Tira Briggs's Story

“Bloody stars,” Simona hissed as she looked down on her mud covered boots. “Gonna take a damn life time to get this shit off.”
“Keep cursing like that and it’ll take a life-time amongst the Sisters of Battle to redeem yourself,” Caroline threatened. She was possibly one of the more religious people that Simona had met in her life, and it had never really earned her any favor from Simona’s side; it was actually bordering open hostility between the two, only the higher officers were the unseen wall which kept the two women from fighting openly.

Choosing to ignore the woman, Simona continued to march with the rest of what was left of the 234th Regiment. Simona commanded a unit of close-quarter experts, handpicked for their skills and experience in crammed and tight spaces they were send to board ships and go to crucial facilities, such as the power generators, radars, anything which would pin the pirates. A vast majority of the members came from the Underhive, the lowest part of the Scintilla Hive, where everyone were but another servant for some high ranked noble or rich merchant, and also where most gangers formed and fought.

“What’s the matter, sergeant? Something’s got your tongue?” Caroline asked, adding a thick layer of mockery to her tone, though Simona only smiled and responded.
“You know, those xeno orks really like big mouths like you…Makes it easier for them to shove their thing down your throat.”
Caroline’s jaw dropped and her eyes were wide with anger. She was boiling with fury so much that she almost stopped in her march; Simona on the other hand was very satisfied with herself and the result of the comment. The muffled chuckles and well hidden smiles on the other women told her that she had won this verbal fight, and besides, who said that marches had to be boring and hard?

“Sergeant, the captain wants to speak with you,” a private called as she approached Simona.
“Coming right away. Keep working that mouth, Caroline,” Simona said, giving the final insult as she trotted away from the column, just hearing her respond bitch!. Simona trotted up towards the captain. Her backpack clinked and clanked with all the equipment in it, from rationed food to her two demolition charges and the stockless shotgun, as well as more power charges and shotgun shells.
“Sergeant-Major Hildenbrag reporting, ma’am,” Simona said as she gave a salute for her superior officer.

Simona stood perhaps an inch taller than Captain Briggs, both of the women were leanly built though aside from these similarities there weren’t much which the two held in common, in fact they appeared to be complete opposites. Where Tira was tanned in a highly attractive manner, Simona was pale in comparison. Tina was born amongst the nobles and educated while Simona was a ganger and practically illiterate save from the basic low-gothic. Tina’s face was perfectly free from any signs of combat while Simona had several clear scars from knife fights and the time when her left side of her face was scolded by boiling steam and her left eye replaced with a bionic eye.

Order seemed on the verge of being restored, when there was the sound of boots on the road. A column crunchies appeared, uniforms straight, marching crisply, as if this was a parade. Impressive to a civilian maybe but not to Captain Henry Clayton. It looked like the proud display of a PDF regiment chosen to be turned over the Guard and trying to prove they were soldiers, because they had polished their drill into perfection. When they got one whiff of Ork or any other xeno or heretic, these silly bitches would go running home for their mothers. However, his eye twitched, as the apparent officer in charge, began ordering her women about, including sending a platoon to take over his headquarters!

He could already see the men of his tank and the rest of the first platoon, a grand total of twenty-three (missing him), standing before the door of his billet. His teeth ground, as he opened his mouth to yell but he closed it, from across the square, there was the rumble of a engine. The Artemia pattern hellhound, Heretic's Bane, rolled forwards on her treads. He smiled slightly and waved his hand towards the warmachine. Without some form of acknowledgment, the metal beast, it's heavily armored fuel tank plain, turned from it's crossing the empty square, and clanked over to block the infantry platoon heading for the mansion . The terrible Inferno cannon, in it's remote turret tracked the guardswomen, a the hull mounted heavy flamer was brought to bare.

"You'll find Captain Briggs" called Henry, holstering his snubgun but not following after the woman, "That large house is already my HQ. As I told your sergeant before she decked me, starting this little brawl, you can have the hotel for your HQ."

He stood there, arms folded across his chest and smiled mockingly with bloody teeth, stretching the bruise on his face.

"It's Captain Henry Clayton, by the way."

When the gun shots were fired people threw themselves to the ground or ducked for cover, in Simona’s case it worked as a perfect temporary distraction from the bulky man who got a well hammered punch into his most sensitive body-part which made him topple over.
She then stood up and got the worst of her uniform back in place as she saluted Captain Briggs when she approached. Her uniform had been torn in places and a few bottoms had been ripped off, could have been far worse so she considered herself darn blessed…Well, at least till she noticed the tiny blood stains on her sleeves. Bloody stars, that’ll never come off!

She nodded to her orders though she didn’t immediately jump to do them, she waited till the Captain was finished talking with the rag-tag leader and then approached the man, “You called it. One, nil,” she said with a wide smirk on her face and then marched off to get her lost beret and get to work.

Simona gathered her unit and evaluated the damages they had suffered during the skirmish; a few were sent the medics’ way while the rest were to stay and clean up the worst of the mess in the square. While the women had gotten beaten rather badly they still felt victorious, the men’s captain had made the call for the fight to end and they saw that as a sign that he had thrown the towel in the ring, that and the fact that they had been fighting fair (meaning no knife stabbing, strangling, hijacking vehicles and driving anyone down) only boosted their morale.

When they finished Simona ordered her unit into their new HQ and then went to see a medic. Her bionic eye was showing signs that it needed to get tuned and while it wasn’t a medic’s expertise, it was still worth a shot.

