Semper Fi

Colonel Kurt "Camouflage" Krolsson was standing at the edge of the jungle where it passed into an open slope that led to the valley where the dense vegetation restarted, blocking all sight.  The jungle-like vegetation felt like home, even the tropical night heat was familiar, and the nightly swarms of mosquitos were nothing but as annoying as the Catachan ones, but still he could feel that something out there was not like home... that something lured in the night !

He commanded a platoon of 4 squads of Catachan jungle fighters, a storm trooper platoon, an ogryn platoon, and several snipers and other specialist squads.  They were accompanied by 3 Leman Rush battle tanks (one in normal, one in vanquisher and one in demolisher configuration), by two regular chimeras, by a Griffon, a Basilisk and an hellhound.  Recce was done by 3 sentinels ! Why did this enormous fire power not feel reassuring ?  He would have exchanged this for the hard and ruthless nature of his home planet. Although lethal, the jungle would offer him the sort of protection that a tank could never offer : cover, a feeling of home and the knowledge that the jungle was likely to kill all enemy that did not know how to survive before he had the chance to kill him ! He shook his head to get rid of all these silly thoughts that would make him homesick once again and tried to concentrate on the present situation. He squeezed his hand in the power fist, put his finger to the trigger of his bolter and looked around...  

At his side stood the rest of his HQ : Commissar Mack Iavelli stood at his left : if Kurt were to fail, Mack (or "the fridge" as he was often nicknamed behind his back!) would take over and this was surely a "comforting" feeling ! Why had he not taken the chance for a "little accident" a few months ago on Astartes 5 : Iavelli almost fell all the way down from a cliff, but was saved by "Camouflage" at the last minute...

He saw the silhouette of a rocket launcher and knew that Jim Stinger's eye in the visor of his rocket launcher was sweeping over the whole area that lay before him.  Jim was one of the only people capable of holding the rocket launcher with one hand, supporting it by his right shoulder, still standing and even better : still capable of cutting the enemy's throat with his left hand holding the traditional Catachan knife.  And if he would not do this job, his assistant carrying the rockets would : a big guy called Sam "Hugey Bear" Igla.  Right behind Kurt's back, he could feel the familiar presence of Johnny "Radar" Walker, his radioman.

Alpha squad (also called "red squad" because of their red bandanas!) was to his right, under the command of Veteran Sergeant Richter von Hoven (also called "the red baron" for obvious reasons : the bandana right!).  Richter was a well built man, even for a Catachan (especially his abdomen muscles !) who never has been seen without a cigar in his mouth !  He preferred the cigars of their home planet and especially those of the region Cabu near Ha'nava, but was ready to smoke anything in times of war.  If he is short on tobacco, he is renown to use anything he finds in the wilderness.  The boldest story is the one on Majaica 3, in the Joint-Astrobelt where he used a local herb with star-shaped leaves, which were cut in small pieces and rolled in a piece of newspaper ... It is still not known what he smoked, but it is for sure that the whole of the squad was out for 2 days : deliriously telling about unknown, unseen and unheard enemies !

To his far right, Bravo squad was in cover at the edge of the jungle. Bravo (or "blue squad" because they had blue bandana's sometimes even nicknamed "the smurfs") was lead by Sergeant Bob "Blue Thunder" Builder. "Blue" is evident and "thunder" refers to his voice than can frighten the living daylights out of his squad as well as its enemies ! Bob was also well-known for his problem solving capabilities and the squad's favorite motto ran "Can we fix it ? Yes you bet !"

Between A- and B-squad, he could see captain Buck "bidibidi" Rogers' command squad, who lead the infantry platoon.  Buck's father was born on Cadia and his mother was a Catachan, and this strange mix resulted in a healthy well-built youngster but though he spent most of his life on Catachan, he missed the typical physiology of a Catachan.  He served in the cadian conscript divisions where he earned his nickname in these early days when he used to yell "bidibidibide" (with his voice turned to a mechanical timbre) every time he hit his target or completed his mission !  Buck was then transferred to Catachan where the combination of Cadian tactics together with his experience in the ruthless surroundings of Catachan proved to be successful : his promotion rhythm was impressive as where his combat results, but his young age was assessed "disturbing" by commissar Ras Poutin, who was openly nicknamed "the priest" for his devotion to the Emperor (he considered this to be a compliment and that was the reason why he tolerated his nickname). On the other hand, many a foe who came in contact with Buck's powerful power fist would surely disagree with Poutin !

To Camouflage's left, Charlie squad just arrived, taking their positions silently but swiftly.  Charlie squad, or "yellow squad" (yep again the bandanas!), was commanded by a huge black Catachan veteran sergeant, called Charly Victor nicknamed "Big Brother". Even in the darkest of night he wanted to look "cool" so he never removed his blueshaded sunglasses !

He could not see them but he simply knew that Delta squad was following Charlie.  Delta or the" white squad" was led by Bosch "chainsaw" Blackendecker, who thanked his nickname to the powerful weapon he used. The squad's motto combined a well-known commercial for washing powder on their home planet together with their squad's colors : "Delta cleans whiter then white!".

