Some of you may remember the first part of this fic going up on the last day 
of the FFML back in January. The whole lot so far can be found on 
fanfiction.net, Sofaspud's Couch or my own homepage ( 
www.angelfire.com/anime2/MatrixDragon/ ) and you really have to read those 
parts to understand this one.

Matrix Dragon
"Is it not nifty? Worship the fanfic."
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-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: imperium-04.txt

	Matrix Dragon Presents....

	Soldiers of the Imperium
	Part Four

	Copyrights: (Author takes one look at the story.) FORGET IT! I'm not 
disclaiming all those series, games and books. Do it yourself! Jeez, do I 
have to do everything... (Stomps off to somewhere where he can get back to 
work on his other fics.)

	Previously: Several squads from the Tokyo First's recon platoon located a 
ghost town and began a sweep of the town for any evidence of what happened, 
assisted by a recon unit from the Seventh Company and a squad of Space 
Marine Scouts from the Eternal Dragons Chapter. Lieutenant Schofield located 
a hidden cave, filled with hundreds of mutants responsible for the 
disappearance of the townspeople.

	The resulting battle blew a hole in the cave roof, allowing the small 
number of guardsmen in the cave to escape and the rest of the Imperial 
forces to attack from above. In the conflict, part of the mutant force 
escaped by using another hidden tunnel.

	Now, they have orders to hold the town until the main Imperial advance 
arrives in almost fourteen hours. There are a small number of reinforcements 
moving towards them quickly, expected to arrive in three hours, but there is 
also a very big problem. What was believed to be a rebel retreat was 
actually a regroup, and now tens of thousands of rebels are moving towards 
the Imperial Guard Regiments advancing on Kell Hive. And a small force of 
less then thirty men, some injured, and two tanks are stuck in front of 
them.

***

	The lobby of the Town Hall was useful for about only one thing. The 
Imperials could spread the weapons looted from the town's armoury over it, 
allowing them to see what they had for supplies. "Four Heavy Bolters," Ranma 
said, tapping one of the bulky weapons with his foot, "with about five 
thousand rounds for each. Six Rocket Launchers, mostly frag missiles, but a 
few of some other types, including Krak, Smoke and Incendiary. About twenty 
frags for each Launcher, and maybe ten all up of each other type."

	Trunks nodded. "What about anti-Tank weapons? Considering the number of 
vehicles the rebels have, we'll need something to stop them."

	"Oh ye of little faith," Ranma said, pointing his thumb at three bulky 
weapons over in a corner. "Lascannons. They're old, but they'll take on 
tanks pretty well. We've also got a Heavy Plasma Gun." He lifted up the 
bulky plasma weapon with a grunt. "Thank the Emperor this thing has a 
tripod, or none of us would be able to use it. If it's this hard just to 
lift it, imagine what firing it would be like."

	"I can guess," Trunks replied. "I have some experience with newer models."

	"Anyway, along with two Autocannons with about four thousand rounds each, 
and an old Heavy Stubber with maybe six thousand rounds, that's all of our 
heavy weaponry," Ranma said. "We've passed out boltguns to everyone, seeing 
how they improve over lasguns in every way possible. All we can do now is 
figure out who to give these to, and where to put them."

	"We've got time to do that after our reinforcements arrive. For now, we 
have to make sure that there are no other tunnels for the mutants to use."

	Ranma nodded, but he managed to spot the element of hatred in the Space 
Marines voice. A few months ago he would have missed it, but he was 
improving, thanks to his experience as a squad leader. <Something's being 
hidden from me,> he thought, anger flowing through him for a brief moment. 
After all the secrets his father had kept from him, Ranma had no desire for 
the same thing to happen again.

***

	Rook Bartley climbed up the ladder, then glanced up at the Imperial Church 
around her. "Will this still be standing?" she asked.

	"Probably not," Hicks replied sadly. "They sure put a lot of work into it, 
it's a shame to have it destroyed." He picked up the detonator, along with a 
small statue as big as his hand. "At least a part of it will survive," he 
commented, walking towards the massive door. The rest of the squad jogged 
along behind him.

	Once outside, Hicks turned around and looked at the church. He had a love 
for history, and had checked some of the items inside, finding that many of 
them were several thousand years old. He didn't want to do this, but he 
really had no choice. Removing the safety cover from the detonator, he 
slammed his thumb down on the trigger.

	With a shockwave that the soldiers felt through their feet, the first 
explosive charges destroyed a section of the tunnel walls, causing a series 
of cave-ins that caused one of the poorly built buildings to collapse. This 
was followed by more explosions destroying the tunnel and creating a trench 
through the middle of town.

	At the end, a large cloud of dust, smoke and flames blew open the doors of 
the church. Hicks watched as the old hinges on the door broke and it fell to 
the ground with a clang. When the smoke cleared however, the building was 
still standing.

	"I'll be damned," the Corporal muttered, walking up to the building and 
looking inside. Although there were a lot of scorch marks, it seemed as 
though the building was intact and going to stay that way. Smiling to 
himself, he activated his comm-link to report in.

***

	Sixty kilometres from the village, almost a dozen vehicles were making 
their way towards the small town, with orders to reinforce the small group 
of soldiers already there. The current ETA was just over one hour.

	Ash Ketchum made his way towards the front of the detachment, his 
hovercycles engines emitting a light blue glow. One of the two bikes Washuu 
had been playing with over the past few days, this one was faster and more 
agile then the rest of the squadron, at the cost of weaker armour and in 
need of a better gyroscope for balance.

	The guardsman glanced to his right, and spotted Washuu's other modified 
hovercycle, this one ridden by the squad's newest member. Commissar Konoko 
didn't really look like your average Commissar. All of the Political 
Officers that Ash had come across always wore their trademark black 
greatcoats and cap, and had no personality to speak of. Not to mention their 
habit of killing anyone they believed to be traitors or cowards.

	Konoko had traded in her greatcoat for a simple jacket, and her cap was 
stored in one of her bikes saddlebags, one of Washuu's custom helmets on her 
head. She seemed rather friendly and likeable, although Ash didn't doubt for 
a second that she wouldn't hesitate to kill a traitor or deserter. After 
all, that's what Commissars were for.

	Glancing ahead, Ash cursed and swung his bike around a large rock sticking 
out of the ground. After a few seconds of effort, he managed to keep control 
of the vehicle. Breathing a sigh of relief, he noticed Konoko coming up 
alongside him.

	"Try to get into the habit of anticipating what's up ahead," she yelled 
over the wind. "Otherwise, noticing a rock at the last minute can easily 
become too late."

	"Thanks for the advice," Ash replied.

	"Besides, you trash that bike and you'll answer to me," Washuu Habuki 
growled over the comm-link, having listened in on their conversation.

	Konoko smirked while Ash rolled his eyes in frustration. "I still can't 
believe you came along," he muttered.

	"The report that Lieutenant Schofield made to the General mentioned that 
there were still files located in the Enforcers data-systems," the 
tech-priestess explained. "I should be able to crack the Ice on those 
systems easily. Besides, the General asked me if I wanted to investigate. 
How could I refuse?"

	"Never mind," Ash said, ending the transmission. He twisted the throttle 
and raced ahead of the rest of the Guard detachment. Konoko tried to keep 
up, but Washuu had designed this bike as more of a heavy weapons platform. 
The tech-priestess had added extra armour, replaced the Lasguns with 
Boltguns and planned to attach a sidecar (with it's own anti-grav systems 
for extra stability) with a more powerful weapon like an Autocannon or 
rocket launcher. This meant a lower top speed, so Konoko had to hang 
slightly behind as Ash scouted ahead over a crest of sand dunes.

***

	Lina Inverse was in a cafe located on the main street of the small village, 
field-stripping her new Bolter. During the gunfight with the mutants several 
hours before, she had noticed several problems in the weapon. She may not be 
someone trained in the ancient secrets of technology, but she knew how to 
maintain a weapon at least. It seemed that the villagers 
didn't.	"Incompetent idiots deserved to get killed," she muttered, cleaning 
out the Bolters barrel. <No wonder it wasn't firing properly, the barrel's 
filled with grime!>

	"Whoever maintained that gun needs a good kicking," a voice said. Lina 
squawked in surprise and turned to see one of the Space Marine Scouts 
standing there.

	"You've got that right," the red-head replied, tossing him the barrel. 
"Take a look at that."

	The Marine caught the rod and glanced down it. "Yep, a good kicking is in 
order," he muttered. "The inside looks like it might have some rust in it. 
It might not be safe to use that Bolter."

	"I'll loot the stuff we found in the town armoury later," Lina said. "If 
I'm lucky, I should be able to find a decent Boltgun barrel there. Otherwise 
I'll stick with my lasgun for now." The Scout removed his backpack, opened 
it up and rummaged in it for a moment, before pulling out something wrapped 
in cloth. Removing the cloth, he handed a Boltgun barrel to the surprised 
soldier. "Thank you, but why?"

	The Marine grinned. "Boltguns are better then lasguns any day. Trust me 
when I tell you that you'll need all the firepower you can get your hands 
on."

	Lina grinned right back at him. "Believe me, I know that feeling all too 
well. Oh, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Lina Inverse," she declared, 
offering the Marine a hand.

	Taking the offered hand, the Scout shook it. "Brendan Lawson. Just call me 
Ringo." Walking over to the cooler, he pulled out two cans of drink, opened 
one and tossed the other to Lina. "You don't mind if I clean my gun as 
well?" he asked.

	"Nah, go for it," Lina replied, taking a sip of her drink as she checked 
the ammo feed.

***

	Ranma double-checked the explosives, before walking back to his hovercycle. 
Starting the engine, he raced back towards the village. Along with several 
other Guardsmen, he had been setting traps to the east, in order to slow 
down the rebels when they approached. So far, there were almost a dozen 
bombs hidden out in the desert, along with a few other surprises. The 
village may not have looked after their guns, but they had an impressive 
supply of explosives.

	Bringing his cycle to a stop in front of the town hall, he looked up at the 
clock tower on the top of it. He could just see the thin metal rod that was 
the barrel of Shinji's M-95 Sniper Rifle. The young man had the best 
viewpoint in the entire village, and would spot the approaching rebels long 
before anyone was in firing range.

	The gun barrel moved as Shinji took a careful look at the horizon around 
the village. Suddenly, the barrel paused in it's movement, and Shinji spoke 
over a comm-link to all the squad leaders. "Squad Leaders, this is Trooper 
Ikari. I have movement to the west. I count twelve vehicles, eight Chimeras, 
two Leman Russ's and two Sentinel Walkers. Markings match Tokyo First 
Seventh Company."

	"Ikari, this is Sergeant Trunks. Continue your sweep. Squad Leaders, meet 
me in the mayor's office."

	"Saotome here, I'm on my way." The young soldier jogged through town hall, 
reaching the office just as Hicks got there. Schofield arrived a moment 
later.

