The Scouring of Arajo

Melak braced himself as he heard his flamer explode, a heat wave accelerated the push, throwing him and the big guy even further. Struggling to stay on top of the guy Melak smashed his elbows into the mans face. The ground came rushing to them rather quickly and Melak closed his eyes. The giant of a man crashed into the ground with a huge sound, with Melak "Riding" on him. The impact against the ground took all of Melak's air from his lounges and he was sure that he heard something crack, but on the other hand its possible that the big man broke every bone in his body.

Opening his eyes Melak saw the big mans face twisted horribly, it was clear that he suffered tremendous pain when they hit the ground, it could clearly be seen in his eyes. He pushed himself to his knees and looked at the now obviously dead man, his chest was covered with blood and a lot of blood was spilling out of the back of his head. Melak rolled of the dead body and slowly stood up. He was covered in blood, most of it not his at all. Several bruises and wounds could be seen on Melak's body but not the kind which will interfere with the rest of the mission.

Melak scoured (oh yeah, like Arajo) the surroundings, the carnage surrounded them. The bodys of the once zombies laid cut down, destroyed. Melak continued watching the surroundings and then he saw his squad gathered nearby. He walked towards his squad while walking he noticed new figures around and after a few seconds he understood that this were reapers. A grin appeared on his face, they probably destroyed the zombies... If this was not enough already he spotted Gabriel Hultz the reapers leader.

Melak waved to Brast, pointing out that he is still alive. Then he continued walking until he arrived at the squad gathering place. "Mission accomplished sir, building burned down." Melak said, speaking to Brast. He then slowly sat down on the floor resting for a bit until they will have to continue scouring the rest of the hab blocks. "Ah, by the way, I lost my flamer... Its, hmmm, kind of exploded in the building. I think I need a new weapon as I have only my blade left and a couple of frags.", Melak said unsure of the reaction he will get from Brast.

After a few seconds a squad D chimera pulled into the open near them, Melak saw Jackson surveying from the chimera's top hatch. Once he spotted Brast and Serpio who have been wounded he quickly jumped out of the hatch before the chimera even stopped and rushed to them to tend to their wounds. Melak then noticed Hultz from the reaper squad heading towards them. He knew the man, by name and reputation. He heard a lot on his bravery and skill and he knew that he was highly regarded back in command. Melak was a little nervous, he was not sure if he did good on this mission and he really did not like the idea of being laughed at after such a thing. Hoping for good Melak just waited, standing up out of respect when Hultz came close to them.

Dean leant out of cover, and let loose another volley from his lasgun. There were too many zombies for him to take out at the moment though. This was before he saw a flash of bright red, obscuring his vision temporarily. He ducked behind cover for a moment to regain his sight before he looked back out. The zombies were dead, he turned to try and find the source of this devastation, weapon still raise in case it was hostile.

He smiled as he found the source, slinging his lasgun on his shoulder and standing up. He nodded to the sentinel pilots that made up Reaper Five and Reaper Lead. These were the elite of the platoon, the lead was Hultz, an old friend of Brast. He moved forward watching the armoured forms of the sentinels. Hultz leapt from the cockpit and moved over to Brast and the sergeant from D squad and they began to talk.

"Wonder what they are talking about, new orders for redeployment?" Dean said to no one in particular. He stood nearby, staring at the sentinels. He was envious to say the least, they were the best of the best, and one day he would be one of them. If he lived that long.

Jackon was on top cover in the Chimera as it drove towards the front line, just behind the Elite Reapers, which crushed the enemy attacking the cut off squads. "Here we go" he muttered to himself, knowing any moment men would be screaming for medics, the battle was at a lull now thanks to the Reapers, but that wouldn't last long, the enemy would be on them again soon and more screams of agony and dispair would reach him. Feth he hated this place, why had he been so stupid to sign up, should have just stayed a doctor back home living a nice easy life. He pulled out his aquilla pendant and kissed it before stowing it away again. Shaking off his feelings of unease and disquiet he looked out to see both Brast and Serpio were injured and in need of medical treatment. He adopted his positive, cock-sure act that he put on for the benefit of others, it was no good having a pesimistic medic looking after you. Looking down into the troops in the Chimera he grinned and said "Time for me to go play hero boys" and jumped out of the transport before it had come to a full stop.

Brast looked the most injured with a nasty looking wound in his shoulder. "Decided to get yourself injured and try and get a little R'n'R eh sarge?" as he began to clean the wound. It had already been cauterized by the shot, no doubt from a lasgun, but it might have done more internal damage. "Not gonna lie to you sarge, this is gonna hurt" He shot a small dose of morphine into the area first and then cut away some of the cauterized flesh to look at the damage. "Doesn't look too bad, shouldn't suffer any permenant damage to your arms mobility, no r'n'r for this im afraid." He cleaned the wound up, sprayed it with anti-septic and began to suture the wound closed, once that was done he put a tight dressing onto it. "Try to stop the heroics for now sarge, don't want those stiches tearing, yell if you need me"

