"I'll uh... make sure the troops are set sir," Sel replied, the infalible soldiers sense that it was time to get the frak out of here prodding her. 


The troops were in fact, set, having spread out around the house and set up stong points in the gardens. Only two soldiers from each squad were outside to serve as sentries, the remainder having retreated inside to make themselves more comfortable. There was no obvious drunkenness yet, not that Sel particularly cared so long as there were something left for her.

“Elara!” Sel called to the specialist as she rounded a corner to find second squad busily rifling cabinets in a pantry. The red head straightened with a guilty look, a whole chicken in one hand and a sack of what might have been flour in the other. A plump looking woman in a chefs outfit was wringing her hands but making no move to interfere.
“Uhhh…” Elara temporized but Sel waved her concern away. She didn’t give two freaks what the troops got up to so long as they didn’t burn the building down.


“Better not let Sergeant Crispin find you doing that,” she advised as Private Calfred emerged caring a pair of large fruit that he was studying with a perplexed expression. At least Sel thought it was a perplexed expression, from her experience it was possible Calfred lacked any substitutes.


“He is out establishing an OP about a click down the road, he…”

A bright orange fireball erupted on the side of the valley. The lights went out and a moment later the sound and overpressure reached them, rattling the windows and shaking jars of herbs from shelves. Sel unslung her las gun but before she could say a word there was a blinding net of light flashing in the sky as the void shield that protected the compound shattered.

“Down!” Sel shouted and dropped behind a counter. The storm which had been kept outside by the void shield was sucked in as the high pressure below voided outwards. A wall of snow and icy air surged into the valley from all directions. Several windows exploded inwards under the deluge, glasses crashed and shattered and silverware clattered across the floor. After a few moments Sel found her feet. It was almost pitch dark so she took a luminator pack from her belt and clipped it to the lug beneath the barrel of her rifle. The cold white beam swept the kitchen. None of the windows had been broken though several were now sporting large cracks.


“God Emperor, sometimes I wish they put me to peeling tubers instead of dealing with this shit,” Sel cursed. Elara came to her feet, grimly holding her roast chicken by one leg, the other hand on the grip of her gun.

“They say he has a plan for all of us,” she commented piously. Sel stepped over the ruins of cookware and kicked open the door to the balcony. Ice and snow buffeted her as she made her way to the two troopers who had been outside. Baffin and Cordoba were both alive, though the sudden storm of snow seemed to have stunned them. They had been fortunate that the large oozlite planter they had been using as a rest for their heavy bolter had acted as cover.

“All good?!” Sel shouted over the still turbulent winds. The cold was markedly more intense, biting at her neck and wrists.

“Think so Coporal,” Baffin responded, coming back to his feet. His hands went to the heavy bolter, methodically wrenching the charging handle back to cycle a round through the breach, ensuring the weapon was still serviceable.

“What in the God-Emperor’s name was that?”

“Looks like someone blew up one of the void shield nodes, or a power generator,” Sel said.

“An accident maybe?” Cordoba asked skeptically.

“An accident right after we get here?” Sel scoffed, “Keep dreaming.”