	"Comms-officer Crowley contacted the units moving towards us and confirmed 
that they're from the Tokyo First," Trunks said. "With the additional 
firepower they provide us, we stand a chance at defending this town. Also, 
I've been in contact with my own commanding officer and informed him of the 
situation. Several squads of Space Marines will arrive here in two hours. At 
that point, I'll be passing command to one of my superiors, who will decide 
on our next course of action. I need a full report to pass on. Schofield?"

	"Boltguns have been given to all the Guardsmen currently here," the 
Lieutenant reported. "Also, three of the Heavy Bolters and two of the Rocket 
Launchers have been set up on the eastern side of town, just in case scout 
units reach us. A good portion of the Guardsmen are fieldstripping their 
bolters and cleaning them. Apparently, the villager in charge of looking 
after the guns didn't do a very good job."

	Trunks nodded, entering the information into a data-slate. "Corporal 
Hicks?"

	"My squads Chimera transport has been moved to this vehicle garage," Hicks 
said, tapping one of the buildings on the map, "and is ready to move out 
into combat situations if needed. Five of my men are still in the medbay, 
and it's unlikely that they'll be getting out soon. My squad really isn't 
ready for combat."

	"Most likely, you'll be stationed behind the front lines, equipped with 
long-range weapons. Either that, or you'll be in your Chimera, using the 
hull-mounted lasguns." Hicks nodded while the Scout turned to the last squad 
leader. "Scout-Sergeant Saotome?"

	"Ten explosives have been taken from the town supply and set up east of 
town. Most of them won't do much damage to tanks, but they'll give infantry 
some headaches. I'd like to set up some explosives in the building on the 
edge of town, in case we have to fall back. We could use something to drop 
on them."

	"I'll think about it," Trunks replied. "But for now, all we can do is 
wait."

***

	The Imperial Guard units arrived in the village twenty minutes later. There 
were two extra vehicles that Shinji had not spotted at first. Two Blazer 
hovercycles, both the one Ash was using (and Washuu had modified while no 
one was looking) and a new one that the tech-priestess had built. So who was 
the person riding the extra bike?

	"If Washuu decided to ride that thing out here, I swear I'm gonna break her 
neck," Ranma growled, knowing that she would be crazy enough to do just 
that.

	"That's if I don't get her first," Tenchi replied. Both of them pulled up 
short as they saw the figure dismounting the second bike. "Who's that?" 
Tenchi asked.

	"No idea. Does Washuu ever wear outfits like that?" Ranma said, referring 
to the skin-tight black bodysuit the woman was wearing.

	"I don't even want to consider that," Tenchi replied, considering what kind 
of mood Washuu would be in if she wore something like that. He wasn't sure 
if he could handle that many hormones.

	The woman noticed them, and walked towards them. "I'm looking for 
Scout-Sergeant Saotome," she said.

	"You've found him," Ranma replied. "I'm Saotome. You are?"

	The woman saluted crisply. "Commissar Konoko. I've been assigned to your 
squad." She took a document from her jacket pocket and handed it to him.

	Ranma studied the document. "Looks right. Lieutenant Schofield expected you 
to arrive in about three more weeks with the replacement troops then."

	"We were able to depart Tokyo sooner then expected, and the Warp was 
peaceful enough for us to make the trip here in a far shorter time then 
expected."

	Ranma studied the woman. Right now, she certainly didn't seem like what one 
would expect from a Commissar. The tight clothes and spikey purple hair made 
the small woman look rather feminine and sexy, not the hard lines of the 
other Commissars greatcoats and peaked caps.

	But to the eyes of an experienced martial artist like Ranma, the real proof 
was in her stance. Like all great fighters, Konoko seemed to always be ready 
for a fight. Not a single part of her clothing was designed to get in the 
way of her limbs, her weapons were near her hands at all times, and there 
was a hardness in her eyes that gave Ranma the chills, even though he'd had 
that look several times himself. Of course, he'd only had it in the middle 
of a fight, while this woman seemed to be able to call it up at will.

	"Everything appears to be in order," he said, "but I want to ask you a few 
questions before I accept you into my squad. Have you ever served with a 
recon squad before?"

	Konoko shook her head. "I've mostly served with front-line units."

	"In that case, there are a few things I need to make clear. We are not a 
stand-and-fight unit. We do not have the firepower or armour for that kind 
of fight. Our tactics are hit and run, chipping away at the enemy. If we 
need bigger firepower, we drop back and call the Seventh Company for an 
artillery strike. There will be times when I will give the order to fall 
back. Now, the question is, will you pull a gun on me when that happens?"

	Konoko smiled, the smile actually reaching her green eyes. "I'm not one of 
those Commissars with a flawed mind. I understand the need to fall back at 
times." Her eyes turned to ice again. "Of course, if any of your men try and 
betray the Guard-"

	"-the only difference in the result is which of us gets our guns out 
first," Ranma finished. "Either way they're dead. Welcome aboard. How do you 
want us to refer to you?"

	"Konoko will be fine," she replied.

	"Hi guys!" Washuu yelled, walking over to them, a backpack full of 
equipment slung over her shoulder. "How's things?"

	"How the hell did you get here?" Ranma growled.

	"I caught a lift with one of the Chimeras. The General sent me out to mug 
those Enforcer codifiers, see what I can find." She smiled cutely as Tenchi 
glared at her.

	"This is no place for a non-combatant," he growled. "In case you didn't 
realise Washuu, there's a whole army heading towards us!"

	"I know," the Tech-priestess replied. "My plan is to loot the codifiers, 
find out what happened here, then get the hell out of the way."

	Tenchi would have argued more, but Ranma stopped him. "She's thought this 
one out Tenchi," the Sergeant said. "I don't like her being here either, but 
it's too late now. Let her do her job while we do ours."

	Washuu gave a 'V for victory' sign, asked for directions to the Enforcer 
headquarters, then wandered off.

	"She's going to get herself killed one of these days," Ranma muttered once 
the woman was out of earshot.

	"Probably not," Tenchi said. "She's good at throwing herself in mortal 
danger, then coming out without a scratch. Annoys everyone like you wouldn't 
believe."

	"I can imagine," Konoko commented. She looked over to where two Chimera 
APC's unloaded their troops and equipment. "Do you think we can hold this 
place?"

	"We should only need to hold out for two hours if we're lucky," Ranma 
replied, noticing Lieutenant Ryouji exiting one of the APC's.

***

	Under the command of Trunks and Lieutenant Ryouji, a long-time armour 
commander in the TDF, the vehicles of the Seventh Company were deployed 
along the eastern side of the town. There simply was no way to hide the 
vehicles, meaning the time for stealth had passed. Before, they were 
remaining hidden in the case of rebel recon units drawing large numbers of 
rebels towards them. Now, if a threat came, they would have to fight it or 
run. And Trunks had told them that the order to hold the town came from Lord 
Commander Hayes himself, who couldn't understand the value of retreating if 
needed. Which meant they would fight or die. Maybe both.

	Ranma watched as the two Leman Russ tanks moved to opposite ends of the 
line, ready to use their battle cannons in whatever direction they were 
needed. All ten of the Chimera APC's were stationed in the middle, ready to 
fight if need be, and capable of charging into assault with a squad of 
Guardsmen aboard.

	Glancing to his right, he saw the Sentinel walkers crouched down behind a 
building, their pilots running a check on their internal systems. Knowing 
that there really wasn't much for him to do here, he walked back into the 
town, heading for the town hall.

	Ranma found Trunks, Barnes and Hicks looking over the map again, using more 
pins to mark confirmed Guard and Rebel movements. "Air strikes have slowed 
them down slightly," Trunks said when he spotted the martial artist. "Now 
they're expected to arrive about an hour-forty-five to two hours before the 
Guard reaches us."

	"Lieutenant Ryouji's setting up the armour well. We should have decent 
coverage soon," Ranma replied. Trunks nodded, then looked thoughtful for a 
moment.

	"I want you to get Lieutenant Schofield and Ryouji up here," he said after 
a minute, "as well as Commissar Konoko and Trooper Inverse."

	"I'll get the ladies," Ranma said, tapping his headset. "Lina, Konoko, 
where are you two?"

	"Lina here boss," the red-heads voice replied. "I'm in the town hall lobby, 
checking these damn weapons work right."

	"This is Konoko. I'm in the Enforcer building with Tech-priestess Habuki."

	"Get to the mayor's office as soon as possible," Ranma ordered.

	"On my way," Konoko responded.

	"I'll just make sure none of these parts are going anywhere and I'll be 
right up."

	Lina arrived first, her hands and arms covered in grease. "What's up?" she 
asked her commander. Ranma simply shrugged and pointed at Trunks. Lina 
nodded, grabbed a chair and sat down to wait.

	"You should show more respect to your commanding officer," Barnes muttered.

	"Barnes, zip it," Ranma growled. "I don't mind the way my men act around 
me. In fact, I prefer it. It means they trust me, which is something I doubt 
anyone could ever to with you." Nearby, Trunks simply smirked, while Hicks 
hid a shit-eating grin behind a book he'd found.

	The Commissars face turned red with rage. "I could have you face a 
court-martial for such talk!"

	"But you won't Barnes, because you know it's true," Ranma replied. 
"Besides, despite all your flaws, you're an extremely loyal servant to the 
Emperor. You wouldn't waste Imperial resources like that."

	"Besides, everyone talks about Commissars like that," Trunks added. Barnes 
couldn't even really glare at the Space Marine, as he had no authority over 
the Adeptus Astartes.

	The two Lieutenants entered the room, followed by Konoko a few seconds 
later. She looked at the fuming Commissar. "What's with him?" she asked.

	"Public Relations problems," Hicks answered with a straight face, drawing a 
grin from several people present in the room.

	"Good, everyone I wanted to talk to is here," Trunks said. "Trooper 
Inverse, I was told that you were a demon-hunter back on Tokyo?"

	The temperature seemed to drop as Trunks' question sank in. Surprised, Lina 
nodded. The Space Marine handed her a piece of paper. Lina looked at it for 
a second before swearing and crushing the note in an angry grip. "Where'd 
you find this?" she demanded.

	"In the cave where Lieutenant Schofield encountered those creatures," 
Trunks replied. "You understand what we are dealing with here?"

	"Yeah, I understand," Lina replied.

	"I'm glad you do, now how about telling the rest of us?" Ranma asked. Lina 
nodded, then smoothed out the piece of paper on the table, allowing everyone 
to see it. The picture on the paper was some sort of distorted pentagram, 
the lines looking more like gashes in human flesh. Arcane lettering ran 
along the outside of the pentagram, with some phrase in a language that 
Ranma had never seen before. The image made him sick just looking at it. 
"What the hell is that?" he asked.

	"Part of a summoning spell," Lina replied. "That's what happened to these 
towns. Some of the locals were messing with the black arts, touching parts 
of the Warp forbidden by the Emperor since before the dawn of the Imperium 
ten thousand years ago. They drew the attention of the Chaos Gods, and those 
insane beasts warped and corrupted the people of these ghost towns, changing 
them into the beasts we saw earlier. I knew there wasn't something right 
about them. Now I know what it was."

