Kurak avait pris son temps à s'approcher des portes d'entrée du château, menant soigneusement le petit groupe de marines de la ferraille de couverture à la couverture. Ils se tenaient maintenant à moins de 100 mètres de l'entrée avant du grand vieux bâtiment, se couchant derrière une haie taillée dans une colonne empilée, prêt à attaquer. Jusqu'à présent, ils n'avaient pas été repérés. Le trafic de communications encombré filtrant les ondes des autres Astartes qui regardaient le périmètre avec le rapport occasionnel d'une sentinelle abattue. Kurak n'avait pas entendu de coups de feu de la part de ses Frères et les gardes qu'il pouvait voir dans le complexe regardaient de près, indiquant que les marins qui regardaient son avance avaient réussi à faire leur travail avec discrétion jusqu'à présent. Il savait que le temps d'une telle tactique allait bientôt être fini, et il appréciait l'idée.
"Kurak, entrez", les tonalités assombries de Prodigal sont venues sur ses comms personnels. Prodigal ne parlait à peine qu'avec ses propres hommes, de sorte que lorsqu'il s'adressait directement à lui, on avait tendance à prêter attention.
"Allez-y"
"Vous êtes libre jusqu'à la porte. Ferreus et ses hommes sont prêts à attaquer de l'autre côté du complexe. Nous emménagerons à l'appui une fois que vous serez à l'intérieur. Tuez tout le monde.
"Reçu" Kurak a coupé le dos. Prodigal commençait lentement à prendre la tête de cette mission et bien que Kurak fût réservé à quelqu'un qui ne passerait pas de temps avec ses collègues, l'homme savait clairement ce qu'il faisait. Il était assez heureux pour suivre tous ceux qui donnaient des ordres comme 'Kill everyone'. Certains des gardes à l'avant du château fumaient et l'un d'eux semblait même boire, tandis que les quelques hommes qui portaient les canons de sentinelle et les projecteurs près du toit ne regardaient manifestement pas attentivement quoi que ce soit qui allait arriver. Kurak se sentait presque désolé pour eux, ne sachant pas ce que l'enfer venait pour eux. Jonas, Rivacheg, Lyras, Alypius, Merdem et Brenard étaient alignés vers l'arrière, rigides et alertes pour l'ordre d'attaquer. Chaque homme derrière lui connaissait leur rôle dans l'accès aux portes et à l'intérieur, et il n'y avait qu'une seule chose à faire.
-- Tout de suite! Kurak est entré dans son casque.
Merdem s'est levé à ses pieds et s'est ouvert avec son lourd boulonneur. Les coquillages cousaient des cratères profonds sur le toit crénelé, brisant les lumières des inondations, des sacs de sable et des hommes qui brouillaient pour leurs armes. Le reste des Astartes s'élançaient vers l'avant, tirant leurs boulons sur tout ce qui se déplaçait alors qu'ils traversaient le terrain relativement ouvert vers l'entrée principale.
Kurak a serré la gâchette sur son boulonneur dur pendant qu'il courait, le visant dans la direction générale de la porte principale ainsi que ses deux autres Mangers du monde à côté de lui. Il n'était pas le meilleur des tirs et surtout pas à cette portée en mouvement, mais la puissance de feu combinée de trois boulons sur le feu automatique était plus que suffisante pour ce qu'ils ont affronté. Les gardes devant les portes semblaient se désintégrer sous le barage, les coquilles explosives soufflant à part les cages thoraciques et les crânes qui éclataient comme s'il s'agissait d'aiguilles chaudes éclatant des balons d'eau. Lyras, Alypius et Merdem ont alterné des tirs d'experts sur des caméras et d'autres lumières à l'avant du bâtiment et lancé une poignée de grenades sur les canons automatiques de garde de part et d'autre à mesure qu'ils passaient, en longeant le chemin de gravier qu'ils sprintaient. Les grenades ont fait leur travail, fracturant les armes automatisées avant qu'ils puissent tourner vers le haut et viser la charge marine.
Quelques secondes plus tard, les six hommes arrivèrent à la porte d'entrée, foulant les restes broyés des gardes sans défense. Ils ont été rejoints peu de temps après par le lourd boulonneur de Merdem, que Kurak savait sourire derrière son casque, partageant une convoitise pour la bataille l'égal de n'importe quel mangeur du monde.