Captain Clayton wasn't the only thing Tira Briggs turned to face, as she finished threatening his men. She was also staring down the barrel of his snubgun and his laspistol. When the infantry woman had drawn her weapons and threatened his boys, he had drawn his sidearms. It had acted like a signal, the score men who had been watching from atop the tanks moved, some slipped down into the bellies of the plasteel beasts, while the three remaining scrambled for the pintle-mounted heavy stubbers the tanks had atop their turrets. Heavy bolters wiggled, as one of the warmachines had it's engine turned over.

So she wanted to play rough huh? It really went against his nature but Henry wasn't above making a slash now and then. In fact, he was going to be complaining to the higher ups once they got a damn good vox signal back to the capital. This was unacceptable, they were an armor regiment, they should be folded into or have another armor regiment folded into them not a bunch of crunchies. Golden Throne, he's take green recruits barely able to drive, over this prissy lot. Plus, he was putting the sergeant up on charges.

"Look" he called over to Captain Briggs, "I don't know where your from or what your used to but you not in charge here. Your with real guardsmen now, not on some parade ground, for you to show off your fancy toy soldiers to a bunch of inbred nobles. The One-twenty-ninth has never given ground, not to rebels, heretics or orks and we're not going to start with you. Now, why doesn't you walk your flat chested self over here and we'll talk about this idea of sharing the HQ and maybe, just maybe, I'll reconsider filing charges against your sergeant with the Commissariat. I believe they shoot enlisted who strike officers, before the ink is even dry on the warrant."

Henry spat a glob of bloody saliva out of the corner of his mouth, watching the female captain down the sights of his pistols. In the tense fractions of a second, he wondered where his Itho stick had gone. He couldn't remember where he had dropped it. Not that it was any good now, more then likely trampled into the dirt, the embers ground into nothingness/ It was funny where the brain went sometimes.

Henry turned his head a spat more bloody saliva, just to keep his eye from lining up the simple sights on his pistols, with this Captain Briggs spine. He had bathed today already, bathed everyday in this town, seeing as they had the hot water for. Frak it, he wasn't going back in there, not for any meetings or planing defenses of this miserable town. Not even for his kit. The cloths he had found, she could keep 'em. His only clean uniform, she could keep that too. She could keep his razor and the rest of it. He could collect it later, when they left or from where they chose to throw the lot out. He was not going back in that house, he'd set up shop in the hotel and damn the bitch.

He slide the laspistol back into it's holster and was half way to putting his snubgun away, when the thought hit him. He was going back in that house, right now. He had decorated the bedroom he had taken, with the banners. Over a dozen of the things, torn and tattered regimental colors he had collected off the battlefields of Mosul, from the broken bodies of the rebels there. He would have collected trophies from Kudrun as well, but the symbols on those banners, they were a good way to get the commissariat sniffing around, looking to shoot you as a heretic and they tended to make one sick by looking at them. He could not let these collection of PDF cast offs touch those few remaining tokens of the 129th's past glories, now that the battle honors on their regimental colors were lost.

"Frak me" Henry growled, shoving his revolver into it's underarm holster. Gritting his teeth, he took off at a run, booted feet flying over the ground, as he cleared the distance between him and his former billet. Taking the stairs in a leap, he turned, setting his shoulder to clear the doorway, that Briggs had just disappeared into. Not caring, he crashing into a body, sent it sprawling and carrying on, up the grand staircase. He didn't look back to see if he had gotten the captain or just some unlucky enlisted, it didn't matter. He just needed to get to the master bedroom before they touched the banners.

Knocking aside another guardswomen on a landing, he reached the floor he was looking for and took off down a hallway. The bedroom door was wide open, there was a woman there, reaching for something on the wall. Anger burned in his guts, he ran faster. Her fingers almost touched cloth, when the stamp of his boots make the private look away from the captured tokens of the enemy, with just enough time to grab at her lasgun and start to swing before he crashed into her. The stock struck his side but it didn't stop his body, as he smashed the soldier against the wall.

Gasping for breath, Captain Clayton grabbed the stunned soldier by a handful of tunic and her arm. Baring bloody teeth, he yanked he to her feet and half threw/half slide the bitch out of the room. Coughing slightly, he slammed the door and slid the single bolt home. It wouldn't keep them out for long but it gave him time. The stinging in his ribs didn't stop, as he grabbed a chair, so he could climb up to gently pull the pins out of the color banners.

The rebels had called themselves The Liberators. Something about freeing the planet from the oppression of the Imperium, blah blah blah. Most of the PDF had defected to their cause by the time the Guard showed up and were helping to besiege the capital. It had taken one battle to break them or at least to break their standing army. It had been glorious, an armored charge across level ground, the rebel's light tanks smashed by their (that being the 129th's and other armored regiments) Leman Russ Battle Tanks and their infantry put to flight. The rest of the nine moths they had been on the planet, was spend patrolling and uncovering rebel cells before being redeployed to another warzone.

He had collected most of the banners from that one battle but several were captured from rebel cells, each one proclaiming to be a regiment. In truth, the cells were rare more then a hundred strong, with most being around twenty.

Simona yelped as the sudden electrocution, “Fracking cun-” she stopped herself though she was clearly in pain. The medic was not a mechanic that much had been established, and the result had been a terrible electrocution because she had pressed the wrong button combination and perhaps worsened the condition of her bionic eye.
“Alright, sergeant, lets be honest I can’t help you with this one, we need either a tech priest or a mechanic to look at the eye and so far I can only see the latter being a possibility.”
“Oh yeah. First I kick their captain’s ass then I go and ask for their help, you know while I’m at it, shouldn’t I just offer them roses and kisses?” Simona responded with thick sarcasm.
“Could be worth a try.”
Simona looked at the woman and then said, “You have some of the worst humors, have I ever told you that?”
“About a dozen times while in service, yes.”
“And the driest?”
“Twice as many times.”

