commissar. I wasn't drafted into the 265th until after the war. I did replace that Sergeant though."
"Did you meet him?"

Reeves looked nervous, looking left and right as if looking for unseen listeners. The Stormtroopers all started paying close attention.

"Uh, no, Maam. But I did see him."
"Tell me."
"Well, they say he was a little crazy. That he knew things, before they happened even. He suddenly got this idea to form a unit of Elite snipers into a single regiment. Started using them to hunt down feral Orks. Right before that Orkamungus invaded the planet - then using that Regiment, he started counter attacking the Orks from the Jungles, even fighting alongside the Space Marines when they arrived. Helped them take some Waterworks outside our Industrial Sector."
"And you say he knew things before they happened? Like precognition?"
"Well, uh, he did get himself transferred from his previous sector in the PDF to Sector 4, right were Orkamungus later invaded the planet. He and the 265th were the first to fight. I heard he even smelled the Orks before they arrived. Tried to get the planetary defenses to get ready for the Ork Fleet."
"Did it work?"
"No, he was just a Sergeant after all. But I heard that Colonel Brom saught his advice throughout the rest of the war, which pretty much made him second in command of the War Effort!"

Atra thought about this for a moment, this Sergeant certainly sounded too good to be true.

"What happened to him?"
Reeves now had a hunted look to him, "Well, he uh... That is to say he..."
"Out with it man!"
"He lost his mind. He wasn't the only one, do you know of the Maladictum Incident?"
"Some Eldar device on the planet made everyone go crazy or something."
"Well actually it was a Chaos Daemon-" Reeves made the sign of the Aquilla on his chest. "Inside the xeno device that did that. Everyone with Psyker potential went insane, as well as most of the surviving PDF. Including Colonel Brom. But, not a single member of the 265th lost their minds, well, except for the Sergeant."
"So was he killed?"
"I can't say, Maam. I heard from some of the soldiers who were with him that he started screaming about traitors and heritics - then split the unit in half, ordering them to get as many survivors as they could to the Starports for evacuation. And this was right before that bastard Brom turned traitor and attacked the Space Marines at the Cathedral. Somehow he knew what was going to happen."

Atra looked out across the Docking Bay. The scouts were returning, at a dead run. She could see other patches of movement in the distance, forming around the Mine entrances and the facility doors.

One of the Scouts, a young looking woman with brown eyes and short brown hair was gesturing wildly while speaking to Lieutenant Mason.

Without turning around, Atra asked Sergeant Reeves the name of the former 265th Sergeant.

"His name? It was Magnus Kale."