Voltz woke up from the wreck with his head throbbing. Pretty sure that he didn't have a concussion, although only pretty sure at best. His medical training had been composed of the following advice. "Is there a hole in you? No? Back on your feet and keep fighting solider!" If the answer was yes then the advice was "Slap some gauze on it and keep pushing forward." Voltz has always known in the grand scheme of things he was fairly expendable but the rate in which he was reminded could have been lessened from time to time.
Voltz's first instinct was to crawl to the front of the wrecked Valkyrie. He needed to see if the radio was working so maybe he could call someone back on the ship to drop down and pick him up. The area between the cockpit and the main seating area had been dented in the crash causing Voltz to duck as he headed forward into the cockpit.
The area was a mess of broken gauges and glass. The two pilots had also died on impact so if Voltz was going to be here a while he was going to be going it alone. The radio crackled and Voltz lit up with a smile. Success, he wanted to cry out as he looked for the microphone for the comm unit. After a brief moment of looking he managed to find it. Grabbing it eagerly he pressed the button and spoke into it.
"Hammer of Justice do you copy?" Voltz shouted into the mic, unable to control his excitement.
There was no answer. Voltz tried shouting the same thing into it but all he could hear was the random conversations. Between all the shouting one piece of conversation came up that made his stomach drop to his feet.
"The 511th Regiment is being called to help support against a Chaos invasion on the planet Crocanos. Preparing for jump sequence now." The radio crackled.
Voltz tried shouting louder into the radio until he took a step back and stumbled. Taking the microphone with him. It was then that he realized why they couldn't hear him. The microphone cord had been ripped out in the crash.
"EMPEROR DAMN IT!" Voltz yelled as he punched the nearest wall. To put it simply, he was fucked.
The hopelessness of the situation making him immediately go into auto survival mode. Something he had done many times fight the Orks, the Necrons, and the other countless foes that he had been forced to charge in head first hoping their weapons missed him and hit the person standing next to him. In these moments it only became about survival.
These little moments boiled down had kept him alive through four different campaigns. Allowing adrenaline to pump through him forcing him to be just fast enough to hurdle behind a barricade, bring his gun up to get a quick enough shot off to kill who or whatever was right in front of him. Half of his survival was through luck and the other half through his will to survive.
The ship above disappeared slowly as it entered the portal into the Warp. His last chance of being retrieved had gone out the window when it left. The general of the 511th Regiment had gone down and yet the ship was blasting off into space. Each person was expendable to the max. From the grunts to the generals nobody had a lasting place in this universe. Even the "heroes" faded from existence sooner or later.
This reminded him of the folksong that Ben had sung every day they walked to the market place of the hive world he had grown up on sung every day.
Used to be so young
Used to believe that life was
The best song ever sung
I would have died for my country
But now only one thing remains
But now only one thing remains
The brute will to survive
He continued to hum the rest as he grabbed a giant knapsack that was stored in one of the overhead compartments and began to stockpile the odd amount of rations, water, and battery packs for his Lasgun that littered the wreckage of the Valkyrie. He had to survive at the very least. Someone was bound to come back.
It was during this time that Voltz noticed that his helmet felt weird on his head. He took it off to notice that there was a rather large crack in it. Somehow he smacked his head that hard his helmet cracked and yet all he had was a massive headache. Probably should have been dead from that sort of impact, but he thanked the Emperor and threw the helmet to the side. He looked to the other soldiers but either their helmet was in a worse state than his or the head that was supposed to be attached to the rest of their body was just gone.
However the Commissioner that had come with them had also perished but his body and equipment had been adequately maintained in the crash. The wind that suddenly cut through him like a chainsword through a Tyranid prompted him to take the coat and hat of the dead officer. He was glad there wasn't another high-ranking officer there or Voltz would have been shot dead on principle. Then again there wasn't a whole lot that he could do that wouldn't have him shot on principle.
It was starting to get late, so late that Voltz should have headed out for higher ground and tried to find a slightly more defensible location than the one he had picked out now. But the Valkyrie would do for the evening. Luckily the late Lord General had nearly everything for him to survive for the foreseeable future. A tent, thermal sleeping bag, flashlight, etc…the man had been equipped to make sure his own ass was safe and sound while men died in droves around him from various war machines and lack of proper utilities and equipment.