Simona sighed and left, still holding a hand to her head as it banged with a murderous headache. She drank loads of water to help with the headache and took the liberty to wash the blood off her face and take a look at her uniform; her white gloves had clear blood stains and her sleeves had a few red dots here and there. She’d need a completely new uniform if she wanted to look as immaculate as before though, to be quite honest, any administration office would be a good hundred light years away from here.
“Sergeant Hildenbrag,” another sergeant called as she approached Simona. “Captain wants a personal report of what happened before she showed up.”
Simona gave a quick salute and then left for the Captain’s new office.

She knocked on the door, gave a respectful salute before she entered. “Sergeant-Major Hildenbrag reporting, ma’am. I understand that you want a report of what happened before your arrival, captain,” Simona started.
“Well…When we arrived, I didn’t realize exactly how greased the 129th uniforms were, so I assumed that they were civilians and informed them of your orders. Erm, afterward I learned who they were and, erm, I maintained discipline while they…Whistled and cat called at us.”
Simona was doing her best to get to the point, though she had always felt uncomfortable with the strictness of actually giving a verbal report, it was mainly due to her education and experience in the Underhive which caused it.

“Their captain presented himself, and I didn’t immediately respond with the…Correct military standards. By then it was getting a lot more tense between my unit and the 129th…I told him directly of your orders and that negotiations could wait till you had arrived, and gave him notion of your orders of use of force. The captain didn’t like the orders and gave me attitude, called me and my unit toy soldiers and girls, and with all due respect ma’am-” Simona’s temper was getting the better of her-“even a coal mining twat like him should be able to see that we’re not. What the frack did he think I lost my eye for?”

Simona quickly realized that she was showing too much attitude in front of her superior officer and regained her posture, “Sorry ma’am…I got a bit upset there. Uhm, after that, then…Well…I boiled over. Wacked the 129th captain right in his head, and gave him a hit or two more…After that it became a free for all, but don’t worry we maintained discipline,” Simona quickly assured as she brought her hands up defensively. “No knives or shooting…Just kicking and biting and scratching…and pulling and…” She stopped right flat; those who didn’t know the life in the Underhive wouldn’t understand that a ‘fair fight’ only meant using the body, not broken pieces of glass, knives, bats, etc. and Simona wasn’t going to start betting that Captain Briggs would understand completely.

Simona then swallowed and asked a question which had been on her mind for a while, "Captain, supposing that I' live through this, will I be handed over to the commissariat for punishment?" She silently prayed that it wouldn't end like that, she valued her life too much to simply submit and die like that, and partially because she wanted to die with at least some more dignity than a lasgun shot to the head.

Tira Briggs

Tira glanced up and returned the salute with the same pristine efficiency that only the 234th could. The sergeant appeared a little worse for wear. The fight had looked like a good one, she was no Techpriest, thank the Emperor for that, but it appeared like her grotesque eye was somewhat damaged. Her short red hair was sticking out from underneath her hat, but it only gave her a more feral appearance which was good. Her usually spotless uniform had a few bloodstains on it, but that was fine. She could roll in the mud and still be closer to regulation then these cog lovers.

Tira nodded as Hildenbrag gave her retelling of the story. It met with pretty much what the reports had said. She wasn’t quite sure how a fist fight worked out, but she felt confident Hildenbrag did as she said. Usually, when it came to close quarters, Tira just swung her chainsword. It got the job done faster, and it was hard for them to throw a punch when they lacked an elbow to do it. Still, A coal mining twat… that wasn’t a bad one. It seems those who lived in the tunnels of the Hive City were gifted in the art of insulting.

Tira smiled to reassure the Sergeant, “No, you won’t be turned over to the Commissariat. If we were to get a Commissar he will most likely shoot Henry and me, in order to restore order through the use of fear. I doubt Captain Clayton will be the kind of man who allows another person to do their fighting for him. No, I believe he will try to get his vengeance personally instead of going to someone else with his tail stuck firmly between his legs. He might even just dislike you and forget about you in order to get back at me. In which, he needs all the luck in the universe.”

Tira gave a soft hmm as she gave a last look over on the map, “Do not mind them Sergeant. All men believe themselves to be right even when they are wrong. Even though they are just smelly, small-cocked men who hide in metal boxes as the real Guard fight and die in the trenches, they will always believe us to be the toy soldiers even when we are fighting Orks with knives and bayonets.” She explained circling a position near the nearby bluffs, “In fact, their captain is right now barricaded in my quarters. Either he is getting things that belong to him, or simply throwing a tantrum. Probably both.”

Pausing, she looked up to the sergeant capturing her deep hazel eyes, “Just remember one thing Sergeant, not all fights are won by who screams the loudest and throws the punches.”

“Ma’am, I think that’s one of the reasons as for why you’re the Captain and I’m a Sergeant-Major,” Simona commented on the last thing Tira said. Simona would let the captain play her noble games with the officers, honestly Simona wouldn’t know when she did or didn’t so it wouldn’t matter to her.
She did feel relieved that she wouldn’t be handed over to the commissariat, those bastards only thought about execution, flocking and what not. Last thing she needed was a wanking tattle-tale to hand her over to a killing machine.

