CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE -- THE MEN ON THE FIELD (Part 1 of 2)
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“Always comes down to the infantry.” That was a standard greeting between Vol Milita Commanders Barodo and Kryg. Barodo managed to say it first this time, before they shook hands.
“Always comes down to the people with feet on the ground,” Kryg replied.
“That’s why we’re here,” Barodo agreed. “Chaos to the left of us; Tyranids to the right; Demonhunters and Space Marines ahead.

{8-player fan-made Bray Cathedral Subsector map; two Imperial Guards vs a CSM/DE team vs a Demonhunter/SM team vs a Tyranid team. Standard (which for UA is “hard”.}
“Can’t say I’m looking forward to this. But we’ve got to round up this final batch of people on the ground. Before they get rounded up much worse.”
“Wish I could think the Empire was here to help them.”
“Yeah. Me, too. So, y’heard about Ek’cla, right?”
“Damned shame. Liked him a lot, once I got to know him. Or’e must be every shade of blue pissed imaginable.”
“So, here’s what I’m thinking. Who was the first to drop some Space Marines?”
“That’d be us!”
“I can’t say I’m too sorry about that anymore.”
A pause. “Yeah, I’m about done being nice to them,” said Kryg. “We’ve bent over backwards. They wanna help save the people, fine. Go do it over there. They wanna burn the people alive? Then they amount to Chaos now, in my book.”
“The Sisters did that, but these clowns are doing it, too. They’re going to nuke the whole place from orbit, according to that Toth guy, and they clearly don’t care about anyone left on it. So to the pit with them. Why are they even here?!”
“Recovering things left behind is my guess.”
“Well,” Barodo drawled, “so are we. So let’s get to it, secure the operational area, and get those people left behind on some transports. Anyone who wants to run can run. Anyone who doesn’t...”
“Think Prester John up there is gonna care?”
“Probably. If he decides to chew me out, well I’ll just stand there pointing to the civvies we rescued.”
“I don’t think he will. Chew us out, I mean. The Prester knows what’s important. Getting those people out.”
“Right. Our techpriests have set up shops, so let’s get expanding.”
Barodo, a little more safely in the rear, focused on getting his techpriests to bring in logistic support at first, while Kryg sent out some Conscript teams to capture local points, followed by techpriests to cap them -- and to start building plasma generators.
“After I get my logistics up,” said Barodo, “I’m gonna bring in some light cavalry and harass points, find civilians and announce they gotta make a choice now: go to the Empire, come with us, or stay and get mulched by the bugs or enslaved by dark elves.”
“I’m not a big fan of a two front war,” Kryg voxed back, “so I’m going to take only the nearest four or five points and then tech up a little bit to pump out plasma-armed guardsmen as soon as possible. Take the fight to the bugs.”
“The Prester does love to throw plasma at problems until they go away! Gonna be hard to maneuver huge squads through these streets, though...?”
“True, but I’m going in lean. Just enough in each squad to give everyone plasma, or half plasma half melta guns -- I’ve been thinking we need to hit harder targets farther out. Four squads of that to start with, add some medics and sergeants, and some commissars to keep the troops firing at top speed.”
Six minutes into the operation, Barodo had pushed a sizable group halfway to the chaos lines, and the third group of guards were on the way to the forming-up point, with Commissars being directed to join them.
“I’ve got the enemy in my sights,” Barodo voxed.
“Fey?”
“Nope, bugs! I’ve got scouts close to the center of our area, so you need to -- “ “We’re under fire!” one of Kryg’s conscript team interrupted.
“Buggy things arriving,” Kryg confirmed. “Not a few, several types! Conscripts, you’re dismissed, get out of there!” Too late.

“My short company of guards, with heavy guns from the listening post turret, is hitting hard with plasma; not a moment too soon, but... great, the enemy just tunneled underneath first company!”
“Need some help?”

“...eh, no, they tunneled into a wall of plasma fire. Sucks to be them. Some of our conscripts survived, no doubt in shock. You-all can just camp out here, and reinforce your squad. 1st company will start counter-pushing forward; I’ll order up two special weapon teams, too.”
Some high caliber rifle cracks echoed through the city. “Your snipers found something?” “Fey. Not anymore. That’s a flash ruckus you keep kicking up over there!” “The Nids keep trying to send things over here,” Kryg reported. “Lord above, I can see why the Prester loves plasma so much! There was this twenty-five foot armored thing crunching up the street toward us, and we just lit it up -- all it could do was writhe!”