At the utmost left flank, Camouflage could see the vague red flashes of the laser visors of the storm troopers.  They were a force on their own and although strictly spoken, Krolsson was in command, he knew that they would be fighting their own battle with their objectives on their own (chosen by Krolsson's superiors) regardless of the situation of the Catachan forces.  It was as if their squad leader Luke "tin can" Whyskalker seemed to feel the eyes of Camouflage in his back as he turned his head towards him. Camouflage could see by the small red light turning in his direction.  Although the storm troopers had a Chimera to their disposal for this mission, they were on foot rights now as the Chimera was unable to take them in the jungle.  Their mission : to take out the command bunker a few clicks in front of them...

The armor component of his forces was not able to follow in the dense jungle, but Kurt knew that they found an alternative route and that they were closing in on their current position.

He sighed, and after thinking "ok here we go!", he raised his arm with the power fist and waved towards the slope...  Suddenly the edge of the jungle at the other end of the slope seemed to be bursting with lightning as grenades and laser fire pierced through the night !  In Alpha squad two guys went down, in Bravo one... almost the same scenario on the other side with Charlie and Delta...

He heard explosions in the area occupied by the enemy, followed by one, no even two plumes of black smoke enlightened by their flamy bases.  He heard the noise of a chain saw, clearly the sentinels had also made enemy contact... another chain saw sound was heard, the living proof of a second sentinel fighting his way back... So one of the other explosions was a foe :  if the Catachan Sentinels went down, they surely took their part of enemies with them.  Then even before he heard the sound of a missile launch, he saw the "comet tail" of the projectile... even before the sound of the launch reached him, he saw a big blast as sentinel parts were projected in the jungle... the sounds that followed seconds immediately after confirmed this scenario and the deathly result... He looked around and as he wanted to play "the game" on his terms, he called "retreat to the jungle edge" as the third and only surviving sentinel occurred in the jungle at the other side of the slope...

Minutes passed by but they seemed like seconds, as Kurt's men fell back into the jungle repeating fire without knowing where the enemy was and what they were up against ... Sure they were looking for renegade troops, Cadians, that fell for the lure of chaos, but no numbers were known, and the support they had could only be guessed.  Cadians are one of the best trained and hardened troops and are probably the only ones who can be compared with Catachans.  In an equal battle the outcome could be quite unsure, but this was not an equal battle : the jungle is a Catachan's home ! He heard 3 clicks in his comm-link and answered "camouflage to snake eyes, come in ?".  Snake eyes was one of his snipers, who was in position close to the edge of vegetation where the enemy took shelter.  He was called "snake eyes" because he seemed to have two little eyes squeezed to little "holes" (the result of peering through his telescopic sight)...  Snake eyes reported a battalion of a size equal to that of the Catachans, covered by "a" number of armored vehicles (as they were well camouflaged in the jungle it was difficult to tell how much).

By that time the one and only Sentinel had just reached the jungle edge, making its way back to the friendly lines.  Just when Camouflage dared to breathe in relief (he had been holding his breath when the Sentinel crossed the last meters), he saw a flash of light, an incoming missile !  All of his men pushed themselves to the ground trying to use every single bit of cover as the Sentinel exploded, spreading a deadly load of debris. Miraculously, "only" two men were wounded, the Sentinel pilot being killed within split seconds after detonation...

By subtle moves of his powered fisted hand, he ordered his squads Delta and Bravo men to move up to their respective flanks, but he signaled "the catachan way"...  Like shadows, his men sneaked to their new positions, thus creating a position where they were able to make a surrounding movement.  They were able to make their all the way up beyond the outer limits of the enemy's front ranks.  From there they crossed the valley, re-entered the jungle and got back to a position where they were as close to the enemy's ranks that they could see them, without being seen of heard themselves... ah that good old jungle training... Almost simultaneously Camouflage heard the unique click-pattern of Delta and Bravo in his headset : with a specific series they confirmed being in position !

In the mean time Johnny "Radar" Walker was ordered to contact the armor component of their forces, giving them their new orders : the Griffon and Basilisk were to stay in hidden position at the other end of the valley, providing fire support when called upon.  The Leman Russ tanks were to attack from right giving support to Alpha and

Bravo squad, whereas the Chimeras and the hellhound were to come from left, supporting Charlie, Delta and the Stormtroopers.  Slowly every part of the puzzle fitted together...

"Camouflage to snake eyes, what are the coordinates of their front rank, we'll give them a Kill-anemone spore shower", the colonel whispered in his head-set... (The kill-anemone is a local deadly flower on Catachan ; i.e. a bomb carpet weakening the enemy' defenses!). As he slowly repeated the given grid numbers to his radioman Walker, who transmitted these figures in an encoded way to the basilisk and griffon units, who where out of the limited reach of the headsets.

Just at that time, the renegade Cadians decided to try to get the initiative back by raining down a large number of shells and missiles on the Catachan ranks.  Almost before the first missile stroke, Camouflage ordered his men to charge under cover of smoke grenades they just triggered.  And while the first shells of the Basilisk's and Griffon's guns started to rain down on the Cadian ranks, eliminating the Cadian artillery, the detonation of the Cadian weapons fell way behind the Catachan ranks.

As the Catachans entered the jungle on the other side of the valley, "Radar" Walker gave the "clear anemone" sign, stopping the Catachan artillery as the impacts fell closer and closer to the new Catachan frontline.

To be continued...

Argentum Non Habemus, Aurum Sed Valemus

Vote for us at:

This website is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited. For more information read our Disclaimer.