“Well, I take it since you haven’t ordered a grenade thrown into your room that you will endure some of the piss he’ll throw around, but enough about those slime bags, I have a question, Captain. I’m not a commander like you, but since this town is surrounded by this sickly greenery, we need some form of defenses and alarms; usually that’s what we did back in Scintilla when we didn’t want intruders, use some string and a few cans and then we had an alarm system when someone walked into them. Though that was a concrete forest, not an actual-” Simona nodded towards the nature outside the window.
“You think trenches, mines or even just a wooden wall will help?” Simona asked. “Could make those boys do something useful rather than sit around and horseplay all day. After all, they’re miners so they know how to handle a shovel at least.”

Simona looked at the captain for orders, though she knew that this conversation had been more than just a briefing report. It had also been a warning that Simona should keep an eye on her back if that captain twat was getting closer to her; it was because of revenge…All things considered, she was feeling more at home like this. Men who could rape you, the chance of something blowing up and the likelihood of a shoot-off around the corner, hell it was like the Underhive again!

Tira Briggs

"I have been considering the same." Tira replied to the comment on defenses, she indicated to the map stretched out before her, "We have some problems though." She admitted moving to point at the town, "We have no heavy weapons, so the only ones who can help us there is the Tanks. If we build a wall, which I have no doubt we could get up by tomorrow night, we would cut off the tanks line of sight. They cannot climb a wall like we can and this town is too level for them to be able to fire over." She explained gazing at the different positions and giving a soft hmm every now and then.

"Sadly, I will have to speak to Captain Clayton about his tank placements." Tira continued, "We, on the other hand, have only came with what we carried, and to my knowledge mines are not a standard equipment." She sighed showing her disappointment. Pausing once more, she tapped her chin thoughtful, "We will build two rings of trenches in order to have a point to fall back in. We cannot afford to get tangled in melee with the Orks." She said.

She pointed towards the map drawing a circle with her finger, "The outer ring will encompass this large bluff that will allow the tanks to fire down and cover us. We will need them sadly. If we had some heavy weapons, we could hold it our selves..." Tira admitted. It was a shame... but they would need the cog lovers for now. She paused considering the map and waved the sergeant forward, "I will command 2nd company in the outer ring when the times comes. It should not take long for the Orks to realize we are here, but we can not move until we get more supplies."

She walked around the table and drew another ring this one closer to the town, "You will command 1st company in the inner ring." Tira Informed her. "I know there are lieutenants here who can take over this job, but they need to concentrate on their own platoons, so you will hand over your command to another in your squad. This is a field promotion to First Lieutenant, I doubt this promotion will hold after this war, but for now, it is the rank from which you command. Unofficially, you are going to help me by leading First Company, I can not be in two places at once."

Simona nodded, she wouldn’t doubt the captain’s judgment as she had been educated in military tactics and when to use what, “No…Unfortunately we don’t have any heavy weapons,” Simona sighed and then realized what she kept in her bag. Normally when she’d board pirate ships she would take some time after the battle, and sometimes she’d find the weapon storage room which was worth more than the treasures of the pirates. Explosives, exotic weapons, even xeno swords and knives could be found in there!

Simona would always take the Imperial weapons she would find and then sell them to the occasional ratlings and dealers she came across, though some she had kept for herself, and most specifically was the two demolition charges she had gotten her hands on. “Well, yes, captain, mines aren’t standard, but, erm, you know-” Simona started off, and then she became uncertain for how she should spit it out. “I’ve got two demolition charges in my bag,” she then quickly said and went on to explain, “I found them after I completed one of my boarding missions, I thought it would be a nice souvenir. Though in this case, I suppose we could use it as mines or even to collapse buildings down on the xenos.”

“Also, yes it is unfortunate that we can’t have two of you. I’m certain the glock loving captain would love such company. I’ll be sure to select a new sergeant amongst my unit and have the 1st company informed of my new position, but may I come with a new suggestion. If we are to have a secondary trench line I’d recommend that we do this,” Simona drew a few straight lined between the outer and the inner circle. “A clear path so we have a line of fire while you fall back. I know when I fought against the T-Nekx gangers we always had a clear agreement which side to use when we fell back, otherwise we risk shooting out own, that and not everyone is as fast for running as you might be, ma’am. With all due respect, captain, but some of the soldiers are made for fighting in tunnels and narrow corridors, nor the open field; that’s why they became boarding units in the first place.”
Simona looked at the captain and waited for her response. She knew the line of command was suppose to be followed strictly, but it wasn’t Simona’s nature, she preferred to be blunt and straight to the face when it came to such matters. From her experience with the captain, she had been open to constructive criticism and suggestions, but undermining her authority was just asking for hell of a life, but then again, she couldn’t keep four hundred soldiers in tip top shape all the time.

Tira Briggs

Tira snapped her eyes up at the demolition charges with approving eyes, "Well done lieutenant.", she paused considering what to use it for, while you very well could use them to destroy buildings to block off routes, destroy enemy armor, bring a building down on top of them, or use them as mines, but they were too valuable to them at the moment to make a hasty decision. "No, keep a hold of those, I have a feeling we will be needing them before this war is at an end." The orks were endless, there was only two demolition charges. She would not waste this valuable resource.

The thought of two of her making the cog-lover's life miserable brought a unsoldierlike giggle, that she quickly covered with a cough, but her attention was grabbed by the sergeants new suggestion, and it made sense. Damn shame Tira had not come up with it herself, but it was a good plan, and it helped morale if she was known to be open to suggestions, which she had made a point in her career to be open to such. "That is a good idea." She said with a soft hmm still considering it. The extra lines would have to be built after the outer trench. They could probably get the outer trench dug in a about two days, and the inner trench that was far smaller would only take a day or so.

