November 19, 2004

Brother Ethon gets a heavy bolter...

The dusk after the battle, Brother Sergeant Schoel sat alone on a cliff overlooking the fresh battlefield; pondering what in the God Emperor's name went wrong. His eyes swept the battered landscape, looking for signs of any Necrons or Tyranids lurking in the dying light. His eye's suddenly stopped on the wreck of the Baal Predator. I need heavy weapons if I am to best these enemies. Heavy bolters and missile launchers. But it's to late now: Echas IV is situated in the southern fringe of the Imperium, too far away from Baal. Damn me if I ask for assistance from the nearby Astartes chapters. Schoel suddenly stood that surely anybody (or anything) within 3 kilometer would have noticed such a figure.
Brother Mattheu, Brother Ethon, prepare yourselves in a few minutes, we are going to recover the heavy bolters from the wrecked Predator; may the machine spirit be there when we arrive. I shall inform Brother Chaplain Charlie of our intentions.
Fortunately, neither xenos was present in the immediate area of the wreck. The three went to work on removing one of the two heavy bolter sponsoons of the tank: the other was beyond recovery. Taking a quick look, the assault cannons can still be used, but are much too complex to remove given a very short time.
Three standard hours have passed when they finally reappeared in the temporary camp, with Ethon and Mattheu carrying the bulk of the weapon. The two agreed that Brother Ethon will have the honour of using the converted heavy bolter into the battlefield: avenging the crew of the lost Predator...