Voltz set the sleeping bag up in a corner of the Valkyrie hoping that whatever predators in the night that curiously wandered up to him would scamper off back wherever they had originated from. After one last look around the camp he curled into the sleeping bag and tried to get some shuteye. He could start fresh tomorrow morning.
Alivalia woke up with a feeling of dread in her stomach. She darted straight up and looked at the web-way gate that had been crushed by the Mon-keigh's primitive vehicle. She cursed with words that would have made the most hardened Exarch pale if exposed to the barrage of filth that was emitting from her mouth.
She grabbed her witchblade and started swinging it into the nearest tree. Ripping the tree apart with every swing into smaller and smaller splinters until there was nothing left but sawdust. Alivalia screamed out one last time before she stepped back while breathing heavily. The realization that she was stranded possibly forever on an unknown world halfway across the quadrant from the current location of her Craftworld. Hope for a rescue was slim at best.
Alivalia felt a tremble well up inside her. This was her first time off world and here she was all alone with no help and no basic supplies. What was she going to do? The Eldar never ventured far from their Craftworlds so other than making fires she had never been taught how to properly survive outside her home. What was she to do?
"The first thing you should do is stop moping and try to survive Ali." An all too familiar voice said to her from behind a couple of trees.
"You're not real. I put your soulstone into the infinity circuit myself." Ali said back as a graceful figure walked out to greet her.
"Let's be honest. Reality doesn't mean much these days. You've seen the horrors pour from the warp. Is it really that surprising I could be a ghost when you know the Thousand Sons move their armor of war while being nothing but dust? Have you grown so skeptical now little sister?"
"I'm not skeptical. But I am also not a fool big brother." Ali told him as he stood a foot away from her. It had been almost half a century since Ali watched her brother sacrifice himself for their Craftworld as the forces of Chaos assaulted it.
"I only ever had one regret. It wasn't sacrificing myself for the Craftworld. I would do that a thousand and one times. It was leaving you alone to learn the path of the Seer by yourself. That's why I will not let you quit now. I must leave now but I will be back soon. Goodbye my sister."
Ali remained silent as the "ghost" of her elder brother left her, although apparition or not he made a point. The only way she was going to survive was to begin looking for food and shelter. Complaining about a lack of training wasn't going to cut it. The first thing she needed to do was scout the wreckage. The humans tended to keep stores of food in their vehicles. She could start there and obtain basic food until she could find other food sources.
Silently she crept through the surrounding forest. She could hear growls and howls off in the distance. Something she better keep an eye and an ear out for or else her time on this planet could swiftly be over. Running from piece of brush to piece of brush her grace and elegance were a true sight to be seen.
After a quick ten minute run Ali approached the crashed Valkyrie. She slowed her pace and began to creep towards the opening. As she came closer she noticed a bag full of military rations. She had gotten lucky.
Her hand stretched out to grab the bag of food and wrapped her fingers around the strap. As she began to pull it towards her she heard a click. She turned her head towards it when she saw a Guardsman with his rifle raised up.
"Drop it," he said.
"Used to be so young
Used to believe that life was
The best song ever sung
I would have died for my country
But now only one thing remains
But now only one thing remains
The brute will to survive."
"Ben?" Voltz asked.
"Yeah?" Ben replied as she slung her Lasrifle over her shoulder as they entered the marketplace.
"Why do you always sing that song?"
"I dunno, why do you bother me when there are a couple thousand other Guardsmen to bother?
"Because you're nice to me."
"I guess that's my great downfall." Ben laughed as she ruffled his hair and they entered the pizza shop. "My treat kid, get us the large pie you know we like."
Voltz ran off to order while Ben found a table to sit down at. She laid her rifle down and leaned back in her seat. Despite what she would say the kid was at least entertaining to be around.
Voltz came back shortly with a small metal pole and a waiting number that read 15."Got it!" he chirped.
"Good kid. Been waiting all week to do this again," Ben told him as she stood up to grab plates, and hot sauce for the pizza that was to come. Ben loved hot sauce and would basically drench whatever she was eating in giant globs of it. Voltz at first thought it was disgusting but after a few times he started to enjoy hot sauce on his food. Although not to the extent that Ben did.