"Well, Lieutenant Hildenbrag, inform the other lieutenants of the plan, I want work on the inner ring to begin tomorrow morning as soon as the sun rises. The Orks will notice we are here soon, and I do not want to be caught with our pants down. Emperor knows someone has to be on guard, and I am not willing to trust the Cog-Lovers to do their part." Tira complained. Truly, she would have to face the Captain sooner or later, and it was better sooner, so she could finalize the defense plans.

"Private." Tira called and not a second later a women came in snapping salute, "Yes Captain?" she asked, Tira tapped her fingers on the table, "Is Captain Clayton still here?"

"Yes, Ma'am." The Private responded stifle wondering if the Captain had finally grown tired of the tantrum, Tira smiled relieved, "Good, inform him that I wish to speak to him on the plans when he is finished with whatever it is he is doing." The private nodded and turned on her heel to follow orders. Tira had passed the ball into his court, she had extended a hand now it was time to see which of them was going to be the childish one.

Henry smiled, as his folded the last of the banners, a large piece of bright yellow silk, with a pair of horizontal green strips and some sort of red lizard in the middle. The words, Tenth Scytales, were written across the top of the colors, which had once belonged to a rebel armor regiments, before the 129th had smashed into them, destroying their warmachines and capturing the flag. His anger had faded somewhat, as he gently removed the trophies from the walls and turned them into a easy to carry stack. Of course, that didn't mean that he was going to forget or forgive today's insults. No, not yet and he was not going to be in the mood for whatever bullshit the stuck-up bitches were going to pull, when he tried to leave the bedroom.

Glancing around the room, that tank captain, slung a small bag over his shoulder, the sides bulging from poorly packed cloths and other items from his kit, looking like it was a hurried afterthought, when compared with the neat stack of silks. With a great deal of care, he gently lifted the banners from the bed and drew in a deep breath, before strolling over to the door. Shifting the load to rest on his left forearm, he pulled the bolt and yanked the door open, revealing a private from the 234th, hand raised to knock. For a second, they just stared at each other before she blinked and snapped a smart saluted. His glare over the top of the stack, for thats what his face as set into, relaxed just a little, as he returned the gesture, all be it, more sloppily.

"Captain Briggs wants to see you Captain" the private rattled off.

For a moment, Clayton considered his options. The first and foremost of his thoughts, were to send the soldier off with a rude message to deliver to Captain Briggs. Something along the lines of; "yours tits are too small for me to take interest in you." While that did bring a smile to his inner self and a internal chuckle, he suspected thats just that the bitch wanted and he wasn't going to give it to her. So that left going to see her about whatever girly thing she wanted, which might be seen negatively, like a beaten dog coming to heel. A lose/lose if he ever saw one. The best thing, might be to go see her, hear what she wanted and then tell her to go frak herself.

"Does she" growled Henry, "Well lead the way Private."

Following the woman, the captain stepped carefully. Not that he really care, if he bumped into any of the toy soldiers, now swarming and infesting his billet but he had the banners to think about. He need to keep those from being soiled by their unworthy touch. So he stepped carefully, making sure lean or twist when he had too, to avoid contact with anyone. That was, until he was shown into what had been the nobleman's parlor, with it's large, main table. There was Captain Briggs, that damnable sergeant (he was going to file charges, damn Briggs if he wasn't) and his map.

"Whata ya want?"

Simona gave herself a small self-satisfied smile when she was given the approval of the Captain for her looting; she had never expected to meet the approval of any officer if they found out. She could tell that the captain was more concentrated on the battle around the trenches, but in Simona’s mind her concern was when the xenos closed onto the inner trenches or if they were pushed back into the city, what would they do? Well, thankfully she had learned how the Underhive gangers booby trapped their most treasured turf, and at the moment Simona saw this city as her turf.

She turned as the can-loving captain of the 129th entered the room and gave him a salute, clearly he still held a grudge against her and captain Briggs, though when the 129th captain had finished talking, she couldn’t help but to show an obvious smirk on her face. “So much for upholding the chain of command, eh? I didn’t hear a captain or ma’am, sir,” she said mockingly.
“Captain Briggs, please excuse me, I need to inform the other lieutenants about your plans and bring you those bombs,” she gave a final salute to the captains and then left the room and marched through the HQ towards the other commanding officers. They would all have a lot of work to do by tomorrow so they’d have to encourage some sleep for the soldiers.

Explaining the captain’s plan to the other lieutenants and sergeants wasn’t hard. They all had their faith in their captain to know what was best to do though Simona had taken the liberty to add in a few adjustments here and there; for while the Captain had a clear idea of how to hold the city using the trenches she had overlooked what could happen if they had to fall back into the city. So, knowing how the gangers would have done it, Simona explained that they would need to prepare booby traps for the xenos; a bucket filled with gunpowder and loads of small bitz (coins, keys, nails, anything small and hard) could easily create a grapeshot bomb but they’d require some engineering from either a mechanic from the 129th, or a Tech Priest, and so far it was only the first which they had available.