	Barnes had gone as pale as a ghost. Trunks noticed him standing there and 
grinned. "I was planning on telling everyone here about the Chaos presence 
as soon as I was sure, but what about you Commissar? I know that you 
understood what those creatures were." Everyone was looking at Barnes now, 
who was trying to find a way out of the corner he'd been backed into.

***

	General Soun Tendo looked out at the sunset, which happened to be blocking 
out any sign of movement on the horizon. Normally, the First Companies Recon 
Platoon, along with Seventh Company recon units would be making sure no 
rebel elements were moving towards the main Tokyo force. However, for 
reasons unknown to him, Lord Commander Hayes had decided to order them to 
defend a ghost town. Making things even worse, he'd ordered that a good 
chunk of the Tokyo Firsts
Seventh Company reinforced the troops already there. This meant there was a 
full Armoured Fist platoon there, along with half of the second AF platoon, 
as well as a squadron of Leman Russ Main Battle Tanks. This cut almost a 
quarter of his total armour units from the main advance, right when he 
needed them the most.

	Back during the Tokyo Civil War he'd had to deal with idiot commanders, 
including one Admiral in the planets wet-navy that was actually working for 
the other side. But none of them seemed to match Lord Commander Hayes, who 
seemed to excel in stupid moves. If the chance presented itself where Tendo 
took a club to the Lord Commander's head, almost every soldier on Redermade 
would pay to see it, both Imperials and Rebels.

	Muttering something unpleasant, he closed his tanks cupola and looked over 
at the driver. "Current speed?"

	"Fifty-three kilometres per hour," the driver replied.

	"ETA to Nav Point Jupiter?" Tendo asked.

	"Eight point three hours." Glancing at a display panel, the driver 
continued, "Captain Katsuragi's vehicle is approaching us." Soun opened the 
larger top hatch and looked out, soon seeing the familiar form of the Leman 
Russ Exterminator that served as Seventh Companies command vehicle making 
its way towards his personal Chimera. Ten seconds later, it was alongside 
the Chimera, nudging its way around a truck carrying several squads of 
troops.

	The Exterminator's cupola opened, and Captain Misato Katsuragi climbed out 
onto the top of her vehicle. Before Tendo could stop her, the woman leapt 
over the space between the two vehicles, landing easily on the top of the 
Chimera. "Are you crazy?" Tendo snapped as she climbed down into the tank. 
"You could have been killed! The last thing I need right now is my tank 
commander dead because of some brain-dead stunt."

	"Don't worry," Misato replied, "I've been doing stuff like that since I was 
an Ensign back in the TDF's 10th Armoured Brigade. I can do things like that 
easily. Besides, we've got bigger problems. Lieutenant Ryouji just contacted 
me. I know that happened at that ghost town."

	"Do tell," Tendo said. Misato told, and a few minutes later, the general 
leaned back against the wall. "Damn, are you sure?" he asked.

	"Ryoji gave me the word right from this Trunks character. We are talking 
about a Space Marine here."

	"True," Tendo nodded, picking up his data-slate and calling up details of 
the Imperial advance. Misato looked over his shoulder, seeing the Tokyo 
Regiments movements. "I'd rather call a general halt and dig a few trenches, 
then pound on the rebels with artillery as they advance towards us. But 
that'd mean leaving our units at the ghost town unsupported unless I call 
them back. But Lord Commander Hayes disagrees with my opinion. He seems to 
have decided for a sledgehammer style attack, Imperial units grinding 
against the rebels."

	"What a waste of resources," Misato commented. "I have to agree with your 
plan. I've seen enough of this style of fighting from back in the civil 
war." Muttering to herself, she pulled a small bottle out of her pocket and 
took a long drink.

	"Is that alcohol?" Tendo asked.

	"Sacra, believe it or not," Misato said. "Part of a stash I'd gotten back 
in the TDF. This lot was imported from some place called Tanith. No idea 
where that place is, but they make good grog, I'll give 'em that much."

	"You expect me to let you drink while on duty?" the General asked.

	"Well, I'm actually not on duty right now, it's just that Ryouji contacted 
me. Besides, I used to be a lot worse. But that's not the point now. Is 
there any way that we can speed up the schedule, get to the ghost town 
before the rebels do?"

	"Not a chance," Tendo replied. "The Administratum is being pushed to the 
limits as it is. Supply lines are stretched to the breaking point. We try to 
move any faster and the entire front line will just fall apart. This is as 
fast as we go." The pair were silent for a few minutes, until Tendo's 
comm-officer turned to him from the comm-unit built into the hull. "What is 
it?"

	"We are receiving a signal from orbit. Ident-code indicates it is coming 
from the Strike Crusier Fist of the Emperor."

	Both Misato and Tendo managed to conceal their surprise at what they had 
been told. The Fist of the Emperor was not part of the Ultima Segmentum 
Navy. Instead, it was part of the Eternal Dragons Navy. It was the command 
ship for the small collection of vessels the Space Marine Chapter had in the 
Redermade system. Which meant that the Eternal Dragons had an interest in 
the Tokyo Regiments for some reason. "On screen," Tendo said.

	A small viewscreen showed nothing but snow for a few seconds, before 
clearing to show an image of a powerfully built figure clad in silver power 
armour, painted in a style that made it look like the scales of a dragon. 
The man's helmet was removed, revealing the face of what appeared to be a 
man in his mid-twenties, spikey blond hair slightly covering one of his blue 
eyes. "I am Captain Gohan Son of the Eternal Dragons Third Company," he 
said.

	"General Soun Tendo, commander in chief of the Tokyo Regiments. What can I 
do for you Captain?" Despite the fact he was much higher ranked, Tendo still 
spoke to the Marine with nothing but respect, as any Space Marine had 
decades of experience. A Captain could have had seen centuries of combat.

	"You have men at the ghost town to the east of your position, do you not?" 
At the Generals nod Gohan continued. "I have a squad there myself, and I 
have a Thunderhawk with reinforcements ready to launch. I was wondering if 
you would like me to give some of your people a lift?"

	Tendo smiled. "How much space do you have on board?"

	"We should be able to fit two tanks and a few dozen men," Gohan replied. 
"What do you say?"

	"Thank you for the offer Captain. I'll have two of my tanks and three 
squads standing by. Do you have any preferences for landing coordinates?" 
After exchanging basic details with the Space Marine, the general ended the 
transmission and turned to Misato. "What do you make of that?"

	"Either they really care about the scouts they have there," Misato said, 
"or they've got other plans. At a guess I'd say they're sending people on a 
Chaos hunt."

	Soun nodded. "If we do it right, we might be able to fight the main force 
at Nav Point Jupiter, spreading out from the ghost town."

	"We'll have to prepare plans on our defensive arrangements," the Captain 
replied. "I'll wake some of the other Company Commanders and we'll talk 
shop." Soun nodded, and she climbed up to the top of the tank to return to 
her own vehicle.

***

	The sun had only just set when the first rebel units appeared. Recon 
elements, advancing under cover of darkness, searching out Imperial advance 
units.

Shinji saw them first, thanks to his position in the tower, and the range of 
his scopes heat-view mode. Two Wasp helicopters, hugging the desert sands in 
an attempt to avoid possible radar detection. But their engines gave off 
enough heat for the quiet sniper to see them without even trying.

	A lascannon blast destroyed one of them and startled the second one, which 
swung left, it's autocannon firing off a burst in the direction of the town. 
Nothing was hit. It was Hiroshi that took it down, hitting it with a krak 
missile that vaporised the pilot.

	Everyone knew that more determined attacks would soon come, and Trunks 
rearranged the defences slightly. About half an hour after the appearance of 
the Wasps, everyone in the town looked up at the sound of jet turbines. 
Landing thrusters belching flames, the Thunderhawk landed in the middle of 
the village.

	The aircraft was quite a strange sight. At least most Imperial aircraft 
attempted to be aerodynamic. The Thunderhawk didn't. It looked like an oddly 
shaped box, with wings on the sides and the engines built into them. Weapons 
extended from all over the crafts surface. At the front of it, a massive 
hatch had opened, allowing the troops inside to exit.

	The Space Marines had picked up the Guardsmen as planned, and so a Leman 
Russ Demolisher and the Seventh Companies only Destroyer Tank Hunter rolled 
out of the aircraft first, followed by about thirty guardsmen, many of them 
with markings indicating heavy weapons squads. General Tendo had taken men 
from both his own platoon and Second Companies Command Platoon, guessing 
correctly that heavy weapons would be very useful.

	After this came the Space Marines. The guardsmen watching looked on as two 
ingressive tanks rolled forward, a Razorback APC and a Whirlwind. Along with 
this came thirty Marines in full power armour.

	Then came the truly impressive sight. Captain Gohan Son stepped forward, 
the scale design on his artificer armour reflecting the light from the 
Thunderhawks internal bay. Built into his gauntlets were a pair of well-made 
Lightning Claws, weapons of a true master.

	Behind Gohan were nine Terminators, the elite warriors of the Space Marine 
Chapter. The Tactical Dreadnought, or Terminator, armour that they wore was 
the best personal armour in the galaxy.

	And to finish off the imposing sight, a powerful Dreadnought towards behind 
them. Containing the nearly dead body of a Space Marine that was a true 
hero, even by their high standards, these ultimate combinations of man and 
machine were some of the most powerful warriors in the galaxy.

	Trunks, Schofield and Ryouji were waiting at the bottom of the ramp as 
Gohan approached. All three of them snapped their feet together and saluted. 
"Captain Son, it is an honour to have you take command," Trunks said.

	Gohan shook his head. "I won't be taking command Veteran Scout-Sergeant. 
Only the vehicles and the standard Marines will remain here. The rest of us 
will follow the underground tunnels and exterminate the Chaos scum from this 
planet."

	The Scout Sergeant nodded. "Understood sir. Who will be taking command?"

	"You will retain command, Veteran Scout-Sergeant Trunks. After all, you are 
really a member of the First Company. Despite the fact that you requested 
your current position in the Scout Company, your experience can not be 
discounted. I have faith in your abilities."

	"Thank you sir," Trunks replied, saluting again. Schofield glanced at the 
Marine. It seemed that Trunks was more then just a Marine assigned to train 
the new recruits.

	<Very interesting,> the Lieutenant thought to himself. <It looks like we 
may have an even better commander then I thought.>

***

	"You're kidding," Ranma muttered.

	"No, I'm not," Schofield replied, glancing over at where the Marines were 
entering the underground cave. Gohan and the Terminators simply jumped down, 
small rockets in their feet slowing their fall. "It seems that 
Scout-Sergeant Trunks is actually a member of the Eternal Dragons First 
Company, that Chapters elite force."

