Vex Chronicles 2: Outbreak

Battle for Cornellius Station

Eredius III, Farmlands

Hakkar sat in hiding in the burnt out bunker. The choice not to fight for the fallen forward front had turned out to be the right choice. The enemy forces had simply passed by.

"Thank the Emperor," Hakkar sighed and carefully slipped back out.

Hakkar assembled the troops and found all still in one piece. None had been spotted.

"Down the road." Hakkar waved them down into the trench turned maintenance road. "Lets see what we plundered."

Trooper Malone would no longer be the only one with a meltagun. Laius had picked up another heat weapon. Gertra ended up with heavy stubber ammunition for days. And even thought they had rescued two grenade launchers, they had ammo for only one.

Trooper Fanda knew the most about explosives. But she already carried the remaining four missiles for Mandelis launcher. Fanda may be one of the tougher troopers – not unlike Gertra. But she would not be able to carry missiles and grenade launcher.

Trooper Jermino was Hakkar's second option. He may not have worked in explosives like Fanda. Be he knew enough to deal with a grenade launcher safety.

"Jermino, think you can take the launcher?"

Jermino just shrugged his shoulders and snapped the drum round into the weapon. His lascarbine landed next to the other spares on the buggy.

"Okay squad," Hakkar looked through the faces. "We'll march into enemy territory. You all know the drill. Spread out, keep your heads low and use the wheat as cover. We'll try to learn whatever we can and reach the comm tower. Our contribution to this war will be crucial intelligence, understood?"

The others nodded. And so Hakkar gave Jurg the signal to start their vehicle. The buggy's engine protested heavily as it tried to climb the slope. Hakkar already feared that the enemy might hear. But a bit of muscle work and the squad had made it past the maintenance road and onto the land of Cornellius station. The electrical fence had already been cut away. And the empty sockets of what had once been two automatic turrets greeted them.

And so they marched onward, careful to stay hidden in the few fields that hadn't been harvester yet. The land was flat and they would be visible from afar. But no one opened fire. No one stopped them as they slowly advanced towards the farming complex and its main communications tower.

Hakkar lead his men by example. And so he was the first to dash from cover to cover towards the communication antenna. Cornellius farm station had a few of such towers on its land. But the closest one was the one in the main farm complex.

The main complex looked nearly abandoned. Only a bare bone crew of armed cultists defended the tower. Where were the enemy forces? Had they all been send to the front line? They could see the tracks of heavy vehicles and walkers. So they had been here.

"We'll take that tower," Hakkar whispered. "Two teams, two entrances. Laius, you command the second team. Everyone fire on my mark, lasguns only. On my mark."

The troopers split and hurried in the cover of the farming buildings into position. Two guards stood at each entrance. Las weapons were relatively silent. And if they'd be fast, they could take them out before an alarm could be called. Hakkar could only hope that an alarm wasn't made obsolete by a brood mind...

"Jurg, think you can reproduce your exceptional results in the gun range?," Hakkar asked. Jurg swallowed but nodded. "Then you take the left, I take the right."

Hakkar took aim and begun to count down. And when he send the "go", laser pulses slammed into the defenders. But Hakkar's first shots went past the target. Rot! Jurg however – despite his nervousness – made his with a clean headshot. Hakkar quickly readjusted and his next burst of shots slammed into chest and head of the xenos hybrid. Despite the troopers blunder, no one had managed to call an alarm.