With a quick promotion within her unit and orders for a soldier to bring the demolition bombs to the captain, Simona selected a handful of soldiers and marched out of the HQ and towards the 129th camp.
Simona spotted a group of men talking and directed the group of women towards them, saluting when she stood before them, “Gentlemen. You’ll be informed eventually, but Captain Briggs of the 234th plans on building trenches around this city to hold off the orks. However, should the trenches fail we will have no further defenses within the city, so I’m gathering a team that will be building grapeshot bombs. Buckets filled with coins, nails, keys, or anything else that’s small and can kill and maim.” Simona surveyed the men, seeing if they had any interest. “I need men with mechanical knowledge, so who’ll volunteer for this?”

Tira Briggs

Tira concealed her smile at lieutenant Hildenbrags comments. While it would have been nice for the good captain to at least pretend he was a soldier or at the very least, intelligent, but as he was blocked from view by a vast amount of old banners, she decided it was an improvement of looks. At least now she did not have to see the disgusting excuse for a uniform. She kept her silence only nodding her head as Hildenbrag made her getaway as if trying to beat the inevitable comeback by the Captain, although given his thought ability, a simple frak off would probably have been the worst.

Tira tapped her chin lightly considering how to go into this. She was grateful he had decided to come as it saved some frustration later, but now she had to proceed... delicately, or he would throw another tantrum and stalk off, and they would be stuck in the same place they were before. Well, she supposed it would be best to simply get technical with the defenses and see if he gave a damn or not. Tira traced the lines with her finger showing the two trenches and the causeways connecting them.

"Tomorrow morning, we will begin construction on two trenches and a series of small causeways to allow for a line of retreat." Tira said which was the general gist of what they were doing, "If the Orks break through, we are legging it, and while I have faith in my guardswomen to hold the line, we lack heavy weaponry." She said evenly. She did not say they had zip encase it got ugly between them, so if he believed they had only a little it would benefit them until a temporary treaty could be formed.

"So, Captain Clayton. I would like your assistance in placing your tanks. I have little experience with tanks, so your input would be appreciated." Tira said, and pointed to a large bluff in between the two trenches, "This bluff will be secured, and from what this map indicates, it will be easily accessible to your tanks. So Captain, what do you think?"

There were things more important, then beating little bitches like the sergeant, or at least that was Henry told himself, as the little girl in sergeant's strips left the room. Things like the banners filling his arms, which would also put him at a disadvantage, if he so chose to dignify the sergeant with his attention. Instead he ignored her, she wasn't worth his time and he doubt that it would do any good to tell her that Briggs was the same rank as him, he didn't have to call her anything, nor was she his commander. It was his choice to offer any respect or honors to her rank and in his mind, she hadn't earned a thing. Of course, it might take an anti-tank round to get that through her thick skull.

As much as the captain was disappointed in not being able to tell the sergeant off, he suffered an equal disappointment, when he was unable to tell the female captain off. He had really been hoping she wanted to see him over something else stupid but instead she wanted to talk about defenses and tank placements. Frowning for a second, he carefully place the banners on a chair, to that he could get a good view of the map, as she traced out lines and starting talking about trenches and bluffs. He had to bite off a comment about her experience in combat, swallowing the acidic remakes with a little difficulty. Her finger rested on a series of steep hills, south of the town.

He frowned more openly now and shook his head a little, as he stared down at the map. It was a good position, for artillery or dug in troops not so much for his tanks. Parking all of his tanks there, would just turn the bluffs into a big target for any ork artillery or rockets, not to mention it would put half his force in a position, where they couldn't fire until the enemy had overridden the crunchies. Then add in that it went against the very mobile nature of tank warfare, it wasn't a good spot. Of course, defense went against that as well but the thoughts popping up in his head, were better then just parking atop a hill. If they (the guardswomen that is) were going to be digging, then it would be easy to get the material to build bunkers for his tanks.

"I think" said Henry, slowly, "I can put a few of my tanks there, a platoon at most but if you want my boys to act as heavy weapons for your girls, then parking them on the hills wont do much good. What we should do, is put them just behind the trenches. We build three sided bunkers, big enough to drive a tank into, with the dirt you dig up. That way, you get close support and I can bring the hellhounds and chimeras into it, without worrying that they will catch your lot in friendly fire."

With the mountain ranges to the east and west, it was a good bet that the orks, if they were coming this way, would swing in from the south, hoping to overrun them and push on into the passes through the mountains, to the north of them. They would follow the roads, which lead straight through Haven or passed only a few miles away from the pleasant little backwater. Captain Clayton traced his finger over the southern edges of the ring or at least where he thought the ring of trenches was going to be.

"Make the trenches narrow" he added, "That way my boys can drive over them without getting stuck, it will be helpful if we have to pull back. Those causeways will bottleneck, if you try to funnel your whole force through them. With my boys sitting in bunkers at the trenches, your girls can climb on top or board them, before they drive backwards to the second line of defense. Might save a few more lives."

Henry knew tunnels and what was a trench, but a tunnel without a roof? Try to get a large group through a small tunnel, with something deadly behind and you were asking for trouble. Miners trying to get away from pockets of gas got knocked to the ground and trampled in the mines back home. Sometimes it was just a few broken bones but the men got out alright, other times they died under the boots of their fellows or were crippled and choked to death on the gas. It was more then easily to apply that kind a situation, to guardswomen trying to get away from orks.