“How far have you gotten?”
“Heh, like fifty feet down the street. At least the Conscript squad is safe now!”
“That bad?!”
“Not really, but I’m happy to just be wasting their resources while my guys earn experience, hero up. Once my spec-ops guys arrive, we’ll push on.”
“Kasrkins?”
“No, not them yet; that would take too long, cost too much. Spec-op shooters will be fine, we can kit them with plasma and melta, too, but the spares have decent guns to fill out the squads. ...hey, I see on my op map, your forward guys just found the fey base!”
“Yeah, and enemies came up behind them, too. Ultramarine scouts! You morons, why are you shooting at
us, can’t you see we’re fighting the dark elves?! At least wait until we’re done if you don’t want to do any work yourse-- agh, I
hate having the Empire shoot at us!”
“Sorry you have two problems, Bar, soon to be three over there! Or four if the Demonhunters arrive. Maybe you should pull back and consolidate?”
“I’ll deal with the left wing,” Barodo testily told his fellow commander. “You just exterminate our bug problem!”
“Can’t say we’re going fast, but we’re doing a clean sweep so far. You got some armor out now?”
“Not big guns yet, but better than nothing.”
“Roger that. I’m taking the mining caches back on either side of our closest bridge. Can’t cap’em yet, but the enemy will stop getting requisition and the troops will appreciate some fallback points. Hey, you’ve got a wall of red over there!”
“Marines and fey mixing it up, with some Chaos Marines for flavor. We’re pot shotting from the side.”
“Not at the Ultrasmurfs, I hope?”
“Well, y’know, we try our best.”
“Oooh, the bugs don’t like us taking our side of the bridge back! -- they’re rushing capture squads at us from the south... followed by the boys in blue! Would you kindly help us shoot the ravening bug monsters please?” he voxed over to the Imperials, but, “well at least they withdrew. Lord above, I can see why. I think we aggravated every bug squad remaining on the map!”

“You look surrounded!”
“We are, but mostly they’re coming from one or two directions. A couple of squads are keeping sallies across the bridge from doing much of anything.”
“Can’t let you hog all the glory! My team is formed up, and I’m going in, see if I can set the fey back some.”
“Good luck, oh yay, more bugs arriving. I hope the Empire down there is at least taking some good advantage of this distraction.”
“Team wipe?”
“No, no, we’re staying up, lean no excess. Annnnnd done, bugs? Nope not yet. Now?”
“You should really get going. Sitting there looks awesome -- “
“Yeah, I’m making sure the operators back at base are getting video snaps for posters!”
“-- but that only ends one way.”
“I know, I know, the whole point was to press the bugs early and cripple them. They’ll keep armoring up and evolving if we don’t get moving; though I think we’re forcing them to spend energy and req in just trying to crack us. Now done?! um... oh, hi, good grief!”
“What?”

“A Smurfspeeder just suicide-skidded into our lines! Must have been recon’ing the swarm, then suddenly no swarm left.”
“Dead?”
“Yeah, no choice, he started shooting on us, so...”
“I’ve got some of those guys on my flank here, too. They won’t leave my assault group alone long enough for us to push in on the dark fey, argh!”
“That is just wrong, no two ways about it. Okay, the bugs are down to sending bat squads over the bridge for now, so I’m going to do some upgrades back at base while the company clears across the bridge. Get our Mechanized Command up, so our base can upgrade... okay, that’s going; bridge assault fine... argh, really?! How many things are left over on our side of the bridge!? They’re following us across!”

