A boy run across the winter forest with his dog and climb a towards a hill carrying a stack of firewood.. he took a shortcut as he is glad to see his grandmother coming home.
"Let's go Dimitri, Babushka is coming home for another stay!" The boy yelled at his dog as they reached to the top they found a battle that rages on in the distance... Flashes of light constantly flickering and sounds of explosion echoed.
Giant robots passed by him that touched the skies roared with a sound that made the boy and his dog tremble. Soldier and vehicles marched like a endless line of metal and flesh.
Metal birds flew by the swarm by the distance, heading towards the distant battlefield. Bringing booming sounds in their wake.
As the boy looked in awe at the amount of men that marched.
He found his mother accompanied by a group of soldiers.
"Mother look at the men! So many!" The boy pointed the army that is amassing to the east.
The mother hugged the boy and scolded him.
"Boris, I told you not to go to the forest! There are radioactive bears in that forest that would eat you!"
"But mother, I wanted to see Babushka early?" The boy whined.
The soldier spoke in Russian accent
"Miss, we have to evacuate this place, the enemy might be coming from the forest... Your village is being evacuated. There is a transport waiting for you to take to a evacuation center nearby." The man told the family.
The mother nodded and the forest came to life. And a group of giant men in Mark 3 pattern armor rushed out towards them.
"Die Carrion Emperor worshippers!" The head of the group bellowed.
The soldiers gotten used of the enemies attempt to attack them, now fired their lasguns at the enemy before them.
Had it been the regular lasguns that the imperium have given them, they would have paused their bravery, made a fighting retreat and requested a heavier armor support, but what they armed is a Lasgun Great Crusade pattern with a Kyber crystal infused, to give a penetration that would have eradicated any thing that is walking on two legs...
The flashes of light have alerted a Chimera convoy and a squad of Sons of horus that protected the convoys, assisted the squad as Golden lights from the multilas have eradicated the older Mark 3 pattern armor enemies.
The astartes clashed one another and the Traitors found that the Loyalist is much more durable and deadlier as each swing is a dead traitor as the blades hit a critical organ or a mechanical parts.
The child watched in awe as the soldiers gave orders to make a forest sweep of using the satellites above Russia .
The giant man looked towards them and gave a smile and waved at the boy.
The mother hurriedly took the child to
The chimera transport as they evacuated the civilian to safety.
Alexander is already in the stages to fully assimilate the population of America, the War in Siberia never ended. Vox blast entered the feed in the Russian theater of war, every few seconds and many of the factions took interest of the people living there.
The Chaos General is aware of the fact the moment Alexander fully annex America under his banner, the might of the industrial powerhouse of a forgotten giant will be awaken and churn more war material to Russia and the fleets that regularly dropped from space is not making his situation better, but his only saving grace is that the demons and Black legion is the one that is somehow keeping the status quo, he made a blitzkrieg attempt to conquer Europe, but he only got as far to Poland before the Imperium arrived to turned back the tides. He noticed something... The opponent of his that control the imperium, never took him seriously at all.
As reports flooded in as several prototype machines appear on the battlefield to do field testing on his own soldiers. He became angry and order and all out assault. Chaos have blinded his capacity to think forward. Had he realized that the reason Alexander didn't blow him to kingdom come, is because the Russian population that managed to avoid the slavers of his organization, living in pocket villages throughout the years. Making it difficult for Alexander to commence a strategic lancer strikes from orbit.
Alexander wanted as much people he could save from chaos at a reasonable rate that didn't conflict with the orders on the ground.
The Middle east and the Mediterranean orbital force made a beeline for Russia, leaving a sizeable garrison to assimilate the natives, and they arrived at the Caucasus and Poland to prevent the Threat of chaos from expanding towards the west.
Another orbital fleet is dispatch from Mars for the Black sea and east Siberia sea to commence a blockade, since the nuclear fires have twisted the very weather of Russia it was feasible to land there.