Tira Briggs

"I only wanted a few tanks up there to give extra range to their main cannons acting as impromptu Artillery, but if they cannot do that then they all could get as close as possible." Tira said. It was a shame as they needed as many long range weaponry as possible to kill the orks, she had planned on simply digging shallow ditches behind the trenches that the tanks could slide in and use the raised ground around them for cover much like a mountain of sandbags, but if they wanted to build bunkers and believed they could do it before any Orks arrived then she would not stop them, but she did not want the chimeras close, "I would recommend keeping the chimera's out of the fight. Should the inner ring fall, we are leaving, but we will need a vanguard to hold them off long enough for the main force to get out. The chimera's will be needed to ferry the vanguard out of the battle when the time comes, we can't risking losing any of them. The more we lose, the less we have for the vanguard, and the more suicidal it becomes for the men and women there." Tira did not expect to be able to hold the town for very long or at all, she expected them to be overrun and have to continually flee and make small stands to weaken the orks until reinforcements could come, but as the chimeras were under his command, she would have no choice but to differ to his judgement on that.

"The idea of causeways connecting trenches goes back more then a few centuries and battles." Tira said, "If the infantry jumped onto the tanks they would only be a larger target for the Orks. Tanks may be able to stop slugs, but flak armor cant." She could already see the women being shot and killed as the bullets were concentrated on the large tanks, it was easier to miss when you had many small targets, not one large one, "My girls are used to fighting in close quarters." They had more training in that then they did in open ground combat, "The causeways are going to be wider then the rest of the trench with sandbags placements to allow the rear guard to fall back and provide covering fire. My guards are disciplined, they know how to fall back in narrow corridors." Well, they had better be. Five years of boarding combat should have given them some clue as how to manage it.

"When the Orks get within twenty yards of the outer ring, we will be falling back. We cannot afford to be engaged in melee, and the outer ring is merely meant to slow them down. The inner ring is where the fight will be decided." Tira said. A staggered defensive line was a common, but effective strategy, but it required high discipline in the people preforming that, while she had faith in her own guardswomen, she had little faith in the cog-lovers to do things right. She paused thinking, "Orks are not known for their intelligence, if we built a ramp leading down into a causeway near the inner ring, we could get a few of your hellhounds in the major causeways. The orks will be charging right into the flames." And in such a confined quarters, nothing would survive.

Tira paused considering if she forgot anything before it clicked, "I've read from one of the reports left around that your regiment comes from a mining world. Your assistance in the digging of the trenches will be appreciated." The purpose was two fold as the work would get done faster, but also working together in manual labor might help the two regiments bond, or at least hate each other less. While Tira did not like the Cog-Lovers, she disliked Orks even more.

Henry shrugged, as Captain Briggs requested that he keep the chimeras away from the front lines. he could understand trying to keep the infantry transports (which were normally used to carry supplies for the tankers) but said it herself, a plasteel hull could soak up slugs better then flack armor. If she thought she could clear the froward trench before orks cleared twenty yards, well it would be her girls that paid the price. If she thought that orkz would have a harder time hitting her troops, when firing into packed causeways, rather then trying to hit a tank in full reverse, its cannon and bolters blazing, again, it wasn't his boys that were gonna die. No skin off his nose.

And if she thought, he would just leave the chimeras alone with the rearguard, should they be force to withdraw from Haven, she was dead wrong. To be sure, he'd send most of his remaining tanks back with her crunchies, if they had to pull back but there would be at least one platoon of tanks left to help cover the retreat. It was true, a Leman Russ Battle Tank could only make half the speed of a chimera but they were still twice as fast as the average human. The tanks could easily catch up with any retreating infantry, especially when retreating down a road. Of course that meant that orkz vehicles could catch up too. All the more reason that some tanks should stick behind and screen the chimeras carrying the last of the crunchies.

"A good idea for the helhounds" said Captain Clayton, not looking up from the map, "But I only have two. I would suggest that you figure out someway to collapse the causeways behind your girls. I would suggest charges placed in the walls but I get the feeling you don't have any and I know my lads don't. I'd offer some shells for the job but we don't have a large ammo dump. Or a large fuel reserve for that matter. We were given the impression the regiment we were joining, would be bring more but here you are."

"If we can't find someway to bring the walls down" he continued, 'We might have to park the chimeras like the hellhounds. I know you don't want to, save 'em, blah blah blah but that will mean crap, if you get overrun in the first minutes because the orks flood the causeways, too thickly for lasguns to hold off. I have two Mars pattern and a Gryphonne pattern chimeras. Multi-lasers and heavy bolters wont be as effective as an inferno cannon but it better then nothing. Make the ramps level and they can gun it out of 'em, if we have to."

She was right about one thing though. The Luggnum 129th was from a planet, dedicated to mining. Boring into the crust of the planet to extract the minerals, with pick, shovel and drill. All of the lads had spend just about all of their lives digging but being in a mobile tank regiment, they weren't issued with entrenching tools. They'd have to see if they couldn't scrounge up some shovels from the houses and sheds of local citizens, not those citizens would knew that they helped the Imperial war effort.

"I can ask for volunteer supervisors" added Henry with a smirk, "I know I have a few boys that have served as work gang leaders before enlisting."

Tira Briggs

"We only have two demo charges, and I won't waste them blowing up a trench. I highly doubt the Orks will make it through the causeways before the others make it over the flat land since they will not be funneled into a kill zone, but if you wish to place the chimera's there, they are under your command." Tira said nonchalantly. The chimeras were under him and while they had the same rank, she doubted they would listen to her, so it was something she had to concede, but she had been prepared to do so. It was a damn shame though, only 3 chimeras that severely limited how many guards could be left behind in the rear guard. The rear guard's job was only to hold the Ork's off long enough, so the troops on foot could retreat with a head start just enough to allow them to reach a new position. She had wanted the Chimera's because they were quick enough to at least outrun the heavier vehicles the Orks will be bringing, although granted, she had never seen one.