He then ran over to Serpio who had by the looks of it taken a shot to the lower arm, which he had dressed himself, badly he might add. "Jeez, who the feth taught you how to dress a wound!" he said to him, "where the hells your medic?" Ripping off the dressing and examaning the wound, it didn't looks bad again, but the crude dressing hadn't helped much, any longer and it might have become infected. "It still hurt? How's it feel, you got full range of movement?" He waited for his reply as he treated the injury and put a fresh dressing on. "You guys look like you've had it pretty rough." he said, lighting up a smoke and offering another to Serpio. He could hear someone else crying out for a medic. He cursed this damn place, letting his act slip for a moment as he looked across the area where the main fight had taken place, he would give anything to be back home right now, having a quiet drink inbetween treating the trivial patients in the small town clinic. The call for medic went out again and he shook himself out of his thoughts. He pressed a fresh med-kit into Serpios hand, "Duty calls mate" and ran off again to the next soldier.

All; As you gather, wondering what Brast, sergeant Hultz, and sergeant Faust Vyukes of squad D are talking about, both Brast and Vyukes turn their attention back to their respective squads and call for all of you to gather. You march to the trio without a word and proceed to take a knee as you and squad D gather round. "Should the Emperor being feeling generous, maybe we'll find some survivors and no traps. Failing that, stay alert and keep an eye out, we still got four more of these blocks to search out and I am not gonna come and save your arses every time shit goes flying." Hultz says with a bit of a grin. "The Lieutenant's orders still stand, we go through the ten stacks split up between the hard liners and reapers and the bastards and bulldogs. After that, we meet up with the rest of the platoon at the town center, hopefully with some good news for the CO." Vyukes added in before Brast spit a wad of something on the ground.

"Well why we wastin' what remains of the light then? Come on ladies, lets get a movin." He says before kicking Melak in the ass and getting him to head for the squad chimera at a real nice pace. "I swear Melak, if the quartermaster don't skin your hide I will. Ready up the heavy stubber we got, and don't you dare go losin' or destroyin' it or I'll save the commissars the trouble of punishment!" He calls out after Melak before looking to the rest of you. "Well what ya waitin' for? Open invitation? Get the hell up and lets get movin'!"


Six hours, and four blocks later; night has most assuredly fallen on the town, the darkness only just cut by the floodlamp and headlights of the chimera. In that time, you found nothing; no survivors, no more zombies, no hostiles: nothing. There were a few traps, and depraved signs of death and struggle, but little else had come from the searching. Word over the vox from the bastards was much the same, they had come under fire earlier but nothing further on. Only D had any news of worth, finding a single survivor if he could be called that. A malnourished child with wild eyes, scared silent and nearly stiff. Trauma no doubt, it would be a miracle if anything could be learned from him; but that did not stop him from being a survivor.

And thats all they had at this time, one out of over five thousand, with maybe forty others accountable as zombies. Hopefully, other squads had had more success, or could at least account for more of the population. After six hours though, searching in this place was nearly over, and you are now on route to the town center to meet up with the other squads of the hardliners.


[Right, so not to much action at this time. Mostly just to see who's still in, and who is not. What you found in those six hours is left to you, but there were no enemies or survivors. Also, the post minimum is something I would rather you try to steer away from, endevour to post more than it.]

Melak was close by when Brast, Hultz and Faust started talking between themselves but he didn't manage to catch what they were saying. He looked around and saw that the squads started to gather around. As soon as everyone where in place the respective leader of each squad signaled them to gather around, and so they did. Melak was the closest to Brast so he arrived first, seeing Melak, Brast didn't look very happy, most likely because of the lost heavy flamer... He only hoped that he would get out with a warning on this one and not an execution.

Once everybody came to the pinpointed location they took a knee along with squad D. Then Hultz spoke, "Should the Emperor being feeling generous, maybe we'll find some survivors and no traps. Failing that, stay alert and keep an eye out, we still got four more of these blocks to search out and I am not gonna come and save your arses every time shit goes flying.", he grinned while saying that, he looked eager for more action. Faust quickly added more to the small speech, "The Lieutenant's orders still stand, we go through the ten stacks split up between the hard liners and reapers and the bastards and bulldogs. After that, we meet up with the rest of the platoon at the town center, hopefully with some good news for the CO.", everybody nodded, acknowledging their task.

Brast then spew a wad of something on the ground and said, "Well why we wastin' what remains of the light then? Come on ladies, lets get a movin.", before Melak could do anything Brast kicked him in the ass pointing him to the Chimera. He looked even angrier then before, maybe while they were talking before the issue arose and angered Brast even more. "I swear Melak, if the quartermaster don't skin your hide I will. Ready up the Heavy Stubber we got, and don't you dare go losin' or destroyin' it or I'll save the commissars the trouble of punishment!", Melak trembled in fear. He was not a cowered but when the commissar was mentioned it was never a good sign. He thanked the emperor that he did not get punished this time. He walked to the Chimera hoping that no one stops him or mentions the fact that he has wronged. Looking through the Chimera's weapons for a bit at last he managed to find that Heavy Stubber which he then picked up and readied.