As if to vent frustrations of not getting the skulls of Caesar and the NCR the Enemy in Russia will have to do.
<Command, This is Blue Sparrow Squadron, What our MO?> A Interceptor pilot spoke as he got his wings into the air. They been sortie out almost on a daily business and the Cogboys have difficulty of appeasing the Machine Spirit in their vehicles of not going out of commission.
<You are to protect Bomber formation along with Beagle and Falcon assist you their destination of the Ural mountains, crippling manufacturing capacity Black legion.>
The pilot watch out of his canopy and saw a thousand Marauder bomber flying in formation.
Each of them were spread out just enough for a effective firing screens and interceptor planes to pass through.
That was one of many times they did this.
He noticed as they made way deeper into Russia, the clear snow becoming to have some sick twisting purple colors that tainted the lands.
He clutch his aquila as he never believed in a god... But seeing that land twisted no longer by radiation but something else, made him thinking if devil is real, surely god that his family believed in is real right?
<Captain! 3 contact at o'clock! Hell Talons! They took out a bomber!>
<Alright, Weapons Free, keep them out of the bomber formation!> The pilot yelled as he and his men flew towards the enemies to engage in a dogfight.
Thunderbolts and Hell Talons clash once more in a different world..
The chaos hell talon interceptor that the black legion brought is sleek and fast with hard hitting weapons. Swarmed in a cloud of darkness wanting to pounce on the Bomber formation heading to the depth of Russia.
The Thunderbolt a reliable, trustworthy craft have been heavily modified to have a miniaturized conversion shields for more punishment and weapons that would take out the hell talons if they even graze the aircraft.
They began to catch each other tails to drag them to their respective deaths.
<Blue 2 Sparrow got one bogey down, they managed to hit my Left wing autocannon, still functional.>
<Falcon 7, have down seven bogeys, someone get this bastard off my tail!>
<Shit! Some of them got past the screen!> One pilot pointed out.
Several hell talons slipped past the defenses and aimed at the Bomber directly.
They took out several bombers crashing behind enemy lines. That was the moment they could achieve until They met a storm of Laser fire and auto cannons that had flak and Ap Belts lobbed at them. They felt a sigh of relief... Until a group of giant metal dragons swept in the bomber formation.
(30 minutes before contact)
"I got the feeling something is coming ?" A rear gunner of a Marauder bomber that is in the center of the formation confused as he looked around at the planes around him.
"Henry, you are definitely creeping me out as if you know the future or something..." One of his gunner buddies jest as they snacked on some jelly bacon
"No, this time I mean it... Something more dangerous is coming here!" As if on cue the captain spoke.
<This is captain of Cypress Hammer, Enemies are now attacking us! All Gunners to your stations!>
The gunners hurriedly to their stations and activated their lascannons and Multilas turrets.
Henry watched out as he saw their fighter support is heading forward.
He got the urge to pull a trigger at a empty part of the formations and restraint himself.
The bombers around him is firing forward turrets at some foe. But he must man his station.
<Contact enemies have breached into the fighter screens and there is one that coming from six o'clock!> The captain yelled.
Henry looked at where his station and found several giant creatures swept down from the skies above like comets... Tearing into the bomber formation.
"Helldrakes! Shoot them down!" His gunner yelled.
He never known such a metal dragon could fly like that. And he aimed his lascannon at the one that attempt to take his plane out.
The helldrake suddenly dodged from his path as it continue to barrel around and ripped a nearby bomber top turret, exposing the crew to the extreme cold.
He took aim and fired at the direction his senses is telling him this time and his weapon managed to heavy wounded the helldrake just enough for the rest of the bomber to focused aimed at the wounded chaos engine. Many of the bombers felled and the helldrakes were killed off... Out of one thousand, only four hundred remains, most of them had varying degrees of damage...
