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thisuserislilsilly · 18 days ago

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Summary: A man truly does care for them, even if they don't want to admit it

Genre: Drama/fluff/wholesome/angst

TW: Foul language, blood, mentions of gore, angst, a bit wholesome

Pairing: Commissar Gallius x Cardrean Penal Regiment (found family dynamic)

Goblin tag squad: @cardinalcanis @finchly-tintinnabulation @artemisareia

@echo-of-damnation @meervalv0 @jaghatai-khock

@druidwolf21

Names and faces (pt. 3)

Dormath was never a fan of sharing objectives with other Imperial regiments; he found them too preachy, too cowardly to accomplish something without the need of asking if it was "according to their orders" or if the Emperor would allow it.

Yet, they were his best bet to getting that blasted war to end. The battle on this planet had gone bad almost as soon as the Leman Russ and Basilisks landed. The air superiority had been in the hands of the enemy, who had managed to destroy a majority of the dropships carrying the tanks, only to be destroyed themselves by the last two. The Xenos discipline at the hour of shooting them down with the utmost proficiency did not helped Gallius protests against collaborating with other regiments either.

After some more strategies and plannings that honestly flew above the man's head, Dormath was dismissed with his orders; the man took them, gave the commissar a simple nod in recognition. As Dormath walked out into the chaotic camp, he saw a group of Cardrean troopers, their distinctive grey cloaks a stark contrast against the olive drab of the other regiments. They were huddled around a makeshift table, playing triple-eight with grim determination, the clink of coins and the scrape of cards the only sounds they made while waging their luck on their bets.

One of the Cardrean troopers, a woman with a scar running down her cheek, looked up to her officer, smiling. She nudged her comrade, a burly man with a cyborg arm, who followed her gaze. He rose an eyebrow and spoke in a raspy voice "Cap'n Dormath, care to join us?" he asked, gesturing to the only empty seat at their table.

With a smile, Dormath sat down, thinking the orders could wait just a bit longer before they needed to be executed, "What the hell, give me the cards", he extended a hand to the card dealer.

Dormath's grin broadens as he plops down onto the empty seat, his metal-studded glove slapping against the rough wooden table. He glanced at the woman with the scar, who returned the gesture, her eyes gleaming with mischief. "Deal me in, Lynia" he said, his voice a low rumble.

The scarred Sister smirked and began to shuffle the deck with practiced ease. She flipped the top card, a Queen of Guns, and deals it to Dormath.

"Playing with the high rollers now, Cap'n?" she asked, her voice laced with jest. The scarred Sister smirked and began to shuffle the deck with practiced ease. She flipped the top card, a Queen of Guns, and deals it to Dormath.

The Captain laughed, "Just a short hand, baby stealer, we have to get movin' in five"

The burly man sitting next to him, whose nameplate read "Gren", snorted, "You're not sweatin', Cap'n. You sure you ain't got a secret up your sleeve?"

The officer rolled his eyes, licking his lips "Perhaps I have Gren, or perhaps you're such a bad fucking Axe that you can't count anything that isn't how many mags are left on your pouch"

The eyes of Dormath flickered back to the scattered coins in the center of the table, then to the almost imperceptible tiny mirror on the table right next to it, belonging to the Sister playing with him. He had seen Lynia cheat before, her sleight of hand subtle yet effective. But to shove a sweet victory in her face, the Tech Lunatic played along.

Lynia dealt the final card, a Three of Thunder, face down. Dormath quickly took it, a smirk appearing on his lips. The officer showed his cards to the rest, the combination making a pair.

Lynia's smile faltered a little bit. The burly man, Gren, sighed and showed his own cards, the Ace of Thunder and the Seven of Flames. A three of a kind.

Dormath showed his teeth, "Looks like I got lucky, huh boys?"

The rest of the card players grumbled, and Gren reached for his pocket, taking out a few coins. Dormath took all of the spoils of his winning and shoved it on his pocket, then rise up to his feet and made them a signal to pack everything up; there was a order they needed to fulfill now on the frontlines.

