The sounds of the dead and the dieing. Lieutenant Davis of the 183rd Death Korps had orders. They were to hold the capital of Krieg. It was to be held at all costs. The 183rd was rushed into combat severely under equipped and without sufficient artillery or air support.
They were on the front. Buildings lay in ruins; the sounds of the dead and the dieing could be heard over the barking of heavy bolter fire and the occasional explosion of enemy mortar rounds.
Alpha company had been lost during the night and was spread too thin to hold off and sort of armoured assault. Davis lay there, he dared not move. It was absolutely freezing and they were without sufficient warm winter clothes. Next to him laid the sergeant from 1st platoon and his personal vox caster. His medic and standard-bearer had been killed in the opening exchanges.
He heard a sudden rock as the earth once again was churned up by yet another ordnance round. He turned lifting his lasgun off his knees and removing his helmet from covering his eyes. He saw the enemy for the first time. They piled out of their now totalled Chimera and began to hide. They weren’t unseen though as Davis witnessed 6 of the 9 traitors being cut down by las fire combined with Auto gun fire from one of his sergeants.
It became silent again.
Surely the enemy would resume its siege before it became light enough to see an attack being formed. His next in command 1st sergeant McCall crawled up behind his commanding officer as well as a sergeant and a vox caster. He brought with him word from the command post. The message read to ‘hold the line’. Davis sighed and placed the letter inside his coat.
Off to the distance there was a deafening whistle. Unaware of what this meant Davis raised his lasgun and looked down the sight. Traitors swarmed over the outer ruins. Just over 60 metres from Davis’s position a huge explosion rocked the traitors sending over half of them to their death in a demonstration of artillery. The others were stunned. As they rose they were met by intense las fire. The remnants of the traitors fell back before they were met by yet more las fire mixed with the occasional grenade.
Davis looked over the top of the foxhole. His initial reaction was to drop his gun and run. He thought about calling a retreat before remembering his orders. Instantly he raised his lasgun and poured a clip into the horde of rebels that had remained to give the rest time to escape.
He saw 7 fall and another 3 knocked by his precise fire. The traitors were growing in strength behind the lines and out of site due to the dense early morning fog. They were just crack rifle infantry but they were determined to crush the capital. Davis rolled out of the foxhole and into a forward position behind a shattered building. He reloaded his gun and opened up once again. This time he wasn’t so successful. The return fire sprayed the small building in which he was trapped in. He immediately fell to the floor. Lying next to him appeared to be a rebel with a belt of grenades in his left hand and a plasma pistol in the other.
As Davis reloaded his lasgun his second in command McCall joined him. He grabbed the pistol in his right hand before leaning hard up against the sidewall of the building. He was petrified as he gazed at Davis before rising to his knees and pumping round after round into a new arrival in a standard pattern leman russ.
After using up all but 3 rounds McCall turned before pumping the trigger 3 last times. The 1st achieved a hit on the fuel can on the top of the side sponson. Immediately the Russ detonated in a ball of fire. Those around who weren’t fortunate enough to scramble free were instantly incinerated and the other was met with a hailstorm of shrapnel.
The results looked promising as Davis looked peered over the shattered wall. By now the rest of the squad had joined him. The vox caster and 4 more marines from one of his platoons had joined them. As Davis appeared to grin as he realised looked at a wall of dead traitors. The Leman Russ was severely damaged but still had the capacity to wreak havoc. No one in the squad had anything that could destroy the leman Russ and it was far too dangerous to try a melta bomb attack. Looking over to where he lay just minutes ago he saw helmets. Grabbing the binoculars off one of the nearby guardsmen he focused on the helmets.
Recognising the helmet insignia being the 183rd symbol he knew if he was to remain alive he needed sufficient support. They were sitting ducks where they were and no one knew they were there. Any attempt to capture them front on would lead to disaster, as the fog was too dark to see the difference between sides.
Signalling for 2 of the Guardsmen to run round behind them and to avoid being seen by anyone else. This meant leaving through the side facing the rebel line and crossing an unknown path. The Guardsmen believed in their esteemed leaders guidance and took off.
They already there by the time Davis managed to focus the binoculars in the correct position. They were on their way. The 2 Guardsmen followed by 3 more from his company. Amazingly just as they were over the top of the foxhole another 4 appeared and followed. 1 of them appeared to be carrying a missile launcher.
As they all arrived it appeared that they would not be able to fit in such a small area. Davis peered around to other areas with the binoculars. Immediately he found a suitable 2-storey building and signalled for everyone to follow him. First after him was sergeant McCall followed by the Vox caster and the rest of the marines. As they ran across the 4-lane street through bomb craters and over rubble the enemy sited them. By now though it was far too late to do anything about it. As they ran up the stairs Davis with pistol in hand ran through the door and into the room in which he would order his troops to hold. This building was on the corner of a junction and as he peered once again through his binoculars he could see the tide of rebels heading towards his post. As his gaze lowered he saw the front line of Death Korps. They were spread thin and stood little chance of stopping the horde.
Davis had no choice. He and his men filed out once again and ran onto the street. The firefight had begun with the defenders quickly gaining momentum with impressive short ranged small arms fire. All rebel tanks were immobilised or destroyed. The skirmish was looking good for the defenders so far as the attackers had little chance of closing quickly on the defenders who were well concealed and well disciplined. A far more organised force vanquished the rebels. As they fell back the training of the death Korps showed. A handful of around 100 traitors were cut down before they got a chance to disappear into the gloom of the morning fog.
Davis stood up and walked across to a man wearing 1 stripe less than him. “Ahoy there sergeant” said Davis putting his hand out. The Sergeant seemed a little surprised by Davis’s personality and grasped his hand and replied “boy are we glad to see some familiar faces.” The sergeant continued by saying just how hard they had fought to hold this position. Davis and Sergeant MC Call introduced themselves to this stranger and he replied with “Loker, Has Loker.”
As Loker swung his rifle over his shoulder and walked to where his commanding officer was standing he pointed to where the rebel defensive strongpoint was. Davis looked up at Loker’s commanding officer. This man was familiar. He noticed the red band around his arm like everyone from the 183rd. The man said “alpha 183rd” Davis was in Beta. The to shook hands and the captain said, “I need your help, its us or them. They will take this next time so we must take the fight to the enemy or be fried by a force superior in numbers.”
Davis kicked a dieing rebel and looked up at the captain. “You think we can pull this off? There are only 50 of us and about 2000 of them.” The captain looked around at his men. “If we don’t attack today it will be 20,000 by tomorrow. It’s now or never lieutenant.” Acknowledging the orders of the higher-ranking officer, Davis called his men into a circle. Pulling a map out of his thick overcoat he studied a possible plan of attack. He noticed that the enemy would be a bit under strength after the last attack so they had very little time.
What do you think?
May i ask where you got the name 'Krieg' from? One of my friends is Graf Krieg von Hannover in a role play that he runs
RPG site Havent you heard of the death korps of krieg?
They are a well known imperial guard organisation that defended armageddon.
Look at the back of the steel legion box set and it shows a picture of them. They are the ones in brown with a skull on the front of their helmet.
Oh yeah, them. Yes i have indeed heard of them having read the article about them in a WD. Completely forgot about 'em. Mostly cos i dont like their background.