	"Woah, talk about a surprise," Ranma commented. The Space Marine Scout 
continued to pull more surprises out of nowhere. Most of the Space Marine 
Chapters were divided into ten Companies, each consisting of about a hundred 
marines each. The First Company contained the best of the best, warriors 
trained in countless fighting styles, not to mention the powerful Terminator 
armour. Yet
Trunks seemed to have given it up to work with the Scouts, the new recruits 
of the Tenth Company.

	Ranma glanced towards the edge of the town, where he could just see Trunks 
giving orders to the driver of the Whirlwind. The mobile missile battery 
moved forward a few meters, it's turret aiming towards the distant horizon. 
<It seems our current commander is just full of interesting little facts,> 
he thought to himself. "What do you think of his general battle plan?" he 
asked the Lieutenant.

	"Pretty impressive. The large amount of heavy weapons we have will let us 
punish the rebels hard. You'll have the biggest trouble. Be careful."

	Ranma nodded as he considered the plan Trunks had made. The rebels were 
moving in a number of columns towards the Imperial lines. The majority of 
the Imperial forces would remain in the town, using it for cover against the 
fire of any rebels that learned of their presence. At the same time, Ranma's 
bike squadron, Corporal Hick's Chimera and the Space Marine Razorback would 
attack the foe with hit and run flank attacks.

	It was expected that the main rebel force, pushing to engage the Imperial 
Guard as far away from Kell Hive as possible, would reach the town at 
sunrise, seven hours away. If the Space Marines lead by Gohan Son were still 
underground at that time, the forces on the surface would have to fight a 
holding action until Gohan did return, or the main Imperial force reached 
them, whatever came first.

	"I'll be careful," he said to Schofield. "I'm going to check on Shinji."

***

	Shinji was still in the tower, although now he had company. Lina, Tenchi 
and the Space Marine Scout Brendan 'Ringo' Lawson were all up there as well. 
While Shinji took a brief break, Ringo had his sniper rifle out, scanning 
the horizon.

	"All I'm saying is that if she tries anything, I'll make sure she's the one 
to get a las-round to the back of the head," Lina said.

	"You really don't like Commissars, do you Lina?" Ringo asked, never turning 
his attention away from the horizon.

	"Oh, I understand how important they are. After all, they are the best way 
of seeking out corruption and treason in the Guard, not to mention their 
style of morale. But I don't trust them. They judge people according to 
their standards. I've heard stories about Commissars, bad ones."

	"Everyone has Lina," Tenchi replied, setting up an autocannon on a bipod. 
"They're just that, stories."

	"Not really, many of them have some truth in them," Ringo replied. Everyone 
else looked at him in shock. He grinned and kept his attention on the image 
through his scope.

	"Well, I've spoken with Konoko. She understands how I work," Ranma said as 
he walked up the spiral staircase. The guardsmen turned to him in surprise. 
"There shouldn't be too much trouble. Tenchi, Lina, I want you to find the 
rest of the squad. They're to get their bikes ready for deployment in case 
of emergency. Understood?" Both soldiers nodded and ran down the stairs.

	"Sir, what about me?" Shinji asked quietly.

	"You'll remain here in the tower. Don't think it's because I don't think 
you can fight alongside me or some junk like that. It's because you're an 
even better sniper then you are hovercycle rider. I sure wouldn't mind the 
feeling that I've got someone watching over us."

	"T-thank you," Shinji stuttered.

	"One bit of advice kid. Lighten up a little. You're too tense. Go grab a 
drink, I'll keep the marine company." Shinji nodded and left the tower, 
leaving Ringo and Ranma alone.

	"Nice kid. A little shy though," Ringo noted.

	"Hmm? Yeah, Lina's trying to have him settle down a bit. Any sign of life 
out there?"

	The Marine shrugged. "Nothing much really. A few signs of native wildlife, 
little creatures the size of a small dog, but apart from that, nothing." 
Slowly, he ran his scope across the horizon yet again. "Hold on, I've got 
something. Another Wasp. It's heading north. Considering how little 
equipment they've got on those things, I doubt they've seen us."

	"Pass it on to Trunks, he's the one with the experience around here," Ranma 
replied.

***

	The night wore on, and the soldiers tried to deal with the nervous tension 
building up. They knew an attack was coming, a big fight that would push 
them to their limits. The problem was waiting for it. The marines had dealt 
with it before. Many in the Tokyo First hadn't.

	In the old Enforcer headquarters, Washuu Habuki was hard at work. 
Synth-skin had been pulled away from her left arm, and a number of wires 
connected to the bionics there, as well as to an interface plug behind her 
ear, hidden by her hair. Her eyes had a strange glazed look to them, as if 
there was no one in the body. In a way, that description was accurate. The 
body had no soul. Washuu Habuki had dived into the Enforcer system, intent 
on learning just what had happened to this town.

	Commissar Konoko and Trooper Taichi Yagami were watching over her meat body 
while the tech-priestess sent her mind out elsewhere. Neither of them were 
very eager to be there, but they had nothing else important to do, and 
Trunks didn't feel like letting people just wonder around.

	"That is just plain creepy," Taichi muttered. "Look at her face. Weird."

	"She's a follower of the Machine God as well as the Emperor," Konoko 
pointed out. "I only know a little of the Martian Cult, but the bond between 
man and machine is extremely close. So close that it's hard to see 
sometimes."

	"I know what you mean," Taichi replied. "Back on Tokyo, I had this friend. 
An absolute technofreak. He didn't have any chrome in him, but still, I 
swear he could talk to machines and get a response." He looked at the 
tech-priestess. "How long do we have to do this?"

	"As long as we have to," Konoko replied. Suddenly, Washuu awakened, life 
returning to her eyes. Careful not to disturb the wires in her arm, and the 
one in her head, she took a short stretch, then turned to the two people 
watching her.

	"Any luck?" Taichi asked.

	"Not yet," she replied. "For such a backwater town, this place has a lot of 
security. Let the commander know that I'll be at least another hour." And 
with that she reactivated the connection, dropping back into cyberspace.

	Taichi simply looked at Konoko, who shrugged and activated her 
communicator.

***

	The scanner results showed no life for almost five hundred metres. Gohan 
removed his helmet for a brief moment, running a hand through his naturally 
spiked hair. "Tien, Radditz, take point." The two Terminators moved ahead of 
the squad, weapons ready.

	"Those mutants bodies were familiar," Tien said over the comm-net.

	"I know, they looked like Genestealers," Gohan replied, locking his helmet 
back into place. "Tech-priestess Habuki ran some tests. No alien DNA. Those 
abominations were born of humanity, not Tyranids. From what she found, their 
claws should be unable to penetrate our armour."

	"Does it matter where they came from?" Radditz asked. "All we need to know 
is how to kill the freaks." He raised his Assault Cannon and Power Fist. "I 
think these will do a good job."

	"By understanding more about them, we can find better ways to carry out our 
duty to the Emperor," Gohan said. "The Space Marines exist to carry on the 
legacy of our Primarchs and Emperor. We are to defend the Imperium from the 
threats both without and within." He walked forward, just behind the pair of 
Terminators on point.

***

	Trunks looked over the images transmitted down from orbit with a look of 
disgust. The image showed one of the rebel columns changing direction, to a 
direct course for the small ghost town. One of the rebel recon units they'd 
taken out must have gotten a message off before they died.

	The rebel unit was about the strength of three Imperial Guard companies, 
much more then what the small number of defenders under Trunks command could 
offer.

	Sighing to himself, he folded the papers up and placed them in a bag on his 
belt. Walking along the hastily dug trenches, he returned the salutes of the 
guardsmen that saw him. In the back of his mind, he wondered just how many 
would be alive in another twelve hours, if any of them would be.

	<You knew the ups and downs of this job when you first tried out for the 
Scouts,> he told himself. That day felt so long ago. Had it really been over 
a century since he had been a normal human? He could still remember those 
old days well. Images entered his mind, of enemies defeated, old friendships 
lost as time and war took their toll.

	Shaking his head to clear away the memories, he walked to where Schofield 
was standing, looking out at the horizon. "You better get some sleep," he 
said. "One of their columns is heading our way. I want you awake for the 
fight."

	Schofield bit back a yawn. "I guess so. What about you?"

	"Don't worry, we Space Marines can stay awake for longer periods then you 
normal humans."

	"You're making we feel worthless you know," Schofield commented as he 
picked one of the houses at random.

	"Just remember that while we may be more powerful then a normal human, you 
outnumber us. Besides, the loyalty I've seen in Guardsmen often outstrips 
anything I see from Marines."

	"Are you kidding?" the Lieutenant asked.

	"No, I'm quite serious," Trunks replied. "I've seen Guardsmen face down 
demons, aliens, rebels, ancient technology, and countless other horrors. And 
they do it without any form of genetic enhancement. In many ways, the Guard 
is the true power of the Imperium. They are perhaps the Emperors most 
powerful weapon."

	Schofield looked thoughtful. "That's something to consider another time, 
when I'm not so damn tired. See you in a few hours." He wandered off to find 
a bed.

***

	Ranma stumbled into one of the buildings, two thoughts on his mind. One was 
the desperate need for Caffeine, which didn't seem to exist in this damn 
town. The second thought was the replacement thought. <Sleep, sleep, 
sleep.....>

	Picking a bedroom, he didn't even bother to turn on the light. Instead, he 
kicked off his boots, managed to remove his breastplate, and dropped onto 
the bed. He was out cold before he even hit the mat.

***

	"Captain Son to Scout-Sergeant Trunks," Gohan said into his helmets 
comm-link for the fifth time, before giving up in annoyance.

	"The ground must be too thick," one of the Terminators commented.

	"I expected as much. Let's keep moving." The squad continued to make it's 
way down the tunnel, weapons at the ready. Gohan led them, Lightning Claws 
beginning to crackle. He was quickly starting to get annoyed. So far, they 
had been walking for hours, but they hadn't seen a trace of anything to 
indicate the presence of chaos worshippers. It may just have meant that they 
were hiding, but these creatures had too little humanity remaining to be 
able to truly hide.

	Suddenly, one of the tunnel walls caved in, and a number of small arms 
weapons opened fire. Gohan spun on the spot as sparks came up off his 
armour. Moving forward quickly, he stepped into the small side cave, the 
claws on his gauntlets coming alive with white-blue energy. He sliced 
through two of the cultists like paper, then grabbed the third and slammed 
him against the wall. He took the man's rifle and crushed it. "Behave," he 
growled. Behind him, several of the Terminators looked bored.

	"I've got an idea," one of the marines said.

	"What's that Tien?" Gohan asked.

	"It looks like the chaos freaks have traps ahead of us," Tien answered. 
"I'm sure our little traitor here will be happy to help."

	Gohan nodded, then turned his attention back to the cultist. "I'm sure 
you'll be happy to help us, won't you?"

	"Why should I?" the man stammered.

	"That's easy to answer," Gohan replied. "You see, the changes brought upon 
by chaos do not seem to have taken a large effect on you yet. You remain 
human." <A fairly pathetic human, but I won't hurt all of his feelings right 
now,> he didn't add. "There is a chance for your soul to be saved from the 
dark grip of the Chaos gods, and for the Emperor to have mercy on you when 
your life ends, and you stand before him in the afterlife. Do you accept?" 
As he asked the
question, he rubbed one of the currently inactive lightning claws against 
the mans face.