The captains attitude did not bother Tira much as she suspected that with his limited intelligence and natural male arrogance any thing she said would be wrong simply because she said it, but dwelling on it did nothing for anyone. "Explosives could be fashioned from frak grenades, but we will leave them open, so that we can make use of the Hellhounds and Chimera's against the funneled Orks. Each causeway will be roughly 10 yards wide." Far, far larger then the rings, but it had to be in order to allow the guardswomen to provide each-other cover fire as they fallback. She would be in the first ring, so she would decide when to fall back when the time was right, 20 yards was simply an estimate, "There will be 5 of them in total, one for each platoon in my company allowing them to fall back with their platoons to help avoid getting in eachothers way."

"Myself and first company, third platoon will take part in our section of the rearguard. I would like to request the presence of your Sentinels to participate as well." Tira said watching the map with a frown. The Sentinels would be able to keep up with the Chimeras and provide descent amount of cover. She did not know what he was willing to spare besides the Chimeras, but she could only give one platoon considering the limited space. Each could hold 12 of them not including the crew, but she knew more then a few of the women would die holding the town, so she was sure there would be room for the... survivors. If she were to die, Hildenbrag would take over control of the regiment, and while that was not good for inter-regiment relations, she knew the women well, and she had a decent head on her shoulders.

There was one large problem, if his tanks could get over the trenches, the Orks vehicles could as well. "If your tanks can get over the trenches, so can the ork vehicles." She said voicing her concern, "The outer trench will have to be wider then the inner trench. Your tanks wont be able to cross the outer trench, it will have to be wide enough to stop the large Ork Vehicles from riding over and overwhelming us." If they removed their heavy vechiles, they removed their heavy weapons, if only for awhile.

Henry shrugged again. If Captain Tira Briggs of the vaunted Scintilla 234th thought that a ten yard wide trench, was a killing ground for orks, with her troops armed with lasguns, well she was allowed to think that. If what he had heard about orks, from others aboard the transport on the way here, well they were hard to kill. A nice wide causeway, designed to allow troops to retreat quickly through it, would not concentrate the foe enough without heavy weapons. Now if we So yes, he was going to be placing the chimeras in a position to cover the other three causeways. The two with hellhounds, those were death traps, the other three, would be hard to hold, even with multi-lasers or bolters covering them.

“I will not order the sentinels” he said, disagreeing with the plan to defend Haven for the first time, “To help cover the rearguard. Their scouts, lightly armored and mobile. They will not last trying to hold the line. If Lieutenant Veche and his five sentinels want to stay behind, I wont order him off but they would be much more useful fanned out in front of our troops, making sure they don’t get flanked. However, more firepower would be useful, which is why my command platoon will be sticking with the chimeras. My tanks can hold their own and will screen the withdrawal.”

The tanker nodded however, at the infantry woman’s concerns about the width of the outer trenches. While the thought of a battle plan that prevented him from racing after a beaten foe, running them down with the Emperor’s vengeance, was unnatural, he understood that the chance of that was slim. Still, the idea of entire outer ring being too wide for tanks, worried him. It felt like she was planning on leaving him in the town to die, while her girls ran off to safety. He could tell it wasn’t or at least he was hoping that but his boys would need a place to get over the trenches.

“Not on the north side I hope” said Henry, “Or none of my tanks will be able to get out, if we have to withdraw.”

He always said if, it went against his regiment’s nature to flee from the foe and nearly on the level of blasphemy to say retreat. He could fully understand that they would never hold the town against a dedicated orkish attack but still, there was a chance for victory. There had to be, no matter how slim it might be.

Tira Briggs

Tira nodded to show she accepted when he refused the Sentinels. It was a damn shame, they were the only things that could really keep up with the Chimeras in a full retreat, but it seemed he was going to stay behind as well, "You should name a second in command then." Tira said without flinching at the idea of his death, she had already prepared hers by making Hildenbrag first lieutenant. She did not plan to die here, of course, but should that happen the orks who killed her would die here to, and she could ensure that by ensuring her regiment lived after her death and did not suffer the same infighting that was going on between their two regiments. She had bigger plans, politics to play, people to get killed, and ranks to climb, this would not be her grave.

Tira raised an eyebrow when he asked about the north side of the trenches. He thought she would really make it so that the tanks could not get out? While she had no love for the Captain and his hairy, smell goons, she needed those tanks, and thus needed him. "Of course not." She said firmly hiding her annoyance of such a question. "Your boys can have that portion of the trench to dig yourselves to ensure that if your trust of me runs so thin." Once again, she set up a double negative. If he said he 'trusted' her then it was a score in her favor, if he said he didn't they could dig that themselves and thus save her own women time. Tira truly enjoyed word games, they were so fun in their own little way. Sadly not many guards, men or women, had the wit to make it fun, but she still managed to enjoy it.

The Captain seemed strangely optimistic about the coming battle, perhaps he knew something she didn't? She doubted that, but it was possible. There was little if's about this battle. If they did not get more supplies and heavy weaponry, winning this battle would be a fools dream and even if they could they would only win by sacrificing most, if not all, of both regiments. The only chance she saw was what she read on the briefing of Orks. If they killed the Warboss then they could break the entire war right there, but she doubted the Warboss would be this far out of the main force. Tira was already making plans on other points of combats and ambushes, but if he wanted to believe they could win let him. It would do good for Morale.

"Thank you for seeing me Captain, if you have any other ideas, do not hesitate to say so." Tira said as a farewell. The battle plans would still need to be implemented, but the general mold had been finished.