<Heads 1 up! We are now hour away from the designation bombing site! The air defenses in Ural mountains is more than enough for our group to end up mince meat! surviving interceptors squadron will commence close support take out any Anti emplacement, we lacked numbers make a decent run, Switch Bombs replicator antimatter! Henry do that now!> The captain yelled once more.
Henry nodded as he left his station and went to a machine that is embedded into the plane. The replicator is in every vehicle in the imperium at this point. So all they do now is input the bullets and bombs specifications And they will be produced directly as they would not end up having a bomb rack or shell explosion and lighten up the vehicles for movement. It helps cheapen the warfare.
He looked at the catalogue of bombs and place the replicator to churn out Antimatter bombs and it loaded up the bomb racks by the dozen.
The bomb bay began to opened revealing a sickly purple snow...
<Captain all done!> Henry yelled at the intercom nearby.
<Good, Head back to the station and watch our six!>
As henry returning to his station, he felt the plane trembling as the enemies is using flak emplacement and missile platforms.
Clouds of metal flak and trails of missiles launch towards the wounded bombers. The interceptors managed to trail most of the missiles and eradicate much of the defenses.
(3rd pov)
The restored factories in Ural mountains, workers worked tirelessly to churn out weapons that they didn't understand... Fighting a cause they didn't believed in... Their families that had Communist sympathy had ratted them out and sold to these abominations....
They lived in fear, unpaid and broken minded, demons prowling about the factory lines eating the ones that is too tired to make them work harder.
And there are those giant men came by and break people necks without any reason or rhyme...
Broken records like "we are saving the motherland and thanks to our warriors we are winning" and "we are defending our homes" etched like a creepy recording in the workplace.
They didn't even had a place to sleep as they were chained to the very lines they worked in.
Many wept... As they know some people that died... Eaten just right next to them by some demons and they mocked the feeble minds of the workers by leaving the feets of the devoured next to them, they did tried to revolt... But all it ended up is a failure and thousands dead and turned to corpse starch and fed to the remaining survivors...
As the klaxon horn echo throughout the factory.
They heard yelling of the captors that there was a enemy attack... But they were so thoroughly broken that they couldn't even bear leaving the factory floor.
A flash of explosion engulfed them... Perhaps it was for the best for their souls be freed from this hellscape.
One such worker watched that his life of hell around him ended in such a slow fashion as the world around him collapsed... He saw a glimpse of a golden light amidst of the collapsing factory infrastructure.
He smiled as his withered hands tried to grasp the light as the darkness swallow him whole...
His lips turned to smile, revealing yellowed teeth.
He felt free... He cackled as the Antimatter bomb erased his existence...
Henry watched as explosions engulf on the surface below from his station.. He wondered how the workers in that factory felt as they were blown to pieces? Remorse? Hatred? He didn't know....
<Captain speaking, we are now commencing another bombing run as head back home...>
Henry watched as the planes turned around as they made another bombing run as they left for the Caucasus. Another set of explosion have set off erasing whatever left standing in that place... Henry somehow sense a gratefulness in the ruins?
He shook his head as he looked for enemies. The easy way in already took out half of the bomber formation and the hardest is getting out alive.
The interceptor squadrons have already returned to refuel and rearmed for the next sortie and this time it was like a sheep dangling above a pit of wolves.
Many of the pilots and their crew felt the same way.
As they almost reached the constested territory, they almost breathe a sigh of relief.
<Contact! 6 Enemies at o'clock! Hell Blades! Hell... There are so many of them!> The Auspex Operator screeching his throat out.
Henry aimed the guns once more, this time his mind is a bit frayed. A wave of dagger like planes swept like a storm, some even were gliding on the surface on top on each other, making the Auspex Radar to think that it was that few... But not that many.
The flight of four hundred bombers was in dire straits. Everywhere they shoot, they bound to kill something in the process. Some were even opening the bomb bays to drop proximity bombs to keep the planes from attacking the bottom.
The Hell blades were even more deranged as they rammed into the bombers like a kamikaze strikes to no end.