	"I'd be ha-happy to help," the man managed to say through his shaking.

	"Good to hear it," Gohan said cheerfully, picking the man up and carrying 
him back to the main tunnel, where he dropped him in front of the squad. 
"Since you know the way, you can lead."

	"ME!?" the man exclaimed. "I'll be killed!"

	"But at least when you stand before the Emperor, you'll be able to tell him 
that you were trying to change your wicked ways," Tien pointed out, before 
speaking to the squad only on a private channel. "You know he won't last 
long. He'll be killed at the next trap."

	"Then we'll get more volunteers there," Gohan replied, pushing the man 
forward.

	"Damn, I shoulda thought of that..."

***

	Konoko glanced over at Taichi, who had passed out in a seat nearby. Washuu 
was still hooked up to the system, taking longer then she had expected. 
Suddenly, with an extremely loud cry of "FUCK!!" the tech-priestess leapt 
from her seat, tearing the wires from their sockets.

	"What happened?" Konoko asked, only to have the red-head grab a las-pistol, 
spin on the spot, and fire several shots into the electronic systems she had 
been connected to a second ago. "Would you mind telling me what's going on?" 
the commissar asked.

	"That is," Washuu spat, pointing at the ruined codifier. Konoko glanced at 
it, noticing that somehow, the broken machine parts were moving on their 
own. Almost as if they were.... alive?

	"How is that happening?" Taichi muttered, wakened by the las-blasts.

	"Chaos," Konoko growled, activating her headset. "Sergeant Trunks, this is 
Commissar Konoko. I'm going to need a flamer in the Enforcer building. We've 
got a taint."

	"Understood." Less then a minute later, Trunks entered the room, a 
guardsman with a flamer right behind him. He pointed at the destroyed 
circuitry, and the guardsman let off a long burst of flame that melted the 
Chaos-mutated objects. Taichi could have sworn that the parts were screaming 
as they were destroyed. "Did you find anything?" Trunks asked Washuu.

	"I did find something interesting before the taint revealed itself. Lockly, 
the enforcer mentioned in the journal Hicks found, was a cultist long before 
he came here. Not only that, but he used to serve in Kell Hive, namely as 
part of the Noble House Guard."

	"The division of the Enforcers that serve as bodyguards for the Governors 
family and other noble families?" Konoko said with some surprise. Washuu 
nodded. "How'd he end up assigned to a slum like this?"

	"Apparently, he got a little too close to this girl he was meant to 
bodyguard. That's the official story, but I can't help but wonder..."

	"If he was a cultist before he came here, how far through the ranks of the 
Enforcers is the taint?" Taichi said, completing the thought.

	"Something to think about," Trunks muttered, checking the wreckage. "If the 
Enforcers were corrupted, then we can assume that other parts of this planet 
were heavily tainted as well."

	"And I wouldn't be surprised if the Noble Houses were part of that taint," 
Konoko added. Trunks started swearing as he fired a few bolt pistol shots at 
the once again moving codifier parts.

	"This town is starting to annoy me more by the minute," he commented.

***

	Ranma stepped out of the house, looking out at the distant horizon. He 
checked his watch. "It's time." He ran towards where Trunks was. "Any word 
from Captain Son?" he asked.

	"A few words made it through. The ground is too dense. From what I've been 
able to make out, they're still travelling, although they have destroyed 
several small groups of rebels. What's your squads status?"

	"We're ready for deployment sir," Ranma replied.

	"Link up with the rest of the flanking force and move out." Ranma nodded 
and ran to where the rest of his bike squadron were waiting.

	Lina flashed him a brief thumbs-up as Ranma powered up the hovercycles 
engines. A light blue glow began to form in the exhaust vents. "Rev 'em up 
and let's kick some ass!" the sergeant yelled, racing out of the town.

	Trunks watched the bike squadron race away, meeting up with the Chimera and 
Razorback that also made up the flank attacking force. He turned to Washuu, 
who was working on a data-slate, getting up to the minute data on Rebel and 
Imperial movement. "You should get behind the front line," he said to her. 
"You're a non-combatant here."

	"Yeah, but I'll be serving with the Tokyo First for a long time to come," 
the tech-priestess replied. "A little danger is to be expected. I can be of 
more use here for now. When the rebels get close I'll drop back."

	Trunks considered this for a moment, then nodded. "Have you any new 
information we could use?"

	Washuu tapped a few runes on the data-slates touch-screen, then handed it 
to the Space Marine. On the screen was an image taken by one of the ships in 
orbit. Somewhere to the east, at temporary airfields, the rebels air units 
were preparing for takeoff.

	"The Navy have started a bombardment of any airfields they can reach," 
Washuu said, "but a large number of fighters and bombers are already 
airborne. Our own airforce is moving to intercept."

	"They've almost never had a large air presence before," Trunks commented. 
"The Navy Fighter Division will have fun today."

	Washuu nodded. "Still, we could have some difficulty with them." She was 
prevented from saying any more by a call over the comm-net. There was 
movement on the horizon. The rebels had arrived.

	Bringing his cycle to a stop, Ranma pulled a pair of binoculars from his 
backpack and set them to maximum zoom. At a guess, he'd have to say that 
there were just over half a thousand troops, consisting of both regular 
infantry and Shock Troops. Along with that were about sixty vehicles, not 
counting the K-Suits that seemed to have replaced the Sentinel walkers in 
the renegade forces.

	Ranma glanced back at the ghost town. The location gave the defenders an 
advantage, but this was nullified by the sheer numbers the rebels had to 
offer. <The renegade Governor must have had one hell of a good recruiting 
drive,> he thought to himself, moving behind a sand dune to hide. At least 
the cloud layer surrounding the planet stopped the sun from blocking the 
sight of the rebels, although Ranma wouldn't mind something like an orbital 
bombardment to help out sometime soon.

***

	"Personally, I prefer the one where the floor opened to reveal those 
spikes," Tien commented to another Terminator. "Almost completely harmless 
to us, but they killed the traitor pretty quickly."

	"That's for sure," replied Radditz. "But I liked the one where those 
mechanical arms came out of the wall, grabbed them, and tore them apart."

	"You would," Gohan said, smirking behind helmet. "My favourite was where 
the roof and floor smashed together."

	"At least they've got imagination," one Terminator commented. "Up there."

	Gohan glanced ahead, spotting the light. Quickly and quietly, the squad 
made their way towards the tunnel exit, where Gohan signalled for them to 
halt for a moment. Carefully, he glanced out into a large cavern that was 
filled with several dozen cultists, all at different stages of mutation. 
They were gathered in a circle around what appeared to be the leader mutant 
Lieutenant Schofield had
seen the previous day.

	The leader was standing with his arms clenched at his sides, psychic energy 
running along his body. Gohan could feel the cave vibrating, even over two 
hundred metres away. Slowly, the leader raised his arms, and Gohan activated 
the magno-visor in his helmet. The creature's exoskeleton was beginning to 
crack as the arcane energy ran along it.

	Then, with a sickening crack, the mutants arms exploded in a shower of 
smoke and greenish-red liquid. As Gohan tried to figure out what the whole 
point of that was, the rest of the creatures body exploded.

	As the dust settled, Gohan growled at what her was standing there. It was 
an imposing figure, almost eight feet tall, encased in a suit of power 
armour similar to his own. The markings on the armour were not Imperial 
though, instead the ancient runes of the Chaos Gods were carved into the 
ceramite.

	Even among the Space Marines, there were those that would betray the 
Emperor and humanity, selling their soul to the Chaos Gods in exchange for 
power and immortality. Although the most famous were those that turned to 
Chaos during the Horus Heresy almost ten thousand years before, it was a 
well kept secret that there were still others willing to make the same 
decision.

	It appeared that this Chaos Marine was a rather new one. Unlike older Chaos 
Marines, his armour had not fused with his skin, and very few distortions 
from the original Imperial design had occurred. The only major exception to 
this were the sides of his helmet, which had stretched out into bat-like 
wings, and a row of spikes running down his left arm.

	Gohan glanced behind the first Chaos Marine, noticing about five more 
hiding in the shadows, all at various levels of mutation. Underneath his 
helmet, the Space Marine scowled. It seemed that every time he looked, the 
problem here got bigger.

	"Present the sacrifice!" the first Chaos Marine roared, shaking the 
rafters. Gohan marked him as the leader. He watched as two still-human 
cultists carried in a large table. Strapped to it was a young girl, about 
fifteen years old, and rather pretty, not to mention completely human. 
Although her mouth was gagged, the mumblings that came from it seemed to be 
rather angry and fearful. Gohan guessed she was one of the townsfolk that 
had not succumbed to the taint.

	Unhooking a larger knife from his belt, the lead Chaos Marine made his way 
towards the woman, chanting in a language Gohan had heard far too many times 
before. Dark magic, namely a summoning spell. Instantly, the Eternal Dragon 
knew what would happen if they did not intervene. Rather then a group of 
sub-human cultists and traitor Marines, they would also face a demon of 
(most likely) considerable power. "Full assault!" he ordered, stepping out 
of the tunnel. "Attack pattern Crusader!"

	Instantly the Terminators broke off into two man teams, spreading out to 
nullify their foes strength in numbers. There was a brief roar of thunder as 
Tien and Radditz opened fire with their assault cannons. The powerful 
chainguns, built into the right arm of their Terminator Armour, shredded 
dozens of mutants in a matter of seconds, before the enemy was truly aware 
of their presence.

	Gohan charged straight into close combat, Lightning claws hissing and 
crackling with power. The mutants exoskeletons were easily penetrated by the 
power weapons, as the blond-haired Marine advanced towards the Chaos 
Marines. As he had predicted, the mutants claws were unable to penetrate the 
powerful armour the Marines wore.

	The former Space Marines had reacted faster to the Imperial threat then 
their followers. Two of the traitor Marines moved to defend the leader, 
buying time for the spell to be completed. One of them carried a boltgun, 
the other a massive, two-handed chainsword, jagged teeth already coming to 
life.

	Gohan chose his target and attacked, two of his Terminators coming up 
behind him to deal with the mutants he hadn't finished off.

***

	On the surface, the battle for the ghost town was just beginning. The 
Imperials attacked first, the Destroyer Tank Hunter firing off a blast from 
it's massive Laser Destroyer cannon. A rebel APC was reduced to a hollow 
ruin, its insides completely blown away, as the Destroyer chose its next 
target.

	"Heavy weapons squads, stand ready," Trunks ordered. "Whirlwind Tempest, 
report status."

	"All missile tube loaded and armed," a voice replied over the comm-link. 
"Awaiting range confirmation."

	"Fire as soon as you have a target. Flanking units, report in."

	"Scout-Sergeant Saotome, Bike Squadron. We're in position, awaiting your 
order."