“Trapped?”
“Theoretically, but I think we’ll be okay, as long as I can pull everyone together for concentration fire defense. We’ve gone far enough fast enough, and caused enough damage -- only 15 minutes into the op! -- I don’t think they’ve gotten any serious artillery up for splash damage yet. Just poofing poot on us from the air. We’re taking their req point on their side of the bridge; I think they took one behind us but then decided they had to try to stop us, so we should still have one back there.”
“Just so you know, I haven’t gotten any farther but my forward company’s still alive.”
“So I see! What about those problems just south of our base area?”
“Unlike some people, I’ve got Leman Russ tanks now; just one is enough to sort out that dispute among our enemies -- in our favor.”
“For now. You know the Imperials will have Predators on the ground soon, if not already.”
“Tell me about it. Better yet, get your base upgraded and swarm the area with Russ tanks, too!”
“I’ll need at least five minutes before the first one has been delivered to Mech Command and rolling up. But I’ll send them all your way, keep security behind you.”
“Thanks. You ready to push into their base area?”
“Yeah, we better go before they manage to scrape out area attacks, or morale-eaters.”
At 18 minutes, Kryg announced, “Last req point outside their main base, captured! The final push starts now. Won’t end any time soon, but... aw, crap, they did get some arty-turret things out. Need to hit that first!”

“Great, yeah, tanks when?”
“When I can spare a minute to arrange them! One of my squads just charged a Carnifex by themselves to krak-grenade that bio-plasma spitter. Good job, guys, now surround him and keep him pinned down, you’ve got good company on the way! Awww, he’s running. Or trodding away I should say. Huh, the Nids still have things they keep sending back to their own base across the bridge...”

“That’s just wonderful, tanks
when?!”“I’ve got hive tyrants with glowing shields here! But I just got permission to set up tank reception in the Mech Command. Oh, and more Carnifaxes, whee. ...and serious arty, that’s more of a problem. Fortunately they’re still mostly dropping poo-gas on us, nasty but more of a distraction than anything.”
“Yeah, could be worse, they could be summoning whirling vortexes of chaos on you. Ask me why I’m thinking of that.”
“Not quite 22 minutes into the op, and we’re taking the first req spot on the edge of their base. Target rich environment here!”

“Well, I’ve got Chaos in my face, and you’ve let flappy things start assaulting your side of our base, so...”
“The flappy things can’t do much. As for chaos in your face: I just told Mech Command to start pumping out Russes and sending them your way.”
By the 28 minute mark Kryg had mostly finished off the Tyranid force aside from some straggler buildings he hadn’t noticed off to the side yet. “Glad that’s done,” he sighed.
“Well, your tanks at the crossroads are doing a fine job fending off pushes by the Empire against us,” Barodo reported.

“Thanks for those. Can’t say I’m cracking enemy positions as well myself yet... The most I can say is that no one has gotten past the halfway point between us and chaos -- not for long -- and so the Empire seems to be focusing on their own push against the Chaos corner.”
“I’ll be over to help soon. Lots of blank spots on the map for our non-allies to be harvesting req and energy from, though...”
“Yeah, they started with all the big energy spots in this area. Close to the only relic point, too!”
“Can’t say the Emperor doesn’t love the Ultrasmurfs.”
“Where does that come from anyway!?”
“Ultra-smurfs? It’s an old word for magical creatures, s-i-m-u-g-h-s. Spelled weird but pronounced smurfs.”
“Oh. Kind of insulting to them then.”
“More than you think; there were these cute little blue gnomish things, see? Found them in some old drawings. And get this, they’re all blue. So blue little round-headed gnomey things, blue little simughs, right? Big and armored, and they’d be...!”
“Got it, great!”
“Just don’t call them that to their faces. For one thing they won’t understand.”
“I just wish they’d stop shooting us in
our faces! Relatedly -- are you going to push on them from their left anytime soon?”
“I keep running across bug remnants. They’re re-setting up around here somewhere, so I’m trying to dig out their final builders. Once they’re gone, I think the bugs will go away. I’m getting the next base upgrades ready, though; an air control tower and then... dangit, another hive tyrant? Really?! How did it even get over there? Where did it come from!? Anyway, how about I lasso up the Russes and send them to help you crack through the Chaos line?”

“Sure, but that’s going to leave our right flank awfully exposed.”
“True, but I’m gearing up for Kasrkin and Ogre squads. I’ll have four of each ready to fight soon, and then once I clean house over here, put the bugs to bed, I’ll withdraw 1st company for some well-deserved rear-guard action: they’ll defend our approaches, and the elite company will come help your attack. It’ll be a few minutes...”