"Jonas, charges!" Il aboie, les autres Astartes défrichent déjà un sentier de part et d'autre de la porte endommagée du boulonneur, car le jeune marin n'a pas arraché une charge de démolition de sa jambe et l'épingle l'a grappillé jusqu'à l'écluse centrale. Il a été fait en quelques secondes, empilant derrière Kurak alors qu'ils se préparaient à faire leur grande entrée.
Juste alors un klaxon sonnait à l'intérieur du bâtiment, suivi par les cris toujours croissants des hommes. Kurak entendait aussi l'étourdissement du feu autour de la périphérie du complexe, indiquant que ses frères qui regardaient l'extérieur avaient également rejeté la fureur pour une approche plus directe. Pour l'instant, si bien.
"Maintenant" dit-il, s'accrochant à mesure que la charge était détonée, soufflant des éclats de bois et de métal dans la cour et aussi dans le bâtiment lui-même. Il s'est permis un léger sourire en entendant les cris des soldats à l'intérieur qui avaient clairement préparé un comité d'accueil pour les marines, mais n'avaient pas attendu tant d'explosifs très élevés.
"En dedans!" Il s'est enflammé, en suivant Brenard qui a dû frapper à travers un reliquat de la porte, à travers la fumée et le feu...
Name: Sergeant Kurak
Age: 153
Legion: World Eaters, renounced
Planet of Origin: Terra
Physical Description: Short for an Astartes (6'4) but squat and powerfully built. Black, scruffy unkempt hair and scraggly black beard. A patchwork of old superficial fragmentation scars dot his face and upper body. Wears a brand new set of Mk5 Heresy Armour, gifted by his Captain due to his battle exploits. The pauldrons have been carefully repainted black to cover any old Legion affiliations, but the remainder of his armour is the old white of the World Eaters. The armour is notched with tallied kill-counts all over the pauldrons, arms and upper body, giving it a far more worn look than a suit that new has any right to be. There are a lot of notches.
Kurak looks very angry most of the time, except when at rest when he simply looks annoyed.
Skillset:
Kurak has become highly proficient in the role of heavy assault, leading his squad through the heaviest enemy fire into the thickest of the fighting. Time and time again he has emerged from the hell-storm of battle, sporting more war wounds but even more notches on his battle armour. He relies on his hard won close quarters skill and pure aggression to see him through the worst fights, hacking and ripping apart the enemy in a shower of blood and limbs. Kurak prefers a straight fight and could never master the use of the Jump Packs, instead relying on his great speed over short distances to close the gap with his foes. Kurak is the first to admit he is not the smartest man, having no real grasp for anything but the most basic of armour maintenance and tech systems, but has a top tier understanding of squad based tactics, honed through countless battles. Kurak is also not a great shot (for an Astartes), relying on his ability to get close to the enemy for his signature point blank head shots. His skill at close combat is almost matchless however, and his great feats of strength had become a minor legend in his Company.
History:
Kurak was recruited from Terra at an early age, some time into the formation of the World Eaters. Prior to joining he was a simple street thug with aspirations for something greater than beating drunks, and was the first in line for that year's Astartes recruitment. He excelled through his training, his physical strength and pure aggression outweighing his intellectual deficiencies. He passed the harrowing recruitment with only a few fellow youngsters, and soon enough was fighting side by side with the more experienced Astartes. Kurak garnered a reputation for being almost un-killable in his first few decades, twice coming out of deadly encounters as the sole survivor of his squad, and many other times emerging from blast craters, enemy held bunkers and rad-zones with a few more scars and more kill trophies than one so young should have.
After only 30 years Kurak was given command of his own squad, leading several older and more experienced Astartes. Any doubts on his capabilities by his squad were soon resolved when it became clear he valued the lives of his men over almost everything else, leading them into the most dangerous war-zones but taking care to ensure most of them got back out again. Any further advancement was denied to Kurak however, as his general lack of grand strategic thinking or technological expertise precluded him from orchestrating large scale engagements. This was fine by Kurak, who was perfectly at home leading small squads in close combat situations, his reactions and Superior perception skills suited to ably ordering his men into better firing positions and advantageous flanking maneuvers. This is where he stayed throughout the great crusade, fighting loyally for the world eaters year after year in the name of the Emperor.