	"Hold until I give the signal."

	"Advance units are in range of our heavy weapons," Washuu reported from he 
position behind several crates."

	Trunks nodded. "Heavy weapons squads, this is Scout-Sergeant Trunks. Open 
fire."

	As one, several dozen heavy weapons spoke, Las-blasts and missiles raced 
towards the rebel force, carving a hole in forward assault. Seconds later, a 
number of 85mm mortar shells landed on the rebels, tearing apart several 
squads of lightly armoured infantry. The vehicles and shock troops continued 
forward.

	The Whirlwind opened fire, firing several missiles from it's turret weapon 
into the rebel assault, reaping havoc on the rebel infantry. The rest of the 
Imperial vehicles and troops joined in, their various weapons determined to 
deal as much damage as possible.

	But the rebels were returning fire, autogun rounds and las-rounds reaching 
out towards the defenses. Several guardsmen fell, as a rebel Leman Russ 
targeted and destroyed a Chimera, only to fall victim to the wrath of the 
Destroyer and the Lascannon-equipped Sentinel Walker.

	"Saotome, now!" Trunks yelled, firing his bolt pistol into the approaching 
horde.

	About two kilometres from the town, Ranma waved his hand in the air. "Let's 
go!" he ordered, speeding towards the battle, the rest of the flanking units 
behind him.

	The rebel column was an advance element of the main army. While the main 
force was spread out to fight along the entire battlelines, the rebel column 
that the Imperials currently fought, along with the other columns along the 
battleline, were designed to focus the assault at one point, to crate a hole 
in the line, allowing rebel forces to flank the Guard units. However, their 
weapons were pointing directly in front, and it seemed that the officer in 
charge of this force lacked proper combat experience, failing to have units 
dedicated to defending against flank attacks. This would cost them dearly.

	Ranma's bike squadron raced in first, their Blazer's built-in lasguns 
firing on full auto into the infantry units, while the built-in Bolters on 
the Heavy Weapons bike (currently being ridden by Taichi Yagami) laid into 
one of the unarmoured trucks carrying more troops, trying to hit something 
valuable. As several squads of regular renegade infantry and Shock Troops 
recovered from their surprise, the Blazer Hovercycles broke away, allowing 
the second half of the flanking units to attack.

	The two tanks raced into battle. On the left was the Chimera APC of the 
Seventh Companies Recon Squad. It's turret-mounted Multilaser and 
hull-mounted Heavy Bolter spat death into the enemy, while the remaining 
members of Corporal Hicks squad fired the lasguns built into the troop 
compartment in the vehicle. Again, it broke away before any real firepower 
could be directed at it.

	The last vehicle was similar in design to the Whirlwind, both of them based 
off the original Rhino template. But where the bulky missile launcher was 
located on the artillery platform, there was a turret mounting a Lascannon 
and twin-linked plasma guns, launching hard light and white-hot energy into 
the side of a Leman Russ, punching a hole through it's side, destroying the 
flamer mounted in the side sponson. As the Razorback broke away, the injured 
Russ
attempted to turn, bringing its battle cannon to bear on the Space Marine 
tank. But the 170mm shell impacted into a sand dune, sending a cloud of sand 
into the air and little else.

	The distance between the two armies continued to decrease, with casualties 
building up on both sides, until Trunks gave the order for Ranma to bring 
out the surprises hidden in the dunes. With a roar, the explosives Ranma had 
set the day before detonated underneath the renegades, showering them with 
shrapnel and flames. At the same time, several plasma mines the sergeant had 
taken from the supplies Seventh Company brought with them armed. Two tanks 
and a small number of infantry were taken out.

	In the first ten minutes of the battle, the defenders had the advantage, 
thanks to the help of their location, and a number of tricks that had taken 
the enemy by surprise. However, that was set to change, with a squadron of 
rebel aircraft detected moving towards the town.

***

	Gohan sliced down, turning the traitor Marines boltgun into scrap metal, 
before stepping back to avoid the chainsword wielded by the other Chaos 
worshipper. The spinning, jagged teeth barely missed his helmet, but 
swinging the bulky weapon left him wide open to an attack by a faster 
fighter. The Space Marine took advantage of this, ramming a claw through his 
opponents head, killing him instantly. He kicked the other traitor away then 
charged the leader, who was still chanting.

	The pair collided in an explosion of psychic energy, the power of the 
summoning spell released into the air. Gohan backhanded his opponent away, 
then cut the girls bonds. "Stay behind me," he ordered her, before turning 
to parry a series of attacks by the leader and a mutant. Nearby, Radditz 
went one on one with what appeared to be the only other remaining Chaos 
Marine.

	He backhanded the Chaos Marine away before shredding the mutant. He glanced 
behind him for a moment. Although their armour had a number of scratches and 
dents, all of the Terminators were alive and well, the simple claws of the 
mutants and light rifles of the humanoid cultists unable to penetrate their 
advanced armour. As he watched, Radditz grabbed his opponents head in his 
Power Fist and crushed it like a rotten piece of fruit.

	That moment of distraction cost him dearly. As he turned back to the last 
Chaos Marine, he heard the traitor chanting the spell yet again. Growling in 
anger, he leapt forward, slamming his left Lightning Claw through his foes 
chest, then sliced upwards, the energy fields around the claws allowing him 
to easily cut through both ceramite armour and rotting flesh.

	Horror building up within him, the Space Marine turned to face the young 
woman. A strange, pale red aura appeared around her, and her eyes had turned 
completely black. "Well," she said in a voice like gravel, and didn't match 
with her lip movement, "it appears that the spell was incomplete. No matter, 
I once again exist in the material world. No more is needed."

	"Who are you beast?" Gohan growled, signalling to the Terminators to 
surround her. Several of the elite Marines moved into position, the others 
dealing with the last of the mutants still alive.

	"I am Zelas," the demoness said, her voice becoming softer, and matching 
the movement of her lips. "And what of you, little mortals? Who are you?"

	"Enough talk!" Radditz yelled, snapping his Assault Cannon into place. 
"Let's kill this freak!" The barrels on his bulky firearm began rotating 
again with a whine familiar to all present. Zelas spun on the spot, her eyes 
glowing red and a glowing sphere of energy forming in an outstretched hand.

	"Move Radditz!" Gohan ordered. Radditz leapt to the side, but the bulk of 
the Terminator armour slowed him down. The energy blast ripped through his 
arm, ignoring the protection offered by the most advanced armour in the 
galaxy, tearing the limb from his body. Growing in pain and anger, Radditz 
stumbled back, glancing at his left arm lying on the ground. The Power Fist 
twitched a few times, then went still.

	Raising the Assault Cannon linked to his armours remaining arm, he opened 
fire. To his disgust and outrage, the bullets were harmlessly deflected by a 
hexagonal force-field that appeared in front of the demon. "Fools," Zelas 
whispered, her voice easily picked up by the external microphones in the 
Marines armour. "You are nothing compared to me." She raised her hand again, 
another sphere of Warp energy forming. Two Terminators dodged to the side as 
the
demoness used her abilities to carve a tunnel through the rock. Rising 
slightly above the ground, Zelas flew into the tunnel.

	"Tien, Yamcha, check on Radditz," Gohan ordered, running to the tunnel 
entrance. As near as he could see, the tunnel was at a slight angle, rising 
towards the surface slowly. The autosensors in his armour scanned the tunnel 
walls, informing him that there was no heat in the walls whatsoever. Zelas 
hadn't melted the rock, she had destroyed it.

	"He'll live," Tien reported. "The blast blew the entire limb off, but it's 
a clean wound, and his body is already sealing the wound."

	Gohan nodded. The healing abilities of Space Marines were some of the best 
in the galaxy, ranking alongside creatures like demons and Orks (The later 
of which were capable of being decapitated and still have the head insult 
you for a good half-hour). The genetic enhancements in Radditz's body would 
prevent him from bleeding to death, and Marines from his family line had 
recieved bionics before, which meant that he would live to fight again.

	Quickly gathering his men, Gohan Son did the only thing he could do, and 
set off after Zelas. After about two minutes, Yamcha spoke up. "Captain, if 
my armours sensors are right, we're heading directly for the ghost town."

	Curious, Gohan checked his own systems, and was suprised by the answer. 
They were indeed on their way back to the ghost town, taking a tunnel that 
lead directly to it rather then twisting and turning underneath the desert. 
"That'd be right," he muttered. "We spend all night stomping around to try 
and find these Chaos freaks, and then it takes us about half an hour to get 
back to the extraction point."

	"But of course, Zelas will get there before us," Radditz muttered.

	"Mostly because you provoked her," Gohan noted. "Maybe that will teach you 
to be more careful in future."

***

	Shinji squeezed the trigger, sending a red pulse of energy racing down into 
the battlefield below. Another Shock Troop fell, his helmet destroyed. 
Calmly, the youth selected another target.

	Nearby, Scout Brendan Lawson wondered at how calm Shinji was. The boy 
seemed more like a Vindicare then a Guardsman. He had no way of knowing that 
Ikari was like that all the time. He only really noted this in passing, too 
busy taking down soldiers with his own sniper rifle, which used actual 
bullets, unlike Shinji's laser weapon.

	By now the gap was closing. Renegade and Imperial were less then twenty 
metres apart, weapons fire on both sides cutting into their numbers. Heavy 
weaponry on both sides tore into infantry and vehicles alike, until a gap 
was opened in the Imperial lines when a Leman Russ took out an entire 
six-man heavy weapon squad. Rebel soldiers, mostly light infantry, charged 
forward.

"Vegita, there's a breach in the line to the right of you. Rebels moving in. 
Deploy and intercept," Trunks ordered.

	The renegades were already through the breach when it happened. Turning to 
fire on the Guardsmen on both sides of them, when a nearby building 
exploded. Stepping out of the rubble was a walking nightmare, twice as tall 
as the largest soldier among them. What little of the morning light that 
penetrated the cloud cover reflected off the silver armour plates and the 
extremely well-maintained
weapons. And in the centre of the war machine, the coffin that contained the 
nearly-dead Space Marine, kept alive by ancient technology understood by 
few.

	Several of the rebels turned and ran, only to be cut down by the assault 
cannon built into the Dreadnoughts right side. Those that stayed, mostly 
thanks to stupidity, were quickly crushed and killed by the massive Power 
Fist on its left arm. Vegita, former commander of the Eternal Dragons Third 
Company, now allowed to fight on after death as a sign of respect for his 
sacrifice, roared out a challenge to any brave enough to face him in battle.

	Two K-suits turned to face him, their pilots directing all their firepower 
at their targets. Autocannon and grenade rounds impacted harmlessly against 
the dreadnoughts outer shell, as the Space Marine charged at them, his 
deathly laugh amplified by the Dreadnoughts external speakers.