Looking back he saw that Brast was already moving with the squad. He picked up the Heavy Stubber which appeared to be much heavier then he originally thought. Yet he still had to catch up with the squad, so he waved to the quartermaster and ran off with the Heavy Stubber. The running with the Stubber was not easy at all and upon reaching Brast he was already sweating from the heat and from the weight of the thing. "Melak, reporting for duty!", he said, saluting Brast. Brast stayed silent and signaled Melak to take his place in the squad formation. He silently walked to the center taking his place, from this place he will be able to shoot enemies at 360 degrees, it was the ideal place for a Heavy Stubber.

They patrolled the blocks until the late night hours, there was nothing, it was like the ground just opened up and swallowed everyone. No enemies, no survivors, no zombies, just nothing! Only a few corpses and traps remained. While he was patrolling with the squad he saw a corpse that reminded him of a friend of his. He then had a flashback.
Gunfire, smoke, blood, screams... Corpses all around him, the orks were attacking and he was part of the defense line. He was shot by one of the orks and he laid on the ground on the verge of unconsciousness. He saw his friends falling, they had no chance against the orks, their couldn't stop the orks, they could only barely hold them back and but the citizens time to escape. He saw one of his close friends Alexi, he was fighting off a nob, but the nob was clearly just toying with him. Melak pulled out his pistol and fired madly into the nob, most of the shots missed our hit the chest but two penetrated his skull. The surprised nob fell on the ground, instantly dead. Alexi looked and saw Melak, he smiled to him and Melak smiled back, it was a dead mans smile, and it was the last smile that Melak saw from his friend as a moment after that his brains were smashed into a pulp by another nob carrying a hammer. Something then hit Melak and he fell to unconsciousness.

Melak woke up from his day dreaming and saw that it was already nearly nightfall. He then heard that there were no survivors except one that was found by squad D. It was a child. Hearing that Melak approached Brast and asked, "With your permission, if we bring the child back to HQ can I speak with him. He probably have been through much and I hope I will be able to help him and deal with it.". He waited for Brast's answer and after he answered he saluted and got back to formation. They then began walking back to the town center, to the HQ. Passing burned buildings and the carcasses of vehicles. Even some burned corpses could be seen from time to time but the whole city looked grim and dark, it felt wrong to Melak, he couldn't shake off the feeling that someone is watching them. So he kept alert although it was late and he was tired.

Dean stared as Brast Faust and Hultz conversed amongst each other. It seemed that their work was not yet done, and a shudder went down Dean's spine. He was not a coward, far from it. He would give his life in service to the Emperor and to his fellow squad mates, but fighting these things? They weren't dead but they weren't alive at the same time. They were living dead and creeped out Dean. He wanted to fight some real enemies of the Emperor, Orks, Eldar, even Chaos. Just not this, it wasn't right at all. He wanted to fight something natural to kill, not their own dead and citizens of the Emperor's realm.

Brast called over the squad, and they all moved over taking a knee without a word. The other Sergeants pulled back to their own men. Hultz spoke up, "Should the Emperor being feeling generous, maybe we'll find some survivors and no traps. Failing that, stay alert and keep an eye out, we still got four more of these blocks to search out and I am not gonna come and save your arses every time shit goes flying." Dean prayed for that to happen, to find survivors without any more contacts would be great, but he was quickly learning that nothing was going to be that simple.

"The Lieutenant's orders still stand, we go through the ten stacks split up between the hard liners and reapers and the bastards and bulldogs. After that, we meet up with the rest of the platoon at the town center, hopefully with some good news for the CO." Dean nodded thoughtfully at Faust's comment, he still thought that it wouldn't be that simple.

"Well why we wastin' what remains of the light then? Come on ladies, lets get a movin." He says before kicking Melak in the ass and getting him to head for the squad chimera at a real nice pace. "I swear Melak, if the quartermaster don't skin your hide I will. Ready up the heavy stubber we got, and don't you dare go losin' or destroyin' it or I'll save the commissars the trouble of punishment!" He turned to the rest of the squad "Well what ya waitin' for? Open invitation? Get the hell up and lets get movin'!"Dean smirked at Melak, to be fair he needed to replace his weapon, but it wasn't Melaks fault. He got up and moved over to his squads Chimera at a jog, waiting for the others to enter before he moved in to sit at the ramp.

"Melak, don't worry about it mate, I'm sure that Brast wouldn't call a commissar and it wasn't your fault anyway." He said to Melak as he passed him by. As they moved through the town Dean stayed in silence, brooding as he thought of what was going on here. They moved through the hab blocks one at a time, but there was nothing, not a trace of survivors. There wasn't a trace of zombies either nothing at all. Dean scanned dark corridors with his flashlight, searching but they found nothing. Just as they were about to call it a day when they received word from D squadron that they had found one malnourished child. No-one else had any contact with anything apart from the Bastards who had a brief firefight.

Melak spoke out to Brast, telling him that he would talk to the child at the HQ. Dean stayed quiet as they moved throughout the town. "This just isn't right is it? How can everyone disapear, even the hostile's." He voiced after some time walking back. It was getting late and he was trying to stay alert. He was sure that it wasn't over and did not want to see what would happen if he let his guard down for long.