As the men moved out, the woman with the scar, Lynia, approached Dormath and leaned close to him, "I know what you did" she said, her voice a whisper. Dormath's face was blank for a moment, but it soon morphed into a shit eating grin, "Yeah, and I know you cheated" he responded, a smug look on his face.

The three Cardreans soon rejoined the rest of the regiment, with Dormath stepping in front of everyone and detailing the plans Commissar Gallius had been discussing with the other regiment officers but in a much simpler and broad vocabulary, one the men would actually understand.

They moved towards the trenches, with Dormath taking out his binoculars and looking ahead at the battlefield.

It was a mess of mud and barbed wire, all crisscrossing and intersecting with each other in an intricate pattern. A maze that could be navigated if you knew the way, but the enemy could also use that against you and get the jump on you. And the enemy was not playing around.

From their positions, Dormath could see the enemy artillery pounding the Imperial positions. Explosions were ringing out, sending geysers of dirt and rock into the air.

Dormath turned and called to one of the men behind him, "Sparks, how far do you think the range of the enemy artillery is?"

The Tech Lunatic was quiet for a moment, calculating the answer. "At least a mile, sir."

Dormath frowned, "Then we're fucked."

The Cardreans giggled at the raw reaction of their commander, trying to alleviate the tension before it got the best of them. Being the tip of the last push against the positions of the T'au was a harsh task on it's own and Dormath knew it, he hadn't been the second in command of the Legion for so long by playing dumb after all; but the lack of a decent support and the heavy losses they suffered the first days after arriving in the planet were not a good start to their task.

Their orders were simple enough though; hold the line, kill the Xenos, and push forward as the reinforcement from the other regiment trailed behind them and took out the enemies technologies and destroyed them. But the problem was not the orders, it was the enemy itself. The T'au were proving to be a challenge, their tactics and strategies were unorthodox for what they were used to. They were smart, cunning, and had an uncanny ability to adapt.

Dormath's frown deepened. He didn't want to admit it, but the Cardreans were fucked.

He shook his head, clearing the thoughts from his mind. Raising his cybernetic limb as high as he could and taking oxygen until his lungs were filled to the brim, Dormath yelled and charged ahead, leaving the trenches; the Legion followed him close, all with their warcries on their lips, ready to fight.

Dormath's eyes were wide open, his mouth forming a vicious snarl as his teeth were bared. He ran like a madman, the rest of the Cardreans hot on his heels. The T'au, surprised at the sudden movement, tried to respond by firing at the charging Imperials.

The bullets whizzed past Dormath, and the officer ignored the shards that flew everywhere and hit the men behind him, their objective was to tear the walls down and that was all that mattered.

"Kill the fuckers!" he yelled, and the rest of the Cardreans answered with a chorus of war cries.

The Imperials reached the trench line, and immediately began fighting the T'au.

Dormath grabbed a T'au Fire Warrior and slammed his head into the trench wall, crushing his skull, with his cybernetic arm he lifted another up to use it as a meat shield and advanced blasting away any enemy that he could see and praying to the Emperor the Xeno he was using was sturdy enough to soak up the bullets aimed at him.

The battle was fast and bloody. Dormath was able to reach a vantage point and waved his hand to signal his men to follow him; some High Axes patted his back and began shooting with their sniper plasma rifles from there, making easy targets out of the T'au. With that position secured, Dormath kept charging ahead, sometimes giving strategic positions to Axes, other's to the unhinged Raging Mutes as well as telling the Eternal Sisters to "kill like if Arbiters were chasing them".

A few minutes had passed and Dormath had lost track of how many Xenos he had killed, and the number of times he had ordered a retreat because they had reached an area that was too hot for them to advance, the Tech Lunatic noticed they were simply not capable of breaching through everything, they simply lacked numbers. Not willing to give up terrain, but neither wanting the regiment to be slaughtered, Dormath ordered a retreat; it was better to lose ground than lose men.

As the Cardreans began their retreat, a barrage of missiles fell from the sky and landed among the trenches, exploding and causing the Imperials to fall back even further. Dormath cursed as he watched the explosions, "The hell was that?"