The Bombers whittle down to just mere 150 as more bombers crashed into no man land, the survivors have more chances of survival as the front lines is being pushed onwards and they only need to pretend to be dead, it was the grueling 30 minutes of their lives as air support from the front lines arrived to assist them and the ground units now offering their anti-aircraft support as Imperium Hydras and Astartes Whirlwinds assisted as much as possible. Henry breathe a sigh of relief until a damaged hell blade crashed into his turret and forced him flying ten thousand feet from the air and ended on top in some trees just a few meters away from the front lines of his own. He waited until nightfall and found by the vanguard of the army moving eastward.
"Are you able to shoot?" The rescuer asked.
Henry nodded and a few hours he found himself as a Side gunner of a Baneblade.
"Sorry lad, we can't send you back as we are on a tight schedule. We will call for a evacuation transport once we are done with our objectives." The Captain of this land beast laughed.
"What happened to the gunner in this position before me!" Henry yelled through the constant noises.
"He's back in the base latrines, he had a bad case of Clam chowder and a Burrito gone wrong!" The captain laughed once more.
Henry ended up once more keeping notes of the situation before him. The Night vision shown the world outside as clear as day.
"Contact lads! We got a Armoured convoy from the enemies at 5 o'clock! Load up ApHe shells!" The captain bellowed. The machinery began to churn and the turret smoothly moved towards the direction of where the captain ordered. The main cannon opened fire releasing copius amounts of smoke that is later sucked up by a powerful exhaust port.
Henry played his part and downed several cultist in his direction, tracers fire found their way Into the body of the cultists, the captain of the Baneblade laugh.
"Flyboy, you make a fine Army gunner I ever seen!" He chortle as another shot from the main cannon spew a huge amount of smoke once more.
"Whoa, what the hell is that!?" The captain yelled out.
Henry looked through the sensor and found several walking flesh pylons appearing from a nearby forest heading towards them.
"Alrighty then, Load Up Pete Special!" The captain bellowed. The techpriest spoke to him with concerns.
"++Structural capacity of the barrel will be below at acceptable parameters should we use that maneuver, if we request for more air support..++"
"Nonsense, old Betsy over here wants blood of her enemies and I am glad to indulge this beast fantasy! Load the special!"
The autoloader begn to switch rounds and a glowing shell is loaded into the cannon.
"Oh hell ya! Let there be light!" The captain smiled as the gunner pressed the trigger and lobbed it into the group of pylons. It exploded in such a force that
The eyes of the vehicle crew were momentarily blinded. Henry watch out and found that the forest and the constructs were eradicated.
They reached to a city and the Captain looked at the map.
"Alright we have reached Ufa and now in overwatch duty for the rest of the western army to arrive. As promised flyboy, I already requested a evacuation chimera to get you home, we getting our old gunner back. You are a best gunner I could ever asked for." He gave a laugh.
As the army arrived as promised he was transported back to the nearest field airport to send him back to the rear lines.
As he left he saw from distance several titans were walking to where he left the crew.
When he heard about the spearhead in Ufa.. he inquired what happened to the Baneblade he temporarily served as a gunner...
"Old Betsy? That Baneblade got destroyed by a Titan squad, and the captain of the tank was burned alive in his tank, said by accounts that he died laughing. He took 7 down before the eighth killed him while in a reloading process. He managed to stall long enough for the main Force to counterattack." The census officer looked at Henry.
"I see thanks." Henry left the Mortuary Affairs.
"I seen stuff in the Russian front... Some say that luck had something to do with my life, but I seen faith in my brothers... I could never forget the horrors of what people would do to achieve that madness in the battlefield."
A aged Henry counted his tales for the Media. He refused the rejuvenation treatment and accepted the fact that he would live and die as a human with a choice... But he told his story for the younger generation of what truly happened in that flight of four hundred. Not some sensational story of glory, just a fact that he witness his very eyes...
That is a story for another time.