Kurak refused to accept the 'Butchers Nails' implant that so many of his Legion readily accepted, concerned it would cloud his highly trained reflexes and combat awareness. This was the reasoning he gave his Captain at least, and he and some of his men were allowed to pass on the 'great opportunity'. In truth, he was becoming concerned with the increasingly brutal ways of his Legion and this latest step was one too far into the realms of blood drunk anarchy he felt. He had always seen his own brutality and matchless aggression as a tool to be used in the service of the Emperor, and despite how much he enjoyed hacking apart his enemies he always instinctively knew that he was a monster and should not revel in the fact. Many times he had been ordered to put to the sword civilians, men, women and children in the name of the Emperor, and he had never hesitated, believing that these clearly evil acts would somehow serve the greater good of the Empire and ensure its survival for generations to come. He had begun to suspect that his increasingly frequent orders to exterminate towns and villages were more out of unbridled bloodlust on behalf of his betters and not for any grand tactical scheme, though he often quieted his doubts as he knew he did not have the mental grasp of such grand ideas.
Several weeks before the great betrayal, Kurak and his squad were sent on an individual tasking to assist a nearby imperial army division in the quelling of a rebellious human element on the small mining moon of Junip VII. The army division was already on site several hours before Kurak and his 19 men, and had already surrounded the gigantic mining complex and were slowly moving in. Kurak had expected to be present to offer the threat of extermination while the army rooted out the ringleaders and dealt with them, but these thoughts were quickly dispelled when the army began mercilessly slaughtering all present, even the miner's families. Kurak reluctantly ordered his men to assist, and within a few hours no original inhabitants of Junip VII drew breath. Too late he saw his mistake, witnessing the army division piling the civilian corpses up into giant pyres, decapitating and flensing the flesh from the skulls of the miners and piling them in great piles, whilst screaming prayers to a profane being. Even more shocking was that nearly half of his own men had joined the soldiers in the great debauched affair, drinking the blood of the fallen and feasting on their innards in great abandon. Stunned to inactivity, Kurak and his loyal men only responded when the Army colonel approached Kurak with a bowl of warm blood as an offering, fully expecting the Astartes to partake in the profane rituals.
Kurak opened fire on the soldiers, cutting them down in great swathes. Even when the few men who had shown their true colours began firing on him and his loyal men, he hesitated shooting them down too. In 10 minutes the fight was over, only Kurak and two of his men emerging alive. In the battle, their drop-ship had been irreparably damaged, effectively stranding them on the dead moon among the bodies of their former comrades. All they could do was listen for the next few weeks in quiet desperation to their ship's still working Vox network at snippets of local comms traffic hinting at the great betrayal unfolding across the galaxy on a far greater scale than they had just witnessed...
Psychological Profile:
Kurak is a psychopath and knows he is. He has always had a handle on it, mostly through his loyalty to the Emperor and the focus it gave him. It allowed him to function as the half deranged killing machine he always knew he was, but with a solid knowledge that everything he did was for a greater purpose, even when slaughtering innocent people and enjoying it too. He is not a completely deranged killer however, as his condition is not so severe to stop him from being a highly effective and instinctive squad commander. Kurak has little patience for abstracted strategic plans or deep tactical thinking however, mostly in part to his mental condition, but prefers to act in the moment and make the best decisions whilst in the thick of it, which he invariably does.
He has a deep affection for his remaining men who have stuck with him through this trying time, and would do about anything to ensure they survived. He sees in them two men who have more chance of doing good for the Emperor than he ever could in the long run. He knows he is a Monster, and Monsters are needed to fight the creatures hell bent on destroying his beloved Empire. He knows there is little place for him in the Galaxy when the great work is done, and the injustices are set right.
Equipment:
Phobos pattern bolt pistol with bulky drum magazine and curved bayonet on the fore. (right hip)
Phobos pattern Bolter with drum magazine (mag-clipped to right side of backpack)
Power sword with paired large combat knife. (left hip)
2 frag and 2 krak grenades (small of back)
Magnetic clip webbing incorporating 6 drum magazines (chest and front belt)
1 Satchel Charge (right leg)
Notes
Has two surviving battle brothers with similar armament to Kurak but chain swords in stead of power sword.
- Jonas: Young marine 10 years into his service. Calm and capable, technologically savvy.
- Rivacheg: Veteran of twice as many battles as Kurak. Laconic and sarcastic, hard bitten.