Sappers

The thin light of the false dawn caused the thick clouds of smoke to glow a pale orange. Vassilev scanned the empty streets from the advance chokepoints his men had spent the better part of the last two days building.

His eye caught the movement before he could make out any forms. He quickly recognized Groznii leading 4 other sappers. All of them were covered with soot and ash. All of them had dark stains on their clothes that could only come from blood. And all of them were almost stumbling with exhaustion.

They walked slowly, all thought of stealth forgotten. Groznii dragged a lasgun by the barrel. Everyone was silent - it seemed to Vassilev as if they were all holding their breath waiting for something to happen. The wooden stock dragging against the rockrete was the only sound in the predawn morning.

Vassilev stood up and walked to the center of the road with his bodyguard a few steps behind him.

"I knew I could count on Groznii. Didn't I tell you Sasha? If anyone can get the job done it is Piet Groznii."

Vassilev walked forward to to the sapper. "What did you see?"

Piet looked up into the eyes of the general. Vassilev stepped back in shock.

"Wha-" his voice trailed off as five long blades punched through Vassilev's back. The thing that was Piet Groznii opened his hand, the razor edges of his fingers shredding the general's internal organs. Vassilev slumped to his knees as the bodyguard opened fire. At this range it was impossible for the bodyguard to miss but neither Groznii nor his sappers fell.

They were quickly in amongst the guardsmen hacking and slashing with bladed hands, reaping a terrible harvest of the shocked troopers. Lieutenant Sasha Vorgen was the first to recover.

"Tight discipline, men! Cut the bastards down! For Vassilev and for Vostroya!"

As the shock of the ambush wore off the soldiers of the the First Born began to lay down heavy disciplined fire and with the weight of numbers, the outcome was never truly in doubt. Piet Groznii was the last to fall but by the time he did, there was no flesh left. Just a bloody, charred, skeleton that somehow seemed to glimmer in the flashing light of the lasrifles.