	One Imperial Dreadnought, piloted by a Space Marine with centuries of 
experience, against two renegades in inferior powered suits. Vegita tore 
them apart without even truly trying. Some distance away, Ranma shuddered as 
he watched the Dreadnought rip open the K-Suits and pulp their pilots. 
"Thank the Emperor that beast is on our side," he muttered, bringing his 
squad around for another run. They had suffered one casualty so far in this 
battle. Daisuke had been hit by a frag rocket, destroying both the soldier 
and his bike in an
instant.

	Firing a long burst into a group of infantry, Ranma signalled for the 
squadron to break away. As a parting gift, he slapped a melta charge against 
the hull of a Leman Russ. The resulting blast vaporised the tank, igniting 
its internal reactor.

	"That was my last melta bomb," he said over the comm-link, glancing at his 
watch. Another hour and twenty minutes before the first sign of 
reinforcements arrived. As he looked at the Imperial lines, he had to admit 
he wasn't sure that they would last that long.

***

	All along the outskirts of the town, Imperial battled renegade 
hand-to-hand, trying to survive. Only the Space Marines seemed to be able to 
beat the rebels on a constant basis, killing any traitor that came near 
them. "Trunks, you need any help there?" he asked over the comm-link, 
throwing proper comm-discipline to the wind.

	"Forget flank attacks for now," Trunks ordered. "Squad Mortar-Three needs 
help, and I don't have anyone to spare."

	"On it," Saotome replied. "Bikes, break left!" He turned hard, racing 
towards the battle again.

	High above, Shinji also heard the order, and located Squad Mortar-Three. 
The six-man squad only carried sidearms in addition to the three DFA-125 
Mortars that were used in the squads duty of light bombardment, leaving them 
open to close assault. Even as Shinji watched, one of the guardsmen was cut 
open by a blade carried by one of the Shock Troops, a bloody hole exposing 
his internal organs to the world. White-hot anger flashed through the young 
man for a moment, and he fired a shot that took off the offending Shock 
Troopers head completely.

	Quickly, Shinji searched for the next shot. Trying another blast into the 
melee below was crazy. Taking out that Shock Trooper took more then a little 
luck, and there was a good chance that another shot would take out a 
guardsman. Instead, he focused his fire on anyone that seemed to be 
interested in moving in to support the rebels already attacking the mortar 
squad. He'd taken down about four more renegades when he saw Ranma and the 
rest of his squad charging into the fight.

	Screaming something rather obscene, Ranma crushed a rebel underneath his 
bike, the anti-grav fields reducing the man to pulp. The Sergeant then leapt 
off his hovercycle, bolt pistol in one hand and a long knife in the other. 
The rest of the squad was close behind, some remaining on the bikes, others 
dismounting.

	Konoko ran past Ranma, a bolt pistol in both hands. With a speed and grace 
that seemed to defy belief, the Commissar ducked and weaved her way through 
the various soldiers, firing her pistols in every direction, cutting down 
anyone against the Emperor.

"Damn she's good," Ranma muttered, plunging his knife into the stomach of an 
unarmoured rebel, before easily dodging a punch by a Shock Trooper, firing 
several bolt rounds into the soldiers face. "Lina, squad at five o'clock. 
Burn 'em!"

	Spinning on the spot, Lina unslung her flamer and aimed for a squad of 
rebel infantry running towards them. Some of them, spotting the powerful 
assault weapon, skidded to a halt and tried to find cover. Before they could 
though, Lina fired off a massive burst of flame that burnt a hole in the 
middle of the squad. Their morale shattered by the sight of almost half 
their squad burnt to humanoid ashes, the survivors turned and ran.

	Nearby, Trunks watched Ranma's squad, with no small amount of respect. 
Somehow, Ranma's squad contained a number of very talented fighters, or 
martial artists as these Tokyites called themselves. Although they would be 
no match for him in full power armour, he hadn't seen unaugmented humans 
with such power and skill in a long time. Calmly parrying the blade of a 
Shock Troopers sword, he considered a sparring match with Sergeant Saotome 
some time after this fight was over.

	Next to the Scout-Sergeant, Washuu fired her shotgun at a rebel, blowing 
off a leg, before glancing at the data-slate in her other hand. "The air 
craft are here!" she yelled, pointing at the sky. Trunks followed her 
outstretched hand, and saw two Lightning fighter craft, racing towards the 
town.

	"All troops, prepare for aerial attack," he growled. "Anti-air, direct your 
fire on the air-craft." From the southern edge of town, he watched as 
several missiles and Las-beams reached up into the sky. One of the 
Lightnings managed to manoeuvre around the attack, but the other lost a 
wing, sliced off by the hard-light beam of a Lascannon. Out of control, it 
crashed to one side of the rebel force, killing no one but its pilots.

	The other air craft opened fire, it's autocannon and Lascannons tearing 
through the middle of the Imperial defence. Ranma stumbled back in horror as 
the autocannon rounds shredded Hiroshi, dropping him like a ripped bag of 
seed. One of the bikes, Konoko's, was hit by a las-beam and exploded, 
sending shrapnel in every direction, peppering the defenders with shrapnel. 
The battle at that section of the defenses faltered and died in the face of 
such an onslaught, which left a twenty metre wide hole in the defenses, 
larger then any caused so far.

	Ranma, one of those not wounded, looked around in horror. The renegade air 
craft had fired into both Imperial and rebel troops, leaving dozens of dead 
and injured. And now, more rebels were moving to attack.

	"Imperial forces, this is Scout-Sergeant Trunks. Fall back to rally-line 
Alpha. Don't give up. We've got just under an hour left. We've made it past 
the halfway mark, we can keep going. Fight for the Emperor and he will 
provide for you."

	Picking up the badly wounded Hiroshi, Ranma glanced at his squad. "Get the 
remaining bikes," he ordered, sprinting towards rally-line Alpha, which was 
where the tanks had set up initially. All along the line, Imperial troops 
disengaged and fell back. Saotome ran between the Whirlwind and a Leman Russ 
just as both tanks fired off another salvo, the sound wave nearly deafening 
him.

	Laying Hiroshi on the ground, he yelled for a medic. Soldiers ran in every 
direction, although none of them came to help tend to the injured Guardsman 
in front of Ranma.

	"Guess they're... a little busy right now sarge," Hiroshi muttered, 
coughing up blood. "Look, forget about me, I'm already dead. My body just 
hasn't noticed yet. Get back to the fight. 'Sides, Daisuke's dead too. We 
made a good team, back in the old days..."

	"Save your strength 'Roshi," Ranma said. "MEDIC! Where's a damn medic?"

	"Dai and I were like brothers. We did everything together, and it seems 
that even includes dying. I'll say hi to everyone for you."

	And with that, he died. Just another victim of a war that had no sense and 
no reason. Ranma sighed, standing up and calmly loading a fresh clip into 
his bolt pistol. He glanced up at the sound of the rebel Lightning, coming 
around for another pass. "This isn't over yet," he muttered. "Form up on 
me!" he ordered as his squad approached.

	"'Roshi?" Tenchi asked. Ranma simply shook his head.

	"Lina, status?"

	"The Commissar's bike got trashed, but we've still got enough. Are we 
heading out to flank them again?"

	Ranma activated his comm-link. "Scout-Sergeant Trunks, this is 
Scout-Sergeant Saotome? What are your orders?"

	"Form up in the main battle line. We're too short on men to send you out as 
a flanking unit again."

	"Understood." The guardsman looked at his squad. "Form up on the battle 
line, rifles ready." Even as he gave the order, he unslung his bolter, thumb 
toggling the safety.

	And that was when the ground exploded.

***

	With a flash of arcane power, Zelas blasted her way to the surface, rising 
in the aftermath of an explosion that tore a hole in the middle of the rebel 
advance. Calmly, the demoness looked around, watching as the humans moved 
back from her, expressions of fear and horror on their faces as they 
realised this was some kind of psyker.

	Then one of the soldiers shot at her with a pistol. The las-blast glanced 
off her force field, but anger filled her at the thought of a mere human 
having the nerve to even try to attack her. Screaming with rage, she 
released her power, sending a wave of energy in every direction, vaporising 
the rebels around her.

	In a matter of seconds, Zelas did what would have taken the Imperials many 
lives and perhaps another hour or two. The powers of the Warp reached into 
their bodies and burned them alive from the inside out.

	"Throne of Earth," Schofield gasped as he watched the rebels die painfully, 
eldritch energies killing them from within. "What is that thing?"

	"There's only one thing it can be," Trunks growled. "Demon! Heavy Weapons 
Squads, concentrate fire on the new target! All other units, fire on the 
remaining rebels."

	Once again, the Imperials opened fire in a devastating display of power, 
with countless ranged attacks impacting against the demons shields. At the 
same time, the more conventional infantry units opened fire on what was left 
of the rebel column, wiping most of them out of existence.

	As the large smoke cloud in front of them faded away, a number of the Guard 
screamed at the sight of Zela, bloodied but still very intact, walking 
towards them. "Fools," she said, her voice unheard by those standing against 
her. "Do you really believe that you stand a chance against the powers of 
Chaos?"

	"While your cheap parlour tricks may have dealt with those pathetic 
renegades," a new voice said, "I'm afraid you'll have to try much harder 
then that to even scratch me." Zelas turned to face this new voice, then 
jumped back just in time to avoid the power fist that tried to remove her 
head from her body. Landing several metres away, she simply looked at the 
Dreadnought that had snuck up on her while she was busy getting shot at. "My 
body is properly warded against techniques like that," Vegita told her.

	Zelas didn't even bother to reply, instead punching the metal monstrosity 
in the stomach. The Dreadnought stumbled back, a slight dint in its armour, 
before opening up with its assault cannon. The Demoness ignored the 
hypervelocity slugs, tackling the machine and sending them sprawling into 
the mud.

	"How the heck can that girl fight a Dreadnought unarmed?" Ranma muttered as 
he watched the fight.

	"That's no ordinary girl, in case you haven't noticed," Lina spat. "I doubt 
it's even human. It's a demon. They have a habit of ignoring the laws of 
nature." The red-head gave her friend a very sarcastic look. "I'd have 
thought you would have figured that out by now, considering how much we just 
shot at her."

"Yeah, well, you're the expert on bizarre happenings and strange shit," 
Ranma replied, firing his bolter at a surviving rebel. "If it wasn't for the 
fact she could, and most likely will, do the same thing to us, I'd almost 
consider thanking her for dealing with those rebels for us."

	Konoko opened her mouth to make a reply, but she snapped it shut and 
glanced up at the sky above, where the rebel Lightning aircraft was pulling 
away. "I guess he's not so confident about facing a creature that can kill 
several companies of his own men."

	"Funny, he didn't seem to worry about his own men when he was strafing us 
before," Ranma muttered. As he watched, a number of Guardsmen and Marines 
with heavy weapons opened fire on the aircraft. The pilot was good, but 
there was no way in hell he could have avoided all of the weapons aimed in 
his direction now. After all, without the rebel ground units to fire at, 
there were only two possible targets. And Vegita was blocking everyone's 
line of sight on Zelas.