He turned to a nearby Raging Mute, and the man quickly scanned the skies with his visor, making the sign of the Imperial Aquila as he relayed the information. Dormath cursed, the other regiment had begun firing upon them, maybe thinking they were the enemy.

"Lynia! Lynia get me a fucking Vox!" The officer tried to yell over the war around them

"Want a cup of recaff too!?!? I'M BLOODY BUSY!" The Sister replied, sarcastically

"Fuck…who the hell has one!!?!?!" Dormath asked, desperation clear in his voice

The Raging Mute next to him raised his hand, the cybernetic limb holding a portable Voxcaster.

"Good, now give me the fucking thing"

Dormath grabbed the caster, and began screaming into it.

"GALLIUS! GALLIUS YOU FUCKING HEAR ME? FUCKING BASTARDS, THE SHITTING LEMANS ARE SHOOTING AT US! WE'RE FUCKING IN THE MIDDLE OF THEIR BLOODY BLAST ZONE!!"

"Dormath? That you?"

"FUCK YEAH IT'S ME YOU STUPID GIT, WHO THE FUCK ELSE WOULD CALL YOU LIKE THIS FROM A FUCKING WARZONE!?" Dormath forgot for a second to whom he was speaking to, adrenaline taking over his rational brain

"Dormath. Watch yourself." the Commissar's voice was calm and steady, the opposite of the officer's own.

Dormath gritted his teeth and breathed deeply. He didn't like being scolded like this, and he especially didn't like being talked down to. But the man's tone snapped the officer back into his senses, inhaling deeply and trying to calm down, Dormath repeated with a nicer vocabulary the situation on the frontlines.

The Commissar was silent for a moment, thinking. Finally, he spoke.

"Dormath, listen to me, leave the strongest men you have there, the Tech Lunatics will do it well, you know as well as I do they can resist more than ten of any other"

"Okay…." Dormath nodded, his voice slightly faltering

"Atta lad. Keep your cool and get back here, I will resolve this" Gallius voice raised "I want my people alive, you understand me?"

"Yeah…"

"Good, now go"

With that, the transmission ended, and Dormath threw the voxcaster aside, sighing. He looked at the rest of the Cardreans, and yelled the orders the commissar had given him, not listening to anyone about anything else, just focusing in getting everyone as alive as he could out of the bombardment zone.

The rest of the men, the ones who could move, began the retreat. Dormath stayed in the back, giving them cover with the few weapons he had left, picking up plasma rifles or energy charges; the officer did not retreat until he was sure every single Cardrean he could save was returning back to the Imperial trenches. Throughout all the way back, Dormath kept the communication links to the Tech Lunatics left behind open, repeating as much as he could that help would arrive shortly; that would be a good lie if it turned out to be true.

When the rest of the Cardreans had reached their initial trenches, Dormath could hear the sounds of battle behind him. He dragged his feet through the mud and the filth, his arms were tired, his Implants needed repairs and the man needed to report as soon as possible to Gallius what had happened.

He could see the man's face already, and his own expression darkened; the commissar was not going to like this.

"Sir, the men are back and accounted for" Aldo reported, his voice strained.

Dormath grunted, and nodded his head. "Thank you, tend to the wounded, then give that information to Gallius."

The officer sighed and rubbed his eyes. It had been a long day, and it wasn't close to being over.

He trudged over to the communications tent and sat down in front of the hololithic projector, the image flickering into view. Numbers, some raising and others falling, but those were just numbers, no names nor dates, no faces; all of what they were at a strategic level.

The officer made his slow way towards the same tent he had gone out of in the morning, so cheerful and willing to unite again with the troops; he scoffed now at his thoughts of maybe playing cards again when they returned from the field, it sounded so stupid now. The tent cloth flapping around as he got through it.