"Hey Ben, Tommy told me a new joke!" Voltz told her. Ben smirked, Tommy from her unit had started him on the vilest and darkest jokes the Imperium had ever heard. Nonetheless she enjoyed them even if she could tell that it was slowly corrupting his youth.
"Yeah? What'd he tell this time?" Ben asked with a smile as she took her helmet off to reveal blond hair tied up into a messy bun.
"You know why food is like bad jokes?"
"Why?"
"Not everyone gets it."
"Remind me to punch Tommy next time I see him. That's terrible," she told him with a snicker.
Right after Ben finished chuckling the pizza was brought over to their table. The cheese melted to golden brown perfection while topped high with pepperoni, sausage, banana peppers, and bacon. Ben and Voltz took giant slices and dumped their normal amount of hot sauce on each slice.
The two gorged themselves on the pizza pie until there was nothing left, and both of them had exactly four slices to fill them up for the day's meal. After this they stacked their dishes up, Ben put her helmet back on, picked her rifle back up, and they headed back to the wall for guard duty.
"Seriously kid, we're far away from anything exciting. I don't know why you enjoy going on guard duty to look at a boring field." Ben told him as Voltz walked behind her.
"Where else would I go?"
"That's the other big question kid where else would you go? Where else would any of us go?"
Voltz woke up suddenly as he heard a slight noise. He looked up to see a slim woman grabbing his bag of rations and Lasrifle batteries. He pulled his rifle up and aimed it at her.
"Drop it," he said calmly as he realized with a small amount of horror that he was aiming his rifle at an Eldar Seer. Emperor be praised he whispered to himself as he set his sights on the dead middle of her forehead.
The Eldar said something in their musical language that he couldn't understand except for the one word they always screamed at him, Mon-keigh. She lunged at him to pierce him with her blade. Instinctively he fired a shot off at her. The shot caused her to turn and improperly complete her lunge attack and instead embed her blade into the wall. As he tried to bring his Lasrifle to fire a second shot at the Seer. The Seer shoved his rifle to the side forcing him to drop it.
Weaponless Voltz had to rethink his strategy a little. He kicked her off of him and brought his fists up. She brought hers up in kind and took a swing at him that he barely saw in enough time to deflect it.
Forgot how fucking fast they are, he thought as he took a swing at her lower gut. He watched as she quickly moved her body sideways to avoid his punch's full blow. Voltz reeled back when the Seer managed to get a quick punch to his face in. Voltz grabbed her and charged her out of the Valkyrie and slammed both of them into the ground.
The two landed hard on the hard cold ground bodies intertwined as they tried to get punches and blows in. Neither of them noticed the large figure creeping towards the camp until the roar stopped their fight cold. They both looked up to see a ten-foot monster of a creature standing there. It roared once more before beginning to charge them.
"Fuck." They both said.
Author's Note
Looks like there is no getting out of this story. I kept putting it on the backburner and I keep getting the random odd emails saying people are still following this story. I guess I should be proud of it despite the fact that I never expected it to get this big.
I also should address why I haven't been writing. Truth be told other than the papers that now consume my life I really don't write like I used to. The depression, anxiety, and self esteem issues that have plagued me since I was about 14-15 flared up dramatically and needless to say my spirit went out of writing. So try to only be minimally disappointed in me, but I haven't been writing for anything. I finally got through with therapy to help me deal and overcome it but it is still an uphill battle so thank you for sticking with this for so long.
One last little bit of news/shameless promotion. Please go check out my story The Last Line. That story I am also going to start writing again and I might get around to writing No Man of Woman Born again as well. Anyway this and The Last Line will be the only stories I am focused on for this website. If you would please check the other one out it would mean the world to me and maybe even help get the next chapter of this out a little quicker.
Also credit to yuikami-da for the thumbnail I am using. Please go visit their deviantart page because they put out superb work! I feel really bad for not giving them proper credit so I appreciate them calling me out on it so I can at least do that and hopefully send some more people their way. SO GO DO IT!
Side note I feel like I am going to get some flak for the whole pizza thing. Something I noticed was that folk songs and cuisine are unsurprisingly not touched on when it comes to the lore. So I would find it hilarious if out of everything that was lost to the ages for the Imperium of Man pizza somehow managed to make it through one cheesy delicious slice at a time.
Also the song that Ben sang is titled the Cossack Song. It felt like it really fit the mood for 40K.