	And when the surviving tanks opened fire as well, it was all over. As the 
burning wreck crashed into a sand dune, the Imperial forces turned their 
attention back to the demon.

	Trunks observed the fight between machine and monster, noting down 
weaknesses in the fighting style of the demoness. Vegita's efforts were not 
really very effective, as the machine was simply too slow to really inflict 
any damage on the monster he fought.

	Before anyone had a chance to react, Zelas leapt over the Dreadnought, 
landing behind it, and blasted a section of the war machines power plant. 
Vegita stumbled for a few seconds, then fell over and twitched a few times, 
his main power destroyed, although the back-up system to protect his 
organics remained. Zelas turned to face the Imperial forces, an evil grin on 
her face. "Now then, where were we?"

	There was no answer, except for the pair of lightning claws that sliced 
down her back and sent her into the desert floor. Looking up, she recieved a 
boot to the head as Gohan laid into her again. Taking to the air for safety, 
she was left opened to yet another barrage of weaponry. As the smoke 
cleared, the demoness was left floating on midair, her clothes in ruins. 
"Foolish mortals!" she yelled, her voice louder then what should have been 
possible. "I have
lived for thousands of years! I have destroyed entire worlds, killed 
billions of your worthless species. And yet you are still foolish enough to 
try and kill me?"

	A short distance away, Shinji took careful aim. Zela's head was right where 
he wanted it. Making one last adjusted based on the wind speed, he fired. 
Zelas screamed in a combination of rage and pain as the blast hit her just 
under her left ear, punching a hole through her head. Taken by surprise, her 
force fields penetrated by a blow far weaker then many of those directed at 
her over the past few minutes, she was left wide open. But only for a 
moment. Even as Gohan moved to attack her as she fell, the wound healed and 
she came to a
halt in mid air again.

	They were unnerved by this bizarre creature, seemingly capable of surviving 
any kind of attack, and which had destroyed the rebel force in seconds. But 
still the Tokyo First and the Eternal Dragons held firm, determined to 
destroy this beast, no matter what it took.

	Zelas considered her options. She was powerful, of that there was no doubt. 
However, she was tired. She had just re-entered the material realm after 
centuries in the Warp, destroyed an army, and withstood several salvos of 
fire from the Imperials opposing her. She needed to rest, badly. And so it 
was that Zelas simply teleported away, leaving a battered, but alive, 
Imperial force.

	Admist the cheering, Lieutenant Schofield looked at his data-slate. On it 
was a display of the renegade advance towards them. "The demon may be gone," 
he muttered, "but what do we do about them?"

	"We wait," Trunks replied, sheathing his power sword.

***

	The main Imperial force arrived before the renegades. Captain Gohan Son 
wasted no time in speaking to Lord Commander Hayes, convincing him that it 
was a better solution to dig trenches and settle in, rather then have the 
Eternal Dragons pull their support from this war. After all, Space Marines 
did not answer to the orders of the Guard, except for when it suited _them_.

	All along the Imperial line, the advance rebel columns smashed into the 
Imperial forces. Although some of the columns did manage to penetrate the 
first lines, they were unable to do much damage, thanks to quick responses 
by both the Guards second defence lines and the Eternal Dragons squads that 
used drop pods to reach problem areas quickly. The majority of the renegade 
columns were simply destroyed before they could punch a hole in the Imperial 
defenses.

	General Tendo made the ghost town his base of operations for the defence, 
and quickly had the plans Misato had created the night before put into 
practise. Many of the surviving guardsmen from the ghost town found that 
instead of getting some well earned sleep, they were digging trenches. Much 
to his annoyance, Trunks found that the same was true for the Space Marines.

	At eleven a.m, almost four hours after the beginning of the battle at the 
ghost town, the renegade force arrived to find that the Imperials had set up 
strong defenses, filled with both Guardsmen and Space Marines. Artillery 
pounded them as they attempted to advance, Imperial advance units such as 
Schofields recon platoon and Trunks' scout squad, handling problems such as 
Wasps and scout tanks, before dropping back behind Imperial lines when the 
rebels came too close.

	The rebel commander, realising that a poorly supported assault against the 
Imperial trenches would fail, made the decision the dig in and resume the 
trench wars, just as they were almost a week before. Although these new 
trenches were several hundred kilometres closer to Kell Hive.

***

	Ranma looked at the lines of trenches, just on the edge of the town. It was 
no longer a ghost town, filled to breaking point with soldiers and all the 
people needed to support an army. He doubted that the rebels would penetrate 
those any time soon.

<So, was it worth it?> he asked himself, looking at the dog tags in his 
hand.

	Hiroshi Ikuhara, Trooper, Tokyo First Imperial Guard Regiment.

	Ranma thought about the latest loss to his squad. Hiroshi had only been in 
the squad for about a week, replacing Kensuke, who was still recovering from 
the stomach wound he had gotten in the last trench battle. He had a sense of 
humour, his own opinion on matters and an obsession with heavy weapons that 
was almost frightening. Ranma had never figured out why the man had been 
assigned to the bike squad rather then a squad with constant access to heavy 
weapons. But
then again, that didn't really matter anymore, did it?

	Then, of course, there was Daisuke. He and Hiroshi seemed like brothers, 
complementing each other perfectly. Where Hiroshi preferred area saturation, 
Dai went for a rifle and a 'one shot, one hit,' approach to combat. It had 
been expected that when the modified hovercycle was complete and the weapon 
platform attached, Hiroshi would take control of the beast, while Dai dealt 
with anything too manuverable for the bigger bike.

	Outside combat, it was always certain that Dai would find something to pass 
the time, and when Hiroshi joined the squad, the pair seemed to be able to 
find anything, with an ease that impressed even Lina.

	Sadly, he tossed the dog tags aside, then looked in the direction of the 
rebel trenches. <He wasn't the first,> Ranma told himself, <and he won't be 
the last.> Turning his back to the war for a short time, Ranma went to find 
a drink.

***

	"So, her name was Zelas?" Lina asked. Trunks simply nodded. "Ring any 
bells?"

	The Space Marine shook his head. "I'm afraid not," he replied. "But then, 
there are so many demons and heretics out there. The Captain has sent word 
back to our homeworld. With a little luck, we might know more about her 
before we come across her again."

	"She wasn't your normal demon, I can say that much," Lina said, taking a 
sip of her beer. Trunks raised an eyebrow in question. "Look, demons 
possessing people isn't uncommon. In fact, it happens too damn often for my 
liking. But demons never, and I mean _never_, know how to look after a 
physical body properly. They usually forget to eat, sleep, all the little 
things a human needs to survive. After a few months, there's nothing left 
but a shell, animated by the demons foul energies."

	"Zelas had only just possessed that body," Trunks pointed out, placing his 
own drink on the table for a moment. "She hasn't had time to let it rot."

	"But after we hit her with those attacks, and Ikari blasted a hole through 
her head, she healed them. She healed them properly. No strange mutations, 
no distortions, nothing that would accompany a normal demon healing itself 
through the use of Warp energies."

	"You're right," Trunks muttered. "How'd I miss that?"

	Lina grinned. "I guess the little kid can spot things the veteran misses," 
she quipped.

	"Don't sell yourself short," Trunks said, before draining his glass. "For 
someone only out of their teens, you've got a lot of experience, more then 
some Marines I know. I'll pass your observations onto the Captain."

	"Thanks," Lina replied. "I thought Marines didn't drink?"

	"Some of them don't," Trunks replied. "Too many of them are Warrior Monks, 
forgetting everything but the fighting. The Eternal Dragons don't use that 
approach. We make sure we remember what we're fighting for. See you around." 
He dropped some money on the table and walked off.

	Lina sat there for a moment, before draining her own beer and walking off. 
By the time she reached the door of the makeshift pub, Trunks had vanished 
into the crowd of soldiers on the street.

	Shrugging, she made her way to where the Tokyo First's Recon Platoon was 
billeted, intent on getting some sleep. She had a feeling she was going to 
need all the rest she could get over the coming weeks.

***

	End Part Four

***

	Author's notes:

	FINALLY! I was starting to wonder if I'd ever get this one done. Thanks to 
some well-placed exams, I had to stop work on this for over three weeks, 
making for a shitload of delays.

	This is the final part of Soldiers of the Imperium. Before you start up 
with the flames, let me explain. I've actually gotten requests for more on 
the version of Trunks shown in these last two chapters. However, I had no 
plans for Trunks and Ranma to meet again for quite a while. Because of this, 
I will be writing two one-shots in the coming months. Vengeance will cover 
the Tokyo First's Recon Platoon, while Infiltration will focus on Trunks. 
This adventure is nowhere near finished. If anything, my muse is only just 
kicking into high gear.

	Many thanks to all those that have sent in compliments and encouragement. 
During the past few months, the only mailing list I was on was Sofaspud's 
Couch, but still, I recieved more e-mails then I have for any other story. I 
couldn't have done it without your help.

	Netaddress is going off-line at the end of the month, and I'm not willing 
to pay for their new service, so I might not have a properly fixed e-mail 
address for a while. Try Matrix_83@Hotmail.com, but I might not be able to 
reply from there, thanks to the large amount of spam that crashes that old 
account.

	Thanks again, and I hope you've enjoyed the ride!

***

	Soldiers of the Imperium
	Part Four

	Cast (In order of appearance):
	Scout-Sergeant Ranma Saotome
	Veteran Scout-Sergeant Trunks
	Trooper Rook Bartley
	Corperal Robert Hicks
	Scout Trooper Ash Ketchum
	Commissar Konoko
	Tech-Priestess Washuu Habuki
	Scout Trooper Lina Inverse
	Scout Marine Brendan 'Ringo' Lawson
	Scout Trooper Shinji Ikari
	Second Lieutenant Shane 'Scarecrow' Schofield
	First Lieutenant Kaji Ryouji
	Commissar Barnes
	General Soun Tendo
	Captain Misato Katsuragi
	Comms-officer Kai
	Captain Gohan Son
	Trooper Hiroshi Ikuhara
	Eternal Dragons Space Marine Chapter, Third Company
	Eternal Dragons Space Marine Chapter, First Company Terminators
	Honoured Dreadnought Vegita
	Trooper Taichi Yagami
	Terminator Tien
	Terminator Radditz
	Cultist
	Tokyo First Imperial Guard Regiment Recon Platoon
	Tokyo First Imperial Guard Regiment, Seventh Company
	Redermade Independence Army, 22nd Regiment, 3rd-5th Company
	Traitor Marines, unidentified.
	Heretic Mutants, formerly residents of the Ghost Towns
	Zelas
	Terminator Yamcha
	The pilots of RIAF Squadron 362
	Honourable Lord Commander Richard Hayes

	Exhausted Writer:
	Christopher A. Wood

	Technical Consultants:
	Brendan 'Ringo' Lawson
	Games Workshop

	The Tokyo First Regiment will return in 'Vengeance'
	Veteran Scout-Sergeant Trunks will return in 'Infiltration'

	A Matrix Dragon Production
	(c) 2001



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