Gallius was not on his chair, where Dormath would usually find him after a deployment; by the left corner there was a small shrine, candles were arranged around a large picture taken the day Gallius had officially entered the regiment, their first deployment together, one Dormath had not been part of yet. A younger commissar was at the center, he couldn't had been older than thirty on the picture, with some strands of hair sticking out from his well worn hat that gave it a even younger semblance, he was too accompanied by the veterans of the Regiment, two of the five were still alive today, the most loyal of all in the entire Legion next to Dormath. Gallius wasn't smiling in the picture, his serious expression was very well known by Dormath, which made a tiny smile appear on his lips; the picture as a whole had been well taken care of, not a single scratch or dirt particle in the entire frame, speaking of how treasured it had been for the owner.

Outside of the shrine, surrounding it in fact, portraits and more portraits of officers, common soldiers and even tanks were visible, arranged as so the light of the candles still shun on all of them. It was truly a little place distinct from all the others in his commander tent. The man was knelt in front of the shrine, in silence; on that position Dormath couldn't tell if his eyes were open or not, although he suspected it was the latter as the officer had entered loudly enough for Gallius to hear him.

"Who" Gallius muttered

"Two hundred dead, forty five injured as far as I saw with my own eyes, five officers will have to be repla-" Dormath straightened up, starting a practiced speech on the way there

"I said who" Gallius glanced at his second in command, Dormath almost saw a tear "Names, not numbers"

"I...uh" The order took a second for the officer to actually register, then he mumbled the names "Asphret, Vorn, Jent, Horrst, Pask, Nyms, Egoryn"

"Stop..." Gallius raised a hand, never turning to face Dormath "That'll be all, go back to your post"

"Sir-"

"I said go back to your sonin post! Now!" Gallius cursed in Cardrean language

Dormath nodded, looking to the ground, making the Aquila sign and leaving the tent. On the way out he tripped over the other regiment's commander; he looked so pristine, with those clean boots, his beard well washed, having an eye implant seemed the only thing that ruined that pretty face. Dormath wanted to smash it into pieces, but managed to resist the impulse just in time.

"Well earned victory out there, my congratulations" The man said, smiling

"Victory is what you call it, I call it trying to cover my ass from your fuck-up" The Cardrean spit on the boots of the other

"We managed to contain the T'au and made them retreat, your men did not die in-"

"If you're off to see Commissar Gallius, sir, he's in his tent" Dormath interrupted the man, watching his own implants

"Right..." The commander said between his teeth

"You'll need this sir" Dormath washed the blood off from his augmented hands on the face of the man, specially targeting that fucking beard "Now you look like you've gone through a battlefield"

Smiling sarcastically, Dormath didn't wait for the reprimands and threats of the man, just leaving in a hurry to check on anyone else but that specific commander. The Colchan officer yelled a few times, his cheeks red from the insubordination he had just witnessed, it only served to fuel his anger once he barged into the quarters of the commissar, seeing the man on his knees and apparently praying to something, the Colchan didn't had time or the patience to guess what to.

"From all the regiments I have worked with, this is surely a special one, Gallius" The men hid his anger behind a pompous sarcastic remark

"Commander Shem, my apologies for any inconvenience you had coming over here" Gallius stood up and approached his chair on the desk, pointing to the other at the end of the table

"There was no problem at all, I am in fact honored that my artillery section was of use to the Emperor's cause in this zone"

"Yes, it was, for that I thank you, Shem. Now...my intentions weren't purely to call you here for celebrations" Gallius opened a drawer and pulled out a bottle of amasec and two glasses

"Then let's hear the rest" The Colchan arched an eyebrow, intrigued

"You see, I have been receiving orders from the Warmaster for quite some time now, four years to be exact-" Gallius spoke offering a full glass to Shem "And I am already getting tired of all this, of this front, of this war"

"The feeling is tragically mutual, Gallius." Shem shrugged, chugging all of his drink at once "Lord Elard is many things, but a strategy men is not one of his strengths"

"So why not select a new one? My sources tell me the Colchan's have acquaintances close to the Warmaster, why not we propose one of them and see if the other fronts agree with our selection?" Gallius serious demeanor didn't change

"That is a very appetizing offer, my good commissar" The Colchan nodded slowly "But who could fill the position?"

Gallius rose from his chair, going to one of the drawers and pulling out a data slate, handing it over to Shem as he walked around the room. It had a list of names, all of them important people of the campaign, there were some additional notes on some of the more interesting of characters,

"We could pool some of those to be chosen, I don't see why not" Gallius waved his hand

"You have done your homework, dear commissar! I cannot even begin to imagine how long could it had taken you to compile all of this"

"I am a very patient man..and have eyes everywhere" Gallius said, putting his hands on the Colchan arms

"That is good to kno-"

"Let me finish" Gallius tightened his grip on the man's shoulder's "I have eyes everywhere, or did you think I wouldn't know about your and the Colchan's plan to take my regiment out?"

Gallius pointed to the portrait in the far end of the room, there was a little camera positioned on the eyes of the painted Gallius, Shem could see it too. The officer opened his eyes widely, gasping as he looked back to Gallius, the man was grinning sinisterly, his sharp teeth resembling those of a predator that has just caught his prey.

"I don't think I need to tell you what will happen if this is accidentally leaked to the Warmaster Elard. How far down you will fall down the chain of command...I guess you could even form part of my Penal Regiment if luck is not on your side..." Gallius whispered on the Colchan ear

"Wh-wh-what do you want? Please, I can give you-"

"Nothing you do can bring my men back from the dead, you pathetic excuse for a whimpering fuck" There was venom in every syllable "You did not have the authority to decide their deaths, I do! I have been with them since the moment their lives had officially ended for the Imperium. You think these are just a bunch of murderers and thieves, well they are my people! The last face they see before their souls leave their eyes is me! The last hand they see telling them all is going to end soon is mine! Do you know their names!?!?! Do you know what they eat, where do they sleep, what songs do the Cardreans listen to in the moments their nightmares are too much to bare? I do...I do every single time I can...I...they are my soldiers, I bare their deaths in my mind. I am the only one that can send them to their deaths and be proud...of what they have done for me" Gallius grip was so strong Shem felt the nails digging into his skin

"Oh Emperor have merc-"

Gallius yanked the chair, throwing it to the ground as fast as he could, giving Shem no time to brace for the impact. Both furniture and men crashed into the cold mud, the commissar putting one of his dirty boots on the chest of Shem and drawing his pistol, aiming directly at the commander face. Gallius wished more than ever he could had pulled that trigger once and for all with no consequences, but he knew his duties, knew this wasn't about them.

"For as long as this blasted war continues, if I see your face one more time I will pull the trigger, so Emperor help me" Gallius spit the words out

"I-I-I-I" Shem was shaking

"Do you understand Commander Shem?!?" Gallius raised his voice

"Yes! Yes!"

"Good! Now, for morale sake you will swallow that fear, attempt to not shit yourself and will walk back to your regiment like if we all had a good time here, because that is the truth, right?!?!"

"Commissar please I think-" Shem began stuttering

"Right!?!?"

"Right...!" Shem nodded

As soon as Gallius had removed his boot from the chest of the commander, Shem had rushed to stand up, hastily cleaning himself up and saluting the commissar, fleeing the room as soon as he could. Gallius watched the scene without saying one more word, just glaring in judgment at the man, knowing he had scared Shem enough to not pull a stunt like that on the Cardreans never again.

Gallius collapsed on his chair, feeling the old wound on his chest aching, he hadn't noticed how much emotion the whole situation had taken out of him; his hand scrambled through the table for the pills that helped with it and swallowed it without any water to smoothing it out. He gasped for air as the pain subsided, not entirely but it should do for now; the monthly pains were coming sooner than later much for his dismay. Gallius knew he would had to leave Dormath with more responsibilities for the time being, at least until the pain stabilized and the commissar could resume his duties; it was his most hated time of the month, but every and any doctor he had gone to, both in the field and outside of it, didn't had a cure for it yet, and how could they?.

There were no cures for a Genestealer infection, after all. There weren't twenty years ago when it happened, and there would never be one.

#fanfiction #warhammer fanfic #warhammer 40000 #warhammer 40k #fanfic writing #wh40k oc #custom warhammer regiment #oc guardsman #oc commissar #Cardrean 958TH

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