Chapter 1

A Chapter by Mike G Burton

My name's Gangreen. It's a long story about how I got that name, but I'm not here to tell you that one. Listen carefully to a tale of love, deceit and destruction. Well, maybe not love. It all started as our motley troupe crossed into the Blasted Plains...

My job among the men I was traveling with was mainly the cook. Gopher, scout and general nuisance were added to the resume every once in a while. I was the smallest member of the crew at six feet even, and at a buck and three-quarters, I guess that's why I was a natural joker. The biggest of the crew, Big D, was also the ringleader. Watching him cram his huge frame into his custom armor was a sight you just couldn't forget. The others of our bunch; Beefcake, the quickest son of a b***h you've ever seen... Hippie, our munitions expert and all around gadget man... Zachary, a good middle-man with an itchy trigger finger. Heck, they all had their good, and bad, points. The others had all been either picked up at a bar or spared from a disk to the head and given a second chance at life.

The Blood Angels. I never could figure out what was supposed to be angelic about this team. Maybe it was in reference to a fallen angel looking at how we fought. As I was saying though, it all started when we entered the Blasted Plains from the North. We had picked a nice overhanging outcrop to protect us from the ever present wind. I had been lucky enough the day before to find some wild coyote-like critters scrubbing some carrion at the edge of the desert. I had to thank the stars that I finally stopped the random destruction of our dinner from some well-placed mortars. I had decided to make some of my famous stone wolf soup that quiet evening.

"Hey, Gan. This big enough?" came from my right. Looking over at the lump holding a boulder big enough to brain a mastodon, I slowly shook my head.

"Mech, I asked for some small rocks. Does that look small to you?"

"Well," he mumbled, "when compared to..."

"What?" I spat back. "A drop ship? I'll get some myself." I ambled off in the direction of the edge of the overhang where I was sure some suitable sized stones were to be found. I heard a muffled thump as Mechalus dropped what he was holding. I found the rocks I was looking for and went back to the small fire I had built to finish dinner.

Usually a quiet time, the men were unusually restless at the evening meal. No compliments were given about the meal (of course). I was amazed at how much some of these miniature hercs could pack away at one sitting. I was in the middle of cleaning up the area with the help of Hippie when I heard our leader clear his throat.

"Gents," He said in his rough, gravelly voice, "we've come upon some information regarding the area we are now in." He glanced at each and every one of us before uttering his next words. "Thirty or so clicks to the South-East there've been reports of a major gathering of Diamond Sword."

"Aww, man!" came from Beef.

"Frack! So, what're we supposed to do?" Zachary asked for the rest of the team.

Big D gave the reply, "That's up to us. I know of only one other Blood faction anywhere nearby, and they aren't too happy with us for taking out their turrets after they started shooting everything that moved." He stood up suddenly and started pacing back and forth. We had only seen our leader nervous once or twice before, but never to the point of pacing.

Hippie spoke up. "So how many we talking about here?"

"The reports have been fuzzy at best," Big D mumbled, "but the count seems to be around three-hundred." Someone whistled in the background. "But that's nothing," he continued, "they say another column has been sighted coming from the East, adding about two-hundred more to the count." The whistle repeated, this time in a higher tone.

"Wonder what's going on?" I threw into the pot of growing questions.

Beef looked at me from across the pit flickering red from the fire within and said, "Don't you get it Gan? They want De'Adilus Prime. They want the whole planet!"

"Who the frak would want a piss hole like this?" inquired Mech. "There's only two or three places on this planet suitable for anything but getting heat stroke or spelunking."

"Maybe they found something worth keeping." Hippie offered. "Gods know it's not close enough to any other important systems. The minerals we found are pretty much common enough not to be considered rare..."

"Okay," our leader interrupted, "but what we do know is that these Diamond scum need to be escorted from our planet. We need to come up with something... and fast."

We awoke the next morning to find Hippie crouched over the radio. He was chattering in the COMM OPPS's clipped, choppy language for long distance messages. Every so often, he would spit out a chain of expletives that no one could miss. Finally, he smashed the handset back in its carrier and headed off to see Big D.

"What do you think's going to happen?" Mech asked no one in particular.

"I don't know about the rest of you," I replied, "but I don't have a good feeling about this." I received a few grunts and nods, and left to prepare the light breakfast of hardtack and nutri-gel. About half an hour later, we were all packed up and ready to head off into the growing haze of the desert. Judging by the look on Big D's face, though, the desert was going to be a picnic compared to what lay ahead.

next chapter

© 2014 Mike G Burton

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Reviews

karlifae

I remember Tribes! :) Great idea to base a fanfic off of it. Your writing is great, and this was from a while ago, right? I think I could almost tell it was yours just based off the style and some of the phrasing. Very cool read. Definitely some of the best fanfic I've ever seen!