Pvt. Levers falls back as the Kroot press her unit.

“The path of a guardsman is straightforward. With few exceptions, the path leads through war, bloodshed, and fear—and ends in death. A guardsman must accept this. Duty ends only in death.“—Immaculus, a humble priest serving during the war on Verghast

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Continued from Page 1 . . .

Other men in the squad also were firing behind me. Sgt. Tander was yelling for the men to keep moving. “Shoot and fall back,” he shouted. “Run and you’ll die. Close up and leap-frog your positions. Maintain a perimeter.”

Credit to the men, they listened. As fething bad as our situation was, they did exactly what the sergeant ordered. And that’s almost certainly one reason I’m still alive.

Of course, what truly saved us was that Sgt. Tander had his voxcaster call for help. To keep the Kroot at a distance, we had to move enough to keep shooting. And we had to use the terrain to keep the xenos’ fire from killing us. So, we were withdrawing at the pace of a not-so-leisurely stroll rather than the flat-out run that our instincts were telling us to do.

Fortunately, Captain Faltz was monitoring our vox communications, and he had a full platoon headed our way.

They reached us just in time. Sgt. Tander found a slight depression in the woods with some fallen trees to provide cover, and he ordered us to huddle down and defend the position.

Without reinforcements on the way, such a decision would have been suicidal. The Kroot could have surrounded us and, having given them the initiative in the fight, they eventually would have sniped us to death.

But, with help on the way, we only had to hold out for about half an hour, and that we could do.

As the squad neared friendly lines, the guardsmen made a dash to safety. In the end, they were forced to stand their ground and hope reinforcements would arrive in time..

The Kroot disappeared as suddenly as they’d arrived. One minute they were around us, screeching their war cries and firing their guns, and the next moment all went silent.

Five minutes later, we heard the rescue party calling out to us. That was when we realized that we were going to live to fight another day.

Ironically, that’s not when I almost got killed.

That happened the next morning. Today.

I’d slept miserably last night, he night we’d returned to camp. Not only was it particularly hot and humid, but the adrenaline of the day’s battle still ran through my veins. Sleep was elusive.

This morning, I rose in a miserable mood and wandered down to a stream that many of us use to bathe. I stripped off my flak jacket and shirt and was about to lay down my lasgun when something made me look up.

And there stood a Kroot.

He was an ugly thing. He stood three meters tall, with eyes cold and inhuman as he studied me.

If I’d been smart, I wouldn’t have let my guard down. I would have carefully scanned the woods around me before I stripped down. I should have been cautious, even if I was 150 meters behind our own lines.

But I hadn’t. And there we stood, just staring at each other.

Pvt. Levers and a Kroot warrior face off across a stream behind Imperial lines.

Finally, my brain began to work. I dove to the side and raised my lasgun at the same time he raised his rifle.

He fired and missed. I fired and didn’t.

I called out “enemy in our lines,” and guardsmen came running. A sergeant starting billowing orders, and fire teams advanced into the woods, searching for any other xenos and failing to find any.

After the last three days, and this unexpected near-death experience, I finally had had enough. I sat down on a rock, shaking, unable to hear anyone talking to me. It was only later that I learned that even Capt. Faltz, who’d run to the scene after the alarm was sounded, couldn’t get a response from me.

They took me to the medical tent, and the medics gave me a sedative. I eventually came around, and then I got angry. I  hate to look weak. I have a reputation as a hard ass, and I was sorely pissed off at myself.

Still, I’m alive. I’ve survived everything that the xenos have thrown at me, and I’m still here. And I plan to stay alive awhile yet. I’ve got a lot more killing to do. It’s starting to get personal, this fight with the Kroot.

Click here to return to Part 1 of this fight.

The artwork of Pvt. Levers was created with AI at NightCafe Studios.

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The Corvus Cluster is a Warhammer 40K blog documenting our gaming